The Evil of Trauma.

 Spirituality – from the point of view of Buddhism – is not an easy subject to discuss, as there are many elements involved. There are also some that we may not want to look at. We all have a Light side, a Dark side and a Indifferent side. If we are to progress spiritually, we must be aware of all sides to our nature. We can thereby develop empathy and compassion for other who are also stuck in the mud!

There is another element – someone is creating more MUD!

We are the Buddhas in the Mud – the Light in the Dark. However, there are those who would use the Light and the Dark against us, for their own benefit. It is a subtle business, and due to our own bias, we may not wish to look at this. When investigating, we must be aware of being vessels with holes in, or turned upside down, or contaminated.

We may be obsessed with looking at our “light side”, but we also have to understand our “dark side”.

 The Trauma of Evil.

 TRAUMA: A deeply distressing experience. An emotional shock following a stressful event or a physical injury, which may lead to long-term neurosis. ORIGIN late 17th cent: from Greek, literally wound.

If people are traumatised, they can then be easily manipulated.

It’s an easy mistake to make, thinking that we can neutralise evil by dismissing it as an illusion. There’s a common misperception that Buddhism states that all suffering is an illusion. People too readily misunderstand, and think that because everything is an illusion, it does not hurt the body … and mind! What happens to the body and mind does not affect Essence: however, Essence can be obscured by distractions in the mind.

This is the result of a misunderstanding regarding our relative existence, and our absolute existence. These have to be understood properly as the Middle Way, a unity. No one is saying, “Dismiss evil as it’s a mere illusion”.

We all carry wounds from past traumas. These are held in our Alaya-Vijnana – the 8^th consciousness in the mind. That is where our memories and karmic store are imprinted. However, the feelings of trauma are stored in the subtle body, and have an effect on our inner winds, channels and energies.

 The concept of ‘original sin’ is just this store house of karma that we carry with us from life to life. This is what is known as trauma, or wound. However, we cannot ignore that we too have created trauma for others in the past – and are doing so even now – and bad karma is created. We are never guiltless. If we have each been everyone’s mother, and they ours, we have also committed every evil act. The antidote to this is active kindness and compassion.

The world today is full of trauma – subtle trauma. There is actual trauma, reported trauma and implied trauma: together, these result in a web of trauma. We are bombarded with reports of horrendous acts in the world. Worst of all is the trauma inflicted on children, who learn to fear the world around them and believe that life is no longer a safe place.

For me, the Dharma still holds all the answers, because it is all to do with our perception and projection. I’d like to continue this theme by considering Spiritual Materialism (to follow).