Hailstorm Aftermath
The predictions were correct: the hailstorm was devastating. Almost the entire village was damaged, and the surrounding caves and paths were flooded and washed out. Our bridge, our link to neighbouring communities and our surrounding environment, has been completely destroyed. It is a disaster. The roofs of houses are destroyed and in shambles. Where they are still attached to the house frames, they barely offer any shelter. The drainage ditches I dug all flooded with the rainstorm that followed the hail. Several crops were also lost. Thankfully my family and I were protected from damage by the amulets we bought. A true testament to power of appealing to Sky Mother and Sky Father for magical protection. Only two others in the village were also protected by the will of these blessed sky deities. I wonder why others didn’t buy both protection amulets. One villager suggested that the hailstorm was caused by a lack of preventative magic by our own ritualists, but since the ritual magic I participated in to protect my house and storage shed worked, I cannot believe this. The ritualists are not to blame. The village as a whole did not protect themselves with both amulets, and suffered the consequences. Maybe this incident will prove the power of amulets to them and we can avoid a disaster like this in the future.
Since my house was not damaged I will wait to remove the floor boards from the roof of my house and my parent’s house, and I will instead get to work immediately reinforcing the path to the bridge so repair work can begin. I will also be working on the bridge with several other builders. The amulet I placed over my small storage shed worked well, and my supplies and tools have not been damaged. Since there is so much work to be done, people are borrowing many of the tools from my library to work on their own houses, or help others with minor repairs as well. All the builders are extremely busy repairing houses, livestock pens, the bridge, and the temple. Once our houses are stable enough to provide shelter again, I will start working on clearing and reinforcing our path network.
It is still unclear what caused the hailstorm. However, we have heard that our neighbouring village has been stricken by a naga sickness most likely from offending a local deity. Could this be related to the cause of the hailstorm? We are organizing resources to help our neighbours: the ritualists and doctors are gathering supplies to treat them, and the builders are working to repair the bridge. I am donating two weeks of resources to help repair the bridge and 1 week’s worth of gold as well. At first I was only going to offer one week of resources, but when I saw that the offerings were disappointingly low, I knew I had to do more. Our livelihood in this village depends on that bridge. We need it for hunting, trading, communication with neighbouring villages, and to access sacred sites in our surrounding landscape. It is true that I have a vested interest in the bridge being operational because of my trade investments, but even that is not solely for personal gain; I supply our village with necessities by trading goods my fellow villagers have foraged, hunted, or made such as dried chillies, medicinal plants, animal skins and body parts, and amulets. That bridge is crucial for not only me, but everyone else in our village. Me and Chogyam Dorje have been trying to encourage our fellow villagers to donate resources to repair the bridge, and round up doctors and ritualists to help our neighbours. When others saw that we were all in danger of not getting the bridge repaired several people chipped in, and I am optimistic that by morning we will have successfully repaired the bridge.
However, I am faced with an uncertainty about the merit implied in helping our neighbouring village. If our neighbours have offended a naga spirit and this has brought sickness upon them, will we be seen as enablers by the naga spirits by helping the offenders? Should we let them suffer the karmic result of their offence? Suffering to some degree is an inevitable part of physical existence, should we try to lessen it? Can we call ourselves good Buddhists if we do not offer compassion and generosity, and live through right action, though? I understand the importance of having compassion for others, but am not sure if by helping them we are trying to reverse the circumstances that have occurred for them through dependent origination, the outcome of their actions.
The prospect of rebuilding our village does not daunt me. Clinging to the village as it was will only increase dukkha for everyone. We suffer enough as a result of the storm, there is no need to project our longing for the old village onto our current situation. We will rebuilt, and our village will be a testament to the truth of anitya; all things change, nothing is permanent, and this is a comforting reality, not a cause for despair. Besides, seeing how the floods coursed through our village gave me ideas for how to alter the drainage ditches to make them more effective!
