The Karma Yoga of Activism

[bina@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

At 12:50 PM 10/5/99 +0100, Dawn Star wrote:

>These generals just dont seem to get it yet, do they. That their
>universal doom is inevitable. That an indefinite situation can not last
>forever. That the center cannot hold and that all things will fall
>apart. That nature seeks balance and harmony. 
>
>Everyone knows they are on a doomed course of logical disintegration. If
>only the world press would stop giving them a voice, but unfortunately,
>many of those world press companies, are investor-held, and run by the
>same administrators and individuals in the banks and institutions that
>invest in their illegitimate regime. 
>
>And anyone who doesnt know this is just not paying attention.
>
>Which once again is why there should be an international ban on
>investment in Burma. Then we might be spared more of these outbursts of
>wounded pride and knee-jerked outrages from the SPDC goons.
>
>ds

Dear DS,

Why is the world so slow in seeing the truth?

I sometimes see us all as characters in a drama, playing (unconsciously) our pre-scripted roles.  We are also the audience, who see how Truth (and the denial of Truth) are played out in so many ways and through so many personalities.

Even the world press is doing its job.  The capitalist owners and top management are ruthless and insatiable wealth accumulators. What great character roles!  On the level of writers and editors, these guys are proud of doing their job and getting the "news" (whatever the "news" is) out to the people, fresh, fast, and tasty.  Hey, they are enthusiastically playing their parts!

And the "generals" are also doing their assigned "job", difficult as that may be to swallow.  Who else would dare to play Evil itself on the world stage?  (I dont want the job!)  They must have been given astral "lobotomies" by some clever deity, otherwise they would all surely die of shame and horror to see what they are doing and saying in the light of day.

What does the activist do?  He (or she) continuously monitors the purpose and the results of this bustling human activity, and tries to point out when and where, in the light of our collective human goals, we may be going astray.  The activist is not the captain of the Ship, but the child pulling on the captain's pants leg and pointing to the iceberg drifting towards them.  You are a tireless example of this yourself, Dawn Star.

As the audience, we have bought our tickets, and are settled in our seats, watching the show, caught up the the vast range of emotions.  Like children at the movies, we scream, laugh, and cry.  It is all very real to us.  And we feel the pain so intensely.  Why?

This fantastic and frightening human drama has got to be the setting of our evolution in consciousness from animals to gods.  If we do not understand how the Truth can be twisted, perverted, and ultimately lost, how can we really know what is Truth?  And knowledge of Truth is the realm of the gods, surely.  

 From this perspective, too, the separation between "I" and "thou" is less clear.  A good actor can play any role.  As Trevor Edmond wrote in an e-mail a while back (I paraphrase), sometimes I see the arrogance and abusiveness of the junta generals in myself, albeit on a lesser scale.  Perhaps in my worse moments, if I had their power, I would behave just as they do.

Does this mean I cannot chastise them?  Not at all, I MUST chastise them!  And be chastised in my turn!  

We must not stop working, indeed we cannot stop, and stay sane.  But we are also the material to be worked.  The harder we strive to know the truth, and to reveal it,  courageously and compassionately, to others, then the faster we move through the pain, and the brighter becomes the inner light, the deeper the inner peace.  

So, Dawn Star, why isnt there an international ban on doing business with the SPDC?  You know very well yourself: If many of "us" do not yet understand the need for such a ban, it is because those of "us" who do understand are not doing our job of awakening the others.  I know I havent yet written to the California delegation to Congress about the Massachusetts Amicus brief, as Simon Billenness keeps reminding me.  Have you?  Dont tell me you are not a US citizen, we are all Americans at this level of consciousness, just as we are all Burmese.  Work!

The world is a hell because "we" need to know what Hell is, and we need to work to change the Hell into Heaven.  As we do it, we may notice that we too are becoming divine.  This ugly and dirty world is our path to personal salvation.  This is why I can even say, "hurray for the SPDC!"