A New Day

All my deeds and past days were dark and full of evil. But a new day is come.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Children of Húrin

Within the Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien, is the tale (later edited and compiled as The Children of Húrin) of one human warrior named Túrin. The wicked father of dragons, Glaurung, has poisoned his mind and he goes mad with grief and (among other terrible crimes) mistakenly kills his elven friend.

Later, in a flash of awakening, through an encounter with another friend, he realizes what Glaurung has done to confuse him and lead him astray. He can’t change the past, but his mind is clear and he resolves to start over and focus on the task at hand: defeating the dragon and the dark forces of his land.

The Buddhist archetype for this is Angulimala: a ruthless madman that inflicted great harm, but in a moment of clarity changed his ways. This is how the Buddha-Dharma often works.

Anyway, the reason why I mention all this is that like the quote by Tolkien, each day is a new day. That doesn’t mean the karma you’ve created in the past will magically go away, but today is a chance to start over and try again.

KIRK: [War] is instinctive. But the instinct can be fought. We’re human beings with the blood of a million savage years on our hands! But we can stop it. We can admit that we’re killers… but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! Knowing that we’re not going to kill – today!

Star Trek, “A Taste of Armageddon”, stardate 3192.1

We still have our debts to pay off, but today we can choose to be a better person.

Namu Shakamuni Butsu