What can Zen folks do, how should we feel, seeking to respond with Wisdom and Compassion in the face of war?
- There is no shame in feeling sadness, disgust and fear ... for we are caring human beings who may be disappointed, repulsed and afraid (for others, and sometimes for our very own safety). Our practice is not one of numbness. The sight of children and other innocents losing their lives breaks our hearts, and our Practice should not shield us from such feelings.
- However, let us not be prisoners of sadness, disgust or fear ... for these emotions in excess can be destructive and debilitating, are not needed for our response. Feel, cry, run from tigers when needing to run, but do not drown or wallow in ill-suited reactions. There is a difference, for example, between sorrow, natural grief and debilitating darkness. (If you find yourself paralyzed by depression, anxiety or like crippling emotions, do seek professional medical advice, which can go hand-in-hand with Zen practice).
- As well, sit Zazen: experience our Home that is ever and always free of war and violence, beyond killing and death (birth too), no suffering possible, transcending both victimizer and victimized ... a taste of Peace, Stillness, Beauty and Wholeness sweeping in all the bloody and broken pieces of this chaotic and often ugly world. It is a Peace and Stillness present even amid battlefields.
- Moreover, know ALL such views above as a single taste: As best one can, witness the war with both sadness and underlying Peace in a single moment, like two sides of a no sided coin, feeling disgust and acceptance together, fear coupled with Fearless Wholeness, Beauty that is also ugliness, chaos and Stillness all at once, neither one nor two. Such is to know Samsara with a Buddha's Eye.
I have friends in Ukraine and Israel for whom war is not a news story far away. They ask me what they should do and feel. But how am I to answer from my peaceful house and calm life, thousands of miles away? I can only imagine what they must be feeling. Even so, I must try to say something ...
- Friends, despite all that has happened, let us seek to avoid further violence as best we can. Even if there is need to defend oneself, one's family, to defend innocent others, one's town and society, including by killing those who are a threat, do so with regret, as a last resort when it is the only way, feeling the weight of what must be done. We do not take life easily, even when feeling that it is necessary and right. Always look for other ways, new ways (do not repeat the mistakes of so many times in the past), using violence and killing as a last resort.
- Although it is so easy to be dragged into anger, do your best not to meet anger-with-anger, for doing so pours fuel on the fire. Meet anger and violence with quenching and quieting waters. Think of the enemy as sick with anger, violence, desire, divided thinking. Thus, please act in response like the calm physician who, with deep regret, even sadness, may need to cause pain to stop the poison's spread. In the face of even the greatest evil, we Buddhists wish to see evil doers, not as evil men, but as fellow sentient beings poisoned by evil.
- When needing to act in defense, do all that can be done never to harm a single child, never to harm civilians. Doing so is always wrong, even when unavoidable in battle, that much worse when avoidable, no matter when done by whom, no matter what was done to whom. Do all that can be done to prevent civilian casualties. Do not easily kill their children and their innocents because your children and your innocents were killed. Do not stop food, water, lights and heat to a population, even if a strategic move.
- It is wrong to say that one person, far away from war, can do little to stop the war: One person joining with 100 people, 1000 people, 10,000 people or a million people becomes a movement, and voices can be heard. Speak up for peace, non-violence, protecting children and civilians. And even if our efforts will not be fully successful, keep trying, for we might save many lives even if not all. Let us also work for an end to oppression, calling for the right of all to have a peaceful place to live and call their own, demanding that all learn to live together with tolerance and mutual respect. We never know the ripple effects of adding even a tiny drop of peace and love into the ocean of this wider world. Writing from my home in Japan, once my country's deadly enemy, I know that healing is possible.
- Never lose heart, although so much is disheartening: On the darkest days, when the skies thunder, have faith that the clear, open, boundless sky is present although now hidden from view. Never lose hope that tomorrow can be an age of peace and reconciliation, despite today's time of division and war. Let us keep working, and thinking up new plans, crazy-wise plans, to bring peace.
Do all of the above, as appropriate to the time and situation. Then, sit Zazen again, as the clear, open, boundless sky, dropping thoughts of me vs. you, right and wrong, mine and yours, as the Peace which holds all worldly peace and war.
Gassho, J
SatTodayLAH
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