Bruce the boy, who was just bereaved of his parents in a robbery shootout, is in his bedroom, under the covers in the dark. He trembles in grief… but is suddenly resolved, as the grief transforms to rage for what seems like vengeance. He goes to Alfred the butler’s room. At his doorway, he proclaims steely, ‘They’re going to pay… All of them. I’m going to make them pay, and you are going to help me.’
Harley Quinn (Harlequin) later asks Bruce as Batman (i.e. not ‘Batboy’), ‘How many criminals do you have to catch before you feel better? Ten? Twenty?’ If Bruce’s mind matured as he grew, perhaps his vengeance against one killer further transformed… to be the purely altruistic drive to seek justice for all? And perhaps his wanting of criminals to ‘pay’ has transformed to wanting them to reform?
If he learns Buddhism, he can even further ‘upgrade’ his motivation to be based on the Bodhi Mind, to guide one and all to Buddhahood, including the evillest he encounters, with his skills of ‘manifesting’ wrathfulness to ‘educate’. Yet, once there is actual anger, he would be a lapsed Bodhisattva in the moment, a spiritual heroic work still in progress. His constant challenge is to not give in to the evil of hatred.
In a sense, Bruce Junior took the murder of his parents personally. However, karmically, his bereavement was both personal and not. It was personal because conventionally, he must have the negative karma to deserve the suffering of loss. It was not personal because ultimately, there was no fixed Bruce who deserved that. It is with ‘this’ fluxing Bruce, that he was able to remake himself, for the greater good.
As taught by Śākyamuni Buddha (释迦牟尼佛) in the Brahma Net Sūtra’s Bodhisattva Precepts’ Text《梵网菩萨戒本》in the ‘Twenty-First (Light) Precept Against With Anger Beating And Getting Revenge’ (第二十一瞋打报仇戒), ‘If as Buddhas’ [Bodhisattva] disciples, they must not, with anger get revenge for others’ anger, with beating get revenge for others’ beating. If those killed are their fathers, mothers, brothers, [sisters and] six close relatives, they must not inflict revenge… Killing lives to avenge lives, does not accord with the filial path…’ (若佛子！不得以瞋报瞋，以打报打。若杀父母兄弟六亲，不得加报。… 杀生报生，不顺孝道。…)
Because revenge is always fuelled by anger, and because anger is the most destructive of the three poisons (三毒) of greed, anger and delusion (贪嗔痴), to feed fuel to the fire of others already angry and even violent only worsens the situation for everyone involved. While it is alright to defend and apprehend, to physically punish or even kill spurs more hatred, which creates evil affinities straightaway.
There should not be revenge even for family members, whom we have the most attachment to, because all are family members over many past lives, including the deluded angry and violent ones. To be filial would be to try to urge all parties to cool down, to realise the errors of fighting and retaliating. Such ill ways do not resolve matters at hand, while creating repercussions that haunt on, in this and future lives.
