ACCEPTANCE- THE CULTURE OF HUMANITY
Now,
if I say we should not harm others, or we should protect our environment, which
religion should I belong to and what should be my background? I believe it is
independent of any religion or culture, rather, genuine responsibility of a
conscious human being. But most of our current societies are already tightened
by some of the mental hurdles strongly ingrained in mind from generations, such
as hierarchy; cultural, societal, blood, and so on. This in turn traps our mind
into boundaries and restriction with discriminative thoughts, polluting one
self, being the source of pride, fear and attachment. I believe, our religion or
culture alone will never suffice to bestow us direct eternity and prosperity
which most of the societies claim so, otherwise there should have been no one
born on earth as diseased, addicts, poor, rejected, etc. being descended from
one or the other religious and cultural groups. Further, we should also realize
that, in almost all the societies and religious groups there are equally
millionaires, there are philosophers, or poor and diseased too, all born from
one womb, the mother earth. This is very evidence in itself to prove of
equality. Never the less, it is not to blame our faith in divine forces, rather
some weaknesses in human race, either through dilution of the truth over time
or failure to apprehend its absolute essence. Just to take example of our mental
poisons, anger, desire, hatred, etc which are the source of suffering for self,
and suppose, if I harbour all these, then my blood line or the social status
can’t do anything, even my religion can’t help me, and all efforts to its
counter play should come from myself, witnessing my own progress, such that if
someone suddenly starts to assault me and yet I am calm and composed, then at
least I am free from the pain of anger, which could otherwise haunt me more
than the physical pain of being thrashed, or I might lose my life trying to
reciprocate with same emotion. Similarly, if my mind is occupied with ego on
the power and status I own, then I shall suffer more when someone overtakes my
position. So looking into these factors, I believe that if we are not able to
achieve inert purity/subtle purity, then supposing to achieve physical purity
through classification and differentiation with our mother planet and its
components in the name of culture and religion will never suffice to bring
peace and prosperity, rather than just creating barriers in achieving smooth
livelihood, alike boulders and rubbles which creates hurdles on smooth flowing
water.
To
remind of few things passed down, some societies believe that the cow sacrifice
is sin, while goat or chicken sacrifice seems acceptable, some practice killing
specific animals as the demand of certain festivals or culture. There are
societies who consume dog, horse, or so on, which some of us might find it
disgusting. All these trends simply exist as a cultural inheritance from the
parents, or the societies. But I believe that as a conscious being of one blood
line, we should see all living beings as having one thing common; the feeling
of pain and pleasure, composed of flesh, blood, emotions, etc. To share an
experience, it was in 2010, while I was on tour to a place called Bumthang,
half way drive up the hill, I noticed a calf running to and fro, bellowing with
very unusual and frightened behaviour. It was midsummer and that slope was
fully covered with bushy grasses. On closer watch, I saw a cow, supposedly his
mother strangled with tethering rope, fallen inside the thick meadow,
struggling and almost dead. Jumping out of my car, I climbed into that bush and
immediately loosened the rope, providing support until she could wake up, where
that calf just stood by my side with utmost silence, watching my progress of
helping his loved one. Thereafter they started licking each other, in human
term, hugging and embracing each other. Seeing diseased or dead isn’t uncommon,
but the expression of that calf made me speechless, clouded with love and
emotion. This is one example how every living being have the heart to love and
care each other, no different from what I would have felt if my mother was in
such trouble. Having come across few more of such incidences, I committed to
become vegetarian thereafter, placing animals at the level of my heart, no
matter whether my culture allows sacrifice of some or prohibit others, because
the sentiments are same with all these animals, alike mine, or any one of us.
Even the religious views of sin or the law of cause and effect is also more of
self interest that I don’t want to suffer later. But respecting other’s rights,
considering their pain and pleasure same as one’s own is a genuine wisdom and
compassion, and this defines the humanity.
Genuinely
speaking, if our mind is pre-occupied with negative emotions, then we should
realize its breach that could be consequential to our micro and macro
environment. By birth a child is not criminal, neither so good, he is innocent.
But with time and understanding, his innate habits increases- tendencies for
good or bad, pulled by his environment, which includes his parents, friends,
culture and the society. When my child first picks up the language I speak,
then he will also learn to do what he has seen me doing. To quote few of such
inheritance still circulating in the societies, the culture of child marriages,
the gender discrepancies, or some beneficial act either and this is how the
social or anti-social activities gets inherited and passed down. Repeated
exposure to such practices could lead to development of confidence in adopting
next bold step, going to the extent such as discarding female births, murders
or relevant social crimes, and from my careful analysis, one origin of such
confidence could be the easy exposure and comfort seeing animal sacrifices and
abuses happening everywhere, combined with untamed anger and wrong notion of
the difference between self and others, not realizing that we all are the
blessings on this earth where every individual has the right to live a life of
his own accord, without fear of Earth asking anything in return.
Thus
I believe that the only culture that will prevent future wars and destruction
will be the culture of Humanity, and the epitome of this culture is the
‘acceptance’ against stubbornness of seeing differences in the name of
religion, caste, wealth, status, etc. which has already destroyed most parts of
our beautiful mother earth. Acceptance here doesn’t necessarily mean to adopt
them all, rather appreciating its existence, or to the least refraining from
viewing it negatively and making baseless interventions, as quoted by one of
the greatest philosophers, HH the Dalai Lama- if you can’t benefit others, at
least do not harm them. In the sense, suppose if we can’t provide livelihood to
a beggar coming to doorstep, at least do not undermine their existence.
Only
through proper analysis and understanding of all these truths, that we can
expect societal harmony, regional harmony, or bringing peace in the world.
To conclude, if we sow the seed
of a medicinal herb in a pot of optimum conditions and nutrition, the herb will
sprout to an adult plant and benefit world. At the same time, if we sow a
poison, that poison too would grow and fruition from the same base of
nutrition, but with harmful impact to the environment. Our body is like that
pot and the plant growing in it is like our mind. This same body has the
capacity to either nurture the mind of humanity and benefit world or become a
beast, irrespective of one’s background.
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