| DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to the suffering
people of Tibet and their non-violent struggle
to regain their independence from a ruthless
occupying force. May they soon succeed and live
in peace forever!
|
When we call ourselves
by a religious brand-name (Jew, Buddhist, Christian,
Hindu, etc.), or a nationality (English, German,
Thai, Australian, Indian, and so on)—at
the same time we are saying, without words, what
we are not. In this way, we limit ourselves and
deny ourselves the possibility of drinking at
the well-springs of many sources.
If we were not so attached to and preoccupied
with names and labels and saw, instead, our basic
humanity, the wealth of the world’s wisdom
would be available to us in incalculable amounts,
and we would feel no shame or hesitation in picking
up gems wherever we find them; after all, a diamond
is a diamond no matter where it is found, is it
not?
We could avoid religious and racial conflict and
antagonism if we realized that we do not live
in water-tight compartments, shut off from people
of other races, nations, and religions, and that
we are now well-into a world culture; our lives
touch and overlap those of others like tiles on
a roof or the scales of a fish. Even if we never
travel abroad, we depend so much upon people from
all over the world simply because of the global
economy. These are things to be considered. |
