Forgiving others…

My firm conviction is that it is impossible for a happy and a calm individual to inflict suffering on others. To hurt someone, even a little, one needs to put themselves on fire of anger, suffering, greed, wrong views and hatred. By burning oneself alone can one burn others. Realising this with all our heart, we feel deep compassion right away towards those who hurt us. When we truly see that others are burning, who amongst us can pour more fuel into their fire by retaliating? And even if we do so, what do we achieve?

Not pouring fuel onto their fire already awakens deep compassion in us. In the beginning, we may start by pouring a spoonful of water to extinguish the fire of suffering in others but over time our compassion grows and becomes stronger. We shall become the mighty ocean one day that can extinguish all fire in this world. We need to have a firm conviction about this. Even historically, we see that many special human beings like Buddha, Jesus and so on became great oceans of compassion. If they can do this, why can’t we?

We often have inferiority complex with Buddha, Christ and those alike. We feel that they have descended from heaven and they can do many things which fallen beings like ourselves can’t. Religious stories are partly responsible for this. We need to renew them to depict Buddha and Christ as normal humans just like us, who evidently suffered, had courage to find a way out of suffering, seen light at the end of the tunnel and returned to give light to all beings.

It maybe called the “setting into motion the wheel of Dharma”. It maybe called the “great resurrection”. But their underlying message is the same: We are the continuation of Buddha, Christ and many other enlightened beings. They are in us, and we, in them~

#Reflection