A Dialogue
"They say it happens." I said to Princess Leia as we waited in the bus, "volunteers have said that they've seen it personally."
"I'm not saying anything," she replied.
"My blog is about cataloging the universal Peace Corps experience. I mean, 90% true is pretty true when you think about it."
Out the front door, we saw two men begin to push each other.
"There!" I said, "That counts as a fight!"
"Whatever you say," Princess Leia said, and she fell asleep.
"I wonder if I can get away with saying that I intervened and stopped the fight."
"Don't push your luck."
***
A Commentary
Our bosses at HQ advised us against traveling during the early part of Ramadan due to the fact that a lot of fights break out because people aren't used to not having their snack time in the late morning and early afternoon. Personally, I have always found that without food, I am less inclined to express aggression towards people. Then again, I'm not very aggressive to begin with.
So, yes, we traveled for the first time during Ramadan. Up until now, I have kept myself in my house and tried to keep as cool as possible with bathing, and keeping my mouth from drying out by brushing my teeth. Unfortunately, I had to travel at some point of another; it's not like I could get away with showing up at a random person's house every night during Ramadan; my town is more formal than most. Families tend to keep to themselves here more than most other villages. Of course, they are still very very friendly, but the quietness of the village suits me.
In a way, I am glad that no major violence broke out. We were able to go through the town without any incident while visiting other volunteers to discuss an AIDS event that we hope to put on in December.
There is something that I find fascinating about fasting. There seems to be something about feeling the pangs of hunger that makes me want to read my Buddhist scriptures. I know that it is not a good correlation to begin to create, but still, the correlation between suffering and spirituality is the same as the correlation between ecstasy and spirituality. I used to say all of the time back home that God is omni-experiential, the more you feel something, regardless whether it is sadness, joy, or anger, the closer you can become with God. Hell is indifference, not suffering.
Of course, my concept of God seems quite different than most people's understanding. To me, God is not a Being, but the Ground of All Being
***
A Vignette
It had begun to rain by the time the bus finally left the station, but due to the little rain that appeared, and the heat of summer, it didn't cool the city, but merely filled it with steam. Knowing that it was Ramadan, and that everybody that we saw was as hungry as we were, it seemed as though we were leaving a city of hungry ghosts as described in the old scriptures of Buddhism. Faces taut, lips dry, men with slender arms moved slowly to load and unload packages from beneath the bus.
The stones were streaked with rain as we returned from Er Rachidia, Princess Leia following close behind me as I traversed the winding road to my house that had begun to fill with rain. Everybody was in their houses, preparing for the breaking of the fast. As I reached the door of my house, I heard the sound of running water. I looked up. In front of my house, at the edge of the valley, waterfalls had formed, and the water cascaded down the mountainside.
"That explains how the plants around there stay alive." Princess Leia said.
I unlocked the door, and we went inside. We watched an animated movie titled Howl's Moving Castle, in which a young girl is transformed into an old woman by a witch, and while she tries to break the spell, meets Howl, a handsome wizard whose own life is consumed by his desire to remain beautiful. We needed to go to the market the next day, but I didn't want to get only a little sleep, so Princess Leia took a nap.
I tried to watch Ponyo, the story of an underwater creature who falls in love with a boy on land and transforms herself into a human so that she can be with him. I couldn't watch it, though, due to the fact that it was only in Japanese, and I wanted to hear Liam Neeson's voice. I turned off the computer and lie down so that I could listen to the sound of the waterfalls around me in the darkness. I fell asleep and I dreamed that I was traveling beneath the ocean. And then I became the ocean; every creature and entity within the waves swam through me, and I realized that these were creatures who had lived in the depths since before humans existed, and that they would be here long after.
***
Conclude
Christians cause themselves suffering so that they can be close to God. Opus Dei is the first group that comes to mind that practices self flagellation. Muslims also do the same through events like Ramadan, so that they, too, can feel close to God. As a Buddhist, I strive for equanimity, without too much attachment or aversion. I have to express sadness for those who truly believe that there is a culture war with Islam itself. However, given the nature of shifting cultures, I know that one day, the war will be over, and a new culture will have emerged from it; and I truly believe that it will combine the Selfless love of Christ with the Submission to God of Islam and also the Liberal Democratic values of Humanistic Western culture; it is simply the nature of things to combine and reform to its apotheosis. We are always - always - on a journey to God; and regardless of what we think we see, we cannot deviate from that path.
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