Begging

We all are beggars. Some beg for food; some for forgiveness. Some beg for recognition; some beg to differ. In the strictest sense only the first of these is legitimate because, to those begging for food, all else is moot.

If a gun were held to our heads, most of us would beg for our lives – like a dog. Time is a gun, while the bullet inside it is death. Death is released at the moment of our birth. It follows us wherever we might go. When the time is right, it finds us wherever we might hide.

Buddhist monks are said to have just one possession: a cup. With it they beg for their daily bread. Unlike Hindus, the monks adhere to no strict set of dietary rules; they eat whatever they are given. (Remember, the Buddha is said to have died of food poisoning.) Of late though, some, dressed conspicuously in their saffron robes, can be seen among the tourists (at Washington’s Cherry Blossom Festival, for example), sporting sun glasses, cameras and cell phones; donated, no doubt, by the insistent disciples of a faith whose essence they do not yet understand. Being humble by nature, the monks accept these gifts, knowing that they can be readily exchanged for something that will not burden the soul.

No one wants to be seen begging, though it is the hallmark of our (human) condition. Therefore, diversions abound. Outright aggression is always effective; to get a people to yield and say, “We are blinded; we see nothing. God is great!”

In Hinduism, from which Buddhism derives, no clear distinction can be drawn between the gods, men and animals. All these exist as one, in one smooth, natural curve from the highest down to the lowest; hence, all life being sacred. Western visitors to India often tend to feel snugly superior, boasting of ever higher living standards. These, however, represent a meaningless measure in that it is based solely on the number of things owned; and each possession limits one’s freedom and, more importantly, one’s awareness by just that much.

There is indeed tremendous suffering among the poor of India; hunger and disease have left their indelible mark on the wasted bodies of millions. But similar blights exist in the West; only there they are emotional, psychological and spiritual in nature – well removed from the primary senses, but real and painful nonetheless. And almost no one is seen begging outright.

I vow that from here on in I will forgo reading any news reports about Sarah Palin. I, like most Americans, have no stomach for torture. Palin can expect to be tortured by the media; she will be savaged without mercy. The attacks on her will not be unlike what the Taliban has in store for the American soldiers they manage to capture; or what Israeli soldiers can expect at the hands of Hezbollah. The media will attempt to defile her. As the incorrigible libs they are, they will have forsworn the use of graphic violence.

The Taliban and Hezbollah are not yet that sophisticated. Yet, the media’s hatred for Palin (and all that she stands for) is the same as the Taliban’s hatred for Americans or Hezbollah’s hatred for Jews. The American media and Islamic extremists are the same in the intensity of their hatred. Both aim to torture, defile and ultimately dance in the bone yard where their victims are buried in just the shallowest of graves.

Bush left office a despised and broken man. The media here decides who lives or dies; as does the Taliban there. Begging won’t help because neither the Taliban/Hezbollah/Hamas nor the American media has a soul.