When a mad dog takes an exceeding large bite out of society, many will speak of it as a disaster, but not a “natural” disaster like an earthquake (which may kill thousands). Their thoughts want to see the mad dog acts as being an un-natural disaster, but there is no such thing. It is not possible for anything un-natural to occur in the universe. Ordinary men are comforted by professing this view, and clinging to the belief that only insane, inhuman, unnatural men would do such an unnatural thing, when the root base of each man’s mind knows this to not be correct.
A person killed by a typhoon is no more “naturally” gone than one slain by a robber’s bullet. Another human being’s life being taken saddens any other real human being, and the closer your blood or personal connection, the deeper the sorrow. But allowing, even encouraging, thoughts in your own head that play, play and replay again the death – and the doing that may have caused the death – serves no individually constructive purpose, (not for those whose hunger to understand is not subdued even by physical tragedy).
You and everyone else will die soon and inevitably enough – that is each person’s ultimate destruction. But between here and that time, what do you do with the apparent freedom you have to “do”? Do you relentlessly struggle to stay mentally aware that you are an individual, even amidst the sea of everyone else? Remember that your consciousness has the built-in sensation that it is free to think whatever it chooses? Do you secretly fight to exercise this inner maneuvering room to its full constructive and creative advantage?
Simply put to the few: Do you constantly struggle to stay awake, or do you tolerate, and even encourage activity in your mind which you know causes you to sleep and be destructive to your very own personal aim to gain understanding of life – not be a critic of it, and thus a destroyer of it.
There is nothing more constructive and beneficial that any human being can do, than to shake himself from the groggy grip of his automatic thinking and criticisms. If you know what is wrong about life – go out and fix it – but if you do not do so first in yourself, you will become a mad dog. Do not imitate others in any way – that is the supreme act of destruction.
J.