The Will of Heaven
The cruelty of ancient emperors knows no bounds.
Qin Shih Huang is said to have sent countless innocent people to their deaths building his monuments and the great wall. He castrated people, buried hundreds of scholars alive, ordered intellectual works burnt, killed anyone he thinks stood in his way. In a last "heavenly" act he buried hundreds (thousands?) alive in his tomb at Xi'An.
Said to be suffering from megalomania (i.e. he's a psycho), Qin Shih Huang wanted to live and rule forever. He is hailed as a great man who unified China, one who standardized its writing, currency, and measurement systems that lasted to this day.
Not to belittle history but all this got me laughing because it tells me more about the historians than the emperor. So the recipe for "greatness," according to these esteemed scholars, is simple. Kill millions of innocents to enforce your version of order and you are a "great" man.
Come to think of it, it is actually very easy to unify the world. All you need is enough firepower to kill off any resistance - including your friends and family - and you too can unify anything. I think imperial Japan and Hitler had the same ambition. They too would have been "great" uniters of the world if they hadn't run out of guns and bombs. Think about it. We would be having yen or deutchmarks in our wallets today. And writing our blogs in katakana or the great Aryan language, depending.
Thank goodness I am not a great uniter.
May Qin Shih Huang's karma allow him to rest in peace.
3 comments:
Dear Damien,
Although there's a part of me that agrees with you, I find myself feeling that your view of the First Emperor is somewhat lop sided.
He was the leader of the Qin Kingdom. At the time of Warring States period, the opposing factions were constantly at war with each other. He had to act decisively to defend and eventually unite the all of China. He performed many great and meritorious deeds. Unfortunately, he had many faults too, as you pointed out.
And this brings me to a very pertinent question I've been meaning to ask:
Should a person strive for inner development and attain Enlightenment? Or should he focus more on the outside world to achieve a measure of worldly success and bring about positive change?
Lord Buddha was able to perform both. However, most of us will only be able to choose one or the other. I understand why Buddhist monks seek to seclude themselves. Vigorously involving themselves in the mundane affairs of the world is a distraction.
The feeling is that if most people are not ready to face the truth about themselves, it is almost useless to actively seek to find ways to change the world for the better. One may begin with noble intentions. Yet as they attain power and influence, hubris sets in. Ultimately they find that it is the world that has changed them, instead of vice versa.
In the Indian epic, the Ramayana, the primary antagonist, Ravana began with noble intentions. Yet, he was corrupted by the mortal world in the end. The following is an extract of his advice on his deathbed:
Just before Ravana shed his mortal coils, several sages, scholars, and good men gathered and asked him, "O Ravana! In your life you have done several deeds that were both good and bad. What did you consider to be the greatest lesson that you have learnt?"
Ravana replied, "O Sirs! He who wishes to enter into any noble task that can cause only good to others should never entertain any delay. The instant such pious thoughts are born in the heart, they should be executed. I too had such idealistic thoughts --that I would build a bridge linking earth with heaven, that I would sweeten the saline waters of the oceans around Lanka and distribute it to people, and that I would provide succor and relief to all those poor souls suffering in hell. I delayed, and I could never do it because my evil overtook me. You must not repeat this mistake."
Rgds
What seemed terrible to me was not the emperor's deeds against the external enemies but the atrocities he committed against his own people, probably done under the guise of protecting the kingdom (remember that scientists have established that he was clinically insane? He saw enemies when there were actually none.) He created so much negative karma it ultimately consumed him. If he had created a lot of wholesome karma, would the ending have been different? I dunno but I think so.
Should a person strive for inner development and attain Enlightenment? Or should he focus more on the outside world to achieve a measure of worldly success and bring about positive change?
I think it depends on what you want. You can become the next Warren Buffet, give billions to charity and help find the AIDS vaccine. It is meritorious, yes, but we know this kind of happiness is temporary and so are the merits. You also have to deal with all the problems that come with the money - depreciation, loss, jealousy, scandals, lawsuits, etc. If you are confident your search for enlightenment will not be derailed in the process (assuming that is what you ultimately seek), then go for it.
But if you're ready to go beyond these transient highs and lows and cut straight to the chase (which Gotama did after countless lifetimes of pain and sorrow), then you'd probably be happier jumping out of the rat race and concentrating fully on inner development. Gotama woke up. The question is, have we?
Personally, I think the more awakened we are, the easier it is to make the choice. My parents think we need lots of money to do meritorious deeds. I on the other hand think I can make merit without money, because I believe the problems of humans are not always caused by money. So money, though important, is not terribly high in my list of priorities.
There are a thousand ways to reach a goal so its really up to us to choose what's best according to out abilities.
"Should a person strive for inner development and attain Enlightenment? Or should he focus more on the outside world to achieve a measure of worldly success and bring about positive change?"
IMHO, a person should strive for inner development, attain Enlightenment & at the same time earn a living(whether success or not), lead a virtuous life, do good deeds( in order to create good karma), help people if you can, keep a strict vegetarian or vegan diet(this is to create a compasionate seed),loving, peace....
Why? Because if we are in heaven, life will be too comfortable, no sickness, no old age, no suffering, everything is beautiful/happiness in heaven and you wouldn't want to practise. You will only want to enjoy. And even if you practise inner development in heaven, it wiil be very slow compare to the timing while on earth.
Sometimes,its very difficult to practice inner self while on Earth b'coz life here is full of suffering compare to happiness. But in order to progress, Earth is the most suitable place to practise as we can experieced sadness, suffering as well as joy & happinness.
As you know, life here is very transient & we never know when we will get sick or leave this world.
So we should take this opportunity as a human being to practise the true self because its a very rare chance to be born as a human being. Knowing our great self should not only apply to monk or nun, a lay person or anybody should know it because human inherently has this great true inner self that they have forgotten to seek.
You see before we are born to this earth, we have drank the forgetful soup or our past life data has been erased so that we will not remember what we did in the past life. But before we drink this forgetful soup, we did promise to do good, seek enlightenment, seek God, be virtuoas...etc while on earth. But because of our data has been erased, we cannot remember our promise when we're born here. And its also due to our upbringing & how the society effect us that we can't remember everything. So thats why we have to seek for it. Children from young born until the age of 4 still can remember their original self but after they grow up they tend to forget everything. Thats how it works.
So we should balance our life with spiritually so that we can live a better & noble way of life.
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