It seems like, almost every time a natural disaster strikes, the religious amongst us run around blathering about how their God or Gods are expressing displeasure or are punishing people for their wanton disobedience. They point to these natural events as prima facie evidence for their position.
From this Taoist's perspective, the "evidence" proves the exact opposite. When an earthquake, tornado, hurricane, tsunami, flood or other climatic event occurs, it pays no attention whatsoever to the distinctions made by human beings. These calamities strike the young and old, rich and poor, beautiful and ugly, powerful and impotent, devoutly religious and the nonreligious alike. Not only that, but these events occur in nations that are predominantly Christian, Catholic, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish or any other belief system.
We live in a volatile world in which many forces and variables butt heads. When enough of these competing elements come together in one place, we have what we call natural disasters. As long as life calls Planet Earth home, I don't see this situation changing.
So, if we are each subject to nature's whims, why do we spend so much of our lives bogged down in our artificial distinctions? In the overall scope of existence, they mean nothing. For me, the earthquake in Haiti illustrates this notion to a tee.
From this Taoist's perspective, the "evidence" proves the exact opposite. When an earthquake, tornado, hurricane, tsunami, flood or other climatic event occurs, it pays no attention whatsoever to the distinctions made by human beings. These calamities strike the young and old, rich and poor, beautiful and ugly, powerful and impotent, devoutly religious and the nonreligious alike. Not only that, but these events occur in nations that are predominantly Christian, Catholic, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish or any other belief system.
We live in a volatile world in which many forces and variables butt heads. When enough of these competing elements come together in one place, we have what we call natural disasters. As long as life calls Planet Earth home, I don't see this situation changing.
So, if we are each subject to nature's whims, why do we spend so much of our lives bogged down in our artificial distinctions? In the overall scope of existence, they mean nothing. For me, the earthquake in Haiti illustrates this notion to a tee.
So true, but we can still have and express compassion.
ReplyDeleteThat should go without saying, but I glad you said it anyway. :)
ReplyDeleteI pretty much agree with both radon and the writer of the blog-post.
ReplyDeleteI highly recommend expressing compassion, it really makes the world a better place.
ReplyDeleteHow does "expressing compassion" make the world a better place?
ReplyDeleteIt can not hurt to feel compassion, but what is the purpose in expressing it?
I tried to find out what was happening in Haiti by watching CBC news. I was unable to. All I could find were reports of people in Canada expressing violent emotions concerning events, without any news about the event itself.
Followed - as always - by appeals for money, based upon this emotional manipulation.
Haiti is over my horizon. As most events are. The extent of my feelings about it: I feel very grateful that whatever has happened to these people, has not (yet) happened to my wife and I.
The expressing of compassion, or any other emotion may well do more harm than good:
The ones who express make themselves prone to judge those who do not. Creating a them/us scenario. As usual, I find myself in the "them" camp, and rarely in the "us" camp.
By EXPRESSING compassion I really meant providing a blanket to someone who has no clothes or shelter, yes, sending money to finance food or medicine. We express compassion through our actions. I think there is a human obligation to do this.
ReplyDeleteWhence comes this "human obligation"?
ReplyDeleteA valid enough question. For me, from my heart, and I think it is suggested in the TTC V. 79, one of the "Te" passages. "One with true virtue always seeks a way to give."
ReplyDeleteThank you for suggesting a topic that I will address in my own blog space.
the world destroys in order to re-create. perhaps some good will come of this calamity. i felt my thoughts drawn towards haiti in the last couple weeks before the earthquake even struck. i don't know why. because of that, though, i feel more compassion towards them, because i took an interest in that place before the disaster struck. i need to contemplate this perceived connection between awareness and compassion in my own mind.
ReplyDelete