Friday, November 05, 2010

Prison of Anger: Death of Darren Ng





The Dhammapada says:

"He whose conduct is very bad,
Is like oak tree choked with ivy;
So does he inflict upon himself,
what enemies would wish for him."

A young boy's life was lost for nothing, all because of a staring incident between 2 groups of youths. Those 4 guys who killed him are themselves charged with murder, their own lives ruined. The root cause for all this violence and tragedy is none other than their own Anger. Anger is their prison, for it binds and burns these kids, reducing them all to ashes in the end. Even the friends of the victim show themselves to be full of anger at the funeral; little do they realize what consequences such behaviour will bring for them in the near future.
Young people today have no education in the Dhamma, and as such they have no control over their base emotions. Unrestrained, these emotions drive them to do all sorts of foolish deeds, leading to their own ruin. If Darren and his friends could suppress their anger and just walk away from the other group's "challenge", it would not have ended up in bloodshed. There is a time to fight and there is a time to just walk away. Those wise in the Dhamma avoid conflict even before it can materialize into action, by shutting one's eyes and ears from external bad influences. Ignorant people think that to walk away from a fight is cowardice, but it takes true courage to overcome your own ego and do the right thing. If we have to fight, it will be for a just cause; to protect the weak and the innocent. Never to support our own egos or out of anger for those who offend us. This is the way of the Dhamma warrior. Hope all the angry young people out there can learn a lesson from this tragedy.

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