you hear all over that the way to peace is to start with inner peace. uh huh. it's no wonder that there are wars all over the place. i can see why the buddhists believe in reincarnation. there isn't any way to achieve inner peace and enlightenment in one lifetime. it's hard. in the interest of full disclosure, i am a newbie to the world of buddhist tenets- and i struggle daily. i seem to have the first noble truth down pat- 'life is suffering' but when it comes to the second- 'the origin of suffering is attachment'- well, i get bogged down there. it is tough to rethink one's behavior- and i admit to still flipping off stupid drivers underneath my dashboard- and to change one's behavior.
the biggest area of attachment is my family. i know that most likely within the next year to two years- i will lose both parents and my sister's 20 year old cat to death. and the suffering is pretty intense. i can only try to imagine the suffering that the iraqis and the kurds and the afghanis and the sudanese as a people are undergoing. their entire world has collapsed and they have lost their culture, country, families, friends, jobs, homes, etc., and it makes my spirit uneasy.
i don't have any easy answers to the elusive 'peace in our time'- hell, i don't even know how to soothe my own soul right now. but i think it's worth thinking about- is a reason why we choose to devalue other human beings a result of our own elusive inner peace? are we so willing to kill others as a way to run away from ourselves?
