I was told the story about nuns during a civil war. I couldn’t verify it. It could be a parable but it doesn’t hurt to repeat it.

Villagers were being attacked and killed in their homes by rival factions and their bodies were thrown into the river. A group of nuns living on a convent further downstream started finding bodies in the river and pulled them out and buried them. Over time the body count increased. When the numbers kept increasing the nuns stopped collecting bodies, packed their things and headed upriver to find the source and try to stop the killing.

At some point, you stop collecting bodies and you try to stop the killing.

“It is not enough to be compassionate, we must act.”
— Dalai Lama XIV

Photo by Gláuber Sampaio on Unsplash