On April 16th 33 people were killed in the shootings at Virginia Tech. Just last week the story of a 17 year old girl stoned to death in Iraq for chosing to date a boy of the wrong religious sect appeared on CNN. These Recent episodes of violence and death provoked intense feelings in many people, often feelings of compassion for the victims.

I can not help but observe the lack of equanimity that these events seem to present in most people. While I agree that these violent deaths were horrible, why do these events draw such great compassion out of us while other events do not? Why is it that walking past a suffering homeless person on the streets of Washington DC, or knowing that hundreds of people in Iraq, Africa, India, and China die horrible deaths each day, doesn’t bring out the same deep sense of compassion in most people. How is it that some suffering is objectionable to us while other suffering leaves us nonplussed?

It seems to me that true, absolute compassion should be non-referential, an amalgam of compassion and equanimity. The depth of our compassion should be equal for all those who suffer, no matter how great or miniscule their suffering may appear to us. No matter what our relationship or prejudices about the one who is suffering.

I feel compassion just as deeply for the Virginia Tech shooter and the men who stoned the 17 year old Iraqi girl as I do for their victims. Some might find this insensitive, but I feel it to be just the opposite. How much pain does someone have to be in for them to kill 32 people and then shoot themselves in the head? How misguided and tortured does a mind have to be to think that it is appropriate to brutally murder someone because their boyfriend is the wrong religion?

The world is filled with suffering of all kinds and intensities. It is only through compassion for all those who suffer, totally equitable non-referential compassion, that we can put an end to violence. Thoughts of revenge, who is right and who is wrong, all these thoughts just sustain the unending cycle of suffering that is samsara.

May all beings benefit!

Welcome to the blog of Karmapawo.
Here I will post thoughts on current events from the perspective of a practicing Buddhist, and my reflections on Buddhist practice from the perspective of a western practioner.

I hope you find my musings to be thought provoking. I would like to share a quote that expresses the nature of this blog:

“Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won’t come in.”
-Alan Alda

May all beings benefit!