Who is The Enemy

Who is The Enemy?

We all have had or have people in our lives that we

have considered to be our enemies.

It is somewhat sad that many of these people may be in

our very own family, or among our co-workers and

colleagues or in the community that we live in.

Once we have perceived someone to be our enemy, it is

then hard to cultivate any feelings of trust, respect

or understanding for them.

And many times our feelings that they are an enemy is

based on our conditioning and lack of mindfulness

about who and how we are and what imbalances or

disorders we may have as human beings.

Perhaps instead of thinking of who or that someone is

our enemy we should be more mindful about what the

enemy is and what it consists of.

Such an investigation will probably show us a few

things.

The enemy is not a people or country but the things

that drive them and us to be a certain way.

These would be lust and greed, anger and aversion, and delusion.

We all know that The Germans and The Japanese are a

great people who have made contributions to

civilization throughout the history of the world, but

during the thirties groups of people who thought they

were superior to others and wanted to rule them came

into power that hurt all mankind, including the people

of their own countries.

If we look at the history of The United States and

Australia, we see these same three forces, lust and

greed, anger and aversion, and delusion as being the

motivators for the subjection and genocidal actions

towards the native populations of these countries.

Countries throughout Asia, the birthplace to the wise

and compassionate teachings of Buddhism have in the

ancient past, the last century and the present engaged

in actions towards each other that were solely based

on greed, lust, anger, aversion and delusion.

When we get all caught up in this idea that there are

enemies that we have to deal with in some manner, we

lose sight of other things.

One is that they are human the same as we, and most

likely enjoy the same things, have the same needs and

desires and face and will face the same challenges

that we do.

One is that they may be operating under the same

ignorance and fear that we are, and may not know how

to act in the most skilful manner.

Another is that once a hand of friendship is extended

by us, they may be willing to take it and move on in a

positive manner from there.

Perhaps a path and practice such as Buddhism can offer

some of us a way to deal with our enemies, both those

that we perceive as being in our life and environment,

and more importantly, those things that give rise to

ways that create enemies or look at others as being

enemies.

Sadly, it seems that such an approach may not work on

the level of and among political, government and

business leadership, where wealth, power and the lust

for it and what it can bring one are an all purveying

and an important sign of success.

We need, as people and nations, to build our self –

esteem not on our material wealth, social status, or

power at home and at work, but on how skillful we live

and how well we can assist those who are more

deprived then we are.

Such an effort will make us less influenced by those

enemies within and start to work to eradicate the

enemies within all that lead to suffering and despair.

(John lives and teaches in Bangkok, Thailand. He can

be reached at johnckimbrough@yahoo.com)