the three poisons[/caption]Today, March 22, 2016, a group of fanatics, deluded, angry, ignorant attacked Brussels. They caused bombs to explode at Zaventem airport and on a crowded Metro train. At least 30 people died and 220+ people were injured.
I am haunted by this, as I was by the Bataclan attacks in Paris. These attacks have taken place in places I know well, places I have been and am likely to visit again. I played the Bataclan, I know that departures hall at Zaventem well. I have stopped for coffee at that Starbucks. I have certainly checked in at one of those gates. The Maelbeek metro is close to SABAM. I know people who work around there.
I pray earnestly that the delusion that is afoot in our century, the fanatacism that masquerades as religion, that turns thoughtful people away from spirituality and belief can be lifted. This cult of anger and death is the same no matter what book its followers profess to defend. Faux Christians, Muslims, even Hindus and Buddhists are gripped by an addiction to the chemicals produced in the body by anger and hatred, high on sheer reptile bloodlust. Those who believe that they are battling Satan are his most loyal followers, making blood sacrifices at his altar. Alla y'all. You Trumpians and you Wahabi freaks and you Bible thumping lobotomies. You are all the same. You are the dupes and slaves of other dupes and slaves, drunk on killing and greedy for power.
"Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both." — Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements (1951)
"The Buddha taught that hate is one of the Three Poisons. The Three Poisons are lobha, dvesha and moha, Sanskrit words usually translated as "greed," "hate" and "ignorance." In Sanskrit and Pali, the Three Poisons are called the akusala-mula
Akusala, a word usually translated as "evil," actually means "unskillful," and mula means "root." The Three Poisons are, then, the root of evil, or the root from which all unskillful or harmful actions spring.
From the article by Barbara O'Brien"
The Roots of Terrorism, According to the Buddha and Social Science
By Barbara O'Brien Updated November 16, 2015. To be an eyewitness to a terrorist attack is like seeing the fabric of reality ripped apart. I was an eyewitness to the collapse of the World Trade Center towers in New York City on September 11, 2001, and I sensed then that the horror before me was not new, but an old thing that had been long submerged and ignored.
well said, sadhu
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