Violence in the world comes from violence in the mind.
~ Buddha~
I have been thinking a lot about self-destructive behavior and how it has become the normal pastime amongst youth, young adults and all people. I group myself in this category as well. Why is it fun and socially accepted to reek havoc on our minds and bodies in our free time? Excessive drinking and drugs are relatively normal depending on the circles we run in.
The inspiration for this entry is most definitely from my own experience. I started drinking freshmen year in high school and haven’t looked back since. I just spend 3 days at a music festival, which means it was a 3 day bender. Now here I am back in ‘normal life’ asking myself the question WHY? As I let my body recover.
In my debilitated state today I decided I had enough energy to watch netflix. I found a fabulous documentary on The Buddha narrated by Richard Gere so I decided to watch it. Early in the Buddha’s spiritual life he spent 6 years practicing aestheticism. Aestheticism is extreme degradation of the body, in order to punish the body to see past the vary thing that ties the soul to this world of suffering. Aesthetics engage in one self-destructive behavior after the other. This prompted me to ask the question…
WHEN AND WHY do I engage in self-destructive behavior? What does this outward manifestation of violence I perform on myself have to tell me about the violence going on inside, and in turn to the planet as a whole?
Self- Destructive behavior is socially accepted, smoking, drinking, drugs, starving ourselves to be thin, even working out till we drop to get the bodies we want. Now reflecting on the Buddha’s words “Violence in the world comes from violence in the mind”, social and recreation behavior is self-destructing and violent. This entry’s purpose is by no means to get D.A.R.E on everyone’s ass, because then I would only be being a hypocrite and that’s no way to reach anyone and a sure way to disconnect me from myself.
This entry is to prompt a self-inquiry about what does this self-destruction symbolize in the micro and macrocosms? What are we not happy with in our minds and bodies? Does a sense of dissatisfaction with life and earth cause this behavior? What are we so dissatisfied with?
At some deep level do we want to free ourselves from suffering so the first thing we do to escape is to alter to state of the body?
But the flip side is we owe our lives to our bodies, breath and this earth.
