On choices and what we can learn from the tragedy in AZ

“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts.  With our thoughts we make the world. "

– Dhammapada, the sayings of the Buddha, verse on Choices

The world we live in is a mirror of how we view it. We each have a different set of “facts” we go by. Some may see the world as a scary place in which we need to constantly defend ourselves against various enemies.  Others see the world as a place that is mostly fine, aside from the threat that people who see the world as a scary place in which the need to constantly defend themselves will somehow go too far.

Our world view often draws us to seek out experiences (conscious or not) that resonate with us.  From the same set of facts, I’d say that half of my friends are outraged by how they are reported on FOX on a daily basis, while the other half have the same reaction listening to the NPR representation. The problem with either of these scenarios is that we’re getting worked up over something we’ve made up (or have bought into).  

As a story of heartbreaking violence emerged in the last week, so has a discourse around political rhetoric (what many initially attributed as the catalyst) and untreated mental illness  (what is more likely the issue). 

We can fixate on these two things, or we can remember another part of the episode;  the immediate reaction to violence; the crowd who subdued the shooter at great personal risk; the first responders, heroes who did what they could to save who they could; those who held vigil at the shooting site. These people, for that moment, chose to see through the illusion of separateness from others. And so can we.