Of cruelty and kindness

Anyone who has opened a news website, magazine, or paper or who has listened to the daily news on the radio or TV has surely encountered some terrible acts of human cruelty. This is nothing new, nor is the fact that such acts capture our attention and imagination. What we often hear after learning of some depraved event is the lamenting of human nature or some blanket statement of our general horribleness.

While I find these terrible acts as horrifying as anyone else, I must disagree with the tendency to bemoan our species, though I have certainly indulged the habit plenty enough myself. In response to fearmongering about crime, I have often pointed out that, while one person was robbed, a hundred thousand came and went about their day totally harm-free, but you never see the headline: 328,345 People Were Not Mugged Today!.

Stories of animal abuse break my heart more than just about anything, and it is hard to not think unkindly toward the person who so badly burned the beagle mix who has become known as Hope to her caretakers at the Fayette Friends of Animals (please consider making a donation to help pay for her medical bills). It is true that burning an animal that badly is reprehensible, heartbreaking, horrifying, bewildering. It is easy to focus on the wrongdoer and become angry, indignant, and to wish revenge upon him or her. But while it took but one person to light the match (or whatever it was), hundreds (maybe thousands) of people are helping to heal this little dog. Tragedy churns up grief and we naturally focus on what has been lost and destroyed. We are outraged that what once was whole has been torn asunder. Certainly this is a wrong, but why do we choose to dwell so long and cling so hard to that misery?  Why do we remain blind to the outpouring of love and generosity that inevitably follows? You can remain mad that a wrong has been done, but you'll remain mad forever as the world offers no shortage of sadness and grief. On the other hand, if you are able to move past your grief to see the good that swirls in to fill the hole, heal the wounds, rebuild the broken, you may find yourself crying every day at the abundance of love around you.

Your mind is your world. You create what you see around you by what you do and what you choose to focus on.  If you want love, give it to someone you think does not deserve it.  If you want wealth, be generous.  If you want peace, be peacemaker. If you do not see the kindness, compassion, generosity, and love in others, perhaps you need to shift your attention from others to yourself.  To whom have you given care and solace?  With whom have you shared the bounty of your life?  If you do not feel bountiful, take some time to practice gratitude--if you are reading this, you are probably doing pretty well if you think about it.

So I invite you the next time you hear of a terrible event to consider to what and to whom you give your attention and energy. You can remake your world. Terrible things will continue to happen, but they do not need to create ugliness within you.  They can instead be doors to greater compassion and softness.  Suffering is terrible, but we can choose to respond to it in ways that help to alleviate it or increase it--for ourselves and others.

My heart goes out to that poor little burned dog, for the pain and fear that she must have experienced. My heart goes out to those who perpetrated the act--how broken and damaged they must be to do something so callous. My religion teaches that they have now reaped negative karma upon themselves that will increase their suffering.  Until they find a way to purify that, the cycle will continue and they will bring harm to themselves and to other beings.  How can I want anything but their healing and wholeness?  May they know the love and its causes. May they be free from suffering and its causes.  May they never be separated from sorrowless bliss.  May they abide in equanimity, free from bias, attachment and anger. My heart is filled with gratitude and joy for all those who have come to Hope's aid, and for the rescue shelter that does not kill.

May you have love and its causes. (Maitri)
May you be free from suffering and its causes. (Karuna)
May you never be separated from sorrowless bliss. (Mudita)
May you abide forever in equanimity, free from bias, attachment, anger, and fear.(Upeksha)

May your love be fierce and your anger cooled.
May all beings benefit from your goodness.

Namasté.