He stands dark by the train door. She notices his darkness and registers that this is a crucial moment somehow. She excuses herself by putting her brief case down on the floor next to him, and he stands aside and acknowledges the request politely. The train carriage fills up, and his darkness is pushed closer in her direction, and he becomes more familiar to her.
She opens the flap of her oversized shoulder bag with its striking red striped lining and takes out her iPad to continue mailing like everyone else on board. Then, she is no longer conscious of him as quite suddenly a tidal wave of compassion wells up and the arms of her heart open wide to gather up all the suffering, all the darkness and ignorance, all the greed, vulgarity and hatred of all beings in the world. She gently lays it under the light of the wisdom of the Holy Beings. Then, she closes her eyes briefly with the surge of human suffering, and a hot tear falls.
Just such a Holy Being writes about poor Thai people with no means or awareness of education or its power to develop potential, so they perpetuate abuse and negative values. The young men, beaten by their fathers, grasp their human entitlement to wealth by becoming pirates. They can earn a pittance in their locale but reject it in favour of raiding boats to steal gold and large hauls of money, and while they are at it, imitating the model of successful pirates before them, they rape the women on board. They are asleep while following other sleepers.
She blinks, becomes the pirate consumed with transient lust for a virgin’s jewels, and simultaneously becomes that plundered young woman. They are absolutely aspects of her and of her lineage. She is deluding herself if she thinks that none of her ancestors were pirates and none of them were raped. She is also blind if she feels that under the right circumstances and timing she herself would not plunder or rape.
But how can we break this loop of immoral behaviour spiralling down and down? Is Thailand a Buddhist country only in name? How can these pockets of ignorance and depravity still exist even in the countryside dotted with ancient monasteries and robed aspirants begging for alms from door to door? People may have a legacy of poverty and misfortune. Still, they live among those who offer themselves up to the Buddha and are models of contentment, sleeping in a narrow bed, giving freely, and living by strict rules of moral discipline. Has the lack of virtue of these pirates blinded them to any decency, to anything beyond their sensual needs and pride?
Pirates and violated women fill her heart, and again, she gathers them up and purifies them, exchanging herself for them. She knows them like she knows the dark stranger, so she looks round with moist eyes and a billowing heart, but he is gone. She feels their brief encounter was necessary during this welling up, this gathering up of all darkness. Their contact is not accidental.
Dwelling longer with the suffering and depraved making a lump in her throat, she leaves the train at her usual stop and follows the lines of workers going to their offices. She immediately climbs into the taxi, aware of her incredibly comfortable and bright life, celebrating the eradication of raping pirates in her particular urban ocean but vowing to always be mindful of all other oceans and their plights. She reaches into her bag to take out her iPad and continue with her administrative emails., but there is no network connection, so she reaches back into her bag to boost the signal with her portable Wi-Fi modem. But it is missing, along with her mobile phone!
Then, she understands his darkness exactly. He is a silent pirate and has plundered her, quietly slipping his hand under the flap of her bag to steal her treasures. Strap-hanging in a rapid commuter train, crowded with people, he has claimed his entitlement in urban Japan. There are no waves or ship’s masts, no readily available maidens, or casks of gold, but flying between the high-rise blocks and smart businesspeople, his legacy is apparent: ignorance, depravity, desperation. Countless temples and shrines are wedged between multiple train lines in this Buddhist country, and compulsory education for all children ensures a high level of manners. Still, he has remained in his pocket of poverty and ignorance. This is his darkness. This is their connection.
She willingly gives him her material items so revered in a high-tech society. However, their signals and numbers will be terminated as soon as she can get to a telephone to report this petty pickpocketing. Though deluded, she recognises that his need is more significant than hers if only satisfied momentarily. She imagines him in a corner, eagerly pressing buttons on her devices with dirty thumbs, finding them non-reactive, and angrily throwing their gleaming plastic at the concrete. She hears the crack and thud of impermanence, and his inward scream of desperation.
When she arrives at her workplace and discloses what happened to her colleagues and her need to borrow a phone to report this crime, they are shocked and protective. They lavish her with enquiries and fraternal suggestions of action taken in their experience of similar things. Still, she stays calm and says the thief’s desperation is more concerning than her expendable devices. They talk of ‘violation,’ and the Thai pirates and their rape victims are triggered in her heart. She reassures everyone around her that she does not feel ‘violated’ but cannot tell more about her connection with this dark stranger. Violation implies ‘the violator’ and ‘the violated’ in opposition. She knows she is both and that a separation is delusional.
Compassion is invisible, but its power reaches all realms. Every human being possesses this essence in their true nature. We can accumulate it and allow it to surge, and one day, our united compassion will awaken all the sleeping.
