AFTER THE STORM

September 22nd, 2008 · 1 Comment

Evacuation again; Why me?

Living in a gulf coast community has its ups and downs.  Just like every community anywhere.  A 650 mile wide hurricane affects a large area.  The damage and debris is quite evident everywhere you venture.  If the same storm had made its landfall on the east coast of US or Florida or southern Texas or Mexico would the effect be any less?  I do not think so.  The only difference would be locality and people.

Storms and hurricanes are not sent to destroy a people or land for any reason.  They are a natural phenomenon that occurs throughout our eco-system with a certain irregularity.  We do not know the strength of next season’s storms nor the shape, size, direction or number of storms.  Modern atmospheric, geological, oceanographic and meteorological sciences can help predict patterns and probabilities but what can we know for sure.  Storms come.

Powerful hurricanes like Katrina and Rita and most recently Ike hitting the Gulf coasts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, caused huge amounts of damage, loss of life and property to those in the affected areas.  Many people will carry the physical and mental scars for years to come.

Now more than ever we need to realize the message of the Lord Buddha.  Storm clouds form on all our horizons, we all suffer.  It is so easy to ask; Why me?  Why did this happen to me and my family?  Why my house?  Look around, is it just you and your family and your possessions? When bad things happen to us we struggle with the question of why me.  But is it the right question?  When the sun shines on us it shines on all around us. When the spring rains come and shower our gardens and home it showers all around us.  Rarely do we ask why I am blessed with such a beautiful day.  Do we think of our family, friends and neighbors? It is so much easier to share misery than blessings.

We are all connected to each other like the underground roots of large southern oak trees.  We share the same earth, the same water, the same air.  How can anyone ask why me?  Is there me, or is it us?  Hurricanes do not destroy because we have been bad.  Hurricanes destroy because it is the nature of hurricanes to destroy.  It is a fact that if you live you suffer the torments of life and all it offers.  No one needs to tell you that there is suffering.  It is universal.  But in the same breath remember something else is universal, compassion and equanimity.  We need to find a way to practice it.  We need to develop for us and others the value of compassion and the great healing and joy that come from human understanding and care for life.

The teachings of Lord Buddha are like rain. They fall on everyone equally. Truth is universal.  The truth of the Dharma is for everyone equally.  It is up to each of us in our own capacity to learn, live and grow in grace that flows from the Dharma. We need not to take what happens to us personally.  These hurricanes do not single us out individually.  We all suffer regardless of our goodness or lack of goodness.  We all hurt regardless of color, status, education, living conditions, poverty, wealth or faith.  We all have moments of happiness as well as sadness, security as well as fearfulness, pleasure and pain.  We are alive.  As long as we breathe we are subject to the conditions of life.

When a woman came to the Buddha and told him she had prayed and done all the things the priests and ministers of the temples had asked her to do.  She prayed fervently that her sick husband might get well and live.  Even after her prayers and tidings he died.  She asked why did this happen she had done everything that was asked of her.  The Buddha told her to go into the village and find a single family that had seen no death.  She found none.

Why she found none is because part of our living is our dying.  It is a truth universal.  Just the same that each of us suffers.  When we realize these simple truths we can change our thoughts from why me to thinking about all of us.  Start with your self and family, think good thoughts.  Extend those thoughts to friends, neighbors and people in your community.  See the connections we all share. See the opportunity to care for and serve the family and friends we have.  Realize the suffering will pass like the breath we exhale.  All the conditions of life are temporary.  Each will pass like the outgoing tide. Even strangers and peoples from all lands share these things with us.

If we take our teachings from nature and realize that we are apart of nature we can experience life in all its conditions and know when to let go.  The attachment to possessions and the past will construct us as prisoners in the present.  All our yesterdays are the parent of today.  We can change the mistakes we make.  Our karma is not set in stone; we can change our lives to reflect a better tomorrow.  The question we should ask is not; “Why Me?” The question is; “How can I be a Better me?” Share your compassion as you share your life. Free yourself from your miseries like the moon escaping from behind the clouds and shining brightly. After every storm the birds come to sing.  Why shouldn’t we.  When the time comes for us to pass we might look back and see the world we leave behind, better for us having been here.

I offer this prayer for you as I pray for everyone;

I wish you Peace.

Bhante Kassapa
Bhante Kassapa Bhikkhu                                                                                kassapa.org                                                                       
bhante_kassapa@yahoo.com