Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, Nov 19, 2009

There is no happiness for people
at the expense of other people.

- Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt,
became the first Arab leader to
visit Israel, on this date, 1977


If this be true, then we are I think a long long way from happiness.

As I cast my gaze in meditation around the World, what is see is people seeking power and dominance and the improvement of their lives (as they see it, usually wrongly) “at the expense of other people”. The epitome of this is what we call “ethnic cleansing” – an act of grasping for “happiness” in what is to my mind clearly the height of ignorance - thinking that security and ethnic contentment and a “good life” can be accomplished “at the expense of other people”. This is an hopeless persistent delusion amongst the human community. It may take hundreds of years, but eventually violating the integrity of “other people” wreaks its inevitable retribution.

I have seen a persistent theme enunciated in most religions, and I think it is a reverse corollary of the Golden Rule: That indeed there is no happiness for anyone when happiness is denied to or withheld from others. It just works that way – and that tells me that Karma and “What goes round comes round” and “What you do to others will be done to you” (paraphrasing the Golden Rule”).

It’s been 2000 years for Christians, over 3000 for Hindus, same for Buddhists, near 1500 for follower of the Qu’uran. In my humble way, may I suggest to my fellow Christians (and to us all in the human community: we need a transformative revolution, especially in “religion” and in cultural/ethnic awareness, or suffering will only engulf us.

Again I remind us of Gandhi’s words (and they apply to us all, including our understanding of “humanity”): “I think Christianity is a wonder religion. I hope someone tries it sometime.”

Brian+