Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the beast. I believe it's the best description that I have ever heard about the emotions accumulating from the experiences within the depth of our lives.

I am not talking about the drama or Disney fairy tale we used to watch during our childhood into our adolescence or even into our adulthood, I am talking about the universal beauty and darkness we all have accumulated and are still accumulating like it or not through our very own rich life experience as long as we are still breathing, till death does us apart.

A Buddhist's Reflection

Time flies and I just realized I have not been writing since 2019. I took sometimes to reflect upon what I have been doing since 2019 until now and to be honest, I couldn't recall a single thing in 2019. Perhaps subconsciously I chose to ignore something painful that could have happened? Anyway let it passes as we cannot undo whatever had happened in the past - the past causes!

However 2020 until now I realize this global pandemic has really shaken the humanity. No doubt it has taken a lot of lives unfortunately and it has a toll on most of the businesses, it also makes me realize our life can be bigger than this and we can still be happy amid the unprecedented difficulties surmounting life and livelihood of most of the world population including ourselves.

It is also an opportunity for me to reflect, to re-learn new things and to explore what I had not done in the past. I feel devasted, angry and empathy at the same time reading the news everyday and I choose to limit myself for watching the news only at night for an hour, but at the same time I realize as humans we are capable of creating something of value every single day in our life, be it to create new menu for our basic meals, or just a phone call to check on a friend or to offer mental support for someone. Words are free, in time like this kind words can alleviate someone else's suffering and offer another person the courage to move on despite the situation.

Deep down it also makes me question about the world systems at large and I am reminded of what Buddhism describes about the Saha (mundane) world, especially in this Latter Day of the Law - the third of three periods after Shakyamuni Buddha's passing, as an age of conflict, confusion and corruption, exactly the age we are living!

We can complain about anything as it is the human nature not to be satisfied. Human's hunger or greed also knows no boundary, some describe human greed as bottomless pit. It's irony we can't even take good care of our mother earth and we want to conquer the outer space and other planets, resulting in waste created in the space. Do we even think before we act? Is our ego bigger than our life? 

I am sure a lot of sane people are tired and sick about the existing issues such as crony capitalism and cronyism; institutional, religious organisational, non-governmental and governmental corruption; institutionalized and systemic discrimination, environmental destruction and climate change; widening gap of wealth distribution; human right and white supremacy; and the list just go on and on and on! The moral decay and ethical issues are surfaced at large through this pandemic. Are we collectvely as human race not to be blamed?

A Buddhist sutra quotes: "If you want to understand the causes that existed in the past, look at the results as they are manifested in the present. And if you want to understand what results will be manifested in the future, look at the causes that exist in the present". Isn't all we experience today the results of the causes we collectively created in the past? Our actions or inactions, repeated over the times have created the world we are living today. If we are not happy with the world situation or in our immediate environment, do we still want to repeat the same expecting a miracle to happen? Or are we taking full responsibility from now on to create the life and the world we want? Start with our own immediate environment.

It's so convenient and easy to point fingers at others but not ourselves as we can't even see our own eye brows without a mirror. Blaming a situation on others is the most easy solution as we don't have to take any accountability. We see this in the corporate world and in the political world, hence the production of scapegoats. Let's pause and think when we are blaming someone for our misfortune, isn't that what we complain when we see the medias zoom in to the lack of coordination among the various governmental departments in handling the pandemic S.O.P and thus the blame game started? The fundamental is the same - no accountability for one's action.

Another common everyday example we know since the start of the NEP (New Economy Policy) aims at "equal" wealth distribution among "all" Malaysians. Politicians have since been playing the 2R (race and religion) games. Now with this pandemic, the people themselves are the ones who involved in the same nature of discrimination, to quote examples floating in the world wide web since the beginning of March 2021: attacks from individuals from both sides or among countries such as vaccines vs ivermectin; vaxxers vs antivaxxers; western approach vs oriental approach; vaccine war and vaccine passport, to name a few. Aren't we also creating the division among ourselves, friends and family members included due to different values? Aren't we fighting among ourselves? Why are we only see what is happening in the political arena everyday but fail to see this one great evil lies within the depth of our own life? What value are we creating? What benefit do we get by sharing all the bias information we gather we claim to be valid?

Let's realize one single truth: the impermanence of life! No one nor an entity is infallible, nothing in this world is absolute and everything is in a constant state of changing, evolving - likewise the science and the medicine. Poison used to kill rat yesteryears is the medicine to thin the blood today! Just like a quote by Nichiren: "Blossoms turn into fruit, and brides become mothers-in-law" in his Letter to Jakunichi-bo. The only absolute things are the sun will continue to rise everyday, and birth and death!

I hope with this little reflection of mine can help the readers in awakening to the law of cause and effect as I wish to see a better world and systems for our next generation. They deserve a better world; and as responsible adults, we must stop creating the same negative causes over and over again but resolves to create positive causes from this moment onwards if we want to see a miracle to happen. The ingredient we need to start with is the basic respect for life and recognize life is precious regardless of social position, wealth and status. If we can't even respect our own life, learn to respect our own life first!

Lastly, I would like to end this essay with a quote from Daisaku Ikeda, "When we change, the world changes. The key to all changes is in our inner transformation - a change of our hearts and minds. This is human revolution.  We all have the power to change. when we realize this truth, we can bring forth that power anywhere, anytime, and in any situation." In short, change the way we look at things and the things you look at change! Let's all be the agents of positive change, in our own environment. Stop dividing and start uniting! The power is in our hands.