Destruction of neighbor, destruction of self

Returning to the blog world...one post at a time. Here is "one".

I watched a documentary this weekend about the Dalai Lama titled, "10 questions for the Dalai Lama". Yes, I know, he isn't Christian. Yet he has some things to say that we Christians need to hear. In the documentary a journalist journeys to have an audience with the Dalai Lama. He was instructed to prepare 10 and only 10 questions. It was the 10th question and answer that promoted me to write this post. It is a questions I've been wrestling with for some time and I appreciated the Dalai Lama's answer. It wasn't a simple answer but a compelling one. It wasn't a Buddhist answer but a human one.

The journalist asks, “If you are really a non violent person you never make a stand against something evil evil, violent or vicious…. for instance the Khmer Rouge or Hitler or the events in Bosnia and Croatia……at what point do you give up non-violence and at what point do you confront something that is truly evil in the name of doing what is right?"

The Dalai Lama responds,

"Basically, the non-violent method is the best one—or the real method to solve the problem....."

"So I think as a measure for protecting oneself then…maybe...as you mentioned when someone is going to kill, going to abuse, then if the circumstances suggest there is no other way then, maybe I think…just try to hit back. But this is just protection."

"So therefore, if you look at today’s reality, everything is interdependent. Everything is interconnected. So my interest is very much linked with their interest. Their interest is actually in the long run involved with my own interest. Therefore, destruction of your neighbor, destruction of so called your enemy, is actually destruction of yourself. Our survival…our future…is very much linked with one another. So therefore, the concept of war… destroy your enemy… is old-fashioned….out of date."

I found the Dalia Lama's answer interesting in that he was both a realist and an idealist at the same time. He spoke to the human need to defend but also to the consequences entailed even when we defend ourselves against our enemy. There are times when protection of self, family and even nation are the natural and even right response. Send the troops in to stop Genocide, please! But even when we do defend--especially when our defence results in the destruction of another, their are consequences.

I'm not sure we yet understand in "the west" what it means to be so interdependent with the world. We are getting there. Surely the latest economic down turn has perked our attention to the global interconnectedness of our economy. But do we see our actions (or lack of action) towards a neighbor, towards a family member, towards a stranger as interconnected to the development (or lack there of) of the community? Do we see our actions towards others related to our own development(or lack there of) as human beings? What I do or do not do matters for me but it matters for everyone else too.

The Dalai Lama spoke of war as old-fashioned. A curious term to be used with war....old fashioned. It would be a different world if more people thought that destroying others or consuming beyond our needs (or means) was out of style.