In the spring of 2009, I saw a pickup truck with “My boss is a Jewish carpenter” on one bumper and “This vehicle will be unoccupied in case of Rapture” on the other.
Centered on the glass behind the passenger compartment was the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor (the logo of the Marines), under which appeared the word:
SNIPER
I wanted to pull the guy over and ask him if he could detect any incongruity between his bumper stickers. If I had, he most likely would not have given me a reasoned discourse in support of the proposition that the stickers were not actually contradictory at all.
I forgot all about that incident until today when I saw yet another vehicle with a Marine Corps sticker on the rear window and a “Keep Christ in Christmas” bumper sticker. I think it’s called cognitive dissonance but to me it’s just plain amazing that someone proud to be a warrior is concerned about keeping Christmas a religious holiday as distinguished from an excuse for secular shopping binges.
If your job is to shoot people in the head using a high-powered rifle having a telescopic sight, and if you are so proud of that job that you openly advertise it, and expect a heavenly reward for your actions, you are one deluded human being. A human being more in need of pity than compassion.
Shooting people is not exactly Right Action.
If you have a less aggressive role to play on this earth, perhaps you’ll understand the concept of loving kindness a little easier than someone who is hostile to the very idea of a human family.
Those who are hostile to other humans are of course without mercy when it comes to killing cows, pigs, and other unfortunate sentient beings.
Regardless of where we stand on the spectrum of humanity having on one end a fierce individuality, together with the anger, hatred and fear that comes with it and on the other end a fearless, happy kindness, all of us have Buddha nature buried within us.
Some of us work to cultivate metta/loving kindness, bringing more happiness into the human dharma realm. Some of us work to bring more hatred and sadness into the world.
Those who proudly proclaim through their bumper stickers that they are demons have a lot of cultivation to do in the future. Lacking wisdom, they have to travel down to the immense suffering at the bottom of the dharma realms before they realize they need to go the other way. The wise do not have to learn everything the hard way.
So when we cultivate loving kindness, we include every sniper in the world and hope that they may be well, happy, calm and peaceful.
Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness
