Though you don’t go to war, pick up a gun and kill people, if you sit somewhere and issue the orders, and cause these human beings to go out of the human registration, you get equal the heavy negativity.
That’s why politicians are very much suffering. Honestly. They have such a difficult life. At certain levels they have to make certain decisions and it is not easy. Even if you are called to jury duty, you have to make a judgment and it is very difficult. I used to see on TV some people coming on and saying they have to punish people on behalf of God, in the name of justice. Who are you or who am I to punish somebody on behalf of God or on my own behalf? That’s very difficult to me to see. This is small compared with the political leaders and military leaders who simply have to sign a piece of paper. With the stroke of a signature, hundreds and thousands of people get killed. That is not great at all, I am sorry. Not only it is not great for those leaders, it is also for us who are commonly involved.
That’s where the common karma comes. We disagree. However, we have to pay our taxes. If we don’t, we get into trouble. I am not recommending not to pay taxes. Pay your taxes. But the tax money goes for that too. So we contribute. Therefore purification is something very important. Knowingly or unknowingly, we are involved in certain things.
Now we hear every morning that so many people were killed in Iraq and Syria. A while ago, every morning when I woke up I would hear NPR saying that 20 or 30 people were killed. Hearing that was like a daily, routine chore. Now we don’t hear that every day, but still we hear it a lot. People get killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and now Syria. Our money goes there. Our boots are not on the ground, fine, but the money is on the ground and that is not fine. These problems are not getting solved. We are not going to solve it. The different tribes, castes, and religious sects have been quarreling for centuries and eons. Why should we get involved in their arguments? Somebody is going to gain and somebody is going to lose, for sure. We say, “We have to go to Egypt, otherwise the dictator there is going to have the upper hand.” Yes, we got involved in Egypt, they overthrew their dictator, and then they got the Muslim Brotherhood taking over. What is ending there? Nothing is different; they got a change for the worse. Those things are very complicated.
Although we don’t make the decisions, we are very involved because we pay taxes. We have to pay them and we should, but we should not agree with war because it is a killing machine. The killing machine gets us killing karma. Killing karma makes our life shorter and makes our next life imperfect. Even if you get a better human life, there will be a lot of handicaps and mental, physical, and emotional challenges. That is the result of killing karma. You need to know this and you have to think accordingly.
You have to protect yourself from this common killing karma by not agreeing with the war, even though you pay your taxes. Pay your taxes because that is what you owe. We owe that to the people. We are paying taxes for the people. That is also great generosity. Think that your tax is great generosity and that you are giving it to all Americans. Since you have to pay, give it the best way you can for the purpose of society’s well-being as your own personal contribution. You can disagree that the money is going to the purposes of war. Instead, give it and make it a generous action and disagree with the war. If you agree with the war, then you are involved with every single casualty. From the bottom of your heart, disagree.
~ Gelek Rimpoche, Jewel Heart Ann Arbor, June 16, 2013
