Reverend Greg

Humans behaving badly

It’s not that I am a self-hating human; it’s merely that I enjoy amusing myself with my own reactions of horror. Occasionally I search for pictures of Lethal Midline Granuloma(here and here). Perhaps I have been on the internet too long…

In truth my life study, as a Buddhist and as a Ninja, is to understand the true nature of life. This, in the world of opposites - the ura and omote - would be the ura approach. The omote, the fundamentalist approach, would be to force life to appear how I wish it to be in accordance to my own fears and insecurities. An example would be White Supremacists and Islamic Extremists.

The reality remains, whether or not we wish to face it, that life on this blue ball as a human being is truly fraught with peril. Who could have thought up a disease like Lethal Midline Granuloma? I mean, get real. Only the human psyche could manifest something so horrible.

All the other creatures on this planet manage to live in harmony with nature, their nature and the nature of their world. This is the broader meaning of tenchijin, the relationship between heaven, Earth and living beings. Only man denies and rebels against his own nature and the nature of the world. Here is an example of what I mean;

http://www.religioustolerance.org/fem_cirm.htm (read this all the way through if you dare, it contains several little jewels)

It’s a simple and natural thing to be outraged as an American at this ancient autrocity, but as an American I am spoiled and am a world-view elitist. And while it is certainly tempting to think “why doesn’t someone DO something to STOP this inhumanity!!!” to do so is to completely miss the point….

This is who we are. We are human. We hate what we fear and we are afraid of nearly everything. What we cannot control we destroy. It’s really as simple as that. Humans have thousands of years of combat training behind us. We’re born killers. This fact largely accounts for why we are the top predator on the planet.

Those of us who deny this in ourselves are truly the most dangerous because we are killers in denial. I have come to fear hippies more than the mercenaries I have come in contact with. A Hippy will seek to take away my freedom while others will only try to kill me. Hippies, like all other fundamentalists think they’re right and that is something to be feared in another human being.

This leaves us with the only true path towards our salvation; Buddhism and Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. What Nichiren left as his legacy is not merely another world religion; a system of beliefs, rituals and rules with a figure-head to worship, but rather something much more scary;

Nichiren’s Buddhism is the Buddhism of self-discovery.

Only through individual self-discovery and self-knowledge can we, as a race, come to grips with our killer nature. Without self-discovery religion is a mind-control device with which we can ignore and desensitize ourselves to what we know is truly right and wrong. Religion without self-knowledge is predatory self brain-washing, an excuse and methodology for the perpetuation of control and violence over those we fear including ourselves.

Without self-discovery humans like myself would favor nuking the entire third world so we don't have to read about female genital mutilation. But I suppose I didn't have to read about that, did I? Oh well, there's always stories of acid throwing in India....But don't even get me started on that....

Rev. Greg, Shidoshi

Posted by revgreg at August 5, 2004 08:26 PM