Pain

The difficulty is how to say anything of value without being limited by the values which started the saying. This is not a problem for those who hold that their values are absolute. From this position there is clear access to the truth and so conviction in their whole world is solid. For those of us who are more open, fluid and able to at least attempt to see how we create our self and our world the problem is serious. Is it not obvious already? Every word here however carefully chosen is chosen. Chosen by a self. A self limited by forms which are interdependent. I see that if the interdependence of forms, the emptiness of forms makes no sense to someone then the problem of absolute values is much harder to perceive. But what is always clear is the basic reality of human suffering. And this is the value which values surly need to address.

So having first laid out the the basic problem I can now move to specifics: I awoke this morning to Radio4. (The astute will see themselves creating a picture of the forms of the English middle class.) Discussion was of Israel and Gaza. The suffering is just awful. My response was of withdrawal from the thought of the suffering and anger at the Israelis. I saw this response and expanded into a view of the ignorance of all parties leading to suffering. 'If only the factions could all get a handle on and accept emptiness' I thought. But they can't. They are locked in to a set of values held as absolute. And I must acknowledge that by 'them' here I am focusing on the Israelis more than the Palestinians. And that shows my own narrowness, my own limitation of view but also relates to my perceptions of what seems to be going on. A people who have founded a state as a homeland for one of the most persecuted groups ought to know better. But the problem might be clear already; state, homeland, group. Separation, form, self, regarded as absolute. Hamas has defined its self in terms of its forms and Israel has defined its self in terms of its forms. People then start defining themselves in symbiosis. But as any bullet or cloud of shrapnel will all too clearly demonstrate, bodies are not so defined. And it is no use to talk of ought to know better; this is to slip into the mode of fixed views. If the problem of suffering is to be addressed then the pain needs to be examined. The individual people enacting the roles of the parties to which they have attached need to examine their own pain. Not Islamic pain, not Jewish pain, not Christian pain, not Palestinian pain, not Israeli pain, not American pain, nor British pain or any other pain but their pain. My pain, your pain. The pain.