2 February 2022 — WALKING THROUGH THE WORLD HARMLESSLY

This implies leaving no trace that we have been anywhere. Today the philosophy seems to be the opposite — many people like the world to know that they have passed by.

LITTER is a problem today. In the past children were brought up not to drop litter and were punished for so doing. Today some people seem to feel it is OK to dispose of their litter on the ground whenever they have finished with it.

And, of course, many people leave their mark by drawing graffiti. Our friend GOOGLE reports that graffiti art has its beginnings in 1970’s New York when people began to use spray paint and other materials to create images on buildings and on the sides of subway trains.

The debate as to whether graffiti is indeed ART or VANDALISM is ongoing, and, of course, in Bristol we have the notorious Banksy whose graffiti is certainly seen as art!

WALKING THROUGH THE WORLD HARMLESSLY is a precept I took on board from my days when I was a Buddhist Nun. And in a sense it is easy for someone like me who feels an accepted part of society and doesn’t feel unnoticed and passed by. My self esteem is good. I have no reason to feel overlooked and therefore no need to make myself noticed in anti social ways.

AND SOME GRAFFITI I do enjoy. When, however, someone has just painted their back gate and the next day they find graffiti on it, I do feel that’s not on and feel cross and annoyed at the culprit and sympathetic towards the victim.

I also feel compassionate for the graffitist, however, because I feel in some way they have been overlooked by society and not received the education, warmth and love in childhood which we all deserve as children.

TIMES DO CHANGE. And CHANGE heralds in both good and bad precepts. Behaviour which was once unacceptable becomes acceptable.

PONDER POINTS: how I felt when reading the above was … what I think about the above is…. what I understand by the precept ‘walking through the world harmlessly’ is….what I think about this precept is …..what I feel about people dropping litter is …my thoughts on graffiti are …..