Chumreap Suor Ream Chbang, Many thanks for your wise & kind words. You're good " Ream Chbang Yoeung ". Pls write more for us to learn & think for the future.
Cheers, Ung Bun Heang Hi Dagger: Glad to meet you mate, I hate to call you "Hong Chi Kong" it's kind of sketchy, and it tends to cause me flashback. It's good to hear from my Alma Mater. I left the school to start at ITSAK (Techno) in 1966. Lycée Sisowath was what you can either call a snake pit, or you can call it an eagle's nest, because it produced generations of hippies, communists, traitors, to military leaders, heroes, and genuine intellectuals which are active players on the Khmer political arena today. At any rate we ought to be thankful for the excellent education we have received in comparison to other Khmer juveniles such as Cousin Xen who without the benefit of a proper education failed to even distinguish his Khmer mother's milk from the Viet's poison. I was on the sideline when you and Sacrava battled each other out sending sparks and hot flaks flying everywhere. I had to run for cover and wait for the dust to settle. Please keep your gun pointing down- range, there is nothing to be gained from this altercation. I thought it was unnecessary, because at the end of the day none of our troubles and pains go away -- we ALL are inflicted with such a massive trauma in our lives by event beyond our control. Just remember that tolerance and patience are always in short supply in our case. Forgive me if I sound like I'm preaching morality here. But as a member of the greater Khmer clan, I would like to persuade everyone gathering around this site to consider this -- "KHEUNG KHOS, KHEUNG KHAT", why do we want to spill our own gut out for the world to see just to prove a point? Our elders taught us that when we spit while lying on our back, the saliva should fall right back on our own chest. We are not immortal, nor perfect being in anyway shape or form, so we need to learn to expect imperfection among ourselves. We have unfortunately become one traumatic, fractured, dysfunctional family, very vulnerable to fear, anger and pain, short of being schizophrenic. We have suffered such an immense pent up grief, and rage for so long that it has become almost a natural instinct to respond vigorously to preempt any semblance of such potential threat coming our way. In such a condition we always grab who is the nearest available target at hand and use it as a punching bag to let off steam, and ignoring the "collateral damage" which subsequently results. Not only that we are set out to destroy each other's ego but we also unknowingly undermine each other's self-esteem, and erode trust among Khmers in the process. In effect, we end up handing easy victory to our common enemies, however minute. In the name of our fallen classmates, friends, and relatives, I am asking you to consider this "cool" Hindu (a precursor to Buddhism) concept of the three Gunas (modes or qualities of the material world): Sattva-Guna: Purity, harmony, goodness, honesty, faithfulness, loyalty etc. Rajo-Guna: Energy, passion, love, hatred, greed, lust, anger, rage, malice, meanness etc. Tamo-Guna: Dark, ignorance, stupidity, mindlessness, cowardice, delusion etc. If you think, say, and act, or even kill, with purity of purpose you are not offending the gods -- i.e. Kings and soldiers who must go to war and not hesitate to kill to defend their land and people. In other words you have discharged your prescribed duty, you are free from sins, Indra will grant you the privilege to settle in his kingdom (at least from what I read in the Mahabharata). If you think, say, and act out of hatred and/or ignorance, you have offended the gods and you are doomed to go straight to be sentenced by Yuma. It is just a "cut and dry" basis for a quick and unambiguous reasoning, a very tempting option besides Buddha's strictly non- violent thought, word, and action precepts. Consider the legendary Hanuman, the monkey general in the "Epic of RAMAYA", all the times that he engaged in combats, he never berated his foes or have unkind words toward his opponents he just went about and performed his duty as a fighter in support of Rama's mission. Hanuman is no Schwarzenegger in appearance, but full of sense of pride and humor, true to his mission, humble, capable of love (or flirting). The whole saga of the Ramayana is about duty, purity of purpose to teach followers of Hinduism how to do a dirty job with seriousness and without hatred and anger. It is kind of hard to practice but there is no harm to try. Please remember, we soldiers were trained to put the right fire power on the right target, with extra patience, mental and physical endurance, and we should always be true to our duty and allegiance. Even now we do not have targets to concern about we should restraint ourselves from maliciously targeting our own kinfolks in anyway shape or form. Sacrava was trained in his vocation to interpret and illustrate the abstract and tangible meaning of world dynamics into an art form, and the practice of using artworks to inspire and persuade his target-audience. He might or might not be successful, but it appears that he is performing his duty with purity of purpose, albeit his message directly or indirectly steps on lots of toes and brushes some egos causing a certain sector of people to be offended. It is the true aim of arts --drive a message home and provokes one to start soul- searching. To be righteous --meaning do away with our likes and dislikes, and set our political persuasion aside, we ought to leave him in peace to pursue his objective and goal in life, which might not be far different from yours and mine. There are just so much more important things to think about besides taking a potshot at your own kin. Let's us all agree to disagree! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cambodia Discussion (CAMDISC) - www.cambodia.org" group. This is an unmoderated forum. Please refrain from using foul language. Thank you for your understanding. Peace among us and in Cambodia. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/camdisc Learn more - http://www.cambodia.org
