Letter to the Editor

Editor:

In the West Bank and Israel, where I grew up, people have been killing each other for generations over possessions of territory, sites, and pride. But that’s in the Middle East, that’s not here, in America. In Africa, complete villages are wiped out by hatred, anger, and greed. That happens in third-world countries, not here, in America. The Chinese Communist Party slaughters its own people for their beliefs in Falun Gong, a peaceful mind-body practice that values Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. Once, when I was passing out flyers about this issue, a lady once told me: "I don’t want to hear about it, I’m on vacation" (here, in America). Those who have been denying it can deny no more. Depravity is a global trend; we have contributed to it and are strongly influenced by it. Violence is OUR problem. Hatred is OUR problem. Selfishness is OUR problem. Greed is OUR problem. Killing is OUR problem.

Human moral values have degenerated to such an extent that many do not value human life at all. As they do not fear death itself, they will stop at no evil. The violent ending of one human life seems nearly impossible to comprehend. Can we fathom the meaning of thousands of lives lost in this carnage? Can we grasp the meaning of the six million lives lost in the Holocaust? What about the six billion human lives on this planet?

But WE value life. Where there are terrorists, there are people lining up to donate blood. Where there are those celebrating the carnage, there are those who cry for peace. Where there are those who advocate hate crimes, there are those who call for tolerance. Together, we can counter the evil, and take goodness a step further.

I would like to share with you my understanding of a concept that is the title of an article written by Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong — "Pacify the External by Cultivating the Internal". To me this means that as long as we have some trace of violence, hatred, or evilness in our hearts, it leaves room for evilness to exist in the outside world. Only by recognizing and diligently dealing with these internal notions, can we make real changes in the external environment. This manifests in our minds, in our interpersonal, familial, communal, national and global affairs. We can do it. Pessimism itself is a degenerate notion. I firmly believe that the nature of the universe is kind. It is human society that has deviated from it. With righteous minds there is nothing to fear. Let us all realign with goodness, and leave no more room for any evil!

I once heard a saying — "an open heart is a fully broken heart". Right now many hearts are opening. It’s as if the parts of our inner being were scrambled, and we are waiting for them to slowly drift back to their original positions. They don’t have to go back to where they were. We have a unique chance for change, but if we blink, we will miss this chance, and there may not be another one. Lets break away from homeostasis, and direct our newly formed opinions and values towards a new destination for mankind. Let’s have them reposition as kindness, as tolerance. As Peace.

- Leeshai Lemish ’05