Living Traditions and Universal Conviviality by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Conclusion

Even with all of the resources of the world’s great wisdom traditions at our disposal and the good will of many thousands, even millions of people, is there any hope to restrain the fires of desire which are so deeply embedded in our evolutionary heritage, fires fueled by the systematic and entrenched oil pipelines of modern Western capitalism in which Greed is paid billions of dollars, and Desire is the deepest spiritual hunger our society feeds? Is there any hope for us? Is there hope for conviviality in a capitalist world where you earn more money by fanning the fires of religious hatred than by building religious bridges? Can anything retard the fires of Desire and Greed in a civilization which feeds those fires more creatively than any society in human history?

I began with a Buddhist story about children in a burning house, a story naming the tragedy of the human condition, and the dangers of our times. Let me close with another story about fire. It is a Buddhist Jataka story, a story about a past life of the Buddha before he became the Buddha, a life in which he was born as a simple, gray parrot. It is a story of hope. It is also a wonderful children’s book as told by Rafe Martin, and illustrated by Susan Gaber.[26]

The Brave Little Parrot

Once a little parrot lived in a green forest.

One day dark clouds gathered. Lightning flashed, thunder crashed, and a dead tree, struck by lightning, burst into flames. The wind began to blow, and soon bright sparks were leaping from tree to tree.

“Fire!” cried the little parrot, smelling the smoke. “Fire! Run! Run to the river!” Then, flapping her wings, she flew swiftly toward the safety of the river’s shore. After all, she was a bird and could fly away.

But as she flew, she saw below her many of the forest’s great trees wreathed in flames. She saw that many animals were trapped by the fire, with no way to escape. Suddenly a desperate idea, a way to save them, came to her.

Darting to the river, she called to the animals already gathered safely there: “Elephants, please fill your trunks with water to spray on the flames! The rest of us can dip our bodies in the river. We can carry water in cupped leaves, too. Let’s work together to save the forest and our friends!”

But the animals huddling on the shore moaned: “There’s nothing anyone can do now, little parrot. It’s too late.”

“It’s true,” coughed the cheetah. “Fast as I am, the flames are faster.”

“And powerful as we are,” trumpeted the elephants, “we can’t charge through flames.”

“It’s hopeless,” the animals agreed.

But the little parrot saw a way. After soaking her feathers in the cool water and filling a cupped leaf, she flew back over the burning forest.

Flames leaped at her. Fierce heat struck and thick smoke coiled. Walls of fire shot up now on one side, now on the other. But twisting and turning through the mad maze of fire, the little parrot flew bravely on.

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