New Ideas to Contemplate (please browse, most recent at the top)
Urgent, Fresh Looks at the Importance of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki Commemorations - August 6th & 9th
An essay by Jack Lawlor, August 6, 2024
Dear CAPA [Chicago Area Peace Action] friends,
Within four months after the atomic bomb attacks against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 31-year-old war correspondent John Hersey went to Hiroshima, interviewed survivors, and wrote a series of stunning articles for The New Yorker which we know today as his book, Hiroshima. The book does not treat this first use of atomic weapons as abstraction - instead, it personalizes the nature of the resulting individual suffering to six survivors, in ways left unexplored in the recent movie Oppenheimer.
For many years, Hiroshima became mandatory summer reading on some high school summer book lists. I remember reading it in the hot summer sun of a golf caddy yard, moved deeply by the descriptions of severe burns, mysterious persistent radiation sickness, and efforts to rebuild life in the rubble of an irradiated city. The book moved me to question my complete pro-U.S. bias and inquire about how to protect humanity and the earth.
The commemorations of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic attacks are more relevant than ever, because we may not have learned all that we can from them. Since 1950 many, and perhaps all, U.S. administrations have threatened or hinted at use of nuclear weapons. President Putin of Russia has been threatening to use tactical nuclear weapons against Ukraine, a step which could lead to unforeseeable consequences. He is already using hypersonic weaponry against Ukraine, another unprecedented escalation.
What can we as citizens do to protect ourselves, our descendants, the earth? We need to join hands and make international discussion of this issue much more of a top priority.
I wish we could say there is an arc of progress in efforts to regulate nuclear arms. But the arc is going in the wrong direction:
1. For all practical purposes, there are no longer effective arms control treaties in effect between the U.S. and Russia. They have expired or are expiring.
2. There are now at least nine countries with nuclear weapons, stockpiling more than 13,000 weapons.
3. The U.S. budget allocates $22.4 billion, yes billion, annually for nuclear weapons and is in the midst of a massive modernization program encountering large cost overruns. The land-based Sentinel nuclear missile program, which maintains hidden-in-plain site underground silos in a handful of Plains states, just reported a 37% and growing cost overrun. The U.S. Defense Department just gave the green light for moving forward nonetheless.
4. There have been U.N. resolutions like the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) pledging member countries to forego first use of nuclear weapons. This is an admirable effort, but its legal effectiveness thus far is questionable as the nine nations who possess nuclear weapons either have not signed, or privately feel free to violate the treaty.
5. U.S. peace and justice groups have been pushing hard for the U.S. to forego first use of nuclear weapons. Senator Markley of Massachusetts and U.S. Representative Ted Lieu, among others, have been leading the efforts, but the legislative resolutions stall in a toxically divided Congress pre-occupied with elections and culture wars.
6. The peace and justice groups’ efforts have tried to regulate, for the first time, a U.S. president’s authority to authorize a nuclear attack. Apart from verifying that the order to launch comes from the President, U.S. protocols do not require discussion or review of the order to attack by any other U.S. official. This is remarkably dangerous, should an autocratic or unstable individual occupy the Oval Office.
What can we do?
We cannot assume the U.S. public is very familiar with much of this, and thus we should begin a dialogue that uses plain language to demonstrate the need to avoid future Hiroshimas. We encourage people to:
• learn more about the situation, using resources such as Arms Control Today magazine and The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft;
• attend the many webinars on this subject led by experts in the field and offered by organizations like Back From the Brink and The Union of Concerned Scientists, and a variety of U.S. peace and justice groups;
• above all, join with other people in your community through groups such as Chicago Area Peace Action. You’ll learn a lot from others and they will appreciate your insights and talents. Seasoned groups know how to work with elected officials and their staff members, elevating the effectiveness of your efforts enormously.
At the conclusion of his excellent book, Hiroshima Nagasaki, author Paul Ham points out the irony of how accelerating weapons technology has exceeded human capacity to control it. In doing so he cites two of the people involved in the drama behind the recent movie, Oppenheimer.
First, he paraphrases Albert Einstein for the insight that “The splitting of the atom changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” Then, he turns to an insight from the often taciturn President Truman: “The human animal and his emotions change not much from age to age. He must change now or he faces absolute and complete destruction, and then maybe the insect age or an atmosphere-less planet will succeed him.”
Let’s ponder this with the curiosity of a young John Hersey and work together to prevent another Hiroshima.
In peace,
Jack Lawlor, Member
Chicago Area Peace Action - Foreign Policy Working Group
and Nagasaki Commemorations - August 6th & 9th
An essay by Jack Lawlor, August 6, 2024
Dear CAPA [Chicago Area Peace Action] friends,
Within four months after the atomic bomb attacks against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 31-year-old war correspondent John Hersey went to Hiroshima, interviewed survivors, and wrote a series of stunning articles for The New Yorker which we know today as his book, Hiroshima. The book does not treat this first use of atomic weapons as abstraction - instead, it personalizes the nature of the resulting individual suffering to six survivors, in ways left unexplored in the recent movie Oppenheimer.
For many years, Hiroshima became mandatory summer reading on some high school summer book lists. I remember reading it in the hot summer sun of a golf caddy yard, moved deeply by the descriptions of severe burns, mysterious persistent radiation sickness, and efforts to rebuild life in the rubble of an irradiated city. The book moved me to question my complete pro-U.S. bias and inquire about how to protect humanity and the earth.
The commemorations of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic attacks are more relevant than ever, because we may not have learned all that we can from them. Since 1950 many, and perhaps all, U.S. administrations have threatened or hinted at use of nuclear weapons. President Putin of Russia has been threatening to use tactical nuclear weapons against Ukraine, a step which could lead to unforeseeable consequences. He is already using hypersonic weaponry against Ukraine, another unprecedented escalation.
What can we as citizens do to protect ourselves, our descendants, the earth? We need to join hands and make international discussion of this issue much more of a top priority.
I wish we could say there is an arc of progress in efforts to regulate nuclear arms. But the arc is going in the wrong direction:
1. For all practical purposes, there are no longer effective arms control treaties in effect between the U.S. and Russia. They have expired or are expiring.
2. There are now at least nine countries with nuclear weapons, stockpiling more than 13,000 weapons.
3. The U.S. budget allocates $22.4 billion, yes billion, annually for nuclear weapons and is in the midst of a massive modernization program encountering large cost overruns. The land-based Sentinel nuclear missile program, which maintains hidden-in-plain site underground silos in a handful of Plains states, just reported a 37% and growing cost overrun. The U.S. Defense Department just gave the green light for moving forward nonetheless.
4. There have been U.N. resolutions like the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) pledging member countries to forego first use of nuclear weapons. This is an admirable effort, but its legal effectiveness thus far is questionable as the nine nations who possess nuclear weapons either have not signed, or privately feel free to violate the treaty.
5. U.S. peace and justice groups have been pushing hard for the U.S. to forego first use of nuclear weapons. Senator Markley of Massachusetts and U.S. Representative Ted Lieu, among others, have been leading the efforts, but the legislative resolutions stall in a toxically divided Congress pre-occupied with elections and culture wars.
6. The peace and justice groups’ efforts have tried to regulate, for the first time, a U.S. president’s authority to authorize a nuclear attack. Apart from verifying that the order to launch comes from the President, U.S. protocols do not require discussion or review of the order to attack by any other U.S. official. This is remarkably dangerous, should an autocratic or unstable individual occupy the Oval Office.
What can we do?
We cannot assume the U.S. public is very familiar with much of this, and thus we should begin a dialogue that uses plain language to demonstrate the need to avoid future Hiroshimas. We encourage people to:
• learn more about the situation, using resources such as Arms Control Today magazine and The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft;
• attend the many webinars on this subject led by experts in the field and offered by organizations like Back From the Brink and The Union of Concerned Scientists, and a variety of U.S. peace and justice groups;
• above all, join with other people in your community through groups such as Chicago Area Peace Action. You’ll learn a lot from others and they will appreciate your insights and talents. Seasoned groups know how to work with elected officials and their staff members, elevating the effectiveness of your efforts enormously.
At the conclusion of his excellent book, Hiroshima Nagasaki, author Paul Ham points out the irony of how accelerating weapons technology has exceeded human capacity to control it. In doing so he cites two of the people involved in the drama behind the recent movie, Oppenheimer.
First, he paraphrases Albert Einstein for the insight that “The splitting of the atom changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” Then, he turns to an insight from the often taciturn President Truman: “The human animal and his emotions change not much from age to age. He must change now or he faces absolute and complete destruction, and then maybe the insect age or an atmosphere-less planet will succeed him.”
Let’s ponder this with the curiosity of a young John Hersey and work together to prevent another Hiroshima.
In peace,
Jack Lawlor, Member
Chicago Area Peace Action - Foreign Policy Working Group
Audio of David Loy’s talk at DePaul University
http://audio.ancientdragon.org/20171028DT_ADZG_buddhism_modern_world_need_each_other.mp3
Audio of David Loy’s talk at Ancient Dragon Zen Gate Temple
http://audio.ancientdragon.org/20171029DT_ADZG_new_bodhisattva_path_for_today.mp3
http://audio.ancientdragon.org/20171028DT_ADZG_buddhism_modern_world_need_each_other.mp3
Audio of David Loy’s talk at Ancient Dragon Zen Gate Temple
http://audio.ancientdragon.org/20171029DT_ADZG_new_bodhisattva_path_for_today.mp3
Burma/Rohingya Crisis
A Letter from Jack Lawlor
Dear Friends,
Many Buddhist practitioners have recently been asking, "How can we help the over 420,000 Rohingya refugees, who practice a form of Islam, and who are fleeing the Buddhist country known as Myanmar ( formerly Burma ) during past four weeks into neighboring, impoverished Bangladesh?" On Saturday, September 23, members of Lakeside Buddha Sangha and the Chicago Chapter of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship participated in a non-violent demonstration on behalf of the Rohingya on the crowded "Magnificent Mile" shopping district on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago in order to obtain some answers. Photos of the event are attached. With one exception, the demonstrators were respectful of Buddhism and did not demonize the Buddhist religion. Over 200 Rohingya participated. Speakers included Congresswoman Jan Shakowsky of Evanston and Azeem Ibrahim, author of the 2016 book Entitled "The Rohingya: Inside Myanmar's Hidden Genocide" published by Hurst & Company, London. What follow is a description of what we learned and accompanying materials.
I. GENERAL BACKGROUND. Many believe this crisis has been in the making and "out in the open" for those mindfully attentive to see for the past five or more years. The Myanmar government's growing oppression of the Rohingya has been responsibly covered during that period by The New York Times and other newspapers. Lion's Roar and other Buddhist publications have been providing increasing coverage, particularly in the past year. If you are unfamiliar, please consult them as well as the linked September 19 "CBS News Update" which summarizes both past history as well as the latest turn of events quite well.
II. WHO ARE THE ROHINGYA? The United Nations has referred to the Rohingya, who practice a form of Islam, as "the most persecuted minority in the world". Although deprived of essential human rights in the Buddhist country known as Myanmar, Azeem Ibrahim's book establishes that the Rohingya have lived in Myanmar for centuries and that there is no basis for the discrimination against them.
III. WHO IS EXPRESSING CONCERN AND WHY? From time to time, the government of Myanmar has launched military operations which drive Rohingya civilians out of Myanmar. The Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh and others began expressing concern to Myanmar's leadership approximately five years ago, and have communicated their additional concerns to State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi this year as well. In addition to preventing the suffering of so many refugees fleeing to impoverished Bangladesh so quickly, concern grows that less non-violent factions will take advantage of the situation and sow seeds of discord and hatred among practitioners of Islam in other countries in South Asia where, thus far, these religions and their practitioners have co-existed in peace. The radicalization of Islamic youth is a particular concern.
IV. HOW CAN BUDDHISTS HELP?
A. GET TO KNOW THE ROHINGYA PEOPLE. In his Fourth Mindfulness Training of the Order of Interbeing, Thich Nhat Hanh urges us not to close our eyes before suffering. Our local Sangha and Buddhist Peace Fellowship Chapter sought out Rohingya refugees to explain how we did not support the actions of the Myanmar government and to ask how to help. Feel free to write Nasir Zacharia or his staff at the Rohingya Culture Center in Chicago at [email protected]. They may be able to link you with Rohingya centers and refugee groups in your area.
B. PROVIDE FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO THE REFUGEES. We made inquiries at Saturday's event to determine the most effective way to provide financial relief. After consulting with Hoda Katebi of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and with the Burma Task Force, the best we can suggest under present circumstances is to recommend donations through the Rohingya Culture Center, which has a Pay Pal application on its web page. As shown in the Rohingya Culture Center Programs publication, the Center is already providing relief to Rohingya refugees which include language classes and social services.
C. PROVIDE POLITICAL SUPPORT. In her September 23 remarks, Ninth District Illinois Congressman Jan Shakowsky reminded us that silence is complicity. She suggests others follow her example and write to Aung San Suu Kyi, State Counsellor of Myanmar, asking that "clearance operations against the Rohingya be ended immediately" and that "a U.N. Human Rights Commission Fact Finding Mission" be allowed to enter Myanmar immediately to assess the violence. I wrote to Aung San Suu Kyi earlier this year on behalf of The North American Dharma Teacher's Sangha in Thay's tradition, and the only address I could locate for her is "Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, State Counsellor of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Office of the State Counsellor, Office No. 20, Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar." I could not locate an email address. If you like, you can also write to the country's official leader," President U Htin Kyaw, The Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Office of the President, Office No. 18, Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar." As you know, such letters in Thich Nhat Hanh's tradition are offered as "love letters" which are carefully written to convey empathy and insight into the dilemmas facing the government official being addressed, while at the same time describing the suffering which needs to be remedied with their assistance. We refrain from demonizing the person we are writing to. As Sister Chan Khong reminds us, we strive to write a letter that our addressee is willing to read to conclusion, and not throw away! Before writing your letters, also please study the What You Can Do Next Regarding the Rohingya Crisis flyer published by the Rohingya Culture Center and the Burma Task Force Report. The "What You Can Do… " flyer describes how to gain your U.S. Senator's and U.S. Congressman's support for pending Congressional resolutions that condemn attacks by the Myanmar military, which call for the cessation of U.S. military aid to Myanmar, and which call for the restoration of Rohingya citizenship in Myanmar. The Burma Task Force Report supplies ideas for urging U.S. representatives for urging the United Nations to provide safe zones, the cessation of military aid to Myanmar, sanctions against Myanmar, and support for Bangladesh. Once you've done this, it's easy to find the address of your particular U.S. Senator and Congressional representative on-line to send your "love letter" enlisting their cooperation!
D. BECOME SOCIALLY ENGAGED IN PRAGMATIC WAYS! I've been asked by people of all ages and backgrounds, what was the Buddhist community doing while the Myanmar military gradually increased the forms of repression against the Rohingya? How did things get to this point? I have pleased to be able refer to prior correspondence dating back several years directed to Aung San Suu Kyi and the government of Myanmar from the Dalai Lama and from Thich Nhat Hanh, as well as from Sister Chan Khong and from the North American Association of Dharma Teachers in Thay's lineage, but is this enough? Some are now expressing concern that all of Buddhism is being placed in a bad light as the result of actions taking place in Buddhist Myanmar. This concern is well taken: what is taking place in Myanmar does not have the support of Buddhists worldwide and cannot be reconciled with the Buddha's teachings. Nonetheless, the first priority of Buddhists worldwide should be to stand with the Rohingya NOW to protect their lives and their human rights and to provide financial, material and political support to mitigate and eventually stop the suffering. Doing so promptly is the most effective way to demonstrate to the world that military actions in Myanmar do not have the support of the world wide Buddhist community which seeks to dwell in peace with people of all religious backgrounds throughout the world. How do we show support? Seek out the Rohingya. Work with them and with the academic community to organize teach-ins. For example, I have been asked to provide the opening statement to a program entitled "Saving the Rohingya: Stopping Genocide and Volunteering in Chicago" hosted by Roosevelt University on Monday, October 2 featuring Azeem Ibrahim and the Directors of the Rohingya Culture Center and the Burma Task Force. A teach-in is a lovely way to build understanding despite initial difficulties and challenges. Our Chicago Chapter of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship has successfully organized teach-ins on an equally difficult subject, our nation's relations with Iran, working in tandem with peace groups from other faith traditions.
E. A CLOSING REQUEST…. Allow me to conclude with a special plea… We have all witnessed increasing expressions of concern among Buddhist practitioners regarding setbacks on social justice issues that previously seemed to be progressing in a healthy direction. Now, social workers have reported to me that practitioners are so concerned about the spread of injustice and inequity in the world that they are having trouble sleeping or having sleep disorders. Fortunately, we can take refuge in the basics of meditation-based mindfulness practice offered by Thay to address these symptoms. But Thay has also taught how mindfulness, concentration and insight flourish through consistent meditation-based mindfulness practice, providing the understanding necessary to untie the knots of unhealthy causes and conditions afflicting people at primal, root levels and to find ways to mitigate suffering through the application of understanding, compassion and love. If you have time, and you are an active Dharma Teacher in ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh, please give some thought to joining the Transformation and Healing Committee of The North American Dharma Teachers Sangha established a few years ago to help engage Thay's teachings in the world in these and other pragmatic ways (current members include Jack Lawlor, John Bell, Kenley Neufeld, Lyn Fine, Richard Brady, and Joann Rosen. The committee meets the Third Thursday at 7:30am PT).
In gratitude, Jack Lawlor, True Direction
A Letter from Jack Lawlor
Dear Friends,
Many Buddhist practitioners have recently been asking, "How can we help the over 420,000 Rohingya refugees, who practice a form of Islam, and who are fleeing the Buddhist country known as Myanmar ( formerly Burma ) during past four weeks into neighboring, impoverished Bangladesh?" On Saturday, September 23, members of Lakeside Buddha Sangha and the Chicago Chapter of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship participated in a non-violent demonstration on behalf of the Rohingya on the crowded "Magnificent Mile" shopping district on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago in order to obtain some answers. Photos of the event are attached. With one exception, the demonstrators were respectful of Buddhism and did not demonize the Buddhist religion. Over 200 Rohingya participated. Speakers included Congresswoman Jan Shakowsky of Evanston and Azeem Ibrahim, author of the 2016 book Entitled "The Rohingya: Inside Myanmar's Hidden Genocide" published by Hurst & Company, London. What follow is a description of what we learned and accompanying materials.
I. GENERAL BACKGROUND. Many believe this crisis has been in the making and "out in the open" for those mindfully attentive to see for the past five or more years. The Myanmar government's growing oppression of the Rohingya has been responsibly covered during that period by The New York Times and other newspapers. Lion's Roar and other Buddhist publications have been providing increasing coverage, particularly in the past year. If you are unfamiliar, please consult them as well as the linked September 19 "CBS News Update" which summarizes both past history as well as the latest turn of events quite well.
II. WHO ARE THE ROHINGYA? The United Nations has referred to the Rohingya, who practice a form of Islam, as "the most persecuted minority in the world". Although deprived of essential human rights in the Buddhist country known as Myanmar, Azeem Ibrahim's book establishes that the Rohingya have lived in Myanmar for centuries and that there is no basis for the discrimination against them.
III. WHO IS EXPRESSING CONCERN AND WHY? From time to time, the government of Myanmar has launched military operations which drive Rohingya civilians out of Myanmar. The Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh and others began expressing concern to Myanmar's leadership approximately five years ago, and have communicated their additional concerns to State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi this year as well. In addition to preventing the suffering of so many refugees fleeing to impoverished Bangladesh so quickly, concern grows that less non-violent factions will take advantage of the situation and sow seeds of discord and hatred among practitioners of Islam in other countries in South Asia where, thus far, these religions and their practitioners have co-existed in peace. The radicalization of Islamic youth is a particular concern.
IV. HOW CAN BUDDHISTS HELP?
A. GET TO KNOW THE ROHINGYA PEOPLE. In his Fourth Mindfulness Training of the Order of Interbeing, Thich Nhat Hanh urges us not to close our eyes before suffering. Our local Sangha and Buddhist Peace Fellowship Chapter sought out Rohingya refugees to explain how we did not support the actions of the Myanmar government and to ask how to help. Feel free to write Nasir Zacharia or his staff at the Rohingya Culture Center in Chicago at [email protected]. They may be able to link you with Rohingya centers and refugee groups in your area.
B. PROVIDE FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO THE REFUGEES. We made inquiries at Saturday's event to determine the most effective way to provide financial relief. After consulting with Hoda Katebi of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and with the Burma Task Force, the best we can suggest under present circumstances is to recommend donations through the Rohingya Culture Center, which has a Pay Pal application on its web page. As shown in the Rohingya Culture Center Programs publication, the Center is already providing relief to Rohingya refugees which include language classes and social services.
C. PROVIDE POLITICAL SUPPORT. In her September 23 remarks, Ninth District Illinois Congressman Jan Shakowsky reminded us that silence is complicity. She suggests others follow her example and write to Aung San Suu Kyi, State Counsellor of Myanmar, asking that "clearance operations against the Rohingya be ended immediately" and that "a U.N. Human Rights Commission Fact Finding Mission" be allowed to enter Myanmar immediately to assess the violence. I wrote to Aung San Suu Kyi earlier this year on behalf of The North American Dharma Teacher's Sangha in Thay's tradition, and the only address I could locate for her is "Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, State Counsellor of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Office of the State Counsellor, Office No. 20, Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar." I could not locate an email address. If you like, you can also write to the country's official leader," President U Htin Kyaw, The Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Office of the President, Office No. 18, Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar." As you know, such letters in Thich Nhat Hanh's tradition are offered as "love letters" which are carefully written to convey empathy and insight into the dilemmas facing the government official being addressed, while at the same time describing the suffering which needs to be remedied with their assistance. We refrain from demonizing the person we are writing to. As Sister Chan Khong reminds us, we strive to write a letter that our addressee is willing to read to conclusion, and not throw away! Before writing your letters, also please study the What You Can Do Next Regarding the Rohingya Crisis flyer published by the Rohingya Culture Center and the Burma Task Force Report. The "What You Can Do… " flyer describes how to gain your U.S. Senator's and U.S. Congressman's support for pending Congressional resolutions that condemn attacks by the Myanmar military, which call for the cessation of U.S. military aid to Myanmar, and which call for the restoration of Rohingya citizenship in Myanmar. The Burma Task Force Report supplies ideas for urging U.S. representatives for urging the United Nations to provide safe zones, the cessation of military aid to Myanmar, sanctions against Myanmar, and support for Bangladesh. Once you've done this, it's easy to find the address of your particular U.S. Senator and Congressional representative on-line to send your "love letter" enlisting their cooperation!
D. BECOME SOCIALLY ENGAGED IN PRAGMATIC WAYS! I've been asked by people of all ages and backgrounds, what was the Buddhist community doing while the Myanmar military gradually increased the forms of repression against the Rohingya? How did things get to this point? I have pleased to be able refer to prior correspondence dating back several years directed to Aung San Suu Kyi and the government of Myanmar from the Dalai Lama and from Thich Nhat Hanh, as well as from Sister Chan Khong and from the North American Association of Dharma Teachers in Thay's lineage, but is this enough? Some are now expressing concern that all of Buddhism is being placed in a bad light as the result of actions taking place in Buddhist Myanmar. This concern is well taken: what is taking place in Myanmar does not have the support of Buddhists worldwide and cannot be reconciled with the Buddha's teachings. Nonetheless, the first priority of Buddhists worldwide should be to stand with the Rohingya NOW to protect their lives and their human rights and to provide financial, material and political support to mitigate and eventually stop the suffering. Doing so promptly is the most effective way to demonstrate to the world that military actions in Myanmar do not have the support of the world wide Buddhist community which seeks to dwell in peace with people of all religious backgrounds throughout the world. How do we show support? Seek out the Rohingya. Work with them and with the academic community to organize teach-ins. For example, I have been asked to provide the opening statement to a program entitled "Saving the Rohingya: Stopping Genocide and Volunteering in Chicago" hosted by Roosevelt University on Monday, October 2 featuring Azeem Ibrahim and the Directors of the Rohingya Culture Center and the Burma Task Force. A teach-in is a lovely way to build understanding despite initial difficulties and challenges. Our Chicago Chapter of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship has successfully organized teach-ins on an equally difficult subject, our nation's relations with Iran, working in tandem with peace groups from other faith traditions.
E. A CLOSING REQUEST…. Allow me to conclude with a special plea… We have all witnessed increasing expressions of concern among Buddhist practitioners regarding setbacks on social justice issues that previously seemed to be progressing in a healthy direction. Now, social workers have reported to me that practitioners are so concerned about the spread of injustice and inequity in the world that they are having trouble sleeping or having sleep disorders. Fortunately, we can take refuge in the basics of meditation-based mindfulness practice offered by Thay to address these symptoms. But Thay has also taught how mindfulness, concentration and insight flourish through consistent meditation-based mindfulness practice, providing the understanding necessary to untie the knots of unhealthy causes and conditions afflicting people at primal, root levels and to find ways to mitigate suffering through the application of understanding, compassion and love. If you have time, and you are an active Dharma Teacher in ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh, please give some thought to joining the Transformation and Healing Committee of The North American Dharma Teachers Sangha established a few years ago to help engage Thay's teachings in the world in these and other pragmatic ways (current members include Jack Lawlor, John Bell, Kenley Neufeld, Lyn Fine, Richard Brady, and Joann Rosen. The committee meets the Third Thursday at 7:30am PT).
In gratitude, Jack Lawlor, True Direction
Letter Sent by the BPF Chicago Chapter, to the Burmese President and Aung San Suu Kyi:
April 29, 2017
President U. Htin Kyaw
The Republic of the Union of Myanmar
Office of the President
Office No. 18, Nay Pyi Taw
Myanmar
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
State Counselor of The Republic of the Union of Myanmar
Office of the State Counselor
Office No. 20, Nay Pyi Taw
Myanmar
Dear President U. Htin Kyaw and Her Excellency State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,
With a deep bow of respect for all of your efforts on behalf of Myanmar over the years. We, like many Buddhists throughout the world, have been attempting to understand what is taking place in Myanmar. Please help us to understand.
We are concerned with reports that over 65,000 Muslims have fled Myanmar in recent months to Bangladesh, and that Bangladesh may remove these people to an unsafe, 6000 acre island in the Bay of Bengal known as Thengar Char. We also hear credible reports of violence against Muslims living in Myanmar, and reports about the destruction of their communities.
This is much more than just an internal country or domestic matter. We worry that the violence between Buddhists and Muslims which has taken place will escalate suffering, and spread elsewhere (including other countries), unless we can work together to bring peace to Myanmar.
Many countries are, unfortunately, far too familiar with how hateful speech, rumors and misperception lead to riots, bloodshed, war and generations of suffering and strife. Because of these experiences, many in Western countries have turned to the Dharma for refuge. We are deeply concerned for the safety of everyone in Myanmar and for the reputation and integrity of the Dharma.
Please let us know if you have any recommendations for better organizing the international Buddhist community in a way that will lead to enhanced interfaith dialogue and contribute to your efforts to bring peace to everyone in Myanmar. There are Buddhist teachers, organizations and practitioners who would like to be of assistance.
In Deep Gratitude,
The Buddhist Peace Fellowship Chicago Chapter
Illinois, USA
April 29, 2017
President U. Htin Kyaw
The Republic of the Union of Myanmar
Office of the President
Office No. 18, Nay Pyi Taw
Myanmar
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
State Counselor of The Republic of the Union of Myanmar
Office of the State Counselor
Office No. 20, Nay Pyi Taw
Myanmar
Dear President U. Htin Kyaw and Her Excellency State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,
With a deep bow of respect for all of your efforts on behalf of Myanmar over the years. We, like many Buddhists throughout the world, have been attempting to understand what is taking place in Myanmar. Please help us to understand.
We are concerned with reports that over 65,000 Muslims have fled Myanmar in recent months to Bangladesh, and that Bangladesh may remove these people to an unsafe, 6000 acre island in the Bay of Bengal known as Thengar Char. We also hear credible reports of violence against Muslims living in Myanmar, and reports about the destruction of their communities.
This is much more than just an internal country or domestic matter. We worry that the violence between Buddhists and Muslims which has taken place will escalate suffering, and spread elsewhere (including other countries), unless we can work together to bring peace to Myanmar.
Many countries are, unfortunately, far too familiar with how hateful speech, rumors and misperception lead to riots, bloodshed, war and generations of suffering and strife. Because of these experiences, many in Western countries have turned to the Dharma for refuge. We are deeply concerned for the safety of everyone in Myanmar and for the reputation and integrity of the Dharma.
Please let us know if you have any recommendations for better organizing the international Buddhist community in a way that will lead to enhanced interfaith dialogue and contribute to your efforts to bring peace to everyone in Myanmar. There are Buddhist teachers, organizations and practitioners who would like to be of assistance.
In Deep Gratitude,
The Buddhist Peace Fellowship Chicago Chapter
Illinois, USA
Post-Election Statement from the Brooklyn Zen Center:
Dear Sangha and Friends,
Having taken some space to listen to our sangha and surrounding communities, we now feel it is time to respond to recent events. Though the reasons for last week’s election results are certainly complex, there is one thing that in our estimation is clear and distressing – nearly half of its participants either willingly ignored or cast a vote in support of months of hateful rhetoric. We do not believe it wise or in support of ending suffering to ignore this.
While the violence that may seem surprising to some in this election has a long history, while the rhetoric of this campaign is a symptom and not an isolatable cause of the behaviors that women, people of color, LGBTQ communities, immigrants, Muslims, Jews and others have experienced long before the last eighteen months, we do not believe this election is any sort of business as usual. Misogynist, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, homophobic and racial violence were defended and sometimes explicitly called for throughout this campaign. The outcome of this election risks affirming that violence while adding to it the authority of the State.
We are already familiar with some of the results of this firing up of hate – increased harassment of women and girls is being reported; teenagers are showing up to school wearing white power shirts and chanting “build a wall”; mosques and Muslims have been attacked; and images associating the President-elect’s name with the Nazi iron cross are being scrubbed off of walls. We are grateful that the President-elect has mentioned he would like an end to this violence and pray his current words outweigh past ones in their effect. We also urge that a much stronger response is required as it is not so easy to put hatred back in a box. Some who have voted for Trump have also been attacked as well. Our Buddhist communities must publicly name and stand up to this hatred and violence that is not in alignment with our values of love, compassion and wisdom.
As reported hate crimes have increased dramatically since the election, we must also acknowledge and care for the fear now being felt by so many who have already suffered immense historical oppression in our country. Some of us have met with immigrant communities who are now deeply fearful of deportation and the breaking up of their families. People of color in our community have reported feeling an increased anxiety and fear for their safety. Openly tearful Muslim friends fear for themselves, their children and communities. Friends in the LGBTQ community are expressing fear of being or getting married, of losing rights regarding their children, of open violence. Women are outraged over the seeming acceptance of sexual predatory behavior and fear that rights and safety will be rolled back decades. Some have claimed these fears are excessive responses. We suggest feeling into the historical experiences that might justify them in light of recent rhetoric. As Buddhists, we must commit to putting ourselves in spaces of hearing and receiving this suffering as a way of informing a compassionate response. To simply call out violence is not enough. We also feel it is our duty to expose and end the willful propagation of greed, hatred and delusion that increases suffering and puts the vulnerable, the victims of ongoing oppression, and our entire society at greater risk. What is happening now is not about a single election or a single candidate. It is a wake up call for any of us who have been privileged enough to ignore the historical and structural violence of our nation.
Through one of wisdom’s lenses we know our deep interconnectedness and unconquerable dignity rooted in Buddha nature. Through the other we discern a suffering, dualistic world that sets oppressor against oppressed in systems of domination. To forget the former will set us intractably against each other forever. To use the former as a reason to ignore the latter allows violence and oppression to thrive. We must be careful never to use the Buddhadharma as a means for turning away from the violence of the world and our place in it. The Buddhadharma is not a sedative to get us through painful times, but a powerful teaching that frees and bolsters us to carry out our intention to work diligently for the liberation of all beings.
None of this is to say that those who either willingly ignored or cast a vote in support of months of hateful rhetoric are not also suffering, or that this suffering should be ignored. However, we can never accept or affirm hatred, individual or societal, as an appropriate response to suffering. We must remain diligent in our vow to commit no evil, which requires us to interrogate and shed tendencies toward hatred in ourselves and our society. Rather than being a reason for increased hostility, we pray this turns out to be a true moment of clarity when we can deepen our exploration into our complicity in these ongoing expressions of hatred and violence with a deep intention to interrupt and uproot their causes. We also must inquire into the role of sangha at this time. Sangha must not only be a shared commitment to do the spiritual work of removing all hindrances to the natural lovingness of our being, but we must stand up together as an unshakable mirror to all things that confuse, berate, humiliate and impede that love. As Dr. King said, “Justice is love correcting that which revolts against love.” We believe it is time in our nation for the Buddhist sangha to insist on being a part of that corrective course.
May our coming actions honor the Buddha, dharma and sangha, our ancestors, our Mother Earth and the inherent dignity of all beings.
Teah Strozer, Guiding Dharma Teacher
Greg Snyder, President and Senior Dharma Teacher
Laura O’Loughlin, Lay Dharma Teacher
Danielle Saint Louis, Executive Director
Dear Sangha and Friends,
Having taken some space to listen to our sangha and surrounding communities, we now feel it is time to respond to recent events. Though the reasons for last week’s election results are certainly complex, there is one thing that in our estimation is clear and distressing – nearly half of its participants either willingly ignored or cast a vote in support of months of hateful rhetoric. We do not believe it wise or in support of ending suffering to ignore this.
While the violence that may seem surprising to some in this election has a long history, while the rhetoric of this campaign is a symptom and not an isolatable cause of the behaviors that women, people of color, LGBTQ communities, immigrants, Muslims, Jews and others have experienced long before the last eighteen months, we do not believe this election is any sort of business as usual. Misogynist, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, homophobic and racial violence were defended and sometimes explicitly called for throughout this campaign. The outcome of this election risks affirming that violence while adding to it the authority of the State.
We are already familiar with some of the results of this firing up of hate – increased harassment of women and girls is being reported; teenagers are showing up to school wearing white power shirts and chanting “build a wall”; mosques and Muslims have been attacked; and images associating the President-elect’s name with the Nazi iron cross are being scrubbed off of walls. We are grateful that the President-elect has mentioned he would like an end to this violence and pray his current words outweigh past ones in their effect. We also urge that a much stronger response is required as it is not so easy to put hatred back in a box. Some who have voted for Trump have also been attacked as well. Our Buddhist communities must publicly name and stand up to this hatred and violence that is not in alignment with our values of love, compassion and wisdom.
As reported hate crimes have increased dramatically since the election, we must also acknowledge and care for the fear now being felt by so many who have already suffered immense historical oppression in our country. Some of us have met with immigrant communities who are now deeply fearful of deportation and the breaking up of their families. People of color in our community have reported feeling an increased anxiety and fear for their safety. Openly tearful Muslim friends fear for themselves, their children and communities. Friends in the LGBTQ community are expressing fear of being or getting married, of losing rights regarding their children, of open violence. Women are outraged over the seeming acceptance of sexual predatory behavior and fear that rights and safety will be rolled back decades. Some have claimed these fears are excessive responses. We suggest feeling into the historical experiences that might justify them in light of recent rhetoric. As Buddhists, we must commit to putting ourselves in spaces of hearing and receiving this suffering as a way of informing a compassionate response. To simply call out violence is not enough. We also feel it is our duty to expose and end the willful propagation of greed, hatred and delusion that increases suffering and puts the vulnerable, the victims of ongoing oppression, and our entire society at greater risk. What is happening now is not about a single election or a single candidate. It is a wake up call for any of us who have been privileged enough to ignore the historical and structural violence of our nation.
Through one of wisdom’s lenses we know our deep interconnectedness and unconquerable dignity rooted in Buddha nature. Through the other we discern a suffering, dualistic world that sets oppressor against oppressed in systems of domination. To forget the former will set us intractably against each other forever. To use the former as a reason to ignore the latter allows violence and oppression to thrive. We must be careful never to use the Buddhadharma as a means for turning away from the violence of the world and our place in it. The Buddhadharma is not a sedative to get us through painful times, but a powerful teaching that frees and bolsters us to carry out our intention to work diligently for the liberation of all beings.
None of this is to say that those who either willingly ignored or cast a vote in support of months of hateful rhetoric are not also suffering, or that this suffering should be ignored. However, we can never accept or affirm hatred, individual or societal, as an appropriate response to suffering. We must remain diligent in our vow to commit no evil, which requires us to interrogate and shed tendencies toward hatred in ourselves and our society. Rather than being a reason for increased hostility, we pray this turns out to be a true moment of clarity when we can deepen our exploration into our complicity in these ongoing expressions of hatred and violence with a deep intention to interrupt and uproot their causes. We also must inquire into the role of sangha at this time. Sangha must not only be a shared commitment to do the spiritual work of removing all hindrances to the natural lovingness of our being, but we must stand up together as an unshakable mirror to all things that confuse, berate, humiliate and impede that love. As Dr. King said, “Justice is love correcting that which revolts against love.” We believe it is time in our nation for the Buddhist sangha to insist on being a part of that corrective course.
May our coming actions honor the Buddha, dharma and sangha, our ancestors, our Mother Earth and the inherent dignity of all beings.
Teah Strozer, Guiding Dharma Teacher
Greg Snyder, President and Senior Dharma Teacher
Laura O’Loughlin, Lay Dharma Teacher
Danielle Saint Louis, Executive Director
This is the Soto Zen Buddhist Association’s letter to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe supporting their efforts to block the Dakota Access Pipeline. As the letter says, "We will contact government officials and ask them to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline and honor treaty agreements with the Lakota people,” you may wish to visit this site, which includes suggested calls and emails to Congress, specific people in the White House and the Army Corps of Engineers, and an up-to-date summary on the legal situation.
http://standingrock.org/news/call-for-support--stand-with-standing-rock/
Mr. David Archambault II, Chairman
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
Building 1, N. Standing Rock Avenue
P.O. Box D
Fort Yates, ND 58538
September 1, 2016
Dear Chairman Archambault,
I write you representing members of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association, teachers and priests in the Soto Zen Buddhist tradition in America, to express our support and deep gratitude for the Standing Rock Lakota people and all the other native peoples, now more than 150 other tribes, gathering to block the Dakota Access Pipeline. We salute your courage, resisting this threat to your ancient tribal lands and to the health and safety of all people downstream on the Missouri River who may be poisoned by spills from this oil pipeline. Such spills have been frequent in similar pipelines. The effects of this oil, should it reach refineries and ports, will be to further damage our climate and the natural habitat of our mother earth. We must curtail our reliance on fossil fuels and transform our sources of energy. The whole world and future generations are threatened, as species extinction increases.
The Buddha sat on the ground and touched the earth to witness his awakening. By standing up against this pipeline and the danger of fossil fuel the Lakota and other indigenous peoples are showing the courage all of us require in order to protect our earth. You teach us what it means to belong to the earth. We thank you and offer our full support. We will contact government officials and ask them to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline and honor treaty agreements with the Lakota people, and to protect the water and land of all peoples.
At this time of crisis on our planet, we celebrate the heroic message of indigenous people around the world, leading the struggle to find new sustainable ways to care for and heal the earth. We encourage all people of spirit to join with you.
With deep bows of gratitude and respect,
Rev. Hozan Alan Senauke,
President, Soto Zen Buddhist Association
SZBA c/o Shogen Danielson
PO Box 1971
Carmel Valley, CA 93924
Call the White House comment line (202-456-1111), or sign the following petition to the White House to stop construction of this pipeline.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/stop-construction-dakota-access-pipeline-whichendangers-
water-supply-native-american-reservations
You may also wish to sign the Moveon.org petition to North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp, who claims to be a “strong and vocal advocate for North Dakota’s tribes” but who has so far refused to take a stand on the pipeline. Tell Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND): Oppose the Dakota Access Bakken Pipeline, which threatens sacred lands and waters of the Standing Rock Sioux.
http://pac.petitions.moveon.org/sign/senator-heidiheitkamp?
mailing_id=35313&source=s.icn.em.cr&r_by=1391209
http://standingrock.org/news/call-for-support--stand-with-standing-rock/
Mr. David Archambault II, Chairman
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
Building 1, N. Standing Rock Avenue
P.O. Box D
Fort Yates, ND 58538
September 1, 2016
Dear Chairman Archambault,
I write you representing members of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association, teachers and priests in the Soto Zen Buddhist tradition in America, to express our support and deep gratitude for the Standing Rock Lakota people and all the other native peoples, now more than 150 other tribes, gathering to block the Dakota Access Pipeline. We salute your courage, resisting this threat to your ancient tribal lands and to the health and safety of all people downstream on the Missouri River who may be poisoned by spills from this oil pipeline. Such spills have been frequent in similar pipelines. The effects of this oil, should it reach refineries and ports, will be to further damage our climate and the natural habitat of our mother earth. We must curtail our reliance on fossil fuels and transform our sources of energy. The whole world and future generations are threatened, as species extinction increases.
The Buddha sat on the ground and touched the earth to witness his awakening. By standing up against this pipeline and the danger of fossil fuel the Lakota and other indigenous peoples are showing the courage all of us require in order to protect our earth. You teach us what it means to belong to the earth. We thank you and offer our full support. We will contact government officials and ask them to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline and honor treaty agreements with the Lakota people, and to protect the water and land of all peoples.
At this time of crisis on our planet, we celebrate the heroic message of indigenous people around the world, leading the struggle to find new sustainable ways to care for and heal the earth. We encourage all people of spirit to join with you.
With deep bows of gratitude and respect,
Rev. Hozan Alan Senauke,
President, Soto Zen Buddhist Association
SZBA c/o Shogen Danielson
PO Box 1971
Carmel Valley, CA 93924
Call the White House comment line (202-456-1111), or sign the following petition to the White House to stop construction of this pipeline.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/stop-construction-dakota-access-pipeline-whichendangers-
water-supply-native-american-reservations
You may also wish to sign the Moveon.org petition to North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp, who claims to be a “strong and vocal advocate for North Dakota’s tribes” but who has so far refused to take a stand on the pipeline. Tell Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND): Oppose the Dakota Access Bakken Pipeline, which threatens sacred lands and waters of the Standing Rock Sioux.
http://pac.petitions.moveon.org/sign/senator-heidiheitkamp?
mailing_id=35313&source=s.icn.em.cr&r_by=1391209
Click here for a full length video of Rebecca Solnit's thought-provoking talk at DePaul University, "Under the Same Sky: Climate Connects, Demands, and Informs Us;" held on April 2, 2016:
http://condor.depaul.edu/mptvideo/Religious_Studies/04022016.html
http://condor.depaul.edu/mptvideo/Religious_Studies/04022016.html
Click here for a full length video of Jack Lawlor and Taigen Dan Leighton's stimulating discussion at DePaul University, "Buddhism and Politics: Mindful Social Engagement During an Election Year," held on February 16, 2016:
http://condor.depaul.edu/mptvideo/Religious_Studies/02162016.html
http://condor.depaul.edu/mptvideo/Religious_Studies/02162016.html
Friends on the Path of Socially Engaged Buddhism
By Jack Lawlor
Provided courtesy of The Mindfulness Bell journal, please visit their site:
www.mindfulnessbell.org
Many of us attracted to the teachings of the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh have an interest that is often referred to as socially engaged Buddhism, variously defined. I would like to describe some of the ways this interest is manifesting in Chicago, regardless of whether the practitioner’s specific interest is in protecting the environment, issues of war and peace, economic justice, or another subject of equal concern.
Preliminary Insights
Mindfulness practitioners approach socially engaged Buddhism in a variety of ways, and no one approach, no matter how inspiring, will appeal to everyone. While Thich Nhat Hanh Sanghas share a characteristic spirit of tolerance and generosity, it would be incorrect to assume that there is unanimity among Sangha members on legislation, political parties, candidates, and how to proceed on any given issue attracting public attention. In addition, many Thich Nhat Hanh practitioners already have fulltime jobs in social work, healing, not-for-profit law, and education that are inherently socially engaged. Traditional Sangha participation is a form of refuge that helps these practitioners avoid burnout by providing a stable atmosphere in which to enjoy sitting and walking meditation without placing additional responsibilities on their shoulders.
In an effort to avoid politicizing the local Sangha in a manner inconsistent with the 10th Tiep Hien Mindfulness Training, and to preserve the local Sangha’s success as a refuge for those who are already socially engaged, several members of Lakeside Buddha Sangha in Evanston, Illinois, helped revive the Chicago chapter of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF) about ten years ago, to help address some of the challenges facing our society. Utilizing BPF for this purpose is not surprising. Thich Nhat Hanh has played an important role in supporting BPF, and his earliest visits to North America were sponsored by the national BPF organization. Dean Kaufer, Charles Strain, and Kevin Havener of Lakeside Buddha Sangha have been lovingly persistent guiding lights in creating and nourishing the BPF chapter in Chicago.
How We Relate to the Local Sangha and to Activist Groups
Our procedure is simply to make our Chicago-area BPF organizational meetings and our BPF chapter activities known to our regular Sangha members by including brief descriptions of them at the same time brief announcements of other Sangha activities are made. These opportunities are described in a manner that is not overtly proselytizing, and there is no pressure placed on anyone to participate in what the Chicago BPF is doing.
There have been many advantages to this approach. Our BPF chapter is comprised not only of Lakeside members but also Buddhist practitioners from other denominations, facilitating inter-denominational cooperation and innovation among Chicago temples and centers, although Lakeside and a Soto Zen Temple provide the vast majority of BPF chapter participants. While two ordained Dharma teachers have been consistently involved in BPF efforts over the years––me and Soto Zen priest and teacher Taigen Dan Leighton, the author of fine books on socially engaged practice––the atmosphere is not hierarchical, and responsibilities such as chairing our meetings are shared.
We also work closely with non-denominational groups who are working on the same topics. The benefits of doing so are especially bountiful. Those of us from the Buddhist community have learned an immense amount from leaders of seasoned environmental and peace organizations who join us in co-sponsoring events.
For example, last winter, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Against War felt the need to express support for President Obama’s efforts to continue negotiations with Iran regarding the issue of nuclear proliferation despite demands from some quarters to break off these negotiations, possibly leading to military action. At that time, a Senate vote disparaging further negotiations was likely due to be scheduled within less than two weeks, given the number of Senate co-sponsors. Chicago area veterans wanted to host an anti-war, pro-negotiation event in support of the President’s efforts at the Chicago Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the banks of the Chicago River as soon as possible.
On one of the coldest, snowiest evenings in Chicago’s bitter 2014 winter, several dozen veterans of the Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan conflicts conducted an incredibly mindful meeting on complex issues, including how to word the critical press releases and work with public media. Many knots in planning what to do and what not to do were untied within a two-hour meeting without the use of language stuck in ideology or dogma. The result was a successful event with a well-articulated message. About one hundred people supporting the President’s efforts to continue negotiations initially convened in front of a national TV network newsroom in Chicago and then walked together to the Chicago Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Chicago River, where additional statements of support for good faith negotiations were offered in the midst of heavy snowfall. Their message, given the location, could not have been more poignant.
What We Can Contribute as Mindfulness Practitioners
Another advantage of this interaction is that we have an opportunity to lend our root teacher’s practices of deep looking, deep listening, appropriate speech, and awareness of suffering caused by misperception, to our joint efforts with other Buddhist denominations and sectarian peace and environmental groups. It is usually easy to identify students of Thich Nhat Hanh in the meetings, conferences, and workshops because they tend to be the calm people in the conference room, remaining fresh in often crowded quarters, consistently refraining from the use of inflammatory rhetoric that demonizes others as we endeavor to untie some of our societal knots and work toward peace and environmental sanity.
We also do our best to lend the mindful calm and equanimity of our root teacher to public demonstrations in streets and public plazas. Our Chicago BPF chapter participated in marches that focused on the NATO conferences held in Chicago two years ago. These conferences ultimately attracted small but intense outbursts of violence caused by a tiny group of black-clad demonstrators, which had also occurred at other NATO and World Trade Organization conferences in other US cities in the past. We’ve learned the importance of following the example of our root teacher in truly practicing walking meditation while in the midst of thousands of other people streaming along crowded downtown streets. We’ve concluded that it helps to invite the use of medium-sized, iron mindfulness bells and public recitation of the Discourse on Love from time to time in such public demonstrations.
Transformative Experiences
Another advantage to joining hands and going as a Maha-sangha on environmental and peace efforts is that our ability to engage more people in mindful deliberations grows. In one sense, we are a small number of Buddhist practitioners attempting to function as a “community of resistance,” to use Thay’s phrase from his book with Father Daniel Berrigan entitled The Raft Is Not the Shore, in a world that is overrun with materialistic compulsions and that is forgetting the lessons of the recent past on issues of war and peace. But when we work together, we increase our ability to invite our society to stop and reflect on its compulsive behavior and our foreign policy.
Our BPF chapter has joined with other groups to organize good old-fashioned “teach-ins” on how the world looks to the people of Iran. The groups create opportunities to work together toward peace. One event attracted over eight hundred people to an Evanston, Illinois, Unitarian church on a weeknight in one of the worst blizzards ever witnessed in Chicago. The use of teach-ins seems an appropriate Buddhist means to dispel ignorance, prejudices, notions, and concepts through direct interaction with others.
We generally succeed in including Iranians in our panel discussions and public forums. Large groups attended other Iran-oriented events, which we hosted together with the Chicago chapter of Protest Chaplains, as well as at Loyola University and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Taigen Dan Leighton and I have led a series of programs on socially engaged Buddhism at DePaul University, Loyola, and the University of Chicago that attracted a large number of students. The series provides background on the historic roots of engaged Buddhist practice and introduces students to its contemporary manifestation in the efforts of our root teacher, Sister Chan Khong, and the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings of the Order of lnterbeing developed for use by both lay and monastic practitioners.
In recent years, our work has included:
• Joint efforts with the Protest Chaplains on anti-drone demonstrations and teach-out efforts on drone warfare at the Chicago Air Show, long before the use of drones attracted US media attention
• Demonstrations and information dissemination at Chicago Transit Authority stations during rush hour on the needs of political prisoners in Myanmar
• Correspondence to leaders of the Buddhist monastic community in Myanmar accused of fueling anti-Muslim sentiment and violence, encouraging these monastics to change their rhetoric toward the Islamic community, shortly after Thich Nhat Hanh, the Dalai Lama, and other Buddhist leaders made the same request in late 2013
• Peaceful demonstrations outside the Chinese consulate in Chicago regarding Tibetan human rights
• Countless vigils with the Occupy movement outside the large banking institutions on Chicago’s LaSalle Street
• Special forums with speakers including Joanna Macy and Alan Senauke
Our members’ most recent efforts are focused not only on the ongoing issues of war and peace throughout the Mideast, but also on the needs of the Japanese living near Fukushima and energy industry pollution in Lake Michigan.
In addition to these collective efforts, there have been countless, individual, socially engaged contributions by our Sangha members, including art programs with Iraq war veterans, author appearances on environmental topics in inner city schools, probono legal work for food pantries and Buddhist nonprofit organizations, widespread mindful caregiving for aging parents and young grandchildren, and various charitable activities. Laurie Lawlor testified at Wisconsin legislative hearings related to hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas and other mining activity, including the proliferation of gravel pits on prime Midwestern farmland and the impact of mining on Native American and local water resources.
Mindful Continuation
Our numbers are modest, and the needs are many. Perhaps the activities described above function primarily as a mindfulness bell for our own denomination and for society.
From time to time, one can feel frustration arise, but regular participation in the sitting and walking meditation practice helps prevent burnout. We learn so much from our interaction with others, and the Buddhist emphasis on transforming suffering by dispelling ignorance and misperception through meditation and other mindfulness practices are important gifts to contemporary public dialogue.
Although the issues we face seem to be arriving at considerable velocity, we have learned, as our root teacher has pointed out, that if you touch one issue deeply, due to the workings of interdependence you touch all the other issues as well. Thanks to Sangha practice, someone is always strong when we feel a bit weak, with the result that our step-by-step efforts have continued year after year in mindfulness without relying on the white sugar of anger or dogmatism as our fuel. Our energy comes from mindfulness, concentration, and insight giving rise to the energy of bodhicitta.
Although these efforts are modest, and we are in the early innings of engaging Buddhism in the West, despite occasional discouragement, it simply feels right, it feels appropriate, to join hands and walk together as a Mahasangha in this way to engage our mindfulness practices to serve the present age.
By Jack Lawlor
Provided courtesy of The Mindfulness Bell journal, please visit their site:
www.mindfulnessbell.org
Many of us attracted to the teachings of the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh have an interest that is often referred to as socially engaged Buddhism, variously defined. I would like to describe some of the ways this interest is manifesting in Chicago, regardless of whether the practitioner’s specific interest is in protecting the environment, issues of war and peace, economic justice, or another subject of equal concern.
Preliminary Insights
Mindfulness practitioners approach socially engaged Buddhism in a variety of ways, and no one approach, no matter how inspiring, will appeal to everyone. While Thich Nhat Hanh Sanghas share a characteristic spirit of tolerance and generosity, it would be incorrect to assume that there is unanimity among Sangha members on legislation, political parties, candidates, and how to proceed on any given issue attracting public attention. In addition, many Thich Nhat Hanh practitioners already have fulltime jobs in social work, healing, not-for-profit law, and education that are inherently socially engaged. Traditional Sangha participation is a form of refuge that helps these practitioners avoid burnout by providing a stable atmosphere in which to enjoy sitting and walking meditation without placing additional responsibilities on their shoulders.
In an effort to avoid politicizing the local Sangha in a manner inconsistent with the 10th Tiep Hien Mindfulness Training, and to preserve the local Sangha’s success as a refuge for those who are already socially engaged, several members of Lakeside Buddha Sangha in Evanston, Illinois, helped revive the Chicago chapter of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF) about ten years ago, to help address some of the challenges facing our society. Utilizing BPF for this purpose is not surprising. Thich Nhat Hanh has played an important role in supporting BPF, and his earliest visits to North America were sponsored by the national BPF organization. Dean Kaufer, Charles Strain, and Kevin Havener of Lakeside Buddha Sangha have been lovingly persistent guiding lights in creating and nourishing the BPF chapter in Chicago.
How We Relate to the Local Sangha and to Activist Groups
Our procedure is simply to make our Chicago-area BPF organizational meetings and our BPF chapter activities known to our regular Sangha members by including brief descriptions of them at the same time brief announcements of other Sangha activities are made. These opportunities are described in a manner that is not overtly proselytizing, and there is no pressure placed on anyone to participate in what the Chicago BPF is doing.
There have been many advantages to this approach. Our BPF chapter is comprised not only of Lakeside members but also Buddhist practitioners from other denominations, facilitating inter-denominational cooperation and innovation among Chicago temples and centers, although Lakeside and a Soto Zen Temple provide the vast majority of BPF chapter participants. While two ordained Dharma teachers have been consistently involved in BPF efforts over the years––me and Soto Zen priest and teacher Taigen Dan Leighton, the author of fine books on socially engaged practice––the atmosphere is not hierarchical, and responsibilities such as chairing our meetings are shared.
We also work closely with non-denominational groups who are working on the same topics. The benefits of doing so are especially bountiful. Those of us from the Buddhist community have learned an immense amount from leaders of seasoned environmental and peace organizations who join us in co-sponsoring events.
For example, last winter, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Against War felt the need to express support for President Obama’s efforts to continue negotiations with Iran regarding the issue of nuclear proliferation despite demands from some quarters to break off these negotiations, possibly leading to military action. At that time, a Senate vote disparaging further negotiations was likely due to be scheduled within less than two weeks, given the number of Senate co-sponsors. Chicago area veterans wanted to host an anti-war, pro-negotiation event in support of the President’s efforts at the Chicago Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the banks of the Chicago River as soon as possible.
On one of the coldest, snowiest evenings in Chicago’s bitter 2014 winter, several dozen veterans of the Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan conflicts conducted an incredibly mindful meeting on complex issues, including how to word the critical press releases and work with public media. Many knots in planning what to do and what not to do were untied within a two-hour meeting without the use of language stuck in ideology or dogma. The result was a successful event with a well-articulated message. About one hundred people supporting the President’s efforts to continue negotiations initially convened in front of a national TV network newsroom in Chicago and then walked together to the Chicago Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Chicago River, where additional statements of support for good faith negotiations were offered in the midst of heavy snowfall. Their message, given the location, could not have been more poignant.
What We Can Contribute as Mindfulness Practitioners
Another advantage of this interaction is that we have an opportunity to lend our root teacher’s practices of deep looking, deep listening, appropriate speech, and awareness of suffering caused by misperception, to our joint efforts with other Buddhist denominations and sectarian peace and environmental groups. It is usually easy to identify students of Thich Nhat Hanh in the meetings, conferences, and workshops because they tend to be the calm people in the conference room, remaining fresh in often crowded quarters, consistently refraining from the use of inflammatory rhetoric that demonizes others as we endeavor to untie some of our societal knots and work toward peace and environmental sanity.
We also do our best to lend the mindful calm and equanimity of our root teacher to public demonstrations in streets and public plazas. Our Chicago BPF chapter participated in marches that focused on the NATO conferences held in Chicago two years ago. These conferences ultimately attracted small but intense outbursts of violence caused by a tiny group of black-clad demonstrators, which had also occurred at other NATO and World Trade Organization conferences in other US cities in the past. We’ve learned the importance of following the example of our root teacher in truly practicing walking meditation while in the midst of thousands of other people streaming along crowded downtown streets. We’ve concluded that it helps to invite the use of medium-sized, iron mindfulness bells and public recitation of the Discourse on Love from time to time in such public demonstrations.
Transformative Experiences
Another advantage to joining hands and going as a Maha-sangha on environmental and peace efforts is that our ability to engage more people in mindful deliberations grows. In one sense, we are a small number of Buddhist practitioners attempting to function as a “community of resistance,” to use Thay’s phrase from his book with Father Daniel Berrigan entitled The Raft Is Not the Shore, in a world that is overrun with materialistic compulsions and that is forgetting the lessons of the recent past on issues of war and peace. But when we work together, we increase our ability to invite our society to stop and reflect on its compulsive behavior and our foreign policy.
Our BPF chapter has joined with other groups to organize good old-fashioned “teach-ins” on how the world looks to the people of Iran. The groups create opportunities to work together toward peace. One event attracted over eight hundred people to an Evanston, Illinois, Unitarian church on a weeknight in one of the worst blizzards ever witnessed in Chicago. The use of teach-ins seems an appropriate Buddhist means to dispel ignorance, prejudices, notions, and concepts through direct interaction with others.
We generally succeed in including Iranians in our panel discussions and public forums. Large groups attended other Iran-oriented events, which we hosted together with the Chicago chapter of Protest Chaplains, as well as at Loyola University and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Taigen Dan Leighton and I have led a series of programs on socially engaged Buddhism at DePaul University, Loyola, and the University of Chicago that attracted a large number of students. The series provides background on the historic roots of engaged Buddhist practice and introduces students to its contemporary manifestation in the efforts of our root teacher, Sister Chan Khong, and the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings of the Order of lnterbeing developed for use by both lay and monastic practitioners.
In recent years, our work has included:
• Joint efforts with the Protest Chaplains on anti-drone demonstrations and teach-out efforts on drone warfare at the Chicago Air Show, long before the use of drones attracted US media attention
• Demonstrations and information dissemination at Chicago Transit Authority stations during rush hour on the needs of political prisoners in Myanmar
• Correspondence to leaders of the Buddhist monastic community in Myanmar accused of fueling anti-Muslim sentiment and violence, encouraging these monastics to change their rhetoric toward the Islamic community, shortly after Thich Nhat Hanh, the Dalai Lama, and other Buddhist leaders made the same request in late 2013
• Peaceful demonstrations outside the Chinese consulate in Chicago regarding Tibetan human rights
• Countless vigils with the Occupy movement outside the large banking institutions on Chicago’s LaSalle Street
• Special forums with speakers including Joanna Macy and Alan Senauke
Our members’ most recent efforts are focused not only on the ongoing issues of war and peace throughout the Mideast, but also on the needs of the Japanese living near Fukushima and energy industry pollution in Lake Michigan.
In addition to these collective efforts, there have been countless, individual, socially engaged contributions by our Sangha members, including art programs with Iraq war veterans, author appearances on environmental topics in inner city schools, probono legal work for food pantries and Buddhist nonprofit organizations, widespread mindful caregiving for aging parents and young grandchildren, and various charitable activities. Laurie Lawlor testified at Wisconsin legislative hearings related to hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas and other mining activity, including the proliferation of gravel pits on prime Midwestern farmland and the impact of mining on Native American and local water resources.
Mindful Continuation
Our numbers are modest, and the needs are many. Perhaps the activities described above function primarily as a mindfulness bell for our own denomination and for society.
From time to time, one can feel frustration arise, but regular participation in the sitting and walking meditation practice helps prevent burnout. We learn so much from our interaction with others, and the Buddhist emphasis on transforming suffering by dispelling ignorance and misperception through meditation and other mindfulness practices are important gifts to contemporary public dialogue.
Although the issues we face seem to be arriving at considerable velocity, we have learned, as our root teacher has pointed out, that if you touch one issue deeply, due to the workings of interdependence you touch all the other issues as well. Thanks to Sangha practice, someone is always strong when we feel a bit weak, with the result that our step-by-step efforts have continued year after year in mindfulness without relying on the white sugar of anger or dogmatism as our fuel. Our energy comes from mindfulness, concentration, and insight giving rise to the energy of bodhicitta.
Although these efforts are modest, and we are in the early innings of engaging Buddhism in the West, despite occasional discouragement, it simply feels right, it feels appropriate, to join hands and walk together as a Mahasangha in this way to engage our mindfulness practices to serve the present age.
Click here for a full length video of Peter Coyote's excellent talk at DePaul University, "Breaking the Barriers which Bind Us," held on November 9th, 2014:
http://condor.depaul.edu/mptvideo/Religious_Studies/11092014.html
http://condor.depaul.edu/mptvideo/Religious_Studies/11092014.html
Bhikku Bodhi- Moving From a Culture of Death to a Culture of Life:
Mobilizing for the People's Climate March
Thursday, 14 August 2014 00:00 By Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, Truthout | Op-Ed
As preparations intensify for the People's Climate March, due to take place in New York City on September 21, it is necessary to remember that a mere change in technologies will not suffice to avert global disaster. What is equally essential is to facilitate the transition from the current social paradigm rooted in profit maximization to a new paradigm that gives priority to preserving the integrity of human beings and the natural world.
On September 21, concerned citizens from all across the United States, and from many other lands, will be converging on New York City for the People's Climate March, billed to be the biggest climate march in history. The immediate occasion for the march is the gathering of world leaders at the United Nations for a summit on the climate crisis being convened by the UN Secretary General. The march's purpose is to tell global leaders that the time for denial and delay is over, that we have to act now if we're going to secure the world against the ravages of climate change. The annual COP climate conferences have repeatedly turned out to be cop-outs, carnivals of deception launched with grand rhetoric, but ending in stalemates or hollow promises. People are ready to march in order to show that this won't do. We must recognize that climate disruption is real, that the consequences of inaction will be catastrophic and that the need for swift and effective action is overwhelming. Preserving the crucial life-support systems of planet Earth simply won't be possible with the tiny baby steps that have so far been taken. If we're going to emerge intact, what we need at minimum are binding and enforceable commitments to steep cuts in carbon emissions coupled with a mass-scale transition to renewable sources of energy.
However, while greater efficiency and clean energy policies are clearly essential in combating climate disruption, a long-term solution must go deeper than the implementation of new technologies and the adoption of such pragmatic measures as cap-and-trade or a carbon tax. The climate instability we are facing today is symptomatic of a deeper malady, a cancer spreading through the inner organs of global civilization. The extreme weather events we have experienced come to us as a wake-up call demanding that we treat the underlying causes. For any treatment to succeed, we must closely examine the paradigm that underlies our industrial-commercial-financial economy, for it is this model that lies at the root of the crisis. Since this paradigm - this particular constellation of views and values - has acquired a global reach that now extends from New York and London to Delhi, Seoul and Beijing, the transformations needed must equally be global.
The dominant political and economic elites claim that this system is beyond doubt or questioning, that it is as immutable as the laws of physics. They confront us with the maxim, "There is no alternative." Yet when it is carefully scrutinized, this system reveals itself to be sustained by a matrix of ideas and values that have been shaped and imposed by powerful vested interests. Examination shows, moreover, that these ideas and values are the hidden forces behind the climate crisis. They are the drivers behind more frequent and severe floods, droughts and heat waves, behind more acidic oceans, collapsing ice sheets and vanishing glaciers. Day by day this model is dragging human civilization down a treacherous slope threatening planetary suicide.
The distinctive mark of this paradigm - which is none other than the paradigm of corporate capitalism - is the locating of all value in monetary wealth. Human value, labor value, natural value all translate into financial value, and the latter is the only value to which the paradigm ascribes ultimacy. All other values must submit to the reign of monetary wealth in the form of increased profits and greater returns on investments. The model posits the goal of the economy to be continuous growth, based on the madcap premise of infinite growth on a finite planet.
The cogency of this way of thinking depends on a process of "objectification," which means that it treats everything - people, animals, and trees, rivers, land and mountains - as objects to be utilized to generate financial gain for corporations, their executives and their shareholders. This logic of objectification and its accompanying scheme of values entail policies aimed at the unrestrained domination and subjugation of nature. The system depends on the ruthless extraction of natural resources to generate energy and produce commodities for sale in the market. It thereby turns nature's bounty into a plurality of goods, often inessential and frivolous goods, leaving behind mountains of waste and pollution. Yet those in the seats of power refuse to take responsibility for the wreckage they leave behind. Instead, they push the clean-up job on to governments by a process shrewdly called "externalization," with the bill to be met by public funding.
The corporate paradigm treats people just as callously as it treats stones, trees and soil. It pushes indigenous peoples off their lands and treats labor as an abstract variable, reducing real human beings to figures in a database. Thus the mega-transnationals squeeze workers for the economic value they can generate while refusing to provide them with adequate rights and benefits - considerations that would cut into their profit margins and thus make the firm less "competitive" in the global market place. Then, when the labor of the workers is no longer needed, the company casts them aside to fend for themselves with the same unconcern as we might cast aside an empty plastic bottle.
This system flourishes by inciting in people insatiable desires for the consumption of material commodities. Its blueprint is the simple "throughput" sequence by which resources and labor are converted into goods that are converted into monetary wealth and material waste. Rapid model replacement, by which last year's glittering iPad or car or clothing quickly becomes obsolete, is used to increase sales and thereby bolster economic growth. To keep the economy spinning, the system pushes credit programs that turn people into debt-slaves beholden to ravenous financial institutions. Even those pursuing a higher education now court the risk of becoming hapless debtors for life.
All these factors functioning in unison churn out the devastation we see around us, signs of a planet in peril. We're living in a world weighed down by "the culture of death," both literally and figuratively. Amid unimaginable luxury, almost 900 million people must endure chronic hunger and malnutrition; easily cured diseases turn fatal; the gap between a super-rich elite and everyone else grows wider and climate disruption claims tens of millions of lives each year. Unless we change direction fast, the final outcome could well be the collapse of human civilization as we know it. Yet we are not without guides, for thinkers from Lewis Mumford to David Korten, James Speth and Gar Alperovitz have long been pointing the way to a better future. Perhaps it's time to lend them an ear.
To avoid civilizational collapse, we need not only new technologies to reduce carbon emissions but even more fundamentally, a new paradigm, a model for a culture of life that can replace the pernicious culture of death. We need, in brief, an alternative way of understanding the world and an alternative set of values conducive to a more integral relationship of people with each other, with nature, and with the cosmos. This paradigm should be rooted in what I call the "affirmation of subjectivity" to replace the heartless objectifying processes of corporate capitalism. We need a vision that recognizes other people and other life forms as subjects of experience possessing intrinsic value. The model should also recognize nature, indeed the cosmos itself, as endowed with a profound subjective dimension, even an inherent intelligence by which it can transform stardust into planets that bring forth a profusion of life forms and mold moist clay into conscious beings with feelings and thoughts and ideals and hopes and the innate capacity to reflect the cosmos back upon itself.
This change in worldview must lead to reverence and respect for the natural world, recognized as our irreplaceable home and nurturing mother. It must acknowledge the finitude of nature, and treat it accordingly, bearing in mind our responsibility to future generations. It should promote solidarity between peoples everywhere based on empathy, respect and a shared humanity. It must lead to the development of benign "appropriate technologies," the selective utilization of natural resources and the deployment of renewable sources of energy. It should further endorse an ethic of simplicity, contentment and restraint to replace the voracious appetite of consumerism. And most deeply of all, it should awaken in us an aspiration toward communion with the cosmos and all living beings, a harmonization between human ideals and the creative capacities of the universe.
We now stand at a crossroads where we must choose between competing worldviews. Depending on our choice, we can move in either of two directions. We can move toward continued devastation and eventual global collapse, or we can instead turn toward inner renewal and healthier relationships with each other, with the earth and with the cosmos. As climate change accelerates, the choice before us is being thrown into sharper relief, and thus the need to choose wisely grows ever more urgent.
The obstacles that confront us are formidable. We must face down powerful corporations committed to endless profit, who are ready to pump from the ground billions of barrels of oil per day for years on end, with no concern for the long-term consequences. Instead, they cast up clouds of confusion and depict their opponents as whacky "tree huggers" or dangerous "eco-terrorists." We must push servile politicians to act boldly to protect people, not corporations, though we know that many of them owe their secure positions to the generosity of the carbon industries. And we must see through the blather of the mainstream media that refuse to tackle crucial issues with the seriousness they deserve. Instead we must take up the discipline of educating ourselves and helping others remove the blinders that obstruct their vision.
To prevail against these obstacles, we will need exceptional determination and will power. We must be uncompromising in our insistence on the need to change paradigms - to make the transition to a higher stage in our technological development and in our cultural and spiritual evolution. For our own sakes and for generations to come, we must bluntly repudiate the culture of death and embrace a new vision, a new economy, a new culture committed to the real enhancement of life.
Much damage has already been done. We've delayed too long - much too long - and terrible consequences lie ahead for populations all around the world. The global South and the small island nations will be hit hardest, but no country is exempt from the furies to be unleashed by a destabilized climate. It may not be too late, however, to change course, if we have the faith that we still can avoid the worst. But to succeed we must push hard, holding fast to the conviction, "Together we can do it." The People's Climate March will be one powerful demonstration of the strength that comes through unity.
To learn more about the People's Climate March, visit http://peoplesclimate.org/march/
Mobilizing for the People's Climate March
Thursday, 14 August 2014 00:00 By Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, Truthout | Op-Ed
As preparations intensify for the People's Climate March, due to take place in New York City on September 21, it is necessary to remember that a mere change in technologies will not suffice to avert global disaster. What is equally essential is to facilitate the transition from the current social paradigm rooted in profit maximization to a new paradigm that gives priority to preserving the integrity of human beings and the natural world.
On September 21, concerned citizens from all across the United States, and from many other lands, will be converging on New York City for the People's Climate March, billed to be the biggest climate march in history. The immediate occasion for the march is the gathering of world leaders at the United Nations for a summit on the climate crisis being convened by the UN Secretary General. The march's purpose is to tell global leaders that the time for denial and delay is over, that we have to act now if we're going to secure the world against the ravages of climate change. The annual COP climate conferences have repeatedly turned out to be cop-outs, carnivals of deception launched with grand rhetoric, but ending in stalemates or hollow promises. People are ready to march in order to show that this won't do. We must recognize that climate disruption is real, that the consequences of inaction will be catastrophic and that the need for swift and effective action is overwhelming. Preserving the crucial life-support systems of planet Earth simply won't be possible with the tiny baby steps that have so far been taken. If we're going to emerge intact, what we need at minimum are binding and enforceable commitments to steep cuts in carbon emissions coupled with a mass-scale transition to renewable sources of energy.
However, while greater efficiency and clean energy policies are clearly essential in combating climate disruption, a long-term solution must go deeper than the implementation of new technologies and the adoption of such pragmatic measures as cap-and-trade or a carbon tax. The climate instability we are facing today is symptomatic of a deeper malady, a cancer spreading through the inner organs of global civilization. The extreme weather events we have experienced come to us as a wake-up call demanding that we treat the underlying causes. For any treatment to succeed, we must closely examine the paradigm that underlies our industrial-commercial-financial economy, for it is this model that lies at the root of the crisis. Since this paradigm - this particular constellation of views and values - has acquired a global reach that now extends from New York and London to Delhi, Seoul and Beijing, the transformations needed must equally be global.
The dominant political and economic elites claim that this system is beyond doubt or questioning, that it is as immutable as the laws of physics. They confront us with the maxim, "There is no alternative." Yet when it is carefully scrutinized, this system reveals itself to be sustained by a matrix of ideas and values that have been shaped and imposed by powerful vested interests. Examination shows, moreover, that these ideas and values are the hidden forces behind the climate crisis. They are the drivers behind more frequent and severe floods, droughts and heat waves, behind more acidic oceans, collapsing ice sheets and vanishing glaciers. Day by day this model is dragging human civilization down a treacherous slope threatening planetary suicide.
The distinctive mark of this paradigm - which is none other than the paradigm of corporate capitalism - is the locating of all value in monetary wealth. Human value, labor value, natural value all translate into financial value, and the latter is the only value to which the paradigm ascribes ultimacy. All other values must submit to the reign of monetary wealth in the form of increased profits and greater returns on investments. The model posits the goal of the economy to be continuous growth, based on the madcap premise of infinite growth on a finite planet.
The cogency of this way of thinking depends on a process of "objectification," which means that it treats everything - people, animals, and trees, rivers, land and mountains - as objects to be utilized to generate financial gain for corporations, their executives and their shareholders. This logic of objectification and its accompanying scheme of values entail policies aimed at the unrestrained domination and subjugation of nature. The system depends on the ruthless extraction of natural resources to generate energy and produce commodities for sale in the market. It thereby turns nature's bounty into a plurality of goods, often inessential and frivolous goods, leaving behind mountains of waste and pollution. Yet those in the seats of power refuse to take responsibility for the wreckage they leave behind. Instead, they push the clean-up job on to governments by a process shrewdly called "externalization," with the bill to be met by public funding.
The corporate paradigm treats people just as callously as it treats stones, trees and soil. It pushes indigenous peoples off their lands and treats labor as an abstract variable, reducing real human beings to figures in a database. Thus the mega-transnationals squeeze workers for the economic value they can generate while refusing to provide them with adequate rights and benefits - considerations that would cut into their profit margins and thus make the firm less "competitive" in the global market place. Then, when the labor of the workers is no longer needed, the company casts them aside to fend for themselves with the same unconcern as we might cast aside an empty plastic bottle.
This system flourishes by inciting in people insatiable desires for the consumption of material commodities. Its blueprint is the simple "throughput" sequence by which resources and labor are converted into goods that are converted into monetary wealth and material waste. Rapid model replacement, by which last year's glittering iPad or car or clothing quickly becomes obsolete, is used to increase sales and thereby bolster economic growth. To keep the economy spinning, the system pushes credit programs that turn people into debt-slaves beholden to ravenous financial institutions. Even those pursuing a higher education now court the risk of becoming hapless debtors for life.
All these factors functioning in unison churn out the devastation we see around us, signs of a planet in peril. We're living in a world weighed down by "the culture of death," both literally and figuratively. Amid unimaginable luxury, almost 900 million people must endure chronic hunger and malnutrition; easily cured diseases turn fatal; the gap between a super-rich elite and everyone else grows wider and climate disruption claims tens of millions of lives each year. Unless we change direction fast, the final outcome could well be the collapse of human civilization as we know it. Yet we are not without guides, for thinkers from Lewis Mumford to David Korten, James Speth and Gar Alperovitz have long been pointing the way to a better future. Perhaps it's time to lend them an ear.
To avoid civilizational collapse, we need not only new technologies to reduce carbon emissions but even more fundamentally, a new paradigm, a model for a culture of life that can replace the pernicious culture of death. We need, in brief, an alternative way of understanding the world and an alternative set of values conducive to a more integral relationship of people with each other, with nature, and with the cosmos. This paradigm should be rooted in what I call the "affirmation of subjectivity" to replace the heartless objectifying processes of corporate capitalism. We need a vision that recognizes other people and other life forms as subjects of experience possessing intrinsic value. The model should also recognize nature, indeed the cosmos itself, as endowed with a profound subjective dimension, even an inherent intelligence by which it can transform stardust into planets that bring forth a profusion of life forms and mold moist clay into conscious beings with feelings and thoughts and ideals and hopes and the innate capacity to reflect the cosmos back upon itself.
This change in worldview must lead to reverence and respect for the natural world, recognized as our irreplaceable home and nurturing mother. It must acknowledge the finitude of nature, and treat it accordingly, bearing in mind our responsibility to future generations. It should promote solidarity between peoples everywhere based on empathy, respect and a shared humanity. It must lead to the development of benign "appropriate technologies," the selective utilization of natural resources and the deployment of renewable sources of energy. It should further endorse an ethic of simplicity, contentment and restraint to replace the voracious appetite of consumerism. And most deeply of all, it should awaken in us an aspiration toward communion with the cosmos and all living beings, a harmonization between human ideals and the creative capacities of the universe.
We now stand at a crossroads where we must choose between competing worldviews. Depending on our choice, we can move in either of two directions. We can move toward continued devastation and eventual global collapse, or we can instead turn toward inner renewal and healthier relationships with each other, with the earth and with the cosmos. As climate change accelerates, the choice before us is being thrown into sharper relief, and thus the need to choose wisely grows ever more urgent.
The obstacles that confront us are formidable. We must face down powerful corporations committed to endless profit, who are ready to pump from the ground billions of barrels of oil per day for years on end, with no concern for the long-term consequences. Instead, they cast up clouds of confusion and depict their opponents as whacky "tree huggers" or dangerous "eco-terrorists." We must push servile politicians to act boldly to protect people, not corporations, though we know that many of them owe their secure positions to the generosity of the carbon industries. And we must see through the blather of the mainstream media that refuse to tackle crucial issues with the seriousness they deserve. Instead we must take up the discipline of educating ourselves and helping others remove the blinders that obstruct their vision.
To prevail against these obstacles, we will need exceptional determination and will power. We must be uncompromising in our insistence on the need to change paradigms - to make the transition to a higher stage in our technological development and in our cultural and spiritual evolution. For our own sakes and for generations to come, we must bluntly repudiate the culture of death and embrace a new vision, a new economy, a new culture committed to the real enhancement of life.
Much damage has already been done. We've delayed too long - much too long - and terrible consequences lie ahead for populations all around the world. The global South and the small island nations will be hit hardest, but no country is exempt from the furies to be unleashed by a destabilized climate. It may not be too late, however, to change course, if we have the faith that we still can avoid the worst. But to succeed we must push hard, holding fast to the conviction, "Together we can do it." The People's Climate March will be one powerful demonstration of the strength that comes through unity.
To learn more about the People's Climate March, visit http://peoplesclimate.org/march/
For an audio download of Alan Senauke's excellent 7/28/13 talk "Growing Vines of Engaged Buddhism, East and West," please click here (26MB download)
Regarding Ethnic Strife in Burma: Strong Recommendations From Our Friend Nora
Recommendations to the International Community:
- Immediately establish an international, independent investigation of the June-October 2012
Violence and subsequent violence, human rights violations and other persecution of Rohingya
and other Muslims in Rakhine State as well as other sites of anti-Muslim violence.
- Members of the United Nations Human Rights Council should direct the Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights to conduct this necessary investigation, including the overall
system of impunity for human rights violations and other violations of international law.
The Government of Burma should cooperate with any investigation and assist in implementing
any recommendations from the investigators.
- Tie economic aid to and investment in Burma to the Burmese government’s allowing
unfettered access to areas of violence to human rights investigators, journalists, and
humanitarian aid workers and to the government’s progress in investigating and prosecuting
perpetrators of the violence. Until the Burmese government has established full accountability
for security forces and has undertaken significant steps toward structural reforms as outlined
above, no security assistance should be provided.
- Reconsider suspension of financial relationships that directly or indirectly benefit stakeholders
in offenses against Rohingya and other Muslims in Rakhine and Myanmar.
- Provide escort and monitoring of humanitarian aid distribution to Rohingya and Muslim IDPs in
Rakhine and refugees in first countries of refuge.
- Provide exodus assistance for Rohingya IDPs and refugees.
- Provide resettlement and rehabilitation for Rohingya Refugees.
Recommendations to the Government of Burma:
Senior officials, pro-democracy advocates, and religious leaders should publicly and repeatedly
condemn all ethnic and religious violence and intimidation, and should demonstrate by their words
and actions that such discrimination and hateful rhetoric will not be tolerated. The Government of
Burma should also:
- Immediately allow unfettered access by human rights investigators, journalists, and humanitarian
aid workers to areas of Rakhine State, and other places where acts of anti‐Muslim violence have
occurred.
- Institutionalize protections for ethnic and religious minority groups by: (1) completely revising
Burma’s citizenship law so that it reflects international norms; (2) reforming the structure of the
military and police to establish accountability mechanisms; (3) bringing an end to ethnic
discrimination in all sectors; and (4) encouraging full civil participation by minority groups.
- Provide mental health counseling and other appropriate health care for those affected by the
violence, with a special focus on the particular needs of children.
- Collaborate with international humanitarian agencies, including the International Committee of
the Red Cross and UNICEF, to trace missing children and reunite families separated by the violence.
- Promote the protection of children by adhering to the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in
Humanitarian Action, promulgated by the Child Protection Working Group.
- Immediately establish an international, independent investigation of the June-October 2012
Violence and subsequent violence, human rights violations and other persecution of Rohingya
and other Muslims in Rakhine State as well as other sites of anti-Muslim violence.
- Members of the United Nations Human Rights Council should direct the Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights to conduct this necessary investigation, including the overall
system of impunity for human rights violations and other violations of international law.
The Government of Burma should cooperate with any investigation and assist in implementing
any recommendations from the investigators.
- Tie economic aid to and investment in Burma to the Burmese government’s allowing
unfettered access to areas of violence to human rights investigators, journalists, and
humanitarian aid workers and to the government’s progress in investigating and prosecuting
perpetrators of the violence. Until the Burmese government has established full accountability
for security forces and has undertaken significant steps toward structural reforms as outlined
above, no security assistance should be provided.
- Reconsider suspension of financial relationships that directly or indirectly benefit stakeholders
in offenses against Rohingya and other Muslims in Rakhine and Myanmar.
- Provide escort and monitoring of humanitarian aid distribution to Rohingya and Muslim IDPs in
Rakhine and refugees in first countries of refuge.
- Provide exodus assistance for Rohingya IDPs and refugees.
- Provide resettlement and rehabilitation for Rohingya Refugees.
Recommendations to the Government of Burma:
Senior officials, pro-democracy advocates, and religious leaders should publicly and repeatedly
condemn all ethnic and religious violence and intimidation, and should demonstrate by their words
and actions that such discrimination and hateful rhetoric will not be tolerated. The Government of
Burma should also:
- Immediately allow unfettered access by human rights investigators, journalists, and humanitarian
aid workers to areas of Rakhine State, and other places where acts of anti‐Muslim violence have
occurred.
- Institutionalize protections for ethnic and religious minority groups by: (1) completely revising
Burma’s citizenship law so that it reflects international norms; (2) reforming the structure of the
military and police to establish accountability mechanisms; (3) bringing an end to ethnic
discrimination in all sectors; and (4) encouraging full civil participation by minority groups.
- Provide mental health counseling and other appropriate health care for those affected by the
violence, with a special focus on the particular needs of children.
- Collaborate with international humanitarian agencies, including the International Committee of
the Red Cross and UNICEF, to trace missing children and reunite families separated by the violence.
- Promote the protection of children by adhering to the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in
Humanitarian Action, promulgated by the Child Protection Working Group.
Buddhist teachers release letter encouraging Burmese Buddhists to treat Muslims with compassion
(From Buddhadharma Magazine's website)
In response to ongoing sectarian violence between Buddhists and Muslims in Burma’s Rakhine state, several prominent Buddhist teachers — including Thich Nhat Hanh, Jack Kornfield, Bhikkhu Bodhi, and Norman Fischer, among others — have signed their names to a message that will appear in Burmese newspapers this week. The letter urges Burmese Buddhists to practice non-harming, compassion, and mutual respect toward Muslims.
“Buddhist teaching is based on the precepts of refraining from killing and causing harm,” the letter says in part. “Buddhist teaching is based on compassion and mutual care. Buddhist teaching offers respect to all, regardless of class, caste, race or creed.” You can read the rest of the letter here:
WORLD BUDDHIST LEADERS RESPONSE TO THE GROWING ETHNIC VIOLENCE AGAINST MUSLIMS IN MYANMAR
To Our Brother and Sister Buddhists in Myanmar,
As world Buddhist leaders we send our lovingkindess and concern for the difficulties the people of Myanmar are faced with at this time. While it is a time of great positive change in Myanmar we are concerned about the growing ethnic violence and the targeting of Muslims in Rakhine State and the violence against Muslims and others across the country. The Burmese are a noble people, and Burmese Buddhists carry a long and profound history of upholding the Dharma.
We wish to reaffirm to the world and to support you in practicing the most fundamental Buddhist principles of non-harming, mutual respect and compassion.
These fundamental principles taught by the Buddha are at the core of Buddhist practice:
Buddhist teaching is based on the precepts of refraining from killing and causing harm. Buddhist teaching is based on compassion and mutual care. Buddhist teaching offers respect to all, regardless of class, caste, race or creed.
We are with you for courageously standing up for these Buddhist principles even when others would demonize or harm Muslims or other ethnic groups. It is only through mutual respect, harmony and tolerance that Myanmar can become a modern great nation benefiting all her people and a shining example to the world.
Whether you are a Sayadaw or young monk or nun, or whether you are a lay Buddhist, please, speak out, stand up, reaffirm these Buddhist truths, and support all in Myanmar with the compassion, dignity and respect offered by the Buddha.
We stand with you in the Dharma,
Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Vietnam
Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi President Buddhist Global Relief (world’s foremost translator of the Pali Canon) Sri Lanka/USA
Dr. AT Ariyaratne Founder Nationwide Sarvodaya Movement Ghandi Peace Prize Laureate Sri Lanka
Ven. Chao Khun Raja Sumedhajahn Elder, Ajahn Chah Monasteries Wat Ratanavan, Thailand
Ven. Phra Paisal Visalo Chair Buddhika Network Buddhism and Society Thailand
Ven. Arjia Rinpoche VIII Abbot Tibetan Mongolian Cultural Center Mongolia/USA
Ven. Shodo Harada Roshi Abbot Sogenji Rinzai Zen Monastery Japan
Achariya Professor J Simmer Brown Chairperson Buddhist Studies Naropa Buddhist University USA
Ven. Ajahn Amaro Mahathera Abbot Amaravati Vihara England
Ven. Hozan A Senauke International Network of Engaged Buddhists Worldwide
Younge Khachab Rinpoche VIII Abbot Younge Drodul Ling Canada
Ven. Sr. Thich Nu Chan Kong President Plum Village Zen temples France/Vietnam
Dr. Jack Kornfield Vipassana Achariya Convener Western Buddhist Teachers Council USA
Lama Surya Das Dzogchen Foundation International Vajrayana Tibet/USA
Ven. Zoketsu N. Fischer Soto Roshi Fmr. Abbot largest Zen community in the West USA/Japan
Tulku Sherdor Rinpoche Director BI. Wisdom Institute Canada
Professor Robert Tenzin C. Thurman Center for Buddhist Studies Columbia University USA
HH the XIV Dalai Lama Nobel Laureate Tibet/India
Though not able to be reached in time to sign this letter, HH the Dalai Lama has publicly and repeatedly stated his concern about the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. He urges everyone to continue to practice non-violence and retain the religious harmony that is central to our ancient and revered culture.
This is at least the third letter from Buddhist teachers condemning the violence in Burma — an open letter from the Buddhist community on Islamophobia was released during Ramadan, and a second letter, written by Bill Aiken of Soka Gakkai International and signed by Buddhist and Muslim teachers, was published in October. Posted on: December 11, 2012
----------------
And a later commentary:
First Thoughts
Thursday, February 14, 2013 at 3:49PM
DO NOT STAND BY
In this message to Buddhadharma’s readers, Jack Kornfield talks about the response of Western Buddhist leaders to the ethnic violence incited by Burmese monks and abbots.
It is an amazing time of positive transformation in Burma, now called Myanmar, from a severe and crippling military dictatorship to some real movement toward freedom and democracy. After seventeen years, Aung San Suu Kyi is out of house arrest, carrying a spirit of metta and dignity that is breathtaking. And President Obama recently visited Burma and gave a strong, wise, and encouraging speech. It’s heartening to see smiling photos of Barack Obama, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Hillary Clinton together.
But when dictatorships are lifted, old unresolved ethnic tensions can reappear. There are many such conflicts in Burma, and recently the worst involves terrible persecution and violence against Muslims, especially the Rohingya people living near the border of Bangladesh. To our horror, certain Buddhist monks and abbots have encouraged the anti- Muslim violence. And others have been afraid to condemn it.
As a concerned response, a few Western teachers and I drafted an open letter to the monks and nuns of Burma and got our friendly world Buddhist leaders to sign on. The letter was published in several of the most widely read Burmese papers. It is a loving and deeply concerned appeal reminding the Burmese Buddhists of their noble dharma heritage and reaffirming the principles of nonviolence, compassion, and mutual respect. Stand up for these truths, we say.
We all need to be reminded of our commitment at times, and as friends of the people of Burma we want to support the best and most beautiful of the Burmese Buddhist tradition as they do the hard work to transform their society from half a century of repression to genuine freedom. Wish them well and send your prayers.
READ THE LETTER AT SHAMBHALASUN.COM
(From Buddhadharma Magazine's website)
In response to ongoing sectarian violence between Buddhists and Muslims in Burma’s Rakhine state, several prominent Buddhist teachers — including Thich Nhat Hanh, Jack Kornfield, Bhikkhu Bodhi, and Norman Fischer, among others — have signed their names to a message that will appear in Burmese newspapers this week. The letter urges Burmese Buddhists to practice non-harming, compassion, and mutual respect toward Muslims.
“Buddhist teaching is based on the precepts of refraining from killing and causing harm,” the letter says in part. “Buddhist teaching is based on compassion and mutual care. Buddhist teaching offers respect to all, regardless of class, caste, race or creed.” You can read the rest of the letter here:
WORLD BUDDHIST LEADERS RESPONSE TO THE GROWING ETHNIC VIOLENCE AGAINST MUSLIMS IN MYANMAR
To Our Brother and Sister Buddhists in Myanmar,
As world Buddhist leaders we send our lovingkindess and concern for the difficulties the people of Myanmar are faced with at this time. While it is a time of great positive change in Myanmar we are concerned about the growing ethnic violence and the targeting of Muslims in Rakhine State and the violence against Muslims and others across the country. The Burmese are a noble people, and Burmese Buddhists carry a long and profound history of upholding the Dharma.
We wish to reaffirm to the world and to support you in practicing the most fundamental Buddhist principles of non-harming, mutual respect and compassion.
These fundamental principles taught by the Buddha are at the core of Buddhist practice:
Buddhist teaching is based on the precepts of refraining from killing and causing harm. Buddhist teaching is based on compassion and mutual care. Buddhist teaching offers respect to all, regardless of class, caste, race or creed.
We are with you for courageously standing up for these Buddhist principles even when others would demonize or harm Muslims or other ethnic groups. It is only through mutual respect, harmony and tolerance that Myanmar can become a modern great nation benefiting all her people and a shining example to the world.
Whether you are a Sayadaw or young monk or nun, or whether you are a lay Buddhist, please, speak out, stand up, reaffirm these Buddhist truths, and support all in Myanmar with the compassion, dignity and respect offered by the Buddha.
We stand with you in the Dharma,
Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Vietnam
Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi President Buddhist Global Relief (world’s foremost translator of the Pali Canon) Sri Lanka/USA
Dr. AT Ariyaratne Founder Nationwide Sarvodaya Movement Ghandi Peace Prize Laureate Sri Lanka
Ven. Chao Khun Raja Sumedhajahn Elder, Ajahn Chah Monasteries Wat Ratanavan, Thailand
Ven. Phra Paisal Visalo Chair Buddhika Network Buddhism and Society Thailand
Ven. Arjia Rinpoche VIII Abbot Tibetan Mongolian Cultural Center Mongolia/USA
Ven. Shodo Harada Roshi Abbot Sogenji Rinzai Zen Monastery Japan
Achariya Professor J Simmer Brown Chairperson Buddhist Studies Naropa Buddhist University USA
Ven. Ajahn Amaro Mahathera Abbot Amaravati Vihara England
Ven. Hozan A Senauke International Network of Engaged Buddhists Worldwide
Younge Khachab Rinpoche VIII Abbot Younge Drodul Ling Canada
Ven. Sr. Thich Nu Chan Kong President Plum Village Zen temples France/Vietnam
Dr. Jack Kornfield Vipassana Achariya Convener Western Buddhist Teachers Council USA
Lama Surya Das Dzogchen Foundation International Vajrayana Tibet/USA
Ven. Zoketsu N. Fischer Soto Roshi Fmr. Abbot largest Zen community in the West USA/Japan
Tulku Sherdor Rinpoche Director BI. Wisdom Institute Canada
Professor Robert Tenzin C. Thurman Center for Buddhist Studies Columbia University USA
HH the XIV Dalai Lama Nobel Laureate Tibet/India
Though not able to be reached in time to sign this letter, HH the Dalai Lama has publicly and repeatedly stated his concern about the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. He urges everyone to continue to practice non-violence and retain the religious harmony that is central to our ancient and revered culture.
This is at least the third letter from Buddhist teachers condemning the violence in Burma — an open letter from the Buddhist community on Islamophobia was released during Ramadan, and a second letter, written by Bill Aiken of Soka Gakkai International and signed by Buddhist and Muslim teachers, was published in October. Posted on: December 11, 2012
----------------
And a later commentary:
First Thoughts
Thursday, February 14, 2013 at 3:49PM
DO NOT STAND BY
In this message to Buddhadharma’s readers, Jack Kornfield talks about the response of Western Buddhist leaders to the ethnic violence incited by Burmese monks and abbots.
It is an amazing time of positive transformation in Burma, now called Myanmar, from a severe and crippling military dictatorship to some real movement toward freedom and democracy. After seventeen years, Aung San Suu Kyi is out of house arrest, carrying a spirit of metta and dignity that is breathtaking. And President Obama recently visited Burma and gave a strong, wise, and encouraging speech. It’s heartening to see smiling photos of Barack Obama, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Hillary Clinton together.
But when dictatorships are lifted, old unresolved ethnic tensions can reappear. There are many such conflicts in Burma, and recently the worst involves terrible persecution and violence against Muslims, especially the Rohingya people living near the border of Bangladesh. To our horror, certain Buddhist monks and abbots have encouraged the anti- Muslim violence. And others have been afraid to condemn it.
As a concerned response, a few Western teachers and I drafted an open letter to the monks and nuns of Burma and got our friendly world Buddhist leaders to sign on. The letter was published in several of the most widely read Burmese papers. It is a loving and deeply concerned appeal reminding the Burmese Buddhists of their noble dharma heritage and reaffirming the principles of nonviolence, compassion, and mutual respect. Stand up for these truths, we say.
We all need to be reminded of our commitment at times, and as friends of the people of Burma we want to support the best and most beautiful of the Burmese Buddhist tradition as they do the hard work to transform their society from half a century of repression to genuine freedom. Wish them well and send your prayers.
READ THE LETTER AT SHAMBHALASUN.COM
3/13/13: Climate Change Dharma Talk (audio)
by Taigen Dan Leighton
Below is a link to my Dharma talk reporting on my trip to Washington D.C. and the Climate Change rally in Washington D.C. Sunday Feb. 17. This was a rally opposing development of the Keystone XL pipeline, which has been described by NASA scientist and leading climatologist James Hansen as "game-over" for climate change. Close to 50,000 people attended from all over the country to urge President Obama to block this pipeline. I decided to participate and took a 12 hour overnight bus ride Saturday evening to get there, and a 12 hour overnight bus ride back to Chicago Sunday night, organized by the Sierra Club, because this seems to me the key moral issue of this time. The future of our species, if not a habitable planet, is at stake.
A crucial point about the Keystone XL pipeline issue specifically is that the decision does not depend on congress, or the Supreme Court, but solely on President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry. As a leading scholar of Fossil Fuel has said, "Presidential decisions often turn out to be far less significant than imagined, but every now and then what a president decides actually determines how the world turns. Such is the case with the Keystone XL pipeline, which, if built, is slated to bring some of the “dirtiest,” carbon-rich oil on the planet from Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. It could determine the fate of the Canadian tar-sands industry and, with it, the future well-being of the planet."
It is crucial for all future generations that we pressure our government and policy makers to adopt a sane energy policy that addresses the climate change happening around the world, and shifts rapidly from fossil fuel to sustainable energy sources. We still have time to lessen the suffering now arising from climate and environmental damage. As [350.org] founder Bill McKibben has carefully documented, the business plan of the fossil fuel industry will certainly release far, far more carbon into the atmosphere in the next several decades than will sustain human life. He has likened this industry to the Tobacco industry, and now along with the Sierra Club is organizing to stop the Keystone XL pipeline; and also to encourage universities and other institutions to follow the successful example of divestment from South Africa, and stop investments in the fossil fuel industry, and eliminate all such investments over five years.
My talk below includes much more detail about Sunday's demonstration.
President Obama will face great pressure from the extremely wealthy fossil fuel industry, but if you want to support and encourage President Obama to stop the Keystone Pipeline, please call The White House comment line at 202-456-1111; submit comments at www.whitehouse.gov/contact; or write: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500.
Here is the link:<http://audio.ancientdragon.org/20130218DT_ADZG_climate_change.mp3>
by Taigen Dan Leighton
Below is a link to my Dharma talk reporting on my trip to Washington D.C. and the Climate Change rally in Washington D.C. Sunday Feb. 17. This was a rally opposing development of the Keystone XL pipeline, which has been described by NASA scientist and leading climatologist James Hansen as "game-over" for climate change. Close to 50,000 people attended from all over the country to urge President Obama to block this pipeline. I decided to participate and took a 12 hour overnight bus ride Saturday evening to get there, and a 12 hour overnight bus ride back to Chicago Sunday night, organized by the Sierra Club, because this seems to me the key moral issue of this time. The future of our species, if not a habitable planet, is at stake.
A crucial point about the Keystone XL pipeline issue specifically is that the decision does not depend on congress, or the Supreme Court, but solely on President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry. As a leading scholar of Fossil Fuel has said, "Presidential decisions often turn out to be far less significant than imagined, but every now and then what a president decides actually determines how the world turns. Such is the case with the Keystone XL pipeline, which, if built, is slated to bring some of the “dirtiest,” carbon-rich oil on the planet from Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. It could determine the fate of the Canadian tar-sands industry and, with it, the future well-being of the planet."
It is crucial for all future generations that we pressure our government and policy makers to adopt a sane energy policy that addresses the climate change happening around the world, and shifts rapidly from fossil fuel to sustainable energy sources. We still have time to lessen the suffering now arising from climate and environmental damage. As [350.org] founder Bill McKibben has carefully documented, the business plan of the fossil fuel industry will certainly release far, far more carbon into the atmosphere in the next several decades than will sustain human life. He has likened this industry to the Tobacco industry, and now along with the Sierra Club is organizing to stop the Keystone XL pipeline; and also to encourage universities and other institutions to follow the successful example of divestment from South Africa, and stop investments in the fossil fuel industry, and eliminate all such investments over five years.
My talk below includes much more detail about Sunday's demonstration.
President Obama will face great pressure from the extremely wealthy fossil fuel industry, but if you want to support and encourage President Obama to stop the Keystone Pipeline, please call The White House comment line at 202-456-1111; submit comments at www.whitehouse.gov/contact; or write: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500.
Here is the link:<http://audio.ancientdragon.org/20130218DT_ADZG_climate_change.mp3>
2/15/13: The Buddha Meets the Drone
by Jack Lawlor
PREFACE
From time to time, we need to experience how what is wise and compassionate is indeed possible. My family attended a lovely retreat with Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh in 1989 which included not only adults, but also children. As is often the case, Thay ( the Vietnamese term of endearment for "teacher" ) invited the fifteen or so children in attendance to perform a skit one evening after dinner. The children chose the unlikely topic, "The Buddha Meets the Jetsons", which actually proved to be as telling as one of the retreat's many fine Dharma talks. Why? The children at the retreat portrayed 25th century-ish Jetson adults as stressed, overburdened, rather hyper and erratic beings who often ignored what was obvious in front of them and who often were caught in misperceptions of what was actually happening, leading to error and injury.
What the children were portraying so accurately, of course, was their own 20th century parents. It was obvious that the children were very diligent and accurate in perceiving adult behavior. So was the other character in the skit: the 6th century BC time-traveling visitor to the Jetsons, Shakyamuni Buddha -- whose demeanor, depth of character, and attentiveness compared starkly to the distracted, hapless, and overwrought George Jetson. It was interesting to see the Buddha attempt to instruct the Jetson family in such ancient practices as sitting meditation and walking meditation, all based on the primal practice of awareness of the breath. The Jetsons shook, strained and complained loudly about being exposed to this form of teaching, but without question in the skit these mindfulness techniques had their intended effect. The children attending the retreat were, in essence, submitting an optimistic report to us that in the last several days they were -- despite all their previous skepticism -- beginning to see how ancient contemplative practices were having a calming, insightful effect on their parents, who were becoming more open-minded, loving and sane.
Why have we given up on what could be a favorable outcome? Is our cynicism that hard, that deep? Can't we, as Christ urged, become more child-like in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, which according to the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas, "is spread before us but men do not see it"? Is there room for robot drones that attack civilians in foreign countries in such a Kingdom, such a world? How did we come to need to use drones in this way? Forty-two years ago I came upon Tolstoy's following description of a boyhood friend and the thrill of the possible, which still challenges me today:
"It goes without saying that under [ his] influence I involuntarily adopted his outlook, the essence of which was a rapturous adoration of the idea of virtue, and the conviction that man's purpose lies in continual self-improvement. To reform all humanity and eradicate all human vice and unhappiness seemed plausible enough to us at the time, just as it seemed an easy and uncomplicated matter to reform ourselves, to master all virtues and be happy... God only knows, however, just how absurd those noble dreams of youth were, or who was to blame that they were never realized...." [Leo Tolstoy, Boyhood. Childhood and Youth]
THE BUDDHA AND A CULTURE OF VIOLENCE
Although a life-long idealist, the Buddha was no stranger to cultures of violence. As a youth, his father -- a local monarch -- insisted that he train to be a warrior. But the Buddha kept his own counsel.
Years later, after the Buddha left his father's palace to become a spiritual seeker, he encountered the armies of two adjacent kingdoms massing on the banks of the Rohini River to clash over disputed water rights on the occasionally parched plains of northern India. Did the Budddha linger to side with the kingdom that was historically allied with his homeland? Did he walk away?
No, the Buddha didn't walk away from this highly charged situation. He did something rather interesting. He walked up and down the assembled ranks of both armies, and talked to the soldiers. He then essentially mediated the situation. He had asked questions of both sides about the significance of the water rights in question and the value of the lives of the young men in each army and the amount of treasure it took to assemble troops, warhorses and equipment in place on the field of battle. He then reported to each side the attitudes of the other side. It proved that neither side thought it was worth viewing the water rights as an "all or nothing" issue, and shared water rights were successfully negotiated.
The Buddha did not always succeed in such efforts, but in many instances -- including disputes within his spiritual community -- he was able successfully to sow seeds of empathy, of being able to know and see deeply into other people, not limited only to what is wrong within them but what his right, what is healthy. He did not gain these insights through the use of drone aircraft thousands of feet above the earth, but by meeting with people and spending time with them, exploring their deepest, most genuine desires and aspirations. And this often led to defusing and disarming difficult situations. Are we even capable of such empathy today, in the wake of Bush-era political leaders who made fun of empathetic people, implying they are are weak?
Were the assembled armies along the Rohini River made stronger by avoiding violent conflict? Or would they have been stronger after battling each other, contributing their blood to the Rohini? Is our nation stronger or weaker in the wake of the war in Iraq?
What compass was the Buddha following? How would his source of guidance approach the subject of drone warfare?
THE BUDDHA ON LOVE
We haven't heard the word "love" used genuinely in our political discourse in the United States since Dr. Martin Luther King -- despite torrents of skepticism and doubt from all quarters -- changed this nation profoundly by both preaching it and practicing it.
In the West, Buddhism tends to be known for its remarkable focus on the practice of meditation, perceived to be the cultivation of wisdom. But although raised to be a warrior by his father, the local king, love is the essence of the Buddha and his teaching. After approximately 45 years of teaching up and down the dusty roads of northern India, the Buddha stated that he teaches but one thing -- the liberation of suffering -- out of his love and compassion for all beings.
Some witnessing Buddhist peace demonstrations in the Chicago area have encountered recitations of the Buddha's Discourse on Love and report utter disbelief that the text is 2,500 years old, its language and our need for it is so contemporary:
The Discourse on Love
"He or she who wants to attain peace should practice being upright, humble, and capable of using loving speech.
He or she will know how to live simply and happily, with senses calmed, without being covetous and carried away by the will of the majority.
Let him or her not do anything that will be disapproved of by the wise ones.
( And this is what he or she contemplates ):
May everyone be happy and safe, and may their hearts be filled with joy.
May all beings live in security and peace-- beings who are frail or strong, tall or short, visible or not visible, near or far away, already born, or yet to be born.
May all of them dwell in perfect tranquility.
Let no one do harm to anyone.
Let no one put the life of anyone in danger.
Let no one, out of anger or ill will, wish anyone any harm.
Just as a mother loves and protects her only child at the risk of her own life, we should cultivate boundless love to offer to all living beings in the entire cosmos.
We should let our boundless love pervade the whole universe, above, below, and across.
Our love will know no obstacles.
Our heart will be absolutely free from hatred and enmity.
Whether standing or walking, sitting or lying, as long as we are awake, we should maintain this mindfulness of love in our own heart.
This is the noblest way of living.
Free from wrong view, greed and sensual desires, living in beauty and realizing Perfect Understanding, those who practice boundless love will certainly transcend birth and death."
THE SUFFERING CAUSED BY MISPERCEPTION
There is a corresponding side to Buddhist contemplation that cultivates a radical type of wisdom, radical in the sense that its does its utmost to see and perceive the roots of conflict deep in the human heart, and tries to determine which skillful means can be engaged to mitigate suffering. The following lines from the Collected Sayings of the Buddha, known as the Dhammapada, are illustrative of the Buddhist approach to cutting through confusion and identifying the roots of conflict:
"We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.
Speak or act with an impure mind
And trouble will follow you
As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart.
We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or act with a pure mind
And happiness will follow you
As your own shadow, unshakable..."
"`Look how he abused me and beat me, How he threw me down and robbed me.'
Live with such thoughts and you live in hate.
`Look how he abused me and beat me, How he threw me down and robbed me'.
Abandon such thoughts, and live in love."
"In this world,
Hate never yet dispelled hate.
This is the law,
Ancient and inexhaustible."
What do we really know about the people the U.S. government is killing through drone warfare? We know that the drones have accidentally attacked wedding parties and other family gatherings. What imminent harm are those on the drone death list not only intending, but capable of inflicting on our country? Was the threat to our country direct? Were imminent, feasible attacks on the U.S. prevented by drone killings taking place thousands and thousands of miles from the U.S., or do we simply slay tribal leaders who are making the lives of other tribal leaders who are more consistently favorably disposed toward the U.S. more difficult?
Have the people we've slain ever actually harmed us? Is the nation where they reside even capable of harming us? Or is it our government's view of their ideology and their religion that slates people for death? If that is the case, is death by drone justified? Do we simply chose to live in hate? How much misperception are we suffering from? How far gone are we from what is human, what is sane? What has happened to us?
An elderly Vietnam War veteran approached the microphone during a question and answer period with Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh in northern Mississippi in the summer of 2011, attended by approximately 1,000 people from throughout the American South. The vet very humbly asked Thich Nhat Hanh to recognize that many, many of the young Americans who went to Vietnam as soldiers did not do so to inflict havoc upon the country, but to help the Vietnamese people. He asked that everyone acknowledge that.
Thich Nhat Hanh's response was very telling. He acknowledged the honorable intention of so many of the young Americans who went to Vietnam in such huge numbers in the mid 1960s. But Thay had a request of the American people in return. Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh asked us, as Americans, never, never, to go to war again based on a misperception. Think of how we entered war in Vietnam based on the misperception that North Vietnamese torpedo boats had attacked two U.S. Navy destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
Think of how we entered the War in Iraq based on the misperception that it was brimming with weapons of mass destruction. Think of how we are about to borrow more money from the Chinese to go to war with Iran based on our-- perception or misperception?-- that it is assembling nuclear weapons and is an imminent threat to world peace.
Is there reason to believe that our use of drones is based on any more accurate perceptions of who to kill, remotely, without ever confronting them or providing a chance to speak? Where is the declaration of war authorizing these acts? Where is the rule of law?
MODERN APPLICATIONS OF THE BUDDHA'S TEACHINGS ON LOVE
AND ON THE SUFFERING ATTRIBUTABLE TO MISPERCEPTION
Love is a universal message in world religions. Buddhism, however, may be unique among religions in its emphasis on the need to prevent the injury and tragedy caused by human misperception. Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh urges us to cultivate the following qualities through the engaged, consistent practice of meditation based on mindful breathing in order to live in love, free of misperception in the manner suggested by the Buddha:
1.) The cultivation of stopping, or "Shamatha" in the Pali language: i.e., to recognize and let go of compulsions and prejudices which cause misperception;
2.) The cultivation of concentration, or "Samadhi". Everything in our culture encourages distraction and reduces our ability to concentrate, thwarting our ability to understand what is actually going on;
3.) Dwelling in "Appamada", the absence of madness. Once we cultivate stopping and concentration, we dwell in awareness, free of misperception that causes us to say and do things we do not understand;
4.) The cultivation insight, or Vipassana. Once we dwell in concentration, our perception clears, and we can see and understand underlying causes and conditions not only effecting us, but others. We are capable of seeing and understanding things from the vantage point of other beings.
5.) The cultivation of compassion, or Karuna. Once free of our own obsessions and misperceptions, we better see and understand what is going on, how we have an impact on others, and how they influence us, opening the way to compassion; and
6.) The cultivation of understanding, Prajna. The practice of compassion deepens our understanding of the radical impermanance and interdependence of all beings, giving rise to wisdom.
There's another set of exercises which Thich Nhat Hahn urges his students to practice when encountering uncertainty and confusion. They might be practiced in U.S. Air Force and CIA drone command posts, safely tucked away thousands of miles from violent operations. Rather than live compulsively, driven by habit energies, Thay suggests that we first take refuge in mindfulness of breathing, and then ask ourselves:
-- Am I sure of what I am doing? If we are not sure, the moral thing to do may be to refrain from action until deep looking and inquiry suggest what we should do or not do;
-- What am I doing? Am I trying my best to do technical read-outs nin my drone's computer and surveillance camera, or am I killing someone who may not even be the person my government has labelled a "terrorist' on the basis of information unknown to me. What am I REALLY doing?
-- Am I giving into habit energy? What tendencies and beliefs have I inherited from my nation, my family, my society? Do I need to question and challenge their resort to violence under these circumstances? Isn't the use of violence at odds with other things I have been taught by the nation, the family, the society I love?
-- Are my acts making it possible for all beings to live, to be their best? In the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, it is believed that all beings have bodhicitta, the heart and mind of love that is capable of manifesting both compassion and wisdom simultaneously, not only for one's own benefit, but for the benefit of all beings. Will my actions injure the bodhicitta in others? If they do, won't my acts cause ever escalating levels of suffering?
THE NEARSIGHTED DRONE
Drone warfare may reflect an anxious, fearful society deeply out of touch with its highest values, and lost in misperception.
Are we proceeding with an assumption that certain "types" do not deserve to live?
Rather than take the time and look deeply into what we are doing, who we are targeting, and providing rudiments of due process and the rule of law, we are slating growing numbers of people for assassination. Rather than question the saneness of this approach, its morality, its relationship to the rules of engagement in warfare, and how we found ourselves in need to use robot aircraft, we push ahead and set a lethal precedent for other nations.
Rather than learn from the protestations of others who protest the sudden death of so many innocent from within their territory in our pursuit of untried terrorist suspects, we purchase and accelerate the use of more and more drones, never pausing to contemplate the world we will have created once other nations have this technology within a few years.
Despite the optimism of children teaching their parents of how the Buddha met the Jetsons, and despite the pleas of Tolstoy to make what's good and what's whole possible again, our hearts are somehow hardened to the possibility of beginning anew, in wisdom and compassion.
In reliance on technology, we understand less and less, rather than more. What are the underlying causes and conditions of our suffering, and of the suffering we inflict on others? How did we get to this place?
Jack Lawlor was ordained a Dharma Teacher by Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh at a Transmission of the Lamp Ceremony conducted at the Plum Village Practice Center in France in 1991. He has served as President of the Buddhist Council of the Midwest and on the national Board of Directors of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. Jack has led over 100 retreats and Days of Mindfulness throughout the Midwest and the Rockies. He began Zen practice in organized practice communities, known as Sanghas, in the mid-1970s.
From time to time, we need to experience how what is wise and compassionate is indeed possible. My family attended a lovely retreat with Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh in 1989 which included not only adults, but also children. As is often the case, Thay ( the Vietnamese term of endearment for "teacher" ) invited the fifteen or so children in attendance to perform a skit one evening after dinner. The children chose the unlikely topic, "The Buddha Meets the Jetsons", which actually proved to be as telling as one of the retreat's many fine Dharma talks. Why? The children at the retreat portrayed 25th century-ish Jetson adults as stressed, overburdened, rather hyper and erratic beings who often ignored what was obvious in front of them and who often were caught in misperceptions of what was actually happening, leading to error and injury.
What the children were portraying so accurately, of course, was their own 20th century parents. It was obvious that the children were very diligent and accurate in perceiving adult behavior. So was the other character in the skit: the 6th century BC time-traveling visitor to the Jetsons, Shakyamuni Buddha -- whose demeanor, depth of character, and attentiveness compared starkly to the distracted, hapless, and overwrought George Jetson. It was interesting to see the Buddha attempt to instruct the Jetson family in such ancient practices as sitting meditation and walking meditation, all based on the primal practice of awareness of the breath. The Jetsons shook, strained and complained loudly about being exposed to this form of teaching, but without question in the skit these mindfulness techniques had their intended effect. The children attending the retreat were, in essence, submitting an optimistic report to us that in the last several days they were -- despite all their previous skepticism -- beginning to see how ancient contemplative practices were having a calming, insightful effect on their parents, who were becoming more open-minded, loving and sane.
Why have we given up on what could be a favorable outcome? Is our cynicism that hard, that deep? Can't we, as Christ urged, become more child-like in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, which according to the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas, "is spread before us but men do not see it"? Is there room for robot drones that attack civilians in foreign countries in such a Kingdom, such a world? How did we come to need to use drones in this way? Forty-two years ago I came upon Tolstoy's following description of a boyhood friend and the thrill of the possible, which still challenges me today:
"It goes without saying that under [ his] influence I involuntarily adopted his outlook, the essence of which was a rapturous adoration of the idea of virtue, and the conviction that man's purpose lies in continual self-improvement. To reform all humanity and eradicate all human vice and unhappiness seemed plausible enough to us at the time, just as it seemed an easy and uncomplicated matter to reform ourselves, to master all virtues and be happy... God only knows, however, just how absurd those noble dreams of youth were, or who was to blame that they were never realized...." [Leo Tolstoy, Boyhood. Childhood and Youth]
THE BUDDHA AND A CULTURE OF VIOLENCE
Although a life-long idealist, the Buddha was no stranger to cultures of violence. As a youth, his father -- a local monarch -- insisted that he train to be a warrior. But the Buddha kept his own counsel.
Years later, after the Buddha left his father's palace to become a spiritual seeker, he encountered the armies of two adjacent kingdoms massing on the banks of the Rohini River to clash over disputed water rights on the occasionally parched plains of northern India. Did the Budddha linger to side with the kingdom that was historically allied with his homeland? Did he walk away?
No, the Buddha didn't walk away from this highly charged situation. He did something rather interesting. He walked up and down the assembled ranks of both armies, and talked to the soldiers. He then essentially mediated the situation. He had asked questions of both sides about the significance of the water rights in question and the value of the lives of the young men in each army and the amount of treasure it took to assemble troops, warhorses and equipment in place on the field of battle. He then reported to each side the attitudes of the other side. It proved that neither side thought it was worth viewing the water rights as an "all or nothing" issue, and shared water rights were successfully negotiated.
The Buddha did not always succeed in such efforts, but in many instances -- including disputes within his spiritual community -- he was able successfully to sow seeds of empathy, of being able to know and see deeply into other people, not limited only to what is wrong within them but what his right, what is healthy. He did not gain these insights through the use of drone aircraft thousands of feet above the earth, but by meeting with people and spending time with them, exploring their deepest, most genuine desires and aspirations. And this often led to defusing and disarming difficult situations. Are we even capable of such empathy today, in the wake of Bush-era political leaders who made fun of empathetic people, implying they are are weak?
Were the assembled armies along the Rohini River made stronger by avoiding violent conflict? Or would they have been stronger after battling each other, contributing their blood to the Rohini? Is our nation stronger or weaker in the wake of the war in Iraq?
What compass was the Buddha following? How would his source of guidance approach the subject of drone warfare?
THE BUDDHA ON LOVE
We haven't heard the word "love" used genuinely in our political discourse in the United States since Dr. Martin Luther King -- despite torrents of skepticism and doubt from all quarters -- changed this nation profoundly by both preaching it and practicing it.
In the West, Buddhism tends to be known for its remarkable focus on the practice of meditation, perceived to be the cultivation of wisdom. But although raised to be a warrior by his father, the local king, love is the essence of the Buddha and his teaching. After approximately 45 years of teaching up and down the dusty roads of northern India, the Buddha stated that he teaches but one thing -- the liberation of suffering -- out of his love and compassion for all beings.
Some witnessing Buddhist peace demonstrations in the Chicago area have encountered recitations of the Buddha's Discourse on Love and report utter disbelief that the text is 2,500 years old, its language and our need for it is so contemporary:
The Discourse on Love
"He or she who wants to attain peace should practice being upright, humble, and capable of using loving speech.
He or she will know how to live simply and happily, with senses calmed, without being covetous and carried away by the will of the majority.
Let him or her not do anything that will be disapproved of by the wise ones.
( And this is what he or she contemplates ):
May everyone be happy and safe, and may their hearts be filled with joy.
May all beings live in security and peace-- beings who are frail or strong, tall or short, visible or not visible, near or far away, already born, or yet to be born.
May all of them dwell in perfect tranquility.
Let no one do harm to anyone.
Let no one put the life of anyone in danger.
Let no one, out of anger or ill will, wish anyone any harm.
Just as a mother loves and protects her only child at the risk of her own life, we should cultivate boundless love to offer to all living beings in the entire cosmos.
We should let our boundless love pervade the whole universe, above, below, and across.
Our love will know no obstacles.
Our heart will be absolutely free from hatred and enmity.
Whether standing or walking, sitting or lying, as long as we are awake, we should maintain this mindfulness of love in our own heart.
This is the noblest way of living.
Free from wrong view, greed and sensual desires, living in beauty and realizing Perfect Understanding, those who practice boundless love will certainly transcend birth and death."
THE SUFFERING CAUSED BY MISPERCEPTION
There is a corresponding side to Buddhist contemplation that cultivates a radical type of wisdom, radical in the sense that its does its utmost to see and perceive the roots of conflict deep in the human heart, and tries to determine which skillful means can be engaged to mitigate suffering. The following lines from the Collected Sayings of the Buddha, known as the Dhammapada, are illustrative of the Buddhist approach to cutting through confusion and identifying the roots of conflict:
"We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.
Speak or act with an impure mind
And trouble will follow you
As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart.
We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or act with a pure mind
And happiness will follow you
As your own shadow, unshakable..."
"`Look how he abused me and beat me, How he threw me down and robbed me.'
Live with such thoughts and you live in hate.
`Look how he abused me and beat me, How he threw me down and robbed me'.
Abandon such thoughts, and live in love."
"In this world,
Hate never yet dispelled hate.
This is the law,
Ancient and inexhaustible."
What do we really know about the people the U.S. government is killing through drone warfare? We know that the drones have accidentally attacked wedding parties and other family gatherings. What imminent harm are those on the drone death list not only intending, but capable of inflicting on our country? Was the threat to our country direct? Were imminent, feasible attacks on the U.S. prevented by drone killings taking place thousands and thousands of miles from the U.S., or do we simply slay tribal leaders who are making the lives of other tribal leaders who are more consistently favorably disposed toward the U.S. more difficult?
Have the people we've slain ever actually harmed us? Is the nation where they reside even capable of harming us? Or is it our government's view of their ideology and their religion that slates people for death? If that is the case, is death by drone justified? Do we simply chose to live in hate? How much misperception are we suffering from? How far gone are we from what is human, what is sane? What has happened to us?
An elderly Vietnam War veteran approached the microphone during a question and answer period with Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh in northern Mississippi in the summer of 2011, attended by approximately 1,000 people from throughout the American South. The vet very humbly asked Thich Nhat Hanh to recognize that many, many of the young Americans who went to Vietnam as soldiers did not do so to inflict havoc upon the country, but to help the Vietnamese people. He asked that everyone acknowledge that.
Thich Nhat Hanh's response was very telling. He acknowledged the honorable intention of so many of the young Americans who went to Vietnam in such huge numbers in the mid 1960s. But Thay had a request of the American people in return. Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh asked us, as Americans, never, never, to go to war again based on a misperception. Think of how we entered war in Vietnam based on the misperception that North Vietnamese torpedo boats had attacked two U.S. Navy destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
Think of how we entered the War in Iraq based on the misperception that it was brimming with weapons of mass destruction. Think of how we are about to borrow more money from the Chinese to go to war with Iran based on our-- perception or misperception?-- that it is assembling nuclear weapons and is an imminent threat to world peace.
Is there reason to believe that our use of drones is based on any more accurate perceptions of who to kill, remotely, without ever confronting them or providing a chance to speak? Where is the declaration of war authorizing these acts? Where is the rule of law?
MODERN APPLICATIONS OF THE BUDDHA'S TEACHINGS ON LOVE
AND ON THE SUFFERING ATTRIBUTABLE TO MISPERCEPTION
Love is a universal message in world religions. Buddhism, however, may be unique among religions in its emphasis on the need to prevent the injury and tragedy caused by human misperception. Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh urges us to cultivate the following qualities through the engaged, consistent practice of meditation based on mindful breathing in order to live in love, free of misperception in the manner suggested by the Buddha:
1.) The cultivation of stopping, or "Shamatha" in the Pali language: i.e., to recognize and let go of compulsions and prejudices which cause misperception;
2.) The cultivation of concentration, or "Samadhi". Everything in our culture encourages distraction and reduces our ability to concentrate, thwarting our ability to understand what is actually going on;
3.) Dwelling in "Appamada", the absence of madness. Once we cultivate stopping and concentration, we dwell in awareness, free of misperception that causes us to say and do things we do not understand;
4.) The cultivation insight, or Vipassana. Once we dwell in concentration, our perception clears, and we can see and understand underlying causes and conditions not only effecting us, but others. We are capable of seeing and understanding things from the vantage point of other beings.
5.) The cultivation of compassion, or Karuna. Once free of our own obsessions and misperceptions, we better see and understand what is going on, how we have an impact on others, and how they influence us, opening the way to compassion; and
6.) The cultivation of understanding, Prajna. The practice of compassion deepens our understanding of the radical impermanance and interdependence of all beings, giving rise to wisdom.
There's another set of exercises which Thich Nhat Hahn urges his students to practice when encountering uncertainty and confusion. They might be practiced in U.S. Air Force and CIA drone command posts, safely tucked away thousands of miles from violent operations. Rather than live compulsively, driven by habit energies, Thay suggests that we first take refuge in mindfulness of breathing, and then ask ourselves:
-- Am I sure of what I am doing? If we are not sure, the moral thing to do may be to refrain from action until deep looking and inquiry suggest what we should do or not do;
-- What am I doing? Am I trying my best to do technical read-outs nin my drone's computer and surveillance camera, or am I killing someone who may not even be the person my government has labelled a "terrorist' on the basis of information unknown to me. What am I REALLY doing?
-- Am I giving into habit energy? What tendencies and beliefs have I inherited from my nation, my family, my society? Do I need to question and challenge their resort to violence under these circumstances? Isn't the use of violence at odds with other things I have been taught by the nation, the family, the society I love?
-- Are my acts making it possible for all beings to live, to be their best? In the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, it is believed that all beings have bodhicitta, the heart and mind of love that is capable of manifesting both compassion and wisdom simultaneously, not only for one's own benefit, but for the benefit of all beings. Will my actions injure the bodhicitta in others? If they do, won't my acts cause ever escalating levels of suffering?
THE NEARSIGHTED DRONE
Drone warfare may reflect an anxious, fearful society deeply out of touch with its highest values, and lost in misperception.
Are we proceeding with an assumption that certain "types" do not deserve to live?
Rather than take the time and look deeply into what we are doing, who we are targeting, and providing rudiments of due process and the rule of law, we are slating growing numbers of people for assassination. Rather than question the saneness of this approach, its morality, its relationship to the rules of engagement in warfare, and how we found ourselves in need to use robot aircraft, we push ahead and set a lethal precedent for other nations.
Rather than learn from the protestations of others who protest the sudden death of so many innocent from within their territory in our pursuit of untried terrorist suspects, we purchase and accelerate the use of more and more drones, never pausing to contemplate the world we will have created once other nations have this technology within a few years.
Despite the optimism of children teaching their parents of how the Buddha met the Jetsons, and despite the pleas of Tolstoy to make what's good and what's whole possible again, our hearts are somehow hardened to the possibility of beginning anew, in wisdom and compassion.
In reliance on technology, we understand less and less, rather than more. What are the underlying causes and conditions of our suffering, and of the suffering we inflict on others? How did we get to this place?
Jack Lawlor was ordained a Dharma Teacher by Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh at a Transmission of the Lamp Ceremony conducted at the Plum Village Practice Center in France in 1991. He has served as President of the Buddhist Council of the Midwest and on the national Board of Directors of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. Jack has led over 100 retreats and Days of Mindfulness throughout the Midwest and the Rockies. He began Zen practice in organized practice communities, known as Sanghas, in the mid-1970s.
