Desire (to get what we want) and anger (to avoid what we don’t want) are familiar to us. But ignorance is perhaps less familiar, because we don’t see it correctly. In Buddha’s teaching, ignorance is our attachment to certainty – or certainties. These are our fixed beliefs, views, opinions, constructs, and other states that constrain our ability to flex and flow with changing circumstance.

And so perhaps our cruelties and sadistic actions arise directly from these certainties.

Because certainty can never respond to this marvelous world of change in which we live.

It’s like a boulder dropped into a stream. It only obstructs and hampers the smooth flow of water.

Well, I’m being poetic and I clearly haven’t looked into this matter of cruelty as deeply as you. Again, I do appreciate the care and concern behind your examination. Thank you!

Even in cases where one is dealing with survivors of sexual abuse this holds true, where the first step is to embrace one’s suffering and transform it into compassion.

I have been involved with a lot of folks who work with restorative justice programs and one of the purposes is to re-humanize both victim to the offender and offender to the victim. Then healing can take place. It is a delicate process. But that’s where this idea originated.