Survival instinct -self protection

Last night, I was at Gurney Plaza, one of the big commercial mall in Penang. I watch a movie, Mission Impossible with my wife and when the movie finished it was already almost 11pm and mall was almost deserted. My wife and I have to find a way to the car park to get to our car to go home. Onnce out of the mall, there was a massive jam and the cars are trying to overtake each other to reach home and it was a race who can inched their car ahead of others in this cramped field. Yes, everyone is for themselves.This is the animal survival instinct in all human beings.

This morning I read in the newspaper that an Italian cruise ship sank and there were several people killed or missing. There was total confusion and panic as there were 4000 over passengers on the ship. People were stealing the safety float from each other and everyone rushing for the safety boats and knock over old people and Children. There was a report that the people became animals in such panicky situations. Normally, our worst character will come out when we are threaten. It maybe our living, our job, our ego and so on. Human beings are able to share fortunes but cannot share losses and in our History, there are many cases of killing or counter attack to protect one's survival.

Why is it so? Why can't we sacrifice for others? We are all inter-connected so we are all for one and one for all. This wisdom is only shared by few who have attained some level of enlightenment. We have often heard about TIbetian monks burning themselves to death to support the return of the Dalai Lama or support of the return of Tibet from China to the Tibetian people. These courage to sacrifice is really an amazing feat. For these people, they do not fear death and they could control their mind and body to carry out the feat.

We are not talking about these greatness of self sacrifice but a small monetary donation is also very difficult. The gift of giving is small token of self sacriice and yet it is not easy to have the determination to give. Getting more is a normal behaviour and it is always carried out with passion and energy. But, giving needs more effort than to take.

The message is that our ego is bigger than the Universe and having more of everything comes from the ego. If we are aware of this wisdom and break the ego, the solution will naturally appeared and you will be more in control of your mind and your body.

Namaste.