Sunday, Bloody Sunday.

[Edit, 19/10/2006] To do right from my previous post about linking most of my post content to Buddhism and/or my Buddhist practice I thought I would give a few commentary about this video clip I found on teh internets.

As we all know, many people hate/dislike Bush for his policies, actions, stupidity, monkey-ness (for that, I don't! ^.^), etc, etc... the list goes on! However when we look at it from a Buddhist point of view, he's there for a reason. Challenges or obstacles to peace are like stepping stones for the growth of humanity. You may call me an optimist, but if I don't hold on to hope, then humanity is doomed to war, chaos and mass sufferings for eternity.

Anyways, back to Bush - to simplify it... many people think Bush = Evil. But we often forget that he is also a human being. That doesn't excuse his actions, but instead it clarifies one thing. In Buddhism we talk about dependent origination, simply put, nothing exists by itself - all things are interconnected somehow or other. Bush is not a single, isolated entity that creates actions that causes suffering... in fact some other cause or actions has put him into that path. In other words, the strict laws of cause and effect is at play here.

Within one person, along with the potential to do good, there is the potential to do bad. Each day of our existence we are battling to win over our own personal 'badness' or in Buddhism we call it "fundamental darkness." How do we 'battle' these 'fundamental darkness'?? It's quite simple, each day we try to create actions of POSITIVE value. However, easier said than done. One simple solution from my practice of Nichiren Buddhism is to chant Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo. It sounds wierd, but from personal experience and also experience from millions of practitioner around the world, it works! How? It's like polishing a bronze mirror. When unused, it tarnishes - which is like our daily lives full of suffering and obstacles. The tarnish is the 'fundamental darkness' that clouds our wisdom, compassion and courage. So to get rid of the 'tarnish' we polish the mirror (chanting) - and only by polishing the mirror daily will the mirror shine brightly. Just like our lives, we become a beacon of hope.

So back to Bush again, he has both the fundamental darkness and potential of value creation within him. So far, it seems that the fundamental darkness has been getting the best of him. However, this video clip below has revealed his potential for good. From his many words that comes out of him, someone has created a 'cultural' piece of work to entertain and make people laugh. So in a sense, Bush is good - in a small way.