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Okay, so to continue with yesterday, you know, and the fears this person expressed, it reminded
me of one of the very well-known verses in the Dharmmapada. I probably won't get it
exactly. But it's something to the effect of that, "Hatred is not conquered by hatred.
It is conquered by love." Okay? So this is the, you know, primary teaching in buddhism.
Now the person who wrote the letter, of course, knows that, and they want very much to eliminate
their hatred and anger as well as their fear and suspicion. And so for that reason you
know, asked the question. So, you know, specifically they're focused on the Muslim population
increasing and thinking that all Muslims are you know, radical people who are verging on
terrorism, which is, of course, completely wrong. You know, the people who become terrorists
misunderstand their own religion.
Now of course, one of his things was that if you look in the Koran, you also find violent
statements, but you also find those if you look in the Bible, don't you? Yes. It's
not like the Bible is violence-free. Certainly not. Okay? So I feel that it's very important,
whenever we find something that we want to criticize in other people, to first turn the
mirror and look at ourselves, on our own culture or our own way of viewing the world and see,
to what extent, we have those. Clearly you know, his mind is also making, you know, not
only grouping all these people and thinking they're all identical, which of course is
not true, but you can really see how the grasping at true existence works here. You know, this
is what somebody is, this is all they are, all they ever have been and, you know, the
meaning of this person's life is one attribute, which, in this case, is even an attribute
that is falsely imputed to that person. Okay?
So how do we get around this? I find one thing that's very helpful when my mind is stuck
in a very solid image of a person, whether that image has anything to do with reality
or not, is to remember that that person hasn't always had those qualities. They haven't
always been like that. Okay? And so in this situation, you know, thinking that not only
all Muslims in general, that even those who misunderstand Islam and become terrorists,
haven't always been like that. It's not like people came out of the womb that way,
you know, with a whole set of political beliefs. And I find it very helpful here to go back
to the Buddha's teachings on seeing all sentient beings as having been our mother. Okay? Or
even all sentient beings as having been our child. Because I used to practice this with
George Bush a lot and you know, and thinking of him as a baby, you know, that he was once
a baby. And whenever we see babies, babies are adorable. They're so cute. You want
to play with the baby, except of course, when they're screaming. Then you give them back
to mama. But you know, before that, you say, "Oh they're so cute. They're so wonderful"
you know. And they seem so innocent. And so to remember, whether we're thinking of George
Bush or Osama Ben Laden or whoever it is we're suspicious and fearful of, that they were
once a baby, you know, they were once something that we saw as very cute, very adorable. And
that whatever trait it is that we don't like in them, or whatever trait that we're
imputing on them that's false, that's not who they are, that's not the sum total
of their life. Okay?
And this is something that I've had to do again and again in the prison work, you know,
where people are imprisoned over one action that they've done in their life. Society
reacts in terror of them, thinking that this person has no good attributes and nothing
to offer. And yet, you know, it's only based on one event in their life. And our lives
are not the sum total of one event. Yes. So how would we like it if people evaluated us
or judged us based on one event in our life, particularly the most harmful thing we ever
did? Yes. So we can see we wouldn't want other people to isolate one characteristic,
glom on to that and think that that's who we inherently, unchangeably are. And so, in
a situation like this, where he's afraid of a whole group of people, first of all,
to realize that not everybody in that group has the attribute that you're projecting,
and second of all, that even if somebody did, they, you know, it's only one element in
their entire personality. And that everybody has some kindness in them. I think this is
quite important. And I know for myself, that whenever I make an effort, like if I'm feeling
ill-at-ease around somebody, I make myself make an effort to go and talk to them, because
I know if I don't, you know, I'm just going to sit there and stew in my projection
and make it stronger and stronger. If I go and talk to them, I see a human being in front
of me. I see somebody who's just like me in front of me. And that, you know, clearly
means that I can't hold on to that view that they're an inherently existent awful
person. Okay?
So try some of those different kinds of thoughts. We touched on a few different ones here. Try
some of those in your meditation.