Thoughts!

While spending time moving and traveling around, you get to see many many things. Among them, one of my recent moments put me in front of a baby monkey tied to a tree in four thousand island, Laos. Wimping and vocalizing for attention and affection. His expression was not of a happy wild and free monkey at peace on the trees. If you know monkeys you know how expressive their faces can be. And might have noticed they do best without a leash on their necks or waist. This monkeys face expressed fear, sadness and for the most part confusion. There was very little I could do. Communicating what was on my mind, in a language I can't speak made even more difficult. Without much of a choice walking away was a practice of detachment to my ideals. Something hard for me to do. I often think of the little guy, trying to send strength and love through the distance. Though to me that's not enough. We can sit and meditate all we want. Practice detachment to life and our reaction to the emotional part of us. That won't solve the world problem without action. From all of us. 

So how do I feel, when I see a picture of a young Buddhist monk "proudly displaying" his pet monkey? 

Disbelief maybe... That even in some of the philosophies which seem to preach about love for one another, compassion as well as detachment from ego desires, we can still see such selfish behavior.

Maybe I'm judgmental. Maybe I'm just tired to see the injustice in the world which often falls onto the most innocent of creatures. Human and non human. whether its a baby monkey tied to a tree, a piglet in a meat farm, or a street kid begging in the streets of Pnam Penh. An injustice created by man and its egotistic ways. 

Maybe I'm in the middle if the tornado, watching all things go around me, to become aware of the speed at which everything spins around, showing the contrast of all different aspects of the world we live in. 

Maybe all of this is so I don't forget to continue to ask myself, how can I fully participate? How can I make of my existence a purposeful one?

The venting is over. Action must follow.