[Buddha-l] Jung and Dignaga (Vicente Gonzalez)

[Vicente Gonzalez]

Mitchell wrote:

MG> So, from a Buddhist point of view, how can there be compassion
MG> for all of the suffering that this involves, from those we
MG> associate ourselves with one way or another to those we have
MG> less understanding or emotional connection with???? 

this is in the core of the matter, I think. Buddhism and other
religions preach the practice of compassion like the best recipe to
get an universal welfare. In individual situations of course it is the
way. And if we can imagine the sum of all individual real purposes to
be compassionate, sure we can imagine a national or a world compassion.
However, I don't agree with this traditional way to get ethics beyond
those individuals engaged in a religious way. I fear no society can
be "compassionate" by demanding compassionate actions to their
citizens. According the common mind, such purpose is perceived as
something unrealistic in front a false - but so real - perceived
world. 

I know somebody who works in the company which maintain the water
network of my city. Some weeks ago, one building was in flames killing
several people. This was a prime media news in all the country.
Well, my friend told me the cause was a leakage in a water pipe. The
pipes for gas, water and electricity, all three are mounted together
in a only channel below ground. It is a general design, and the whole
city is pervaded by this potential dangerous schema. In this case, a
minuscule leakage in the water pipe caused a progressive hole in the
close gas pipe (a plastic tube quite thin) then a logical gas escape,
its accumulation in the first floor of the building and a subsequent
explosion. My city has 4 million people, and the total milles of this
net is enormous. My friend told me that there is not a logical
explanation for the low number of accidents. The net is so extensive
and so old in some points, that its maintenance only exists under
customer demand. Nobody knows the real state of the net in every point.

If we imagine all the cities of this world, with its billion
buildings, trillions of pipes, present in developed and undeveloped
countries, then one can realize that there is not a logical
explanation for the low number of accidents. This image of perfection
in this enormous human task is astonishing, wonderful. When some
building is burn, collapses or explodes in any part of this planet, it 
becomes a news in the whole world. In this same moment, we can read
in Google Top Stories about a fire in a nightclub in Bangkok. It
appears in Google Top Stories of any language!.

In this planet there are billions of buildings with electricity, water
and gas. There are infinite possibilities of failures but all them
mostly are under control, and failures becomes an exception.
The ill-will, laziness, neglect... many unwholesome factors appear to
have been absent in a magic way in this enormous project. The success
of this big task is due to the job of million of individuals in many
specialities. All them didn't have an special purpose to be
compassionate and to protect citizens. Probably some of them are
alcoholics, drunk, criminals. They only apply procedures, controls,
and a very simple ethics to make a "good job" putting 5 screws in five
holes and not only 3. 

So the question is why we don't have a similar ethics in the care of
this planet and the human being. It doesn't demand any special
sainthood or a religious practice of compassion. The basis for this
simple care are well known. To me, the only explanation for the
permanent failures is the existence of a primitive, old culture of
sabotage. We can imagine the results if we try to build these enormous
service network while educating and entertaining employees in the fun
of sabotaging pipes, the beauty of gas explosions and the thrill in the 
water escapes. Their simple ethics in maintaining the networks
will disappear, and later we cannot ask them to apply compassion in
their work, because it will perceived as something idealist, even
ridiculous. They never worked to be compassionate but for the simple 
wish to fulfill what was demanded, right or immediately satisfactory
to them.

This is in fact the enlightened compassion according sacred
literature, because the true compassion is not a wish to perceive
oneself making good actions. Compassion is an automatic, spontaneous,
even unconscious way to do what can benefit others. Even one can
suspect if the immense network of services of this planet has this
unexplainable low level of accidents because it was built in that way.


best regards,