For Justice & Peace

[Jakuden]

Metta to all those suffering from the three poisons of greed, anger and delusion.
Metta to those who suffer from violence perpetrated upon them because of the color of their skin.
Metta to those who have lost any loved one to violence.
Metta to those who have had violence perpetrated upon themselves or their property because of the anger over racial inequality issues.
Metta to those suffering from the anger and divisive thinking of others because of their chosen profession.
Metta to all who suffer from the pain of the disharmony and divisive thinking.
Metta to those who outwardly demonstrate disrespect, violence, anger and/or divisive thinking toward other sentient beings, sometimes they suffer most of all.

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday

[Shinshi]

Metta to all those suffering from the three poisons of greed, anger and delusion.
Metta to those who suffer from violence perpetrated upon them because of the color of their skin.
Metta to those who have lost any loved one to violence.
Metta to those who have had violence perpetrated upon themselves or their property because of the anger over racial inequality issues.
Metta to those suffering from the anger and divisive thinking of others because of their chosen profession.
Metta to all who suffer from the pain of the disharmony and divisive thinking.
Metta to those who outwardly demonstrate disrespect, violence, anger and/or divisive thinking toward other sentient beings, sometimes they suffer most of all.

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday

Gassho, Shinshi

SaT-LaH

[Horin]

Thank you jundo,
It's a difficult time, so much violence. It's not the way to bring hate and destruction as a reaction to the cruel murder (I would see it as murder)... although I can understand the emotional reactions of the protesters and it makes me so sad to see there's still racism out there. I hope the justice will do its job.
It's hard to practice metta and to visualize people like this police officer. Yet, he himself is a victim of his experiences, of his socialisation. I don't know if I would say so, if I'm in the place of George floyds family...
I will sit Zazen with the pain and the sadness of what has happened and what is still happening...
Gassho

Ben

Stlah



Enviado desde mi PLK-L01 mediante Tapatalk

[martyrob]

A couple of days ago, after eating my breakfast, I watch a black man (George Floyd) being suffocated to death. This is the kind of thing that gets fed into your phone nowadays. I didn’t want to watch, it felt like voyeurism but to turn away felt like a betrayal. A week or so ago a young man is gunned down for the unfortunate crime of jogging. He happened to be black (Ahmad Arbery). Over two weeks ago police broke into Brenonna Taylor’s house and shot her dead. The only crime it seems she committed- she was a key worker- was the crime of being black. In her own home!
I watched a woman dog walker weaponise her white privilege against a black man for suggesting she put her dog on a leash. This looked like Alabama in the 1930’s not Central Park today.
My stomach is still growling, dyspeptically at the seared image of Mr. Floyd’s death at the callous hands of a uninterested police officer. This is institutionalised racism in its most naked sense. I know there are many good, decent police out there, but that’s beside the point, they are operating in a system that is weighted against black people. How many innocent black people get killed every year in unprovoked attacks by the police across the United States? The answer to this tells you all you need to know.
As a middle-aged white guy I have no idea of the privations, humiliations and grievances of being black. I wouldn’t presume. I can imagine, but that is to presume. I can listen, and before I pass comment, try to feel what it is like to walk a few miles in another person’s shoes, feel where the toes pinch that don’t in my own well-heeled and comfortable shoes.
Today, America is aflame- again! Hundreds of years of oppression come back to the surface that black people fear being gunned down in their own streets by the police; the very people tasked with protecting them. I sit, thousands of miles away in solidarity with those men and women protesting today.
“What is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that … the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality and humanity….A riot is the language of the unheard.” Not Malcom X but Martin Luther King.
I sometimes wonder whether our precious Buddhist tranquility is a cop out from actually making a commitment to listen, to feel someone else’s pain and maybe feel their rage too, because if this doesn’t make you feel rage then what’s wrong with you? I sometimes wonder whether our nice, neat, middle-class Buddhist equanimity is more an act of complicity with a system that privileges us to such a profound extent that we don’t even see it. Neither do I see it that I should be expressing pieties about peace, love and understanding because in many respects I’m part of the problem not the solution. What’s happening today on the streets of America is not an act of unprovoked violence by a group of “ THUGS” but a reaction to persistent, systemic oppression and violence- no doubt it will get out of hand; I gather someone has already been killed, and that has to be regretted but I can’t condemn it for the simple reason that I have no idea what it is like to be at the sharp end of this brutality. And so I’ll do what I think is the most skilful course of action for a white Buddhist in this matter: shut up and listen.
Wishing us all well,

Martyn
Sat today.


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[Meitou]

Thank you Jundo and for the many measured and thoughtful responses here. It's at times like this, of chaos and suffering, that faith ( of any stripe) is challenged the most, and each of us must find our own way to meeting that challenge, relying on what, if anything, we've learned so far in this life and on this path. I can only remind myself of the vow I took at the very beginning of this path - which I repeat every day - putting aside my ego, my opinions which are worth nothing and my emotions which are useless, to save ALL sentient beings, although beings are numberless, and the suffering is unimaginable and endless. Anger of course, but if it doesn't serve to prompt a compassionate and useful response, it becomes a self centred, self destructive force. I know this because unfortunately anger is my greatest and most painful challenge.

Metta to all those suffering from the three poisons of greed, anger and delusion.
Metta to those who suffer from violence perpetrated upon them because of the color of their skin.
Metta to those who have lost any loved one to violence.
Metta to those who have had violence perpetrated upon themselves or their property because of the anger over racial inequality issues.
Metta to those suffering from the anger and divisive thinking of others because of their chosen profession.
Metta to all who suffer from the pain of the disharmony and divisive thinking.
Metta to those who outwardly demonstrate disrespect, violence, anger and/or divisive thinking toward other sentient beings, sometimes they suffer most of all.

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday

Thank you for this Jakuden.
Gassho
Meitou
sattoday lah

[Seikan]

Metta to all those suffering from the three poisons of greed, anger and delusion.
Metta to those who suffer from violence perpetrated upon them because of the color of their skin.
Metta to those who have lost any loved one to violence.
Metta to those who have had violence perpetrated upon themselves or their property because of the anger over racial inequality issues.
Metta to those suffering from the anger and divisive thinking of others because of their chosen profession.
Metta to all who suffer from the pain of the disharmony and divisive thinking.
Metta to those who outwardly demonstrate disrespect, violence, anger and/or divisive thinking toward other sentient beings, sometimes they suffer most of all.

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday

Beautifully said Jakuden. I would love to borrow this for my own Metta practice right now. I hope that you don't mind.


Gassho,
Rob

SatToday

[Jundo]

I sometimes wonder whether our precious Buddhist tranquility is a cop out from actually making a commitment to listen, to feel someone else’s pain and maybe feel their rage too, because if this doesn’t make you feel rage then what’s wrong with you?

Oh, we should listen, deeply listen. More than that, what is vital is that we act, and really fix the system!

But what we should not do is feel rage (profound moral indignation if one wishes, yes ... burning rage, no), and we should not throw stones at police or burn buildings.

Gassho, Jundo

STLah

[Jundo]

A friend posted this today, and I found it inspirational ...

This officer got separated from other officers and this group of protestors created a human shield to protect him.

Be the change you want to see in the world.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Bokugan]

So much to digest here. Thank you for sharing this in more detail, Jundo. As I mentioned in another thread, like many others, I'm struggling emotionally with all of this.

I have been dodging the news a bit to try and lessen the stress of it all, but even that doesn't help since it gets me thinking on how my privilege (being white in rural America) allows me to distance myself like that.... am I turning the other way? Should I be doing something more than I am? Only questions I can answer myself.

I agree with your sentiments, Jundo. I can understand the rage felt by the protesters --- to be honest, I feel it myself at times reflexively --- but violence is not an answer. It just spirals out of control, feeding on a cycle of anger and fear.

Metta to all those suffering from the three poisons of greed, anger and delusion.
Metta to those who suffer from violence perpetrated upon them because of the color of their skin.
Metta to those who have lost any loved one to violence.
Metta to those who have had violence perpetrated upon themselves or their property because of the anger over racial inequality issues.
Metta to those suffering from the anger and divisive thinking of others because of their chosen profession.
Metta to all who suffer from the pain of the disharmony and divisive thinking.
Metta to those who outwardly demonstrate disrespect, violence, anger and/or divisive thinking toward other sentient beings, sometimes they suffer most of all.

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday

Jakuden -- thank you for this

Gassho

Ryan
Sat

[Jakuden]

Beautifully said Jakuden. I would love to borrow this for my own Metta practice right now. I hope that you don't mind.


Gassho,
Rob

SatToday

Please do! I promise I will not file for copyright infringement

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday/LAH

[Onkai]

Thank you, Jundo, and everyone who has contributed to this thread. The pictures of the protestors protecting a police officer are moving. I hope this is not going too far off topic, but it occurred to me recently that stands in politics are based on a vision of good and evil. My professed belief is that the good/evil split is based attachment (greed), aversion (hatred) or indifference (apathy). When things are looked at in terms of good and evil, no compromise is possible. Yet some things do need to be changed, and apathy won't bring that about. I've been trying to see a way around the duality, and this thread reminds me that compassion, wisdom, and the precepts are that way.

Gassho,
Onkai

[Jippou]

I’m seeing that Antifa and white supremacy groups have gotten involved in Minneapolis. This has essentially become a proxy war between left wing and right wing radicals with residents caught in the middle. Most of the arrests last night where people from out of state. White Supremacists are starting the fires, undercover cops seem to be smashing windows and stoking violence (there are videos, one in particular of a guy in a gas mask and an umbrella), it’s becoming hard to make heads or tails out of what’s going on.

Gassho,
Jason
Sat today


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[Sekiyuu]

Thank you Jundo for your teaching, and everyone else for participating in this discussion.

Thanks especially to Onka, who is reflecting many of my thoughts and the thoughts of my close friends, but which I don't have the courage or gumption (not sure which one) to say myself.

The same MLK quote Martyn shared has been bouncing around in my head for days, along with this one:

"First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;" who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season."

I am afraid whether Buddhist practice pushes us into supporting "negative peace", especially in situations like these. It's especially hard because I am afraid these protests will worsen the pandemic and many will die as a direct consequence. It's a difficult time to be thinking about ethics.

Also, everyone keep in mind that these protests are no exception to the tendency of social and traditional media to hyperfocus on things that scare us. 99% of the protesters are likely peaceful, even in the cozy centrist "negative peace" sense.

Gassho
Kenny
Sat Today

[Geika]

I am very conflicted about what is going on, because the officer responsible was not arrested until things started burning, and if that is what it takes, what have we come to? Questions I can't answer.

Gassho
Sat today, lah

[martyrob]

But what we should not do is feel rage (profound moral indignation if one wishes, yes ... burning rage, no), and we should not throw stones at police or burn buildings.

Gassho, Jundo

STLah

I disagree we can’t determine what we will feel, we feel what we feel. I feel all sorts of things, not all of them pretty. That’s where practice begins and how we deal with those feelings; what become of those feelings with regard to actions and what consequences flow from those feelings. There is a power or energy that comes from rage, a power to do good or ill, that is our choice:

“Rage is considered unenlightened. In our dharma communities, as in our day-to-day lives, we most often wear masks of politeness to conceal the rage we carry. Yet, to fully feel is to be fully human. If we can’t be honest about the human condition, then we can’t hear the cries of the earth or experience liberation. It’s true that rage, like fire—to which it is often compared—can be harmful, burning away everything in its path. But rage can also be life-giving, illuminating that which must be exposed before humanity can shift into a greater experience of interrelationship and love. I too feel rage, but rather than lash out from my pain and anguish, I’ve learned to use my rage to fuel a transformation toward awakening.”

Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, a black Zen teacher, who gives an interesting perspective on our rage, particularly from the point of view of a black practitioner.

https://www.lionsroar.com/awakening-fueled-by-rage/

As for throwing stones, back in my early twenties I studied to be a Barrister. I abandoned my studies and never qualified but one teaching that stuck with me was the absolute necessity to enforce the rule of law. Without the rule of law we no longer have a civilisation, just barbarism. This stuck in my craw a bit, as a young radical, because the Law back then seemed part of the problem. I don’t think I would have accepted that had my teacher not being black. Over the years I have reflected on this and know that my teacher was was spot on: the rule of law is the basis of civic society, everything else flows from that. In the case of George Floyd the breaking of the law was the police officer kneeling on his neck and the first resolution to this crisis is that he should meet the full force of the law, because without that, if the application of the law is seen to privilege certain groups in society, then trust in the law breaks down. In the UK, a convicted police officer is dealt with much more harshly for this reason.
Having said all that, how do you fight against injustice if you don’t, at sometimes break the law? Where would America be now without the Civil Rights movement of the 60’s? Can you imagine! Laws that prejudiced one group against another, that had no moral authority to be obayed? I don’t have the wit or knowledge to get into these issues of jurisprudence but they are entirely material to the matters at hand.
Riots are grim, they often effect social change but they are a brutal weapon. Women get raped, the innocent get injured or worse, livelihoods are trashed. In the early 80’s I lived in the London suburb of Tottenham. A riot exploded because of a police injustice leading to the death of a woman. During the riot a police officer, PC Blakelock was separated from his cohort and alone in that melee he was stabbed to death. I still remember his gentle face. He was a community officer but when the riot began he was dragooned into the police response. He was just a dad and husband trying his best and he was killed not because of who he was but because of what he represented, because of the uniform he wore. No one should applaud a riot, it is a failure and especially a failure of politicians to address matters before this happens. And I know I shouldn’t say this here because it kicks up a whole heap of dust, but a President who governs only by incendiary tweets has ceded all moral authority. This isn’t about partisanship but about basic human decency.

Martyn
Sat today.


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