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A prayer for Paris
DairyLama
Veteran Veteran
My thoughts are with the victims of today's atrocity.
Vive la liberté
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I think you're not alone, there, my friend.
I do not know what tomorrow brings, but so much hate and frustration piled in someone. So much that even mercy is no longer alive in your heart, how can you live like that following hate, or no being chained to hate...
And now there is hate and sorrow in the families, friends, fellow beings of these victims. A vicious cycle, the question is will it ever end?
Even though I'm just learning about the Middle Way and compassion and equanimity, when times are the toughest is when we need it the most.
It was just after midnight here when the news broke. I chanted mantras for about two hours as I couldn't sleep
I am so upset but I figure the best way to channel that energy is to send metta to the victims' families and dedicate merit to them instead of focusing on the hate towards the perpetrators. Which is what I really want to do
Raven
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Je suis Charlie
Part of the benefit of regular practice is praying in preparation.
Too trite? Too right it is!
Please practice before the next Dukkha event. Bonne chance.
Hopefully this kind of thing will get more and more coverage. I think people are better today at standing up and saying violence and murder in the name of religion is evil. The more coverage it gets, the more people are openly critical of the behavior, the less it will be tolerated in the world at large.
Back in the day when Salman Rushdie had a fatwa and death threats against him for writing a book, the world largely ignored his plight or thought he deserved it (including here in America), and they stood on the wrong side and against free expression. The world does turn though!
Well, reports this morning state that one suspect has turned himself in, and the other two are still at large but their identities known. It's just a matter of time before they are caught and dealt with.
I hope these awful events don't lead to further self-censorship by the press.
Grateful that the "celebs"/politicians I have heard speak about this have all emphasised the fact that this is NOT the view of Islam and NOT an excuse for hatred towards Muslims in general.
Sad that there are such issues in France about Muslim dress but the Koran states that:
-- 2.148
Praying that Paris will find its direction without more bloodshed. :persevere:
Yeah, there is a worrying back-drop of racial and religious tension in Paris. There has been a rise in anti-Semitism by the way.
Reports are just in that there has been another shooting in the south of Paris this time. Two are critically injured and there are no confirmations of the shooting being tied to Charlie Hebdo attack
https://twitter.com/xavieryvon/status/553093465060679683/photo/1
Translation:
Paris, this morning. Flags in Berne at the college in the 19th, rounding of 2 suspects in leak #JeSuisCharlie
Tá muid Charlie
Slainte
08.39(GMT) Latest on the second shooting this morning in a suburb of southwestern Paris from Henry Samuel:
The police officer injured at Malakoff, southern Paris, is a woman. She is in a critical condition. The site has been cordoned off, with droves of police and emergency services.
However, authorities insist there is no proven link with the Charlie Hebdo killings.
According to iTele, two motorists were arguing after a collision, and when two police officers came over to help, one of the motorists opened fire. One suspect has been arrested, but the shooter has reportedly fled.
-- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11329976/Paris-Charlie-Hebdo-attack-live.html
Aussie sources:
https://twitter.com/smh/status/553119541619089408
https://twitter.com/abcnews/status/553118278193664000
From Jason Stanley, writing in the New York Times:
As the staff of Charlie Hebdo was aware, there surely is a difference, in France, between mocking the pope and mocking the Prophet Muhammad. The pope is the representative of the dominant traditional religion of the majority of French citizens. The Prophet Muhammad is the revered figure of an oppressed minority. To mock the pope is to thumb one’s nose at a genuine authority, an authority of the majority. To mock the Prophet Muhammad is to add insult to abuse. The power of the majority in a liberal democracy is not the power of monarchs, to be sure. But it is power nonetheless.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/a-postcard-from-paris/?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region®ion=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region
I wonder if this guy was quite so sanguine after 9/11?
Anyway from what I've heard Charlie Hebdo satirised everything, certainly not just Islam.
I can remember when the Monty Python film "The life of Brian" came out in the UK, there was a lot of fuss and Christian groups held demos outside cinemas and such-like.
Compare that reaction to what happened yesterday in Paris.
I'd take it a bit further. Violence and murder in the name of any ideology ..........
Back when in the 70s and 80s, the terrorists were far left-leaning (Marxist, Leninist, Maoist, anti-fascist, etc) groups such as Baader-Meinhof gang, Red Brigades, SLA, FARC, Weathermen and so on. They were viscious, violent, committed idealogues. They committed murder, kidnapping, bank robberies and so on. I found their actions as despicable as what's happened in Paris.
I don't care what ideology drive people to such acts.
Anti Semitism has never gone away in the first place
A prayer for tout le monde ("everybody") is always in order.
But people who kill in the name of religion are pure sadists. Destroyers for life. Lost their humanity.
I actually feel sorry for these people. To be so delusional that you think murdering unarmed defenceless people is holy or just. These people will be suffering immensely.
It has been stated the best thing we can do is find out who we are. Then we will BE the change we wish to see in the world.
Sympathies to those families and those still injured.
Religion is all too often delusion. But still, a prayerful attitude should keep you out of trouble. Too bad the cartoonists didn't have a prayerful attitude, but a mocking one. That is just part of their karma.
Sorry I have to disagree with you. We all have our own karma to work through but condoning their deaths as karmic payback for having a mocking attitude is pretty unskillful. I really hope I've just misread your post.
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Well said.
I have met some Moslems who put the 'enlightened' dharmaists to the level of Buddhist beginner.
Perverted islamist nut jobs are an aberration encouraged by spiritual nihilists. I will visit them in the hell realms for sure. Will bring one of the many virgin Korans for them to eternalise with. Won't they be surprised . . .
Events that arouse passions? Welcome to the world of Mr Cushion . . .
"Condoning [the deaths of the cartoonists] as karmic payback?" I hardly think such violence can be supported. Separating the sheep from the goats, spiritually, is not for us to do in this lifetime. But for beyond that, even Jesus is quoted as saying that it would be better for a man to have a millstone tied around his neck and dropped into deep waters than for him to break the faith of one of the little ones.
EDIT: I meant to say that the satirist's job is to push the envelope or even cross the conventional lines of good taste and propriety. They do this for a living and become desensitized to the feelings of other people. I usually enjoy watching Bill Maher, but he makes my Father, a retired Episcopal priest, just cringe. These were not terrorists —they were angry people out for vengeance. Anger can make a person crazy. HHDL says that anger causes people's ethical faculty just to drop away. So why do people persist in making others angry? For a world freer of angry people, for this I pray!
Surely the actions (karma) of the cartoonists has to be scrutinized, also. This thread is about prayer, so enough said about that. I, for one, do not believe in any freedom of expression that would alienate or malign others. I simply believe in the freedom of speech, which is to be able to speak Truth from the Heart. Freedom of the Press, I believe, should be anchored in that and in speaking out against injustice. I do not believe it should also be into broadcasting likes and dislikes, which thing it unfortunately is. And that's not all good karma, either.
This is my last post in this thread about prayer. I just thought one view was missing. This thread is not about Paris, but about modern life.
Everything will be deluded. Hence the problems in the world.
We do our best.
Thank you for clarifying.
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I think once we understand that religion has nothing to do with this disgusting behavior we'll be well on our way to seeing less and less of it. Characterizing it as religiously inspired is starting to sound like another way to apologize for it. This is a change going on in my mind, anyway, I wonder if the last twenty years of this BS in the name of Allah or God or a space alien has just worn folks down?
The 'religious' inspiration for mass murder only goes so far. The common denominator is human murderousness needing an excuse.
^^^ well said @Hamsaka.
How many of us have been embroiled or boiled in hatred? 'Killing is too good for them!'
Of course you may have a reason . . . I was raped, my fellows were butchered, my most sacred being was violated, the lobster soup was cold etc
Well the hatred loop and buck stops here. We do not condone or find acceptable, nor think the police should be restrained by using non lethal man hunting.
However I am not of the religious who are outraged by every war, barbarity and act of senseless, testorone fuelled Dukkha looping.
Time to sit quietly and forgive the unforgivable? What on earth did you think real compassion involves? A quick boiling . . . or gently reducing the heat . . .
This thread is about prayer, so enough said about that. I, for one, do not believe in any freedom of expression that would alienate or malign others.
Freedom of speech looks very important to me, and clearly it's something the jihadists want to suppress. I think we're looking at an odious brand of religious fascism here. But anyway.
Let's wish for wiser voices and better times.
Blasphemy laws are the epitome of stupidity.
Reports of further siege in Paris, with 6 hostages. Ongoing situation. Armed police out in force across the city.
Special forces with massive police presence deployed north of Paris, where the two brothers are holed up in a print works with a hostage.
Suggestions of a co-ordinated Al-Qaeda style attack.
Could be further incidents.
Charlie Hebdo victims:
--http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30740115
RIP
I heard a lot of Jews were leaving France and returning to Israel.
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"Before my time, nothing can harm me.
when my time comes, nothing can protect me."
Sometimes, the good-humoured advice of 'live every day as if it were your last' is tragically illustrated by way of a grisly and unthinkable reminder...
Yes they have. So have Jews in Germany.
Charlie Hebdo editor and cartoonist Stephane "Charb" Charbonnier, 47, who had been living under police protection since receiving death threats.
I wondered about that, but I guess it's impossible to protect somebody against a planned and determined assault with automatic weapons. The brothers had clearly had some military training.
This whole affair has taken on a new more terrifying aspect; the weapons found in the brothers' possession were of military proportions; the kosher supermarket had been booby-trapped with high explosives, and the girlfriend of one of the dead terrorists is being sought as an active and prominent accomplice.
This was no knee-jerk, isolated, minimal act of terrorist defiance : this was a carefully-planned, meticulously-orchestrated, expensive, elaborate, funded and 'bigger' operation, than ever originally imagined.
No wonder the Security Authorities have issued the statement that we HAVE to be vigilant because they won't be able to prevent or predict similar acts here in the UK.
It wasn't a comment on the attack. It was an alert and warning.
Yes, it seems to have been organised by ISIL.
Over a million people on the streets of Paris today, a march of unity. Quite inspiring actually.
3.7 million according to Agence France-Presse
It makes sense that 'they' would have been planning and preparing many targets along with the Charlie Hebdo et al attack. Why put those kind of resources into ONE target only?
I watched a docu on YouTube for the first time about the Islamic State. I am not easily horrified or heart-clutching. As I watched it I felt cold cold cold deep in my chest and then nausea. It's like a dystopian novel. And there was not a single beheading. It was about the 'police' the Islamic state has driving around in brand new fancy vans stopping people on the street to tell them they could see his wife's . . . whatever, and that he should make sure she is covered better. They go from vendor to vendor making 'sure' the vendor is not cheating people. And there were NO WOMEN whatsoever in the filming. No women on the streets, in the markets, no girls, just men and boys.
This interview, I viewed yesterday, DOES put things into perspective; and a comment in a newspaper today, made me realise the hypocrisy of powerful Western Governments...
The other interview, however, really cracked me up...!
"Radical" Muslims have been terrorizing people and destroying religions for more than 3,000 years. Buddhism was nearly wiped out in India and parts of Southeast Asia as a result of Muslim conquests. And they didn't move in and say "hey, why don't you all convert." They killed and they overthrew. There isn't as much overthrowing today (although there is overthrowing) but there certainly is killing and terrorizing. So after all these millennia, why are the "peaceful" Muslim leaders not coming together to put a stop to it? I see Muslims come out more often to defend Islam. Great. How about doing whatever you have to do to shut down the faction that murders people? Why wouldn't you do that? Makes you wonder.
After 3,000 years, you could say the leadership is complicit.
I struggle to see a solution to all this at the moment. I think that it's the Muslim world which will ultimately have to deal with the problem of Islamic extremism, because the West will always be perceived as Crusaders. Perhaps it's best if the western governments concentrate on protecting their own civilians.
Islam hasn't been around for 3000 years. Not even 2000. It was founded in the 7th Century CE
Yes, I sometimes wonder whether that's part of the problem, it needs more time to mature.
Seems to me a "tweak" of the dogma could help...something like, "Allah just sent word down. If you kill anyone from any religion, you will burn in hell for 1,000 years. Oh, and that virgins thing? That's out too."
@just_so Yeah I don't think they're going to tweak it. (Traditional) Muslims don't even want more than one version of the Koran/Quran to exist, and the Hadith is set in stone too because it arose from people who had contact with Mohammed. I think they first have to separate government and religion (state and church), to start appreciating the kinds of freedoms (of thought, expression and speech) that we have in the West. If they don't have or appreciate those freedoms, how can they respect the freedoms of satirists/cartoonists? It has to start within.
They also really nailed that coffin by saying Mohammed was the last & final Prophet of Allah. Or maybe he said it himself. Either way, they didn't want what happened with Judaism/Christianity to happen to Islam, and that is also a barrier to progress.
@Toraldris said:
My understanding so far is that separating government and religion in the context of Islam is not gonna happen. I don't know how to put it, other than Islam is a theocracy inside and out.
Which brings to mind . . . how we (US) managed to separate church from state in such a way that participants writing the constitution (or wherever the division of church and state is written) were not appalled and offended. Is Christianity (for instance) just more easily dissected away from 'government' than say, Islam? I doubt it, considering how many Americans cannot grasp the separation as valid.
I wasn't the greatest US history student so please correct me if you see something
If Islam were similarly dissected away from government I agree, more Muslims would appreciate more kinds of freedoms than the current theocratic 'fundamentalist' Islam can ever provide.
@Hamsaka Everything starts somewhere, sometime. The United States is like a special project. Even England still has an official state Church (Church of England). It's people who realize that religions shouldn't trample upon one another, in the same way that individuals shouldn't trample upon one another, that take that ideal right up to the point of nation building.