Sunday, May 16, 2010

Who comes along on your vehicle?

A vehicle gets you places.  Can you bring people resenting you along?  The Lankavatara Sutra states, "The recognition of the one vehicle is obtained when there is no rising of discrimination by doing away with the notion of grasped and grasping and by abiding in the reality of suchness (yathabhuta)."

Where do you take others? How do you take them?

 Faisal Shahzad had a vehicle, as we know, but he had another vehicle whereby he was taking people on the journey of his life.  He, like myself, like the Christians, had a religiously informed vehicle.  Could we have kept him from his vehicle?  Many of us, of course, spoke against the Bush regime, and we cannot hold anyone but Shahzad accountable for Shahzad's actions.  
Do we have a Faisal Shahzad in our life to whom we can reach out? As I read the story in the NY Times to which I've linked, I can't help but get the feeling that this was one non-self aware guy, who was not getting peace from his religious practice, from others, from himself.  He was not actively seeking to make peace, and it seems, at least from the Greek chorus of acquaintances and others in the article, that no one was actively seeking to help him be at peace. 

Naturally Mr. Shahzad's case is but a microcosm of a huge bomb of hatred and violence constructed by certain people - Muslims and non-Muslims.  How to disarm?  Well, there's people in your immediate circle of acquaintances. Are they on your vehicle?  Are you bringing them along with you to a good place?

Am I making sense?


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