Outsider



In the book "The Outsider" by Albert Camus, the protagonist was partly sentenced to death for his seemingly socially unfitting behaviour, when there was ethically nothing wrong with his refusal to behave "normally" like the rest of the crowd. He was somewhat deemed a murderer by "virtue" of his unconventionality and the circumstances which seem to point fingers at his apparent but non-existent guilt. It suggests that society easily morally outcasts those who do not behave like itself, despite the fact that the majority is not always right in ts judgement of the minority and its beliefs. For example, mych of the world believed that the Earth was flat, and punished those who believed otherwise for heretical thinking. And the so called heretics are naturally the usual suspects for crime and rebellion. But the majority was wrong- they were the real heretics in the name of Truth. These wrong persecuters of "heretics" still exist in our society today- they are the ones who mistaken the untruthful for the truth and thus base their sense of justice on injustice. The Buddha Himself, was surely considered a "heretic" to the prevalent religions in His time when He started teaching. I told May about the book and she was interested to borrow it.

Later on, at the dinner table in a restaurant, the rest were chatting about a Chinese expression "Bu1 Shi1 Ren1 Jian1 Yan1 Huo1", which roughly translates to "Does not partake of the smoke and fire of this world." This expression describes a person as one who seems otherworldly in his or her ways, not necessarily in a good or bad way. It can range from being cool yet aloof, to original but cold... May silently pointed at me and smiled. The rest didn't understand, but I remarked to her that she just sentenced me to death. It was true. For all at the table, I was the most unconventional- so much so that despite us all being practising Buddhists, I would be the prime suspect for murder should one of us get mysteriously killed. Haha... I shold have scared May but saying, "Now that you have pointed me out, I would have to kill you!" JoinMailingList4LatestUpdates/Reply