Today, November 9, 2012, is generally regarded as the anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. A family member just yesterday arrived in Berlin, and is paying respects today as my representative.
We tend to lose sight of what went into that wall being demolished.
The sacrifice in terms of human lives has yet to be quantified: most likely we will never know. Yet, we speak of it so dismissively, as if those lives were wasted -- as if we failed to learn from our experience.
Today, may we all step back and examine our individual roles as peacemakers. May we remove aggression from our lives, and the lives of those around us. Expressly, may we recognize human compassion and let this guide our lives.
Today, deep prayers for those who made this bit of history for all sentient beings: the bodhisattvas of the Berlin Wall.
"We have to learn to respect this monumental creation called the confused world, samsara. Because of its monumental quality, it also breeds sanity, wakefulness, or nirvana. We have to take it very seriously. We have to take the whole world seriously. Monuments like the Statue of Liberty may be hollow, but until you realize the monumental quality of the Statue of Liberty, you don’t see all that it is. We have to respect things; in other words, they are sacred."
~Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche,
Orderly Chaos: The Mandala Principle
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