Dear All,
Tomorrow, during our monthly Zazenkai, we will be offering a Metta (Loving Kindness) Recital to loved ones, friends, strangers and all Sentient Beings. In the section of offering Metta to people difficult in our lives or in this world, I will be offering in my heart to "people like Stephen Paddock", the man who killed 58 people, and wounded hundreds more, in Las Vegas this week.
I feel I need to explain why, and the meaning of this. Someone might misunderstand or be confused. I am sorry that this is a little complicated.
Our Metta chant states:
1. May he be free of suffering; may he feel safe and still.
2. May he be free of enmity; may he be loving, grateful and kind.
3. May he be healthy and at ease in all his ills.
4. May he be at peace, embracing all conditions of life
Someone wrote me today and expressed that they would have great difficulty in offering Metta in this situation, or in explaining to others why we do so for someone who committed an unspeakable act. He asked for my comment, and here is what I wrote:
First, it is sometimes hard for folks unfamiliar with Buddhist teachings to understand, but we see "excess desire, anger within and divisive thinking (ignorance)" in the human heart and mind as the real culprit in such events, including in the case of Las Vegas. We do not speak of "bad people", only sentient beings who do "bad acts" driven by the poison disease within. And, yes, we see both the violence doer and the recipient of violence, and all of us, as victims of that "greed anger and ignorance." That does not mean that we do not put people in prison, or that the police did not need to use violence to stop this person to protect other lives. Unfortunately, all that is necessary in society. However, we see the real "evil doer" as the sickness in peoples' hearts, not the people themselves.
That is the first fact to understand about Buddhist teachings on bad acts. But still, why am I wishing someone like that "to be healthy ... to be at peace"?
The reason is the basic belief that, if someone truly were so, he would not feel the pain and anger inside that would drive someone to do such acts. He would not be a prisoner of that "greed anger and ignorance". If truly healthy in body and mind, if truly knowing peace and non-violence in his heart, he would not act so. If there is any sense in which I would have offered Metta to Mr Paddock if he were still alive and in jail now, after doing this terrible thing, it is only in the wish that (were he still alive in this life) he would never do such a thing again, somehow becoming a better person, who would work to make some amends for even a fraction of what he did. However, if he were alive, I believe he would still need to feel the weight of the Karma too of what he has done, and not escape the weight of what he has done.
But even so, why chant for someone who is dead, as is Mr. Paddock? It might make sense to chant for peace in the heart of someone alive, and BEFORE they act (so they do not act), but why chant now ... after the horrible act, and for someone who is dead anyway?
Let me answer putting aside the question of future rebirths, and looking at only this life:
In such case, I actually do not offer "Metta" for Mr. Paddock, as he is dead and all is moot. However, I am wishing Peace and freedom from suffering into the hearts of all the other "potential future Mr. Paddock's" anywhere in the world, other violent people, who might someday do such a thing. May they be free of suffering so that they never do harm.
And when I chant, as strange as it sounds, I may be chanting to the "potential" to do harm in my own heart, and in the heart of all sentient beings. By chanting to others, I am also chanting for myself and all of us, that we all be free of greed, anger and violence, and ignorance of every form.
Now, let me answer in the case that there are future lives after this life:
If there are future lives, I might offer Metta only in the hope that in future births he become a better person, freer of violence, than in this life. However, even then, it likely that (in traditional Buddhist beliefs) he would still need to feel the weight of the Karma of what he has done, paying that great debt, and not escape the weight of what he has done. I feel that such punishment, and working off what he has done, would be the way for him to pay this debt and free himself for the future ... should it happen as many traditional Buddhist beliefs claim.
Finally, there is one other Mahayana Buddhist way that one might be offering Metta to Mr. Paddock, and that is through the wish ... however unlikely ... that our Metta could travel back in time to before all this to prevent it before it had happened. This last may seem very impossible, but you still wish it could be so. I am chanting wishing that he had been free of anger before.
As well, I will also offer Metta for all the people and their families touched by the tragedy of what he has done, including the medical staff and law enforcement who did their jobs and nonetheless carry suffering from this experience. Likewise, for all people left a bit more frightened and shocked by the events this week which they witnessed from afar. I will include all of them too.
We must somehow not turn away, not forget ... yet see the real culprit as the "greed anger and ignorance" that infects human beings. Perhaps it is too hard to ask people to forgive, but at least, let us strive not to meet anger with further anger of our own. The best response to hate is ... peace.
Hostilities aren't stilled through hostility, regardless. Hostilities are stilled through non-hostility: this, an unending truth.(Dharmapada 3-5)
I know it is hard for many right now.
I hope that explains a bit how one might offer Metta in this situation. It is not overlooking this tragedy, but merely a kind of hope and aspiration that it should never happen again.
Gassho, J
SatTodayLAH
Tomorrow, during our monthly Zazenkai, we will be offering a Metta (Loving Kindness) Recital to loved ones, friends, strangers and all Sentient Beings. In the section of offering Metta to people difficult in our lives or in this world, I will be offering in my heart to "people like Stephen Paddock", the man who killed 58 people, and wounded hundreds more, in Las Vegas this week.
I feel I need to explain why, and the meaning of this. Someone might misunderstand or be confused. I am sorry that this is a little complicated.
Our Metta chant states:
1. May he be free of suffering; may he feel safe and still.
2. May he be free of enmity; may he be loving, grateful and kind.
3. May he be healthy and at ease in all his ills.
4. May he be at peace, embracing all conditions of life
Someone wrote me today and expressed that they would have great difficulty in offering Metta in this situation, or in explaining to others why we do so for someone who committed an unspeakable act. He asked for my comment, and here is what I wrote:
First, it is sometimes hard for folks unfamiliar with Buddhist teachings to understand, but we see "excess desire, anger within and divisive thinking (ignorance)" in the human heart and mind as the real culprit in such events, including in the case of Las Vegas. We do not speak of "bad people", only sentient beings who do "bad acts" driven by the poison disease within. And, yes, we see both the violence doer and the recipient of violence, and all of us, as victims of that "greed anger and ignorance." That does not mean that we do not put people in prison, or that the police did not need to use violence to stop this person to protect other lives. Unfortunately, all that is necessary in society. However, we see the real "evil doer" as the sickness in peoples' hearts, not the people themselves.
That is the first fact to understand about Buddhist teachings on bad acts. But still, why am I wishing someone like that "to be healthy ... to be at peace"?
The reason is the basic belief that, if someone truly were so, he would not feel the pain and anger inside that would drive someone to do such acts. He would not be a prisoner of that "greed anger and ignorance". If truly healthy in body and mind, if truly knowing peace and non-violence in his heart, he would not act so. If there is any sense in which I would have offered Metta to Mr Paddock if he were still alive and in jail now, after doing this terrible thing, it is only in the wish that (were he still alive in this life) he would never do such a thing again, somehow becoming a better person, who would work to make some amends for even a fraction of what he did. However, if he were alive, I believe he would still need to feel the weight of the Karma too of what he has done, and not escape the weight of what he has done.
But even so, why chant for someone who is dead, as is Mr. Paddock? It might make sense to chant for peace in the heart of someone alive, and BEFORE they act (so they do not act), but why chant now ... after the horrible act, and for someone who is dead anyway?
Let me answer putting aside the question of future rebirths, and looking at only this life:
In such case, I actually do not offer "Metta" for Mr. Paddock, as he is dead and all is moot. However, I am wishing Peace and freedom from suffering into the hearts of all the other "potential future Mr. Paddock's" anywhere in the world, other violent people, who might someday do such a thing. May they be free of suffering so that they never do harm.
And when I chant, as strange as it sounds, I may be chanting to the "potential" to do harm in my own heart, and in the heart of all sentient beings. By chanting to others, I am also chanting for myself and all of us, that we all be free of greed, anger and violence, and ignorance of every form.
Now, let me answer in the case that there are future lives after this life:
If there are future lives, I might offer Metta only in the hope that in future births he become a better person, freer of violence, than in this life. However, even then, it likely that (in traditional Buddhist beliefs) he would still need to feel the weight of the Karma of what he has done, paying that great debt, and not escape the weight of what he has done. I feel that such punishment, and working off what he has done, would be the way for him to pay this debt and free himself for the future ... should it happen as many traditional Buddhist beliefs claim.
Finally, there is one other Mahayana Buddhist way that one might be offering Metta to Mr. Paddock, and that is through the wish ... however unlikely ... that our Metta could travel back in time to before all this to prevent it before it had happened. This last may seem very impossible, but you still wish it could be so. I am chanting wishing that he had been free of anger before.
As well, I will also offer Metta for all the people and their families touched by the tragedy of what he has done, including the medical staff and law enforcement who did their jobs and nonetheless carry suffering from this experience. Likewise, for all people left a bit more frightened and shocked by the events this week which they witnessed from afar. I will include all of them too.
We must somehow not turn away, not forget ... yet see the real culprit as the "greed anger and ignorance" that infects human beings. Perhaps it is too hard to ask people to forgive, but at least, let us strive not to meet anger with further anger of our own. The best response to hate is ... peace.
Hostilities aren't stilled through hostility, regardless. Hostilities are stilled through non-hostility: this, an unending truth.(Dharmapada 3-5)
I know it is hard for many right now.
I hope that explains a bit how one might offer Metta in this situation. It is not overlooking this tragedy, but merely a kind of hope and aspiration that it should never happen again.
Gassho, J
SatTodayLAH
That is one of the clearest and most beautiful explanations of metta I've ever read. 
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