As It Is ~ PRINCIPLES
HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED
how we often criticize people of our own race or nation,
but if someone of a different race or nation says
something negative about ours we feel quite upset
or become defensive? What does this indicate but racism,
in a latent form, at least? We might hotly deny that
we are racist, and would never do anything that might
be condemned as such, but it is there in most of us
nevertheless, and in many people it would not take
much to stir it up; governments do this, with various
forms of propaganda, and by appealing to patriotism
and nationalistic sentiments, when it serves their
purposes to do so.
If, however, we are aware of the lingering
and deep-rooted element of racism in us, and that
it is there because of ignorance of the nature of
life, we will be better able to control it when and
if, under favorable conditions, it might otherwise
awaken from its dormant state and burst out.
We might have had some unpleasant experiences
of people of a certain race or nation; it does happen.
But we must be careful not to let it influence us
into developing a dislike for that race or nation
in entirety, and stigmatize the people thereof as
"no good." For, just as our own race or
nation consists of not just one type of person, so
people of many kinds are to be found everywhere; no
nation or race has the monopoly of 'good' or 'bad'
qualities; all are still in the process of evolution,
though evolving to what we really cannot say. And
if we make statements such as ? for example ? "I
don't like Greek people," we should qualify and
soften them somewhat with the phrase "in general,"
or "generally speaking," for no one has
ever met all Greek people; moreover, if we had met
many people of a particular nationality, we would
surely have come across some whom we liked, as well
as some we didn't. During my several visits to Turkey,
for instance, I encountered quite a bit of hostility
from people there, though this might have been because
they had had some negative experiences with other
Westerners before me; thus, their hostility was not
necessarily directed at me personally. But I also
met some kind and friendly people there, and I would
like to go back again someday, to discover something
that I feel I missed or overlooked before.
We may be cultured, urbane
and sophisticated, but how deep does it all go, and
what lurks beneath it? There are countless things
in our psyches ? many of them from the remote past
? that we know little or nothing about. Are we so
sure of ourselves that we dare say we would never,
under any circumstances, give way to our baser instincts?
Our principles would need to be very strong for that,
would they not?
Undoubtedly, cannibalism
was an integral part of life in many parts of the
world, and has come to an official end only within
living memory. Nor is it hard to imagine a resumption
of it, under certain circumstances ? and I'm not referring
to isolated and well publicized cases of serial killers
like Geoffrey Dahmer of Milwaukee, USA, whose demonic
mentations caused him to dismember and eat parts of
his victims' bodies. What I mean is that civilization,
as we know it, is often only a very thin ? and in
some cases, not a very highly polished ? veneer; scratch
it and beneath, we might easily find barbarism and
savagery, alive and well, biding their time, awaiting
opportunities to emerge and terrorize the world; it
has happened before, and will undoubtedly happen again.
Our primitive instincts are not dead and gone, but
are there in all of us, and we are all capable of
doing things that normally we would be horrified at.
Our moral codes are validated not because we have
transcended the capacity for anti-social behavior,
but because, still being capable of such, we restrain
ourselves, either out of fear of being caught and
punished, or out of understanding that certain things
should not be done. Make no mistake, though: we are
all capable of breaking the law in many ways. Moreover,
most of us feel a certain pleasure in doing so, if
we can get away with it.
Some years ago, in the Palawan
Refugee Camp, a group of young boys came to me in
the temple one day, and asked me to shave their heads
(this was not uncommon among the Vietnamese Buddhists,
some of whom had vowed to shave their heads or become
vegetarians for a month or so if they survived their
escape from Vietnam by boat). Someone else told me
that these boys ? all unaccompanied minors ? had been
at sea for many days, during which their supplies
of food and water had run out, and the only way they
could survive was by eating the flesh of their companions
who had died of starvation or exhaustion. I complied
with their request, and tried to assuage the guilt
that they obviously felt by telling them that they
had done nothing wrong, as they had not killed the
people whose flesh they had eaten, and only did it
in order to survive. Even though I am a convinced
vegetarian, I can understand people doing that, though
what I would have done had I been in their situation,
I don't know, and can only speculate. It would have
been a real test of my principles; would they have
stood up under such conditions? Or should they have
stood up? I can eat meat; that is not difficult; all
you have to do is put it in your mouth, chew it, and
swallow it. I have taken no vow to be a life long
vegetarian, but it is something that I feel strongly
about.
One time, while staying in
a temple in Malaysia, someone brought some cakes and
rolls for my breakfast, and when I bit into one of
them, I found that it contained meat, so I put in
on one side, without making a fuss over it. When the
man saw that he had unintentionally brought meat he
was quite upset and apologetic, but I told him not
to worry, as meat wouldn't kill me. Unlike the brahmins
of India, I am not a vegetarian out of concern for
personal purity, but for the sake of the animals;
I object to killing, and vegetarianism is one way
to express this. No matter if we take extreme care
to eat only food that is considered ritually 'pure,'
the body is full of all kinds of impurities like excrement,
urine, sweat, pus, sebaceous secretions, mucus, ear
wax, etc.; there is no question about bodily purity.
Benjamin Franklin became
a vegetarian for some time, and was quite happy with
it until " … in my first voyage from Boston,
being becalmed off Block Island, our people set about
catching cod, and hauled up a great many. Hitherto,
I had stuck to my resolution of not eating animal
food, and on this occasion I considered the taking
of every fish as a kind of unprovoked murder, since
none of them had, or could, do us any injury that
might justify the slaughter.
"All this seemed very
reasonable. But I had formerly been a great lover
of fish, and, when this came hot out of the frying
pan it smelt admirably well. I balanced some time
between principle and inclination, till I recollected
that, when the fish were opened, I saw smaller fish
taken out of their stomachs; then, thought I, 'If
you eat one another, I do not see why we may not eat
you.' So I dined upon cod very heartily, and continued
to eat with other people, returning, only now and
then, occasionally to a vegetarian diet. So convenient
a thing is it to be a reasonable creature, since it
enables one to find or make a reason for everything
one has a mind to do."
Well, at least he was honest
about relaxing his principles.
It is easy to be 'moral'
and 'good' when our circumstances are fortunate, but
if our circumstances change, and we fall upon hard
times, what becomes of our principles? Will we ? can
we ? maintain them, or will we change them like we
change our clothes? Dare we say that we would never
kill, cheat, lie or steal? We do not know what will
happen tomorrow.
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