The Devil Inside Us

On a recent “This American Life” episode ( www.thislife.org), an Iraq veteran faces the demon of Iraqi Muslims that remains with him long after returning to the United States.

He so openly discusses his anxiety and wishes to harm even innocent Muslims that he sees on his college campus. So what does he do? He joins the Muslim Student Association and becomes one of the biggest supporters in the association. His thinking, it appears, did not seem to change overnight. It took some time for his entrenched thinking patterns to be replaced with a new view of the Muslims.

First, I would like to comment that this was an amazing story of what one person did in order to change his thinking when he realized that the old pattern was deluded. He took action to change his thinking. Mind you, it does not sound like this was easy, especially due to the high level of anxiety within him. Sam Slaven should be on national speaking circuit.

Second, the entire episode of was about the “devil” inside us, which cause us to do things (or not do things). Even if we are able to rationally consider the best action or think before we speak, we regularly follow the devil inside us.

We have a very simple explanation for this. The patterns have been learned from past actions, words, and thoughts. Every time we repeat it, we are reinforcing the negative pattern and in fact create additional seeds for it to be repeated more in the future.

In the 37-Practices of a Bodhisattva, verses 20 and 21, remind us this effect whether it is associated to aversion (anger, hatred, disgust, etc) or desire (lust, craving, greed):

Verse 20

If anger that dwells in our heart lies neglected, and, turning instead to our external foes,
we try to destroy them and even kill thousands, then thousands of others will plague us still more.
So seeing this action is not the solution, let us muster the forces of mercy and love.
Turn inwards and tame the wild flow of our mind-stream -- the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way

Verse 21

Indulging in objects our senses run after and drinking salt water are one and the same:
the more we partake, for our own satisfaction, the more our desire and thirst for them grow.
Then, when we conceive a compulsive attraction towards whatever object our senses desire, abandon it quickly without hesitation -- the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way.

Third, there is a very unfortunate result of conflicts such as what is now taking place in Iraq. The American soldiers, it seems, feel anger and anxiety at the site of a Muslim and likely any Iraqi. Likewise, I am sure that the Iraqis feel anger and anxiety at the sight of an American soldier and likely any Westerner. So how can you ever expect them to let go of these habitual patterns of arising emotions? Its not like we can enroll every Iraqi into the Western Students Association and its not like we can enroll every American soldier into a Muslim Student Association for each one of them to correct their wrong thinking.

I don’t have the answer for this one. I do now realize that there is no peaceful resolution to this conflict based on the views and emotions currently arising in thinking of both sides.

I sure wish that our leaders had studied Verse 20 before embarking on the act of annihilating Iraq. We are now stuck with results. Now what?