The Conflict is Within

Always recognize the dreamlike qualities of life and reduce attachment and aversion. Practice good-heartedness toward all beings. Be loving and compassionate, no matter what others do to you. What they will do will not matter so much when you see it as a dream. The trick is to have positive intention during the dream. This is an essential point. This is true spirituality.

Glimpse After Glimpse

Chakdud Tulka Rinpoche

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In light of current events… kidnapping, mad men using guns against children and terrorist bombings, I have wondered what the boundaries are between self-preservation, abuse and loving kindness? Can I practice compassion towards others and still protect myself and loved ones in extreme circumstances? It is one thing to be all Mahatma Gandhi when I am considering myself and others of agreed upon passive-resistance principles; but, what about the defenseless children or loved ones who are not aware of, innocent of, nor consented to, a similar commitment to non-violence? I.e., would I practice passive resistance against home intruders? Would I choose helplessness as a defense for protecting my family against rape, murder or a gunman in a school or movie theater? I think not. However, if I am to take up arms I am to do so compassionately, without rancor and with no more, nor less, concern for my life than for the intruder's. Beneath the dreamlike quality of life is an ultimate reality. After all, my enemy has a Higher Power too. Today, Mother's Day, is a good day to consider that my enemy had a mother and was nurtured at one time before all this shit went wrong. Here, where lesser abuses and all sorts of violence are always in our faces, can I act on positive intention and seek the balance of a martial artist, a samurai that is well practiced in the uses of a sharp sword? Applying no more resistance than necessary and acting respectfully with a utilitarian compassion, can I then be at peace with myself? Or, as in Jungian psychology, the dreamer is all the characters in a dream... for good or bad... it is all me and the conflict is within. Where there is no battlefield there is no battle.

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