know<\/em> that the wrong-doer was incredibly, amazingly, horrifically wrong, the difficulty is compounded almost infinitely.<\/p>\nSo it’s with deep relief that I bring you the Dalai Lama on bin Laden’s death. I felt so much better after reading this:<\/p>\n
As a human being, Bin Laden may have deserved compassion and even forgiveness, the Dalai Lama said in answer to a question about the assassination of the Al Qaeda leader. But, he said, “Forgiveness doesn’t mean forget what happened. \u2026 If something is serious and it is necessary to take counter-measures, you have to take counter-measures.” ~ Dalai Lama at USC, LA Times<\/em><\/p>\nCounter-measures. Somehow the very word implies more balance than I had felt previously. Thank you, Your Holiness, from an Okie still trying to make sense of this complex world. I don’t have to forgive bin Laden’s actions, or even him. I can go on to the next conundrum the world poses for me :).
\n<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lately I’ve been losing sleep (really) over the rhetoric on the news about bin Laden’s death. People are rejoicing, and somehow, that seems wrong to me. Although I understand it when it’s New Yorkers — after all, their city was devastated by 9\/11 and bin Laden’s machinations. Many NYers still struggle w\/ the aftereffects of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,6,3,15,8,1],"tags":[1184,1181,1177,1183],"class_list":["post-82","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bin-laden","category-britton-gildersleeve","category-buddhist","category-compassion","category-dalai-lama","category-uncategorized","tag-bin-laden","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhist","tag-dalai-lama"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>And perhaps it’s because I don’t know how I feel about bin Laden’s death myself. He was, undoubtedly, a very\u00a0 bad person. I don’t use the term ‘evil’ very often, but he has to come pretty close. Because love is such a big part of my spiritual path, I try hard to forgive people for what they do. I think that’s important. But forgive bin Laden? Wow…<\/p>\n