There is war in the air. It is on everyone’s mind. You sense its presence even in the fleeting calm of a sitting meditation. A looming question appears lurking in the clouds of your airspace: Would these pitiful regional wars mushroom into a global one, the World War Three? Gosh, no. This mundane life by itself is besieged with multitude of daily grinds. Our brittle nerves are overtired already, by having to dodge around all the invisible yet palpable curveballs of everyday life. We don’t need more combats and wars inflicted on the frayed fabrics.
Out of habit though, we can’t help but taking sides, passionately condemning the other side, in the name of justice or even world peace. We assert our ideology by force, trying to defeat others who hold different ideas. We know that our enemies are doing exactly the same, only that we forget it would never work doing the same. Human history has been repeating this pattern for countless eons and it just never worked. How many more lifetimes does mankind have to go through, in order to simply realize that samsara would never work?
The problem is not which ideology should prevail on earth; the problem is in ideology itself, be it a condemnable ideology or a righteous one. As long as we continue to remain in the dualistic state, taking our ideology too seriously and trying to impose it on someone else – either through terrorist attack or through so-called ‘just war’ – there will always be wars, more and more wars, never-ending wars … since no war can truly be won through war.
Actually we all know this. Just read from The New Yorker that one of the leaders of Hamas had once said, “If you read history, you know that violence only breeds violence: imposing your will through force is no solution. You’ve got to understand each other. If you use muscle alone, perhaps you’re a temporary winner, but in the long run you are a loser.”
See? Even the designated terrorists know. The problem is not that any of us lacks wisdom; the problem is we keep losing connection with it.
In a Zen story, two monks were debating on something, each insisting that his point of view was the right one. To settle the disagreement, they went to a Zen master. After hearing the first monk stated his argument, the master said, “You are right.” Then the second monk put forth his argument, and the master said again, “You are right.” Now a third monk in the room asked, “How could it be possible that they are both right? Their positions are completely opposite.”
The master said to the third monk, “Exactly! You are right!”
So simple a piece of wisdom. We’ve known it all along, how come we keep forgetting? When can we stop repeating the same mistakes and stop getting stuck in the futile cycle of violence and revenge?
Maybe it’s impossible for us to really see it from the other side’s point of view – after all, as in the parable of the six blind men and the elephant, we can only grope a tusk, a leg, an ear, a side, a trunk or a tail that happens to be right in front of us and take it as the whole elephant. Never could we imagine the other parts that out of our reach.
However, we can cultivate the habit to constantly remind ourselves that we are visually impaired, and that we never see the whole picture! There is war in the air, but there is also choice not to go with it.
(October 15, 2023)
空谷回音
空中瀰漫著戰爭的氣息，這是隐藏在每個平民百姓內心深處最大的憂患。即便是打坐偷得浮生半刻閒之際，你仍感覺到它的存在。空谷雲緒之中，一個問題橫亙著逼近: 這些可悲可憐的區域性衝突，會否終將演變成全球戰爭，觸發那令人談虎變色的第三次世界大戰? 老天啊，千萬要保佑人類! 歲月靜好的人生，本身已暗藏太多莫名的煎熬和齟嚙; 日常生活的各式曲線拋球，早讓我們的神經因疲於奔突而衰弱。我們實在不需要更多颠沛流离的戰役。
然而出於習慣，我們忍不住會慨然支持某一方，凜然譴責另一方。高舉正義的大旗，我們不遺餘力要將敵人徹底繫敗。敵我雙方採用的其實是一樣方式，也都忘記這種方式其實從未奏效。人類不斷重複這套無濟於事的模式，已經歷史太久了。還要經歷多少生死輪迴，人類才能意識到生死輪迴根本不是辦法?
想讓一種思想體系戰勝另一種思想體系，是永遠無法成功的。問題不在於思想體系正確與否；問題在於對任何思想體系的執著本身已是罪魁禍首。只要我們仍糾纏於二元論，總想把自己的理念強加給別人 ── 不管是通過恐怖襲擊，還是通過正義之戰 ── 它必然會引發更多的戰爭，沒完沒了的戰爭! 因為戰爭是無法通過戰爭來解決的。
其實我們都明白這個道理。《紐約客》近期有文提及哈瑪斯的一位領袖曾說過: “如果你讀過歷史的話，你就知道暴力只會衍生暴力。敵我雙方必須通過交流來達成理解。純粹訴諸武力的話，你也許會有暫時的勝利，但最終注定是失敗者。”
眾所標貼的極端分子說起話來，也是相當合理的。看來問題不在於我們任何一方缺乏智慧; 問題只在於我們總跟自己天生固有的智慧失去聯繫。
禪宗有这么則故事: 兩位和尚就某事開展辯論，雙方都堅持自己的觀點正確，卻無法說服對方，於是去找禪師評判。禪師聽完二人各自的觀點，分別向他們說了同樣的話:”你是對的。” 旁邊一位第三者忍不住插嘴:”怎么可能他們都對呢? 他們所站的立場是完全不同的啊!”
禪師對第三者說:”正因如此! 你說得太對啦!”
如此簡單的道理，我們內心深處其實從來是明白的，只是一碰到事情就忘記了! 何時我們才能不再重蹈覆輒，從無盡暴力和無盡報復的不斷因果輪迴中解脫出來?
也許我們永遠不可能真正從對方的立場看問題 ── 正如在盲人與大象的故事之中，畢竟每個人能切實感知的只是他伸手摸得到的那部分，也許是一枚象牙，一條象腿，一扇象耳，一側象身，抑或是象鼻，或者是象尾。我們到底無法想像那些摸不到的部分。
然而，至少我們可以不斷这样提醒自己: 要記得我們是有視力障礙的，要記得我們所看到的遠遠不是全圖全景 …… 盡管空中瀰漫著戰爭氣息，但我們至少可以選擇不助興、不捧場、不參與。
Buddha Mind 