Through the years, we learned something of the history of the peninsula [in Thailand]. Just as Englishmen crossed the Atlantic a few hundred years ago to escape religious intolerance and found a new homeland in America, so the Hindu Dravidians of South India crossed the Bay of Bengal to this peninsula to escape the militant evangelism of the Buddhist King Asoka of North India, more than 2000 years ago. They, like the English Pilgrims were colonizers bringing their traditions with them, and ensuing centuries brought both Hindus and Buddhists from north and south India, traders, and warriors and priests. --M.B.S
In reading this narrative memoir of a missionary's life in the early 1900's in Siam/Thailand, I was intrigued by the parallel drawn between the exodus from India to the exodus from England. While geographically distant, the condition of human consciousness was the same--even after two thousand years!!
It is my desire for a change in our current social consciousness that I winced when I read that. Will it take us two thousand more years to understand our interdependence and benefits of cooperation?
Also, it was surprising to me to hear about the Buddhist king's ruthlessness, particularly in light of the philosophical orientation of non-violence and self-awareness found in Buddhism. So many religious labels are applied to people and they really mean absolutely nothing. In fact, they cause confusion.
A "bible-knocker" came to my door this morning and he seemed nice, but how would I really know? Does he attempt to live with love and compassion, or instill dogmatism and fear? It really depends on his intention. Is a Christian someone to be cautious of or to welcome? I feel that anyone who wears a religious label proudly is someone who will create more conflict due to their lack of understanding of what identification with a concept means, however respected that notion may be in a particular society. It is the beginning of division between people, and to divide is to lose the ability to connect. The war begins there, in the heart.
The narrative that I'm reading now makes clear many circumstances and behaviors that are so different from today's world. Technology seems to be the driving force behind these transformations in lifestyle, but it's also clear that today's market economy has transformed society significantly as well. Edna, the character whose memoir the book is about, spends days doing tasks that are either no longer needed or easy to perform. Transportation takes weeks, not hours. People dying is a rather common occurrence, from (by today's standards) minor illnesses. Those hardships we are glad to be rid of, but there are some things we miss out on today. In the slow pace of life, there was much time for a poetic observation of life, of nature. Edna speaks of the absorbing beauty in places she visited. There is time to reflect and connect. It's unfortunate that those aspects of life have diminished in contemporary times.
In reading this narrative memoir of a missionary's life in the early 1900's in Siam/Thailand, I was intrigued by the parallel drawn between the exodus from India to the exodus from England. While geographically distant, the condition of human consciousness was the same--even after two thousand years!!
It is my desire for a change in our current social consciousness that I winced when I read that. Will it take us two thousand more years to understand our interdependence and benefits of cooperation?
Also, it was surprising to me to hear about the Buddhist king's ruthlessness, particularly in light of the philosophical orientation of non-violence and self-awareness found in Buddhism. So many religious labels are applied to people and they really mean absolutely nothing. In fact, they cause confusion.
A "bible-knocker" came to my door this morning and he seemed nice, but how would I really know? Does he attempt to live with love and compassion, or instill dogmatism and fear? It really depends on his intention. Is a Christian someone to be cautious of or to welcome? I feel that anyone who wears a religious label proudly is someone who will create more conflict due to their lack of understanding of what identification with a concept means, however respected that notion may be in a particular society. It is the beginning of division between people, and to divide is to lose the ability to connect. The war begins there, in the heart.
The narrative that I'm reading now makes clear many circumstances and behaviors that are so different from today's world. Technology seems to be the driving force behind these transformations in lifestyle, but it's also clear that today's market economy has transformed society significantly as well. Edna, the character whose memoir the book is about, spends days doing tasks that are either no longer needed or easy to perform. Transportation takes weeks, not hours. People dying is a rather common occurrence, from (by today's standards) minor illnesses. Those hardships we are glad to be rid of, but there are some things we miss out on today. In the slow pace of life, there was much time for a poetic observation of life, of nature. Edna speaks of the absorbing beauty in places she visited. There is time to reflect and connect. It's unfortunate that those aspects of life have diminished in contemporary times.
No comments:
Post a Comment