Saturday, October 30, 2010

the past rises up

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Past, present and future may be a snare and a delusion, but there is something touching about the ways in which the past can rise up with the force of a tsunami.

In California, a man was arrested Friday and charged with beating a Catholic priest whom the man accused of  sexually assaulting him and his brother 35 years ago, when they were 7 and 5.

Horrific allegations.

Horrific truths.


How does anyone make peace with the real horrors in their lives? How does anyone make peace with the horrors they see in the lives of others? Even second-hand, there is something viscerally repugnant ... and that's just second-hand.

The past has its horrors.

The past has its delights.

How does anyone make peace with such things?

Certainly it's not as easy as mouthing the words that say past, present and future are a snare and a delusion.
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2 comments:

  1. I dare say for the victim, it wasn't in the past but always in the fore front -every time he closed his eyes that is what he saw.Fresh real and raw. Not easy to let go of past abuse. That is abundantly clear. Others focus on imagined fear, abuse in the future. The now is all we have and yet hard to see the forest for the trees.

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  2. In the same vein....i thought you might like reading this article about a "flunked monk" in a very discipline oriented monastery. It is an interview with him, and what he is doing now, using the bible to convey the middle way. :)

    http://www.mirabai.com/articles/strand/

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