Death of a terrorist

The murderer died that day. In the forest, in front of the wise one, the wickedness shrivelled and died. He had plundered,  murdered and mercilessly hunted down every unwary traveller that crossed his road. He wore their fingers around his neck as a trophy and the compassionate one killed him with no weapons at all.  As the wicked one chased the Buddha on that fateful day, he found even at the fastest speed he could not catch up.

" Stop." he said to the wise one!"

 I am still." said the buddha." You stop."

"What ?"

 "Stop your killing and violence."

And then the wickedness in the being of Angulimala died. The wickedness that was left over from his lifetimes as a demon or a cruel animal. A gentle soul was left behind. Ahimsaka, the disciple of Buddha.

 In the east we believe that dispositions cannot be erased with the death of a body, they have to be transformed and sublimated. In fact in Hinduism, it is explained beautifully about why why God has to come down personally to kill these people. When god is your enemy, you will think of him as much as if you were her devotee. This sublimates the evil. As god kills you even as you die you are in her presense, thinking of her. So when you die you are absolved of all the evil. You may be reborn  but your evil has died, never to resurface.

 Today morning as the news trickled in, I thought. Has justice been done? What is justice? Revenge?

One body for three thousand? In fact didn't Jesus give up his one body for millions?

 How can we pretend to celebrate the end of evil ? It was never dissipated, sublimated. The core disposition is let free, to be reborn, to join others and spread. 

I am foolish if I say Osama  Bin Laden should not have been killed. I am saying his death is not justice, his death is not the answer we should celebrate. It should make us thoughtful for that which was evil in Osama did not die. It may just be floating free around you and me.

 The Buddha way is better. Way better!