SARS HITS asia : Taipei Times - archives
Taipei Times - archives
General Blurbs :
After a tumultuous and the threat of terror in the backyard from the
OCT 12th Bali bombings, the need for tolerance and understanding hits at the heart of this note. I wask, what is it that moves a man to create so much devastation ?
September 11th was still on my mind, but the Bali bombings hit home. I see the US Presidents' reaction as fathers reaction to the protection of his children. "We will hunt them down, and justice will be served".... George bush certainly delivered that message. But if I had a chance to meet the president during this time , I would ask, you are the president of the USA, but are you also not the father of the free world ?
Can we not find another way to deal with this ? Can we go beyond our human
emotional responses and summon all instinctive, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, physical and all other capacities to harness power against this negative force in a way that builds hope rather than instill more fear and hate in the hearts of the children of the "terrorists" ?. But what has been done, and the reactions by the west, may we not have created a bigger rift between our humanity ? Afterall
with an eye for an eye, we'd all be blind and dead by the end of this century...
and if intuition serves correctly, a retaliation from the west will incite more hatred in the hearts of the young people and seed another generation of terrorists. And who know which weapons they choose on the next round ? Biological ? Genocidal ? Through the internet ? bombs ? Nuclear ? Genetics ?
On a trip to bali in DEC 2003, the balinese retaliated, .... it was not a warcry of "Who will pay for this ?", we seek revenge, we seek justice..... they retailiated as peaceful "warriors" with the making of more garlands and sending up more more prayer offerings of rice and flower petals along doorways and street corners. All across the island their words and chants were in prayer. At first my reaction was
to see the "prayer" as a desperate call for help. But as we went about our day exploring the island, the gentle "warrior" spirit of the people embraced us once again. And the power of a peaceful "warrior of the Light" brought to mind a western saying that echoed in their words and actions.
To me, the overall impression of the collective feelings of the prayers felt like
they were saying : "ask not what we can do to them, but what we can do to help them heal." - ( Reference "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."
How would you react if your home had just been bombed out, and your livelihoods were abruptly taken away from you, that someone attacked your relationships with those whom you live and work with ? Would you be sending up prayers to pray to find how to help the ones who slapped, hit and wacked you in the face ?
To which end, it was a lesson I learnt again, the the face of crisis, they worked hard to understand the hate, the darkness, the need for revenge, and they were strong enough to overcome the violence, the violence that begins with thought.
And the answer dawned yet again..... the acts of terrorism of Sept 11th , Oct 12th.... are acts of desperation and utter fear. Perhaps its the collective fear, stemming from the love of a father who loves his children, who took up the "suicidal missions" in hope to bring about change for the ones he loves. The act in itself is wrong, it cost the lives of the innocent. And the reaction from the west could even be seen as "justified". But if this were merely a simple game of chess, someone may argue that you have to win some to lose some, and that "hunting him down" was a logical, brave, emotive response by the President of America.
But ask citizens of the earth,what can we do to help ourselves ?
What can we do to help the healing in this world ?
Can we help ourselves to help the others ?
Can we do it faster than we have been doing it in this century ?
We stand at the end of a century, and the cusp of a new millenium.
100 years ago, the western world was just beginning to create wonderous
new flying machines, steam trains, ways to keep & generate heat, lower death rates, increase transparency with a stock exchange, reduce riots and gang fights, wars ( Mafia + wars + Genocides ) with engineering, technology, "cultural emissaries".......... yaduh yaduh yaduh. Yes, I am sure you have the historical contexts in mind, but if you'll read more, perhaps the underlying truth in all of humanities stories, is the need for the RAPID proliferation of hope, hope, hope through action.
I hope you will agree, that to fight fear and terrorism, we have to fight it with love and light. Creation of opportunity, is not a duty, it is a crisis, we need to create wealth faster and more efficiently throughout regions that can act as "hotpots". Growth is the only path to survival. Was it Mao who said "religion is poison ?'. It is not religion, it its our own fear. We need to offer a better prevention of desperation, maybe a form of Capitalism-Buddhism-Shambala thing.
what do you think ?
email : resortsofasia@yahoo.com
TRAVEL. DISCOVERY. TOLERANCE. PEACE & PROSPERITY
In reference to these thoughts, I strongly recommend reading :
Paulo Ceolho " Warrior of the Light" or "the Alchemist", "Gandhi"
and "Shambala" Rinpoche Trungypha.
General Blurbs :
After a tumultuous and the threat of terror in the backyard from the
OCT 12th Bali bombings, the need for tolerance and understanding hits at the heart of this note. I wask, what is it that moves a man to create so much devastation ?
September 11th was still on my mind, but the Bali bombings hit home. I see the US Presidents' reaction as fathers reaction to the protection of his children. "We will hunt them down, and justice will be served".... George bush certainly delivered that message. But if I had a chance to meet the president during this time , I would ask, you are the president of the USA, but are you also not the father of the free world ?
Can we not find another way to deal with this ? Can we go beyond our human
emotional responses and summon all instinctive, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, physical and all other capacities to harness power against this negative force in a way that builds hope rather than instill more fear and hate in the hearts of the children of the "terrorists" ?. But what has been done, and the reactions by the west, may we not have created a bigger rift between our humanity ? Afterall
with an eye for an eye, we'd all be blind and dead by the end of this century...
and if intuition serves correctly, a retaliation from the west will incite more hatred in the hearts of the young people and seed another generation of terrorists. And who know which weapons they choose on the next round ? Biological ? Genocidal ? Through the internet ? bombs ? Nuclear ? Genetics ?
On a trip to bali in DEC 2003, the balinese retaliated, .... it was not a warcry of "Who will pay for this ?", we seek revenge, we seek justice..... they retailiated as peaceful "warriors" with the making of more garlands and sending up more more prayer offerings of rice and flower petals along doorways and street corners. All across the island their words and chants were in prayer. At first my reaction was
to see the "prayer" as a desperate call for help. But as we went about our day exploring the island, the gentle "warrior" spirit of the people embraced us once again. And the power of a peaceful "warrior of the Light" brought to mind a western saying that echoed in their words and actions.
To me, the overall impression of the collective feelings of the prayers felt like
they were saying : "ask not what we can do to them, but what we can do to help them heal." - ( Reference "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."
How would you react if your home had just been bombed out, and your livelihoods were abruptly taken away from you, that someone attacked your relationships with those whom you live and work with ? Would you be sending up prayers to pray to find how to help the ones who slapped, hit and wacked you in the face ?
To which end, it was a lesson I learnt again, the the face of crisis, they worked hard to understand the hate, the darkness, the need for revenge, and they were strong enough to overcome the violence, the violence that begins with thought.
And the answer dawned yet again..... the acts of terrorism of Sept 11th , Oct 12th.... are acts of desperation and utter fear. Perhaps its the collective fear, stemming from the love of a father who loves his children, who took up the "suicidal missions" in hope to bring about change for the ones he loves. The act in itself is wrong, it cost the lives of the innocent. And the reaction from the west could even be seen as "justified". But if this were merely a simple game of chess, someone may argue that you have to win some to lose some, and that "hunting him down" was a logical, brave, emotive response by the President of America.
But ask citizens of the earth,what can we do to help ourselves ?
What can we do to help the healing in this world ?
Can we help ourselves to help the others ?
Can we do it faster than we have been doing it in this century ?
We stand at the end of a century, and the cusp of a new millenium.
100 years ago, the western world was just beginning to create wonderous
new flying machines, steam trains, ways to keep & generate heat, lower death rates, increase transparency with a stock exchange, reduce riots and gang fights, wars ( Mafia + wars + Genocides ) with engineering, technology, "cultural emissaries".......... yaduh yaduh yaduh. Yes, I am sure you have the historical contexts in mind, but if you'll read more, perhaps the underlying truth in all of humanities stories, is the need for the RAPID proliferation of hope, hope, hope through action.
I hope you will agree, that to fight fear and terrorism, we have to fight it with love and light. Creation of opportunity, is not a duty, it is a crisis, we need to create wealth faster and more efficiently throughout regions that can act as "hotpots". Growth is the only path to survival. Was it Mao who said "religion is poison ?'. It is not religion, it its our own fear. We need to offer a better prevention of desperation, maybe a form of Capitalism-Buddhism-Shambala thing.
what do you think ?
email : resortsofasia@yahoo.com
TRAVEL. DISCOVERY. TOLERANCE. PEACE & PROSPERITY
In reference to these thoughts, I strongly recommend reading :
Paulo Ceolho " Warrior of the Light" or "the Alchemist", "Gandhi"
and "Shambala" Rinpoche Trungypha.
posted by travel_lingo at 4/16/2003 06:23:00 AM
