Something I have been pondering today.  Found some articles on a Yoga website called "The Art of Silence" Parts V, VI, and VII.  Click on the link in the left frame titled "Soul Culture Journal" and scroll down through the various volumes.  The links for the articles are under the author and guru named Paramahamsa Prajnanananda.

Namaste!

The United Nations overwhelmingly approves Bill of Rights for Indigenous People around the world.  Four Nations voted against it;  U.S., Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.  Four nations who have consistently shown hostility towards indigenous peoples for centuries.

I think about the strength of people like Aung San Suu Kyi and the Buddhist Monks protesting in Burma, then I look at my little problems and my little life and I am in awe of them.  They face overwhelming hostility from a military junta that took over the country in 1962.  And when I think of all the other people in the world who face oppression from war, dictatorships, corporatism, and just plain hatred, I feel so small and insignificant in my comfortable middle class life.  There are people in the world who put their lives on the line for justice and freedom and peace.

These individuals do not consider who they struggle with "the enemy".  They see that the enemy is ignorance, hatred, hostility, and greed.  It is the actions people take and their misunderstanding of the world around them that is the enemy.

So, the thought to ponder for today is to try a paradigm shift.  If you have someone in your life that you consider "enemy", for a moment, shift that perspective and do not think of the individual as the enemy.  What is the actual source for the hostility?  Compare that with the great injustices in this world.  How does it rate in comparison to our comfortable lives?  Do we even truly know what it means to struggle against hostility and oppression?

Today, I feel small. 


UPDATE:  I forgot to add that I heard a part of an interview last night with Studs Terkel and Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!  She played a clip of Studs interviewing Mahalia Jackson who said, "I don't want to hate, I want to love."  That is what has inspired today's post.  Can we learn to love our enemies? 

UPDATE 2:  Just ran across this article:  Who is our enemy in Iraq?