Et – Towards Freedom

oppression itself against any individual should be intolerable

it's not just racism, sexism, and speciesism that are unjust, it's oppression itself against any individual that should be intolerable

until we work from a place of compassion ourselves, history will only repeat atrocities

acknowledge your conceptions and consider which ones might be misconceptions

we dance through life
some learn the steps to
move to but there are
those who have moves
all their own
it's the variety that
adds the spice to life

"i believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality"
dr martin luther king jr

"i do not want the peace which passeth understanding - i want the understanding which bringeth peace"
helen keller

"peace cannot be kept by force - it can only be achieved by understanding"
albert einstein

"non-violence is a weapon of the strong" mahatma gandhi

we are but a strand in the web of life
we need to help each other

A Long Long Time

Until we are compassionate to all beings, including ourselves, we are doomed to repeat the lines 'lest we forget', 'stop racism', 'equality for women', 'keep our ancient forests', 'reduce reuse recycle', 'do not eat our friends', 'rats have righton', and so on so forth.

Some are under the impression that they are superior somehow. This is apparently a justification for the presumed dominance and ill treatment of others. It has been suggested that some are more intellectual, can reason better, can control and manipulate their environment. My question would be to what end? Ultimately, whatever we do to our environment, we do to ourselves.

Choosing

For the first time in my life, I questioned my faith in the innate goodness/beauty of all humans. I have seen and felt painful and cold aspects of being human in myself and others but nothing really shook a basic trust I had for limitless beauty in this world. Are the questions now…so what? Or what the heck are you talking about?

I am talking about what I have been learning about globalization and capitalism. It's weird, that I have lived in a country, a 'third world' country none the less (Sri Lanka), which was immersed in a violent civil war. I have felt what it like to have machine guns pointed at me wherever I go and know that I wasn't liked because of the culture and heritage I was born into, in some sense because of who I was.