Imagine a real buddhist monastery with monks in their day-to-day; quiet contemplation and quiet mingling, although still riddled with laughter and tears; doing their chores and other menial tasks, making time for simple games and meditation and thought. Imagine that someone ran up into their Temple and began shouting wildly and laughing at them and making fun of the way they were dressed and their way of life in general. All of which, to them, is completely natural and normal. Every part of their life in tune with nature and making perfect sense and then someone pops in that is not in tune with nature and makes sense of nothing to make fun of them for their way of living which is entirely normal and has existed in peace for ages.
They would react at first with patience and try to be true to their beliefs, but people can only take so much of a certain type of treatment. If this person failed to respect the rules, they would be made to respect the rules or be thrown out. If they chose to stay, they may in time come to have a place within the temple and become a member of notice if they manage to reach enlightenment through their trials and tribulations and search. At worst, they would be thrown out and told not to return, if they failed to learn to respect the way of living and if they chose to stay in spite. However, they would be given every chance to step in line and be the things that all people should be to each other.
Imagine, now, that one of those monks in their peaceful and quiet life decided to travel the world to gain enlightenment through physical travel and the inundation of new thoughts and new experiences and new philosophy, etc. Imagine that they came into your culture, where people war and fight and are arrogant without cause. Imagine that as they walked down the road in their travelers gear that people stopped and stared at them like some freak at a carnival. This monk that had lived in peace and quiet is suddenly found in a strange land and all alone, with only the mental balance taught by his temple to keep him true to himself. Imagine that as he walked down a road in North America, he was accosted by several members of this different society. He did not want any harm, but harm was forced upon him and he was forced to defend himself against these society members.
They out-number him, but his training and balance of body and mind hold true and he’s able to fight them off. He could hurt them and kill them, but that’s not his way, or the way of his temple. He gives them a beating they richly deserve and they run off. But, they don’t feel it’s fair. They should have had him. After all, they out-number him and should have given him the beating that every foreigner deserves (in their opinion). They call the cops and tell how they were accosted by this man. The cops question him and he answers honestly that, yes, he did accost those men. Saying no more, because he expects them to understand that he would not have initiated a fight, he’s arrested for beating up these people. To wit, he has not a mark on his body from them, but they are riddled with bumps and bruises from him.
As he continues to be honest, their legal system works against him and suddenly these people are afraid for their lives and spreading lies about this Monk that he is powerless to fight against. He has already honestly admitted to accosting them, and the fact that they attacked him first has little meaning to the rest of the world, because the news media now spins out a story about a brutal and sociopathic monk and the public support goes against him. When he denies the rest of the accusations which are all lies, the jury looks at him and says ‘you admit to accosting these fellows but deny these other allegations. We think you’re only telling us what you think we want to hear instead of owning up to the full measure of your crimes.’
The Monk is punished and sentenced to time in their prisons as the media slanders him and the Government locks in on him because they fear he might be a terrorist. While in jail, the monk retreats into his thoughts and processes everything that has happened to him. he tries to meditate, but the other inmates jump in to mess with him. He defends himself and no more than that, but earns their respect because they’ve lived a harder life and all they respect is force. They begin to learn from him about meditation and deep spiritual insight and nirvana and transcendence. Even though they think it’s kind of silly, they go with it because they’re curious about how this quiet and tranquil man can be such a force to be reckoned with.
In time, he does become the terrorist that the government feared he was, for as he sat in jail and shared his wisdom with others, they began to see through their experiences the faulty nature of their own society and they were out-raged. Without the temperance of a life-time worth of meditation and control, they set out and induct others into their ‘brotherhood’ and begin teaching people how to be free, though they also practice violence beyond that which they should. Not all of them join this movement and not all of them practice more violence than they should, but enough to set an army marching in the background and out of sight of the government.
When the monk is finally freed from jail, he’s picked up by the government authorities; secret agents that nobody who lives knows exist due to the passing of laws protecting them and preventing others from knowing for reasons of ‘plausible deniability’. They deduce after months of intense interrogation that this Monk is ultimately harmless, and they send him back home. When he finally reaches his Temples’ gates, he pauses and reflects a little on all of the changes and everything else that has happened during his journey. He goes inside, greets old friends, sets his pack in his room which still exists the same as it had when he left years before and immediately begins meditating and does barely anything else than that for the rest of his life, socializing less with others and shying away from games.
Meanwhile, in that other country, a violent revolution of thought and ideology is waiting just beneath the surface for the right time to strike with everything they were taught. They lack responsibility and restraint and have been made to be criminals; some without ever harming another person in any concrete manner. They have every reason to be out-raged and up-in-arms.
What began as peace and harmony became a huge threat to everything that was not, while what started in anger and disharmony was not much of a threat to anything other than itself, for peace and harmony and balance existed before, during, and after everything else and the delving into dark places was only momentary while the finding of balance and being at peace with yourself and everything else lasts forever and beyond all things.
