Buddhism (1)
Let it be known,
All religious institutes are being exposed and dismantled,
The secret and the open,
Nothing can evade the change of Time,
Including Buddhism,
Some of the lamas who have claimed heavenly status are not Buddhas,
The system of identifying them is flawed, and the structure of their institutes is secretive and corrupt,
The divisions between them and the competition has violated the Dharma,
The Karmapa Ogyen has tried to unite them in the essence of the Dharma,
But their clinging to their traditions is too strong,
When these are devoid of their spiritual value they are not unlike the rituals of other religions,
Their teaching methods need to be restructured to suit the present,
Like other religions: they must address the problems of the present,
It is not sufficient to continue arguing arguments which now sound irrelevant,
The Dharma is the Law,
The Law generates everything
Buddhism (2)
Buddhas do not reincarnate only to teach Buddhism and to abide by Buddhist traditions and practices,
And conversely, not all Buddhism teachers are Buddhas, and neither did they all teach the Dharma correctly,
The exclusiveness of the Dharma to Buddhism is a fallacy not unlike the fallacies of the other religions:
That the god/buddhas/angels/prophets …: are born only to their people, to teach their religion, exclusively … and that only their religion is correct and comprehensive,
All religions, and whether they accept to be called religions or have another word to call themselves: have made this error,
And the system of identifying Buddhas by having them recognise their paraphernalia from past lives: is not foolproof,
And moreover, even if it has been convincingly shown that a person has recognised his belongings of a past life, which in this case happens to be that of a prominent lama:
It doesn’t automatically mean that this lama’s present incarnation and the past are or were those of a Buddha,
Ordinary people all around the world have spoken of their past lives, with astonishing details sometimes, and perhaps none of them were Buddhas,
The belief that all Buddhas and only Buddhas can recall their past lives is false
Buddhism (3)
In a statement that he made recently, Karmapa Ogyen has made very important declarations,
Although most of them were made before, in various speeches and lectures he had given … the fact that he has put them now in one statement is saying that he wants Buddhist institutes, and indeed the world: to listen,
He’s said that he doesn’t think that he is the incarnation of any pervious lama, and that he’s just a human,
And that he wishes to live just like an ordinary man …
And then he goes on to talk about the divisions between the different sects of Buddhism and how he unsuccessfully tried to mend them,
Plus, a number of issues to which I’ll come back later …
In COB’s opinion, the teaching he has been giving, and since his early twenties … are none but Dharma,
The answers that he’s been able to provide, all of which don’t sound like quotes straight from the Books … concerning the practice of the Dharma, meditation … and other things, while all the way making it clear that he is still in the process of learning …: are all signs of the wealth of experience that he has brought from his past lives …
It is when the teacher of the Dharma, or any religion for that matter, is capable of giving new answers to new problems: that he proves that he’s tapping into the Essence, and not just memorising and reciting text …
His recent statement has put Buddhist institutes and their followers face to face with the question:
What do they want: their traditions, rituals and secrecy … or the Dharma??
Buddhism (4)
Karmapa Ogyen will not criticise past or living lamas …
It is not virtuous …
What is virtuous is to praise their good deeds, even if tarnished by imperfection …
And to work unceasingly on guiding Buddhists and the world …
As said on COB in the past, criticism for the sake of self-glorification and self-praise does not achieve any good, but to the contrary: it does flare up tensions and rivalry,
But when criticism is aimed at highlighting error: for the purpose of suggesting solutions and alternative options: COB finds it kosher to exercise criticism, and indeed necessary …
With this intent and purpose, I look at the legacy of the high lamas of the last century, some of whom are still alive, with a bit of disappointment …
Perhaps I’m underestimating the enormity of their task, and the political pressure those great men had to endure …
Torn between their allegiances to their countries and the obligations such allegiances entail: and their Buddhist beliefs and practices …: the choices of action and communication available to them are perhaps very limited …
In the midst of the cold war and the aftermath of WWII, and on the backdrop of rising political ideologies and the revival of religious zeal …: what could Buddhist high lamas have preached …
Other than non-attachment to material possessions, awareness of impermanence, the practice of meditation … which is conducive to compassion and selflessness …??
Of course, these are virtues … of which people of all beliefs and cultures should be constantly reminded,
Perhaps one day eventually human virtue will become prevalent and peace and happiness can be everyone’s destiny …
The road to this “paradise” is not an easy one though …
A rugged road, with obstacles cropping up seemingly randomly …
And the Middle Way is as sharp as a knife’s edge …
Every inch of it demands a peculiar balance …
Just a short diversion from the main chain of posts …
I couldn’t help wanting to comment on what I saw on social media …
Her majesty the Queen of the UK has hosted the celebration of the diamond jubilee of … the Agha Khan …!
Perhaps her majesty feels obligated to pay back …
But for what? I have no idea …
The man’s wealth is enormous …
He owns a bank … amongst other things …
Well of course, what do you think … god is very rich …
It’s all well intended of course …
Wealthy individuals across the ages have been telling us: let me become richer, so I can abolish poverty …
But we are heedless …, it’s our fault …
I’ve seen photos of his holiness rubbing shoulders with other European politicians as well …
Perhaps in the back of their minds they have a grain of suspicion … that he could be really god, and if we helped him he’ll look after us …
I don’t know when will the human mind grow out of human and stone worshipping …
Even if the stones are crushed and the people have died … and stains of blood are left on their shirts … some will continue to worship them …
The onus is on those deity to say it to their followers: grow up, I’m just a human like the rest of us …
Buddhism (5)
It is perhaps the rational approach to morality that makes Buddhism stand out amongst other religions, and particularly Abrahamic religions,
So, while it is evil to steal, lie, murder and commit adultery … because god said so, in Abrahamic religions:
It is so too in Buddhism, because it incurs bad karma,
Of course, if karma is understood to be a god’s law, that he activates at his will: the two arguments become essentially identical …
The Buddhist concepts of cause and effect seem alien to Abrahamic religions,
Although the Books, I mean the Torah, Gospels, Qur’an and Hikmah: did not teach anything but rationality, albeit expressed in the languages of their time …
It was the religious authorities of then and now that have reduced the teaching of the Books to a set of instructions … set and enforced by a god,
Why was Buddhism successful in keeping a degree of rationality, in dealing with matters of morality: is not the subject of this essay,
In depth knowledge of the cultures and beliefs of the Far East and the Middle East prior to the advent of the Messages: is paramount for the thoroughness and conclusiveness of such studies.
The Greek philosophy, on the other hand, and farther to the West …: took the rational approach to a higher level,
Of course, some will argue that there’s an element of mysticism in Greek philosophy,
The core of the Greek philosophy, however, is not mysticism, and it doesn’t use mysticism to back up its arguments,
Thus, the Greek philosophy remained “unholy” in the Middle East, for being the work of humans, not claiming a heavenly authority …
Until the Renaissance in Europe, when human thought advanced to an unprecedented stage, thanks to the universality of the logical approach to all questions … that the Greek philosophy had inspired it …
In the present, Abrahamic religions’ beliefs remain unreconcilable with reason, and hence the conflicts that are ravaging that region and indeed threatening the entire world,
The reconciliation of Abrahamic religions and Buddhism, on the other hand, is farfetched in the minds of both Buddhists and Middle Easterners …
Only because their languages, traditions and decorations are so different,
The core beliefs, however, are same
Buddhism (6)
The subject of “purpose of spirituality” is also what makes Buddhism stand out amongst religions,
Admittedly, spirituality is not something that can be pointed to easily …
Is this why religions other than Buddhism have summarised it in a mundane law, traditions and rituals, the abidance by which makes god happy, so he rewards them in a paradise of their understanding …?
My unapologetic answer is yes …
Mind you, all Abrahamic religions will vehemently reject the notion that once they’ve adopted their religions and practised their rituals and followed their laws and traditions: salvation becomes certain,
They will say: you have to keep striving, by being pious, religious and good in every way … and then wait for god’s compassion … to forgive your certain sins and errors, because we can never be perfect …
But this is the very answer which asserts the argument that I’ve stated …
Once you’ve adopted their religion the only education you need is more knowledge about their religion …!
And this can be said about Buddhists too, if they preach that Dharma is merely a set of rules of behavior, rituals of chanting and meditation, and beliefs that can be summarised in half a page of text …
However, it is not completely lost in Buddhism now: the notion that the purpose of life is an expansion of mind until it achieves emptiness …
How else can this be expressed?
The fact that spirituality is an ongoing journey of self-exploration, moral refinement and mindful expansion is the essence of all religions …
That this has been said explicitly in Buddhism and not completely forgotten in it: is still the privilege of the Buddhist teachers, however rare, who have learned and taught Dharma across the world and the ages …
In the pursuit of spiritual development: lamas should be frontline …
The word lama in this context, however, refers to Buddhist monks … the practitioners of the Dharma …
But why should the word refer only to those?
Is it a matter of language or belief?
Think about it …
Buddhism (7)
To numb the senses and the emotions for the purpose of achieving happiness … achieves the happiness that is conditional to numbness …
While a measured amount of it can be a step on the road of self-knowledge and wisdom: too much of it is just knowledge evasion …
For, in the end, a certain degree of reaction, whether emotional or physical, is necessary for survival …
Let’s not forget also the principle of “sour grapes” …
This is a self-deception technique; the intellect is the master of self-deception …
Hence, what is really wise: is the constant pursuit of knowledge …
The knowledge of the causes of things, and the common causes of the causes of things, and the Cause of all those causes … and The Cause of the Cause of all the causes and their causes …
It sounds pretty fragmented … but in reality it is a One, with many different manifestations …
The death of Professor Hawking yesterday prompts me to pay tribute to him, although I’ve criticised some of his opinions …
His belief in the capability of the human mind to know and understand everything is true faith …
And the constant pursuit of knowledge becomes hence a noble purpose of life …
The fact that he is considered atheist in the opinion of the warring Abrahamic gods and their followers is in fact credit to him …
His belief in the One Law that has caused the universe to exist and to display its might the way it does … is a step towards faith … way ahead of monotheist beliefs …
Despite the distortion of the practice and the understanding of the Dharma, Buddhist teachers are closer to the notion of the Oneness of the Law of existence … than any Abrahamic religion
Buddhism (8)
The Dharma is the Law,
The Law is not anyone’s property, and the understanding of it is not one entity’s or one person’s exclusive specialty,
The Dharma is in all the Books and the Hikmah, and is in the Ghita and the Discourse of the Buddha in all his comings to the world to teach Dharma,
If this truth is well established in people’s minds: differences become a thing to celebrate and a reason to unite in the purpose of living by the Dharma,
For example, the Dharma says that people need shelter to protect themselves from the elements, to live comfortably and to be healthy,
So, in the tropics people have built huts of straws and hay, and this has been perfect for their needs,
And close to the North Pole people have built igloos from ice and snow, and this has been perfect for their needs,
They have both gone by the Dharma apparently correctly,
But in the eyes of their local religions, each side sees the other side as cursed and inferior,
Because the god of each side has preached the circumstantial law and ignored the Spirit,
Hence the apparent abidance by the Dharma has not protected them,
We know that this simple truth is too difficult for Abrahamic religions to acknowledge, judging by their hatred to one another and the bad karma that this hatred has incurred …
If this is difficult for Buddhist lamas to understand: it is the result of being oblivious to the Spirit of the Dharma,
This has created divisions between them, and made way for politics to creep into their institutes,
This is bad karma that can be overridden by correct thinking, correct purpose, correct action …
Buddhism (9)
The recital of holy scriptures in simple repetitive melodies is a tradition in all religions,
Those two or three-note melodies can be heard inside one’s inner ear, when it has been emptied of the noise of thoughts, worries and passions …
The chanting of them can calm one’s mind down and clear one’s vision,
Buddhas have taught them for this purpose,
They are not exclusive to any religion,
There is no god who demands them and rewards people who use them,
They are not a vehicle that transports people’s consciousness to another level,
If people find them helpful in concentration and transcendence they can use them, if they don’t they don’t have to use them,
The sound of bells’ jingles and cymbals’ and cracking noises are also reminiscent of early sounds heard in early moments of consciousness of early existence of early duality that is alluded to in all Books and in the Dharma …
There’s nothing in the physical world, however huge or minute, seemingly random or significant …: that has not been experienced in duality in the Law at higher levels of existence …
How these things come about is the question that nags human consciousness,
The euphoria of knowledge is the fruit of abidance in the Law,
The age of the world is in eons, which start and end, the numbers of them is beyond calculation, a clock ticking on the linear track of time cannot grasp it, like a measuring tape cannot measure the dimensions of the sky …
Eternity stands in awe before Existence,
Linear time is its lowest projection
Buddhism (10)
The plans for the “end of days” that the religions have planned for their followers and their rivals will not eventuate,
Religions which are partners with the tyranny of politics and money … are none but instruments for controlling the masses,
This has been said everywhere many times …
The loftier the towers in which the clergy of these religions have imagined themselves the more painful will be their disappointments …
They will try every propaganda tool available to them to save their faces, they will fabricate stories … they did this sort of things in the past, and some will not hesitate to carry on with their legacy of deception …
It is up to the individuals not to be frightened of their threats not to be dazzled by their false promises …
It is sad to see some Buddhist monks in some parts of the world involved in acts of cruelty and war, in the name of cultural preservation,
Their destiny now is not unlike other religions …:
When the issue is: to which stone do you bow, the one which is a few thousand miles away, or the one right in front of you …?
Buddhism (11)
Cause and effect appear separate only on the linear track to time …
It has been said in the Dharma, and the Books have alluded to it, when they said that God is All Informed,
Hence Abrahamic religions believe in fatalism, which COB calls inevitability …
And hence the materialists believe in randomness …
The two arguments, however, sit diametrically opposite one another on the same plane of intellectual perception,
But if we take the mathematical representation of a physical phenomenon: it becomes clear that in certain circumstances, certain givens will yield a certain result,
This is not predeterminism,
It is the Law of the world,
Human behaviour is thought to be exempt from this Law: because free will comes into play in it …
And free will cannot be fully understood: when predeterminism or randomness are believed to be the two opposing theses of human action,
Perhaps it will never be possible to quantify the cause and its effect in all the aspects of human behaviour …
That’s because it is also the Law that certain truths cannot be measured and demonstrated empirically in the same manner other physical phenomena can …
It remains on the mindfulness of the individual to sense the ubiquity of the Law and the causality of every eventuality, whether actualised by physical things or carried out by humans …
If such a noble truth is not immediately obvious: it is wisest to assume its existence:
Such an assumption points to correct action in the given circumstances, delivers peace of mind and enhances mindfulness,
The other assumptions, I mean inevitability or randomness, result in harm, frustration and depression …
This is the Law of the world
Buddhism (12)
Towards the end of his statement, the Karmapa touched on the memories of his early childhood, when he was identified as the 17th Karmapa and taken from his parents’ home, at the age of seven … to live in a monastery …
Although he didn’t say it explicitly, everything he said hints to a traumatic experience …
Whether one is a Buddha or not, at this tender age … I can’t imagine any monastery to be the ideal place for bringing up children …
Gautama himself was brought up as a prince, in the home of his parents who loved him and looked after him,
On the other hand, when knowledge was mainly religious, I can imagine why a monastery would’ve been the right place for seeking an education …
At the present, priests of all colours and religious affiliations: are fooling themselves if they still believe that their books are the source of ultimate knowledge …
Their inability to play their role in the world as the guides on social, political, environmental … issues is a demonstration of their being out of step with the world,
To hide their heads and the sand and pretend to be all informed about everything, by the “prophecies” and the promises of past heads of their institutes is not benefiting anyone, including themselves …
In fact, this has created mass-illusion,
Different groups with different illusions are not going to agree on anything and won’t be able to solve any of their own problems …
Buddhism (13)
The question: how to identify Buddhas: can never have an answer with any degree of precision,
So, I tell the other claimant of the title of the 17th Karmapa: that Buddhism is not like science, as he once declared,
As a matter of fact: none of the teaching of the Buddhas, whether in the Far East or the Middle East: can be described as scientific,
When religious authorities and believers ascribe their religions to science: they expose their lack of understanding, COB has said it a few times …
Science is about the study of physical phenomena,
This can be done by observation, measurement, calculation and logical analysis,
The Books and the Dharma are not about physical things …
If they are understood to be so: they are ununderstood,
By describing their beliefs as scientific, and their books as the sources of science: religious authorities have admitted that science is truer and more convincing than their beliefs …!
Their attempt to dress up their beliefs as a science will only deceive the ill-informed,
They are all very desperate now to assert themselves as the source of good and knowledge, at the time when after five-hundred years of scientific advancement: their beliefs are becoming irrecoverably fallacious, and their moral values are scandalously inferior to non-religious standards …
One has to look at their recent history only, to remark such facts …
Not to mention past ones. Those are faintly excusable by the cultures of their times …
The Books, I mean the Torah, the Gospel, the Qur’an and the Hikmah, the Dharma and the Ghita: are worlds above their natural understanding …
COB has demonstrated it,
It remains the privilege of those who have made their first steps on the road to recovery to shun the charlatans, one after another, to recognise the Buddhas and their teaching, and the Buddha of all the Buddhas,
Nothing more or less can be said about identifying Buddhas
Buddhism (14)
True knowers of the Dharma and the Ghita, and indeed the Books of the Middle East: have no doubt in their minds: why the world is spiraling down in the madness of destruction and violence,
They give no heed to political and religious leaders, who have set agendas of business, religion and politics: to perpetuate the state of madness: to justify their own existence!
This is a vicious cycle, that cannot be stopped by speeding up its spin,
When the human spirit is lost: nothing can be given as compensation:
Not money and possessions,
Not a paradise of food and sex,
Not the sight of an enemy dead and quashed,
And when these things are lectured to be the purpose of life:
And people want more of them:
The madness of destruction and violence is exacerbated,
And the trust in the world and in the human spirit is lost ...!
It is law, that when this is reached: the world self-destroys,
When it cannot sustain itself any longer,
This is the total breakdown of the vicious cycle …
The Law is regardless to the definitions that religions and politics set: to justify the madness,
They should’ve seen that it makes no difference: when people are killed in streets, homes and schools …
Whether the perpetrator was driven by one type of madness or another:
They are all victims of beliefs which have given them false promises,
Leaders have been given a great property that is the trust of their people,
They are trashing it, to the laud of their people!
This has happened many times in past and forgotten eras of human existence,
But it is not too late yet,
If “good will” is not just a political and religious slogan, or a money-making scheme: it is still doable
Buddhism (15)
Let it also be known, that it is the humans that establish or break the trust,
The law of the wild is for the wild,
Where every creature big or small know their limits,
The survival of each of them hinges on the survival of each of them,
Together they are rivals, separated they will self-annihilate,
Perhaps nature’s wisdom has given mankind a lesson that has not been learned yet,
Mankind’s intelligence is its own worst enemy,
It is no match to the brutishness of the beast,
When human intelligence admits to its limits, perhaps it can attempt a higher station,
Whether the animal is aware of its wisdom or not: to the Law of the world is immaterial,
Perhaps it is aware, but not in a self-centered vision like people’s,
if people copied the beast, for the sake of becoming equally wise:
It doesn’t work, and it never has …
It is innate and spontaneous wisdom that cannot be matched by human intelligence,
Mankind’s own wisdom is in recognising the law of the world,
Unfortunately, there’s no other way to put it …
That’s why everyone have invented their own law and said this is the Law,
What people make of the world: will be their world …
No god sets laws for the people and imposes them on them,
The people set their laws, the people trust in them, and the people break the trust,
Nations cannot enjoy a peaceful coexistence if there is no trust,
It is the lack of trust that sets off arms race, it is the lack of trust that triggers war,
It is the lack of trust that makes up local gods,
It is the lack of trust that allows economic disparity and poverty …
It is the lack of trust that creates fear and paranoia,
These are the sicknesses of people, leaders and followers,
The sicknesses of their hearts and minds, upon which they have built religions and political ideologies,
But people can trust that a Law makes their laws work as much as it makes other laws work,
The same Law,
Of course, the local laws are at various degrees of failure and success,
But it is by the Law that their good or evil consequences materialise,
People cannot be forced to see their wrongs,
They can be helped to see them themselves, if they are smart,
There has to be trust in anything for it to work
Buddhism (16)
If a belief creates divisions and animosities, or builds on existing ones: it cannot claim to be the ultimate goal of human existence,
As a matter of fact: it has not advanced by one iota over prehistoric frames of mind,
However clever the man who taught it is believed to be,
And even if it is believed to be sourced from heaven, or delivered by men who dazzled the world by their magic,
Worse still are the beliefs which pretend to be peace loving, but preach rituals which wipe clean human sins,
Thus, a green light is given for the people to do anything, because their actions can be cleansed by some ritual!
And in the present, rational thinking is being challenged, and human values of cooperation between nations is being subjected to the toughest test …:
If people believe that their ancestors were wiser and more advanced … and therefore they should revive their dead spirit: the world will spiral down in anarchy, bloodshed and destruction …
The evidence to this is startlingly obvious,
This is their failure to advance to the human that all the Books, the Greek Philosophy, the Ghita and the Dharma: have guided them …
This has been taught to all nations without an exception,
If the lesson has been learned: it is the triumph of human values
: That is not the triumph of one nation over another …
If it is taken as the triumph of one nation over another: it reverts to the old frame of mind, and everyone is back to square one …
If it is taken as the triumph of human values: it will be deliverable to all and acceptable by all …
There is not a single model that human individuals or societies ought to replicate …
This is physically and practically impossible …
There is not a single nation that is meant to be, in whichever way, eternally superior to others …
This is again physically and practically impossible …
Buddhism (17)
If a belief says that once you’ve adopted it, or if you are born to it: that’s it … salvation is certain …: rest assured this is the most effective way to shut all the doors and the windows of your mind …
You are now a prisoner of it …
You are not allowed to think outside it …
If you do: you’re a disbeliever …
The punishment of disbelief is severe …
The fear of such punishment exacerbates the anxiety about being a true believer in it,
Hence, the adherence to the laws and traditions set by the frocked men … becomes stricter …
But no results can be seen …
Hence the adherence becomes even stricter …
This is the most vicious cycle of human madness …
A live example of it is the religiousness of the Middle East, which is driving it to relentless bloodshed and destruction, and to living in a total illusion … not wanting a way out of it …
Also the religiousness in other parts of the world, where injustice, poverty and corruption are rife, and a way of life …
And indeed, the religiousness that some once secular nations are reverting to … to revive old and doomed ways,
This is the hell from which all the Books of the Middle East, the Ghita and the Dharma have warned …
Once in it, there’s little else in the world to be known,
The suffering, thus, is constant, it becomes the way of life …
And the suffering that is anticipated for the disbelievers: would have to be an oven, in which a god bakes them forever … and enjoys watching their pain …: by comparison!
They say: so how do you teach righteousness and deter from vice: if you don’t threaten with reward and punishment?
The answer is: this is the time of learning the causes of things …
Vice is what brings on suffering … to the perpetrator and the receiver …
The threats of Abrahamic religions haven’t taught their people any virtue, and haven’t deterred them from vice …
Their world is perhaps the most corrupt and irrational, and their rulers and people are unwilling to deal with their problems …
Buddhism (18)
Tell your men of religions:
To take off their holy apparel and trim their lengthy beards …
To come down from their lofty towers to face the real world,
To change the soles of an old pair of shoes, or fix a broken car,
To test their patience in traffic jams,
To work for their living, surrounded by wolves …
Let’s see how far their infallibility can take them, and how good their character truly is …
If you say they have passed those tests already: they should have no problem facing them …
It should be easy to them,
And so people can learn a real lesson,
Instead of the speeches of hatred and division,
And the promises which will never materialise,
The wars in the Middle East, and indeed the potential ones brewing in Europe …
Are being fueled by the frocked men of all colours …
The political leaderships are listening earnestly to them …
Because they can’t trust their own minds,
But where are those minds now?
They have lost them to the fallacies of warring religions …
This is a bad destiny of their own making
Buddhism (19)
[This post was written last week, and is meant to be the wrapping of this chain of posts]
Perhaps religions’ major wrong has been their very definitions of right …
The cause and the effect are always one and can never be separate,
Since early times when the Ten Commandments were delivered, the clergy have set definitions, which have enabled them and their followers to bypass those very definitions …
If you start asking: what is lying, what constitutes theft …?
The answers: to legitimise to yourself the actions you’re meant to refrain from!
One can argue: most people are busy, and their intellectual capacities are limited,
They need guidance in their daily lives …
Very true, but those who give the guidance: have to be guided people …
The Gospel truly said: listen to their speech and follow not their deeds …
But sometimes the Word of the Books is turned into darkness from their mouths …
If the nations and the individuals look carefully at what’s happening to them: it’s what they’ve wished onto their enemies …
No nation now is exempt from the chaos, and violence and aggression have become everyone’s way,
The more hypocritical they are: the worse their situation becomes …
Nations are now being divided, internally and internationally, by distrust, and an insatiable desire to crush the enemy,
This will only accelerate the cycle of destruction
