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Police: 27 killed at Conn. school; 1 other dead
http://news.yahoo.com/police-27-killed-conn-school-1-other-dead-205242303.html
With all my heart and love I send my regards to all who are suffering in this horrible incident.
May one day all suffering come to an end. May (god), angels, enlightened beings, Buddha's bless and have compassion for the families. all of us on the path, Buddhists or otherwise, pray and send out our compassion and love as well.
May All beings be free from suffering.
Let us remember the divine messangers of children...may they all have a happy rebirth in the higher plans.
With Metta,
-Kashi
With all my heart and love I send my regards to all who are suffering in this horrible incident.
May one day all suffering come to an end. May (god), angels, enlightened beings, Buddha's bless and have compassion for the families. all of us on the path, Buddhists or otherwise, pray and send out our compassion and love as well.
May All beings be free from suffering.
Let us remember the divine messangers of children...may they all have a happy rebirth in the higher plans.
With Metta,
-Kashi
2
Comments
because I know that all beings suffer across the universe at all times.. and many children die daily for many different reasons.. knowing this and being aware of death on a regular basis as the Buddha urges us, this one incident does not surprise or shock me.. but if you do not think about death unless it smacks you in the face.. then emotions and shock come.
When death is a gob-stopper, what is the matter with silence ... or, for me, luckily, tears?
What are you hoping for?
It shows people do not care enough to say anything about more important issues but will comment all over topics like "Should a buddhist give up cake?" or something stupid to that effect.
Really, what is there to say that has not been said many times by all of us, often in a more intimate, meaningful setting.
Unless of course this is the first incident of this type that someone has knowledge of due to young age. In which case the unanswerable questions may need to be hashed through.
I was, (is gratified the right word), I'll say moved, to see President Obama in tears during his press conference this morning. My feelings are my own.
Then this afternoon someone referred me to a webpage which showed that 7.6 million children under the age of 5 die every year in the developing world.
That's 21,000 children who die every day from hunger, illness, and other poverty-related causes.
That's twenty-one thousand. Each day.
That's the same as the Sandy Hook massacre every two minutes.
It made me wonder why I reacted so much when I heard the news about the most recent school massacre. Is it because they were white? Or maybe because they are people I can identify with, whereas kids in Africa are pretty alien to me. Or maybe I am a bit racist underneath. Or maybe because it's kinda expected for them to starve to death, or die of dysentery... whereas in the USA young kids being shot is unusual.
Or maybe because it was a violent death. But then, starvation is a way worse death than being shot.
I dunno.
It's all horrible, regardless.
I'll give some metta and do a dedication to them when I sit tonight, it might help I guess.
It's been noticed that download of this one song in several versions has exploded on youtube since the shooting. People everywhere reach out.
Holy shit guy...really?.....
First of all I already said above I know things like this happen. But your big deal, shit happens like attitude your basically saying why did I even post this cuz death happens everyday. I hope you never watch the news again or read anything for the rest of your life in the newspapers....maybe the news should just go fuck themselves and not cover a g-damn thing ever again.....Or maybe only go to africa and talk about all the starving children.
Im really referring to your comment "But then, starvation is a way worse death than being shot." And "I guess"...
Idk why you even bothered.
As far as the shooting versus starving children...I don't think you can compare the 2. I think about the children of poverty, war, starvation often. Pretty much daily. I try to help in what small ways I can. I care about them and I have much compassion for them. But when my dad called me and told me what had happened yesterday, I turned on the news, and I sat down and I cried. Because our minds cannot fathom someone going into a classroom full of babies and killing them. Does that make their deaths more valuable or more worthy somehow than those babies who starve every day? Of course not. But it was a new low in American mass murder, and a place where up until now, little ones were safe, because no 5 year old has done anything to hurt anyone.
Just because horrible things (I don't think you can quantify horrible. A child's life is a child's life) happen everywhere doesn't mean the things that are closer to home, so to speak, won't impact you more. If you lose your job today, you are going to worry, be stressed, be upset, and it very well might be the worst thing that happens to you in a year. It's good to keep things in perspective, but just because other people have it worse doesn't mean the immediate problem affecting you isn't important, too.
The lack of words on this thread means nothing. It doesn't mean we don't care or aren't affected. It just means that sometimes there is nothing you can say.
That is why when such things happen, you often here so many phrases of "these were all of our children. We all stand with you today." Of course on the outside we do not know the grief of these families and this community. But we really are all one.
This is why I tend to not speak much during these types of situations with anyone but a buddhist because if you bring up that thousands of kids die every day it gets people angry... why? attachment of course
we naturally have less attachment to people who are not part of our culture, country etc.. all the levels of attachment. So when we hear about Obama drone striking children , or children otherwise suffering halfway across the planet we feel sad.. but when children die in what some would consider a senseless way here in america, "where this isn't supposed to happen".. in a sleepy little town " where this isn't supposed to happen.. at a school " where this isn't supposed to happen" with young children " who this isn't supposed to happen to".
all of these levels of attachment add on to each other to create stronger and stronger emotional reactions.
I cried yesterday and today....not for the
death of the children, but for the suffering
they endured. I immediatly went to thoughts
of how I could have comforted them in their
last moments. Held them. Sang to them.
Trying to calm anyone I could have.
*tears hiting my 'puter*
I know I cant die with them...
but it is my belief, we all are attached to the idea
of not going it off alone. Im not brave enough yet
to say I want to die alone. Without comfort.
For the rest of my living days.....May I
be a lamp of love and comfort to all who
need it. Including myself.
This is how we know the eradication of ignorance means direct knowing of the four noble truths.. the buddha said that he did not claim to be enlightened until he saw the 4NT.
and don't worry about " I can't help"... we all can't let go fully... not until we gain insight and direct understanding as the Buddha did.. until then we are all stuck in our greed, hatred, and delusion , but even so that does not mean the buddha would not not have compassion for the beings who died yesterday, but enlightened beings see beyond what we see to the core of things, you can have compassion and equanimity(a mind without like and dislike.. or without greed, hatred, and delusion) for all beings and their great sufferings, this is why the Buddha wanted to find a way out in the first place.
is bad for your well-being.
US is probably the only country in the world where you
can go to a shop and buy a sub-machine gun legally.
There are massively varying degrees of Anger, offence and indignation. But if we show our anger - to one another, here, of all places - we expose the same weakness, fear and Anger displayed, in far greater measure, by the very people we condemn for their horrific actions.... It is what I believe is known as a form of 'degrees of separation'....
let us not 'be like them' - in whatever measure.
an object is not inherently bad or good, only the action attached to how it's used.
human beings are tool makers.. that is how we survived as a species up to this point.. if we did not make tools to hunt, to defend our clans, to cultivate the land.. we wouldn't even be here to be able to practice dhamma. a gun is one of those many tools humanity has used to get to this point. Thousands of people use guns to defend themselves successfully each year.
I am an interesting example of a crossroads.. I own guns. at one point I liked to shoot guns, actually I still do but ammo is expensive now, its fun target shooting. I was never a hunter, I've never shot any living being and I have attempted to keep even little bugs alive nearly since childhood. I was also big on defending my family etc etc. Now a days as I advance in my practice I often think of the situation, if people come into my home with guns, how do I react? 5 years ago I would of said I'll grab my gun and defend my family... today i'm not so sure as I know hatred never appeases hatred.. but am I willing to put my own life, and the lives of my family on the line for that? do I act only in metta and peace, and if a family member dies I say " well we all come to death kay sera sera".. an interesting conundrum to ponder is it not ?
I'm willing to give my life for peace, and give metta at the risk of my own life.. but I'm not so sure I'm willing to allow others to get hurt for the same reason.. it's something that is still not 100% clear in my practice. I have total confidence in the term dhamma protects, and I believe also that metta protects, but for others I dunno. This is just one of the many aspects where fear and aversion come into our lives
remove the guns from the situation and replace it with swords.. or knives.. all just tools.. all the same situation for one who practices dhamma to examine.
I think most of us believe we'd act a certain way...until we are faced with that situation. I do think a strong spiritual practice will help solidify our minds in our decisions to act though. I do value all human life. But the instinct to protect children and self is pretty strong, as well.
There was a shooting an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, today where at least twenty six people were killed, eighteen of them children. Just three days ago, a guy walked into one of our local malls and started shooting, killing two people and seriously injuring another before turning the gun on himself. It's pretty fucked up, especially considering the recent shootings at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin and a theatre in Colorado were only a few short months ago.
The way I see it, though, there's no easy solution. A combination of things like better funded and easily accessible mental healthcare, stricter gun control laws, and gun safety programs may help to reduce incidents like this, but they'll never be able to completely stop them. Part of this is because the roots of much of this kind of violence within society goes much, much deeper than crazy people or prevalence of guns, and they won't be uprooted until we take a long, hard look at the society of fear and violence we've created, or that we've allowed to be created for us—a society where things like a basic guaranteed income and universal healthcare (including better funding of, and easier access to, mental healthcare) are fought against tooth and nail, and starting wars and dropping bombs seems as easy as buying a gun at Walmart.
As a friend of mine put it on Facebook in response to the news, "No amount of gun control will do anything but make the problem worse until we change the culture. The United States has been in a perpetual state of violent war, both domestic and abroad, since it was founded." Which reminded me of something Martin Luther King, Jr. said in a speech he gave in 1967, called "Beyond Vietnam," that seems as relevant today as it did then: As well as a similar, and perhaps even more directly relevant, line from a eulogy he gave in 1963 for four young girls who were killed when members of the Ku Klux Klan bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama: Unfortunately, in the grand scheme of things, these deaths are just a drop in the bucket. According to the US Census Bureau, approximately 150,000 people, including children, die every day all over the world for a variety of reasons, from wars, accidents, and random acts of violence by poor, opportunistic, sadistic, or mental unstable and distraught individuals, to more easily preventable things like starvation, lack of clean drinking water and access to basic healthcare. In essence, it's partially a structural problem, and that aspect is something that'll take a long time to work out, especially when taking a broader look at human progress and seeing the cycle of revolutionary and reactionary ways we change and deal with the dialectical processes of history. The more consciously we do this, and the less reactionary we are in the process, however, the better and quicker I think our evolution towards a more cohesive and peaceful society will be.
It's sad that this happened, and I really hate hearing about things like this. So I'll continue to support things like universal healthcare in the short term, and fight for a healthier and less volatile society via progressive socio-economic changes in the long term. Beyond that, though, I don't know what else I can do. And yes, I'm politicizing this issue because the way I see it, it is a political issue.
Don't forget to that the football player killed his baby's momma and himself, orphaning his child at 3 months old over a paternity fight just within the last 2 weeks, too. A cop and father of 4 was ambushed and killed in MN 2 weeks ago-cop was answering a call to check on the welfare of a person and was killed when he answered the call.
I was just talking with another friend how deeply embedded in our culture guns and violence are, and I don't think there is any simple answer. I do think that every one of us has an ability to change the shift in our culture.
The Buddha himself said that even if one is to be caught by bandits and they were to saw off your limbs, if on that occasion you were to become angry then you are not practicing the Dhamma.
With that said, here comes the normal mindset of a reg worldly person....I would want to defend any member of my family by any means if their life was at stake....But the ultimate reality is, guns should not be in the world. Agree or not, thats where I stand.
In the same mindset, I would say why focus on what you have said since we cannot change to there not being guns. Guns are here. They are reality. It seems to me that we should focus on how we can improve the situation.
And, BTW, I very much disagree with President Obama's press secretary, who yesterday said now is the not the time to discuss the issue. As one Congresswoman said yesterday, "He's right. We should have been discussing it for years" (paraphrase). Now, when we are most horrified is exactly when we should be discussing the issue, as we are here.
What can possibly be said? It's all over the news, it's all over facebook, people are talking about it everywhere... I'm pretty sure the majority of the US has heard about this event by now and as a result, has probably discussed their feelings on the topic with at least one person. I, personally, have already cried twice because the whole thing is so upsetting. We could all echo the same thoughts of how horrible it is, how sad it is, metta... but after a while it sounds disingenuous. Do we have to make a public display of our emotions in order to be considered well adjusted individuals? Is it wrong to process in private? Silence does not mean apathy.
I think we need a careful balance of being aware of the horrors of the world yet not deluging ourselves in them. RE: violent video games, my grandmother once said to me, "Why do you want to put all of that violent stuff in your head?" Sometimes I feel like these horrors are the same. The more I get sucked in, the less I want to trust people... the less I see the good in the world... the more angry I get. It's like sometimes I watch a movie that is so horrible and so sad and so disturbing, I wish I never saw it in the first place because of the effect it had on me. Obviously, when something like this happens, I want to be aware...but I don't want to become obsessed. I just don't want to carry this around in my head all day.
I have the utmost compassion for the victims, but I'm trying not to let this sort of stuff ruin my perspective of the world. It's too easy to focus on the bad and forget about the good.
It's just all so sad and I am obviously feeling a little emotional at the moment, so that's where I was at when I wrote that. Hope this explains.
But considering this is still first and foremost a forum on and about buddhism I still keep in mind the 4nt's and 8fp. The fact that people are going to suffer and this is nothing new is still a problem. Why? attachment and delusion and all the things keeping us from waking up. If the Buddha were alive today and speaking to us directly, as in face to face Im positive he would say the same things he did 2 and half thousand years ago.
So Im on the fence right now...ppl keep saying "x many people die everyday due to violence"...etc...but Im getting to the point where Im sick of this world and all the bullshit in it.
So in a way, and yeah its not realistic but I keep thinking "when will it stop? can we not just all live in peace and kindness?
No.....No its just not possible.