============================================================== To reach ALL SJD members, please send to sjd@satjadham.net ... Do NOT include any other addresses when sending to the list... Include as LITTLE of the original messages as possible........ Message sent by: Soudary Kittivong *** Announcement: *** Please register for SatJaDham Fifth Annual conference at the website http://www.satjadham.org/sjd5sd/ ============================================================== Hi All, The posting from Souksakhone is postponed til later in April.. So I'll share another one of my journal entries.. Soudary .. "Hiroshima would have never happened if not for Pearl Harbor" says the bumper sticker on the big van stopped in front of me. I cringe at the reference to the infamous "sneak attack" at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese forces that is chronicled in our American history books. And I cringe knowing the lives that were lost in both events in World War II. What kind of character takes time out of his day to search and discover the philosophy of his life, which he finds, probably in some back alley bookstore, then proudly displays it to the street world behind him? I pull alongside slowly, curious but more so intent on catching a glimpse of the owner of that sentiment. And there he was, an average white man, late 50s, bald and smiling matter of factly behind the wheel in the driver seat. My first instinct is disgust. Disgust for the time and passion he gave into putting the sticker on his van. And disgust for his need to rationalize an act of war, almost in celebration. How does it make me feel when he can look at me and maybe see Hiroshima or Pearl Harbor? But as I think deeper, I wonder how does Hiroshima make me feel? If the bomb had not dropped on Hiroshima, would Japan be king of my people? Perhaps, but perhaps not.. I snap back to reality and conclude, No, for we should not praise the glory of our own gains through others' deaths and pain; as we would hope they would not praise the glory of their gains through the death and pain of ours. 6.28.99 copyrighted Soudary Kittivon == karmic@qon.lao.net -=kar.ma [kar me, ker-] noun, often cap: the force generated by a person's actions held in Hinduism and Buddhism to perpetuate transmigration and in its ethical consequences to determine one's destiny in one's next existence=- _____________________________________________________________ = You want FREE web-based email ? = You want your own @qon.lao.net address?? = Then you want LaoNet's WebMail ! = Get it at http://webmail.lao.net !! _ ***************************************************************** Visit SatJaDham Homepage at: http://www.satjadham.org (or .net) *****************************************************************