Tolerance in an age of Intolerance.

[Amelia]

...there seems to be a minority of... people who are bent on making sure they have things their way and to heck with everyone else and their ways and opinions. Just a few examples: Certain words are banned unless you are of particular races.

The only words I can think of that fit within this parameter of "banned words unless you are of a particular race" are racial slurs. What words are you thinking of that you would like to have the freedom to use in public without offending someone of a different race?

Only one side of history can be freely spoken or taught.

Could you please be less vague? There are MANY popular documentaries on such topics, like "Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States," most of which I can't find anything offensive in. People who are avid supporters of the Flat Earth theory are not necessarily offensive to anyone in particular in their views, except maybe to the scientific community itself. However, teaching things like holocaust denial or omitting it from history books carry far more serious consequences. What side of history would you like the freedom to teach and express that you currently feel is forbidden?

Wearing the wrong earrings... can be seen as cultural misappropriation.

I understand that cultural misappropriation is tricky. I could very easily be considered as doing so while wearing my Japanese style robes in public. It is important to remember that many of the cultures whose style of dress has been used to accessorize the fashion industry have been disenfranchised brutally by Western society.

Your religious beliefs come second to certain lifestyles and you can be fined or potentially lose your income for standing by your 'right' to religious freedom.

Separation of church and state goes both ways: the government cannot prevent you from practicing your religious beliefs freely, but they also cannot enforce laws based on religious beliefs. If your religious beliefs break a law, or harm someone else, financially or otherwise, it is illegal. It is also, typically, not a great business model to, for example, refuse service to a gay person in a business based on religious beliefs. To be practical, that is one less happy customer and usually results in backlash for said business. That's loss of income right there, but the other way around.

Even targeting kindergarten aged children to consider alternative genders is being pushed (I do not think there are 50 plus genders. I personally think there are hetero, gay, bi and a few genuine cases of people trapped in the wrong gendered body. Everything else seems to quickly have become trendy).

I have not heard of a single case of young children being pressured to explore "50 plus genders." All I have ever heard about are the ever growing resources for and tolerance of children who grow to know that they are not hetero or cis-- not pressured into doing so because it is trendy, and considering the suffering that growing up different has caused many of those close to me, I find it very distasteful to say that many of them chose their lifestyle to get attention. They simply want to be as they are and taken seriously as adults. It only seems "trendy" because so many more people feel safe enough to come out, due to this growing tolerance in society, the media and politics.

How do we remain tolerant?

By living peacefully as we wish without harming or minding others doing the same.

What if you harbor negative ideas about some of these things?

I would personally study these topics as presented by the people involved in them or involved in studying them. Do I object because I simply don't like it, or do I object because of scientific data pointing to a negative result?

My final question is, how have you, personally, suffered in your life due to any of these topics, outside of the suffering in your own mind?

Gassho

Sat today, lah

[Tairin]

I am not on Facebook or any other social media (except for one dedicated to professional connections). I had to do a search on “50+ genders” to even figure out what you all are talking about.

“How do we remain tolerant?”

By living peacefully as we wish without harming or minding others doing the same.

Lovely.


Tairin
Sat today and lah

[lorax]

Good morning Kyotai

First I want to compliment you on posting your feelings and perceptions in a forum that decidedly may not agree with you. Staying silent does not allow for the opportunity to learn and share. Unfortunately “social media” does not appear to me as being the most accurate way of understanding the issues that on the surface may seem unreasonable, etc

I think the only advice I can offer is to LISTEN TO THE STORIES, those related first person by those involved or actually impacted by the issues. I have been very fortunate in my life to have opportunities to listen to people directly involved in a number of issues you presented and I believe the opportunity to listen has allowed me to live peaceably among multiple cultures and social groups throughout my nearly 80 years.
To clarify my advice, here are some examples of listening I was fortunate to have. When I was a teenager I was moved from an all-Anglo high school to a new one which for the first time placed Mexican kids with Anglos. My mother saw I was struggling socially and arranged for me to meet once a week with a Mexican teacher at her home in the barrio of East Los Angeles where she would only speak in Spanish and share her love for music, poetry, and amazing food. In short fast track acculturation. In many of the National Park areas I served in I was faced with the reality of the government's consistent process of removing and placing prohibitions on indigenous peoples who were directly associated with the areas and were locked in due to the reality of cultural and spiritual “place”. Listening to the stories of groups ranging from the Tohono O'odham to Native Hawaiians in this context was often painful, shameful, and ultimately inspiring. New stories came later as I had the opportunity in Hawaii to listen to my Japanese – American coworkers. Those that were incarcerated in place in their communities, those that saw their spiritual leaders and doctors moved to camps in the mountains. In the professional communities, I worked with throughout my career were also persons living a variety of lifestyles. Revelations and understanding acquired by sitting in the evening listening to their stories.
So more important than my academic training, or what I can pick up on “social media” my life has been shaped by simply LISTENING or as they say in Hawaii “Nana I Ke Kumu” (Look to the Source).

Peace
SAT TODAY

[Kyotai]

Good morning Kyotai

First I want to compliment you on posting your feelings and perceptions in a forum that decidedly may not agree with you. Staying silent does not allow for the opportunity to learn and share. Unfortunately “social media” does not appear to me as being the most accurate way of understanding the issues that on the surface may seem unreasonable, etc

I think the only advice I can offer is to LISTEN TO THE STORIES, those related first person by those involved or actually impacted by the issues. I have been very fortunate in my life to have opportunities to listen to people directly involved in a number of issues you presented and I believe the opportunity to listen has allowed me to live peaceably among multiple cultures and social groups throughout my nearly 80 years.
To clarify my advice, here are some examples of listening I was fortunate to have. When I was a teenager I was moved from an all-Anglo high school to a new one which for the first time placed Mexican kids with Anglos. My mother saw I was struggling socially and arranged for me to meet once a week with a Mexican teacher at her home in the barrio of East Los Angeles where she would only speak in Spanish and share her love for music, poetry, and amazing food. In short fast track acculturation. In many of the National Park areas I served in I was faced with the reality of the government's consistent process of removing and placing prohibitions on indigenous peoples who were directly associated with the areas and were locked in due to the reality of cultural and spiritual “place”. Listening to the stories of groups ranging from the Tohono O'odham to Native Hawaiians in this context was often painful, shameful, and ultimately inspiring. New stories came later as I had the opportunity in Hawaii to listen to my Japanese – American coworkers. Those that were incarcerated in place in their communities, those that saw their spiritual leaders and doctors moved to camps in the mountains. In the professional communities, I worked with throughout my career were also persons living a variety of lifestyles. Revelations and understanding acquired by sitting in the evening listening to their stories.
So more important than my academic training, or what I can pick up on “social media” my life has been shaped by simply LISTENING or as they say in Hawaii “Nana I Ke Kumu” (Look to the Source).

Peace
SAT TODAY

Hello Lorax,

The point I am trying to make surrounding social media, is not to turn away from the social conversation.. nor stop listening. There is a time and a place for these discussions and should one feel the need or urge to be apart of it online, by all means engage. Having said that, YouTube in particular monetarily incentivises creators to keep the conversation going...and going. HUGE sums of advertising money are being earned by creators to continually create videos for the purpose of mass consumption.. ( I should know, I am a YouTube creator) ..and a thoughtful person, could find themselves endlessly addicted to the conversation as they listen to debates, podcasts, "Stories." Many videos are being created NOT for the sole purpose of creating a dialogue, but for the purpose of earning money off a topic that will get views... How can my channel best compete for the attention of viewership, so that I can maximize exposure and get people to pay attention to me..

At some point, you have to put the damn phone down and tend to the garden, because the weeds are getting out of control. Perhaps many would disagree with that, although I doubt it on some levels. I am uniquely positioned to see things from a certain perspective, and I see it that way.

Gassho, Kyotai
ST

[Emmet]

How do we remain tolerant? How tolerant do you have to be? What if you harbor negative ideas about some of these things? Do we simply just go with the flow and let things pan out for better or worse? What if you genuinely feel some things will be for the worst? How do you mindfully speak out as a Buddhist? Or do we just remain silent?

I live in a remote, rural, agrarian, mountain village of about 350 people. We're 98% White, 97% native-born, and have the highest church attendance of any county in a state already known for it's religiosity (but only Christian religiosity; there isn't a mosque, temple, or gurdwara within a hundred miles). The last church service I attended with my mother, the sermon was explicitly and casually White supremacist, with the easy candidness that comes from preaching to the choir. One of our best friends here often laments how local church services are really nothing more than weekly political rallies, drawing more upon material from Right-wing radio and TV news than the Bible. When Mother Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina was shot up in a domestic terror attack in 2015, Confederate flags sprouted like a plethora of noxious weeds all across the landscape, and the weekly paper started printing overtly racist screeds and fanciful revisionist fact-free odes to the Confederacy. We don't exactly celebrate tolerance and diversity here, and that's regularly emphasized by belligerent White men carrying sidearms into the hardware store or coffee shop on a daily basis (I can well imagine what they're carrying behind the seats of their pickup trucks). Less overt are the rumors of the Ku Klux Klan, which have active cells in nearby, larger towns. Within living memory these were called "sundown towns", where African-Americans were threatened with death if they were caught within city limits after dark.
How I remain tolerant is a bit of a koan, which I'm still wrestling with...imperfectly, with very limited results. I have a deep-seated tendency to arrogance and have real difficulty tolerating fools gladly, and a strong aversion to what Martin Luther King referred to as the greatest danger in the world; "willful ignorance and conscientious stupidity". However, in my head there isn't some contrived false equivalency; fellow hippies with their crystals and auras are qualitatively different from people who want to deport (or worse) anyone who looks, thinks, or acts differently than they do. The former makes me irritated; the latter, outraged (FAIR DISCLOSURE STATEMENT: my beloved is a first-generation immigrant from a Muslim country; my brother was Gay; my nephew just registered for the Draft). "Tolerance" should not be stretched so thin as to rationalize away our responsibility as Mahayana in the face of violence, bigotry, and discrimination. I do not believe that some esoteric notion of passively sitting for some theoretical benefit of all beings in any way fully and completely fulfills my bodhisattva vows to liberate all beings when those around me are being brutalized. I recall Dogen somewhere in Shobogenzo saying something to the effect not to thoughtlessly promote conflict, but acceding when you're in the right is nothing more than cowardice. Some things are innocuous silliness, and some things create real, grievous harm to living beings. Some things are simply not to be tolerated.
I also realize that I am rather foolish and demonstrably prone to becoming entangled in delusions of my own. Not everything that springs to my mind arises from clarity and wisdom; much of it arises from fears, insecurities, and prejudices, which in the moment can seem much more cacophonous, compelling, and certain (ANOTHER FAIR DISCLOSURE STATEMENT: I've been diagnosed with, among other things, dementia. No warranties or claims to serviceability expressed or implied). I also need reminding that no one is truly evil; they are led astray by delusion. Whoever I feel to be in opposition to is in reality whole and complete, imbued with compassion and wisdom; they've tragically lost sight of this under layer upon layer of greed, anger, and ignorance.
As for speaking out mindfully as a Buddhist, my first reaction is not to let my first reaction come out of my mouth (it usually contains an expletive, and perhaps an ad hominem). As clearly and calmly as possible, trying not to indulge my proclivity to be arrogant and insulting, I state unequivocally that I do not believe in racism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia, climate change is a hoax by the Chinese, the U.S. is threatened by a country with a defense budget the size of Singapore's that hasn't attacked anyone since 1798, etc., etc., etc. Other people read my occasional letters to the editor, others see the big rainbow flag with the peace sign in the front yard. I probably don't convince anyone of my way of thinking, but at least people who hold such noxious beliefs no longer engage me in offensive conversation. As for silence, as Bonhoffer said, "silence in the face of evil is itself evil." On the other hand, it has been suggested kindly by 2 well-meaning folk on 2 separate occasions that I might want to be a bit more circumspect; wouldn't want our home to mysteriously catch fire.
As for things getting worse, worse relative to what? All things are empty; they have no fixed self, but are constantly in flux as the transient causes and conditions which gave rise to and sustain them wax and wane. Therefore all things are impermanent. This includes empires, notions like democracy, species (including homo sapiens), and planets like the Earth and stars like the Sun and people like you and I. You are neither the first nor the only one to experience this; we are subject to old age, sickness and death; everything that we love and cherish will be taken from us, just as it was from our ancestors; just ask your great grandfather, or the Sumerians, or the Neanderthal. This is not a bug, it's a feature; it is the way of all things. You might as well feel attachment and grasp and cling to a wave in the ocean; it will rise and fall regardless.

[Choboku]

(DISCLAIMER: It's not my wish to cause division, anger or anything negative here and I apologize in advance for potentially hurting anyone's feelings. I have a legitimate question that I'm struggling with.)

Hi all. As Buddhists, we try to live in harmony with everyone and all things but in the Western world right now, there seems to be a minority of certain people who are bent on making sure they have things their way and to heck with everyone else and their ways and opinions. Just a few examples: Certain words are banned unless you are of particular races. Only one side of history can be freely spoken or taught. Wearing the wrong earrings (YES, EARRINGS!!) can be seen as cultural misappropriation. Your religious beliefs come second to certain lifestyles and you can be fined or potentially lose your income for standing by your 'right' to religious freedom. Even targeting kindergarten aged children to consider alternative genders is being pushed (I do not think there are 50 plus genders. I personally think there are hetero, gay, bi and a few genuine cases of people trapped in the wrong gendered body. Everything else seems to quickly have become trendy). If you speak out against any of these, you are labelled a bigot, a 'phobe' etc. TV shows all take the same stance and it's as if we are being conditioned to all act, think and comply into 'not going against the grain'.
How do we remain tolerant? How tolerant do you have to be? What if you harbor negative ideas about some of these things? Do we simply just go with the flow and let things pan out for better or worse? What if you genuinely feel some things will be for the worst? How do you mindfully speak out as a Buddhist? Or do we just remain silent?
I'm really trying hard to drop all my negative feelings towards some of what I see these days and am just having a hard time with it.

I welcome everyone's responses and again, I'm very sorry if I have offended.

Gassho.

ST.

Rob, I appreciate you opening up about this. It is not an easy thing to talk about. I doubt your intentions are to hurt. It is refreshing to have such skillfully crafted, open dialogue. I don't think that it is right of anyone to change anyone else's mind.

Sent from my SM-T380 using Tapatalk

[Jakuden]

I live in a remote, rural, agrarian, mountain village of about 350 people. We're 98% White, 97% native-born, and have the highest church attendance of any county in a state already known for it's religiosity (but only Christian religiosity; there isn't a mosque, temple, or gurdwara within a hundred miles). The last church service I attended with my mother, the sermon was explicitly and casually White supremacist, with the easy candidness that comes from preaching to the choir. One of our best friends here often laments how local church services are really nothing more than weekly political rallies, drawing more upon material from Right-wing radio and TV news than the Bible. When Mother Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina was shot up in a domestic terror attack in 2015, Confederate flags sprouted like a plethora of noxious weeds all across the landscape, and the weekly paper started printing overtly racist screeds and fanciful revisionist fact-free odes to the Confederacy. We don't exactly celebrate tolerance and diversity here, and that's regularly emphasized by belligerent White men carrying sidearms into the hardware store or coffee shop on a daily basis (I can well imagine what they're carrying behind the seats of their pickup trucks). Less overt are the rumors of the Ku Klux Klan, which have active cells in nearby, larger towns. Within living memory these were called "sundown towns", where African-Americans were threatened with death if they were caught within city limits after dark.
How I remain tolerant is a bit of a koan, which I'm still wrestling with...imperfectly, with very limited results. I have a deep-seated tendency to arrogance and have real difficulty tolerating fools gladly, and a strong aversion to what Martin Luther King referred to as the greatest danger in the world; "willful ignorance and conscientious stupidity". However, in my head there isn't some contrived false equivalency; fellow hippies with their crystals and auras are qualitatively different from people who want to deport (or worse) anyone who looks, thinks, or acts differently than they do. The former makes me irritated; the latter, outraged (FAIR DISCLOSURE STATEMENT: my beloved is a first-generation immigrant from a Muslim country; my brother was Gay; my nephew just registered for the Draft). "Tolerance" should not be stretched so thin as to rationalize away our responsibility as Mahayana in the face of violence, bigotry, and discrimination. I do not believe that some esoteric notion of passively sitting for some theoretical benefit of all beings in any way fully and completely fulfills my bodhisattva vows to liberate all beings when those around me are being brutalized. I recall Dogen somewhere in Shobogenzo saying something to the effect not to thoughtlessly promote conflict, but acceding when you're in the right is nothing more than cowardice. Some things are innocuous silliness, and some things create real, grievous harm to living beings. Some things are simply not to be tolerated.
I also realize that I am rather foolish and demonstrably prone to becoming entangled in delusions of my own. Not everything that springs to my mind arises from clarity and wisdom; much of it arises from fears, insecurities, and prejudices, which in the moment can seem much more cacophonous, compelling, and certain (ANOTHER FAIR DISCLOSURE STATEMENT: I've been diagnosed with, among other things, dementia. No warranties or claims to serviceability expressed or implied). I also need reminding that no one is truly evil; they are led astray by delusion. Whoever I feel to be in opposition to is in reality whole and complete, imbued with compassion and wisdom; they've tragically lost sight of this under layer upon layer of greed, anger, and ignorance.
As for speaking out mindfully as a Buddhist, my first reaction is not to let my first reaction come out of my mouth (it usually contains an expletive, and perhaps an ad hominem). As clearly and calmly as possible, trying not to indulge my proclivity to be arrogant and insulting, I state unequivocally that I do not believe in racism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia, climate change is a hoax by the Chinese, the U.S. is threatened by a country with a defense budget the size of Singapore's that hasn't attacked anyone since 1798, etc., etc., etc. Other people read my occasional letters to the editor, others see the big rainbow flag with the peace sign in the front yard. I probably don't convince anyone of my way of thinking, but at least people who hold such noxious beliefs no longer engage me in offensive conversation. As for silence, as Bonhoffer said, "silence in the face of evil is itself evil." On the other hand, it has been suggested kindly by 2 well-meaning folk on 2 separate occasions that I might want to be a bit more circumspect; wouldn't want our home to mysteriously catch fire.
As for things getting worse, worse relative to what? All things are empty; they have no fixed self, but are constantly in flux as the transient causes and conditions which gave rise to and sustain them wax and wane. Therefore all things are impermanent. This includes empires, notions like democracy, species (including homo sapiens), and planets like the Earth and stars like the Sun and people like you and I. You are neither the first nor the only one to experience this; we are subject to old age, sickness and death; everything that we love and cherish will be taken from us, just as it was from our ancestors; just ask your great grandfather, or the Sumerians, or the Neanderthal. This is not a bug, it's a feature; it is the way of all things. You might as well feel attachment and grasp and cling to a wave in the ocean; it will rise and fall regardless.

[emoji120][emoji120][emoji120]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Jundo]

Let me just make clear ... One does not to be "left" or "right" or "center" to be a Zen Buddhist. One can be political or apolitical. One can even be quite progressive or very very conservative and still be a "Good Buddhist."

I do support the right of any Zen teacher to preach a certain view of the Precepts and Vow to Save All Sentient Beings "from the pulpit (Zafu)", and thus I disagree from time to time with Bro. Brad Warner who says that all Zen priests should stay out of politics and/or stop preaching some progressive message if they want. (I also have my own ... very strong ... views on politics, but I usually do not burden the people of Treeleaf with those views unless and until I find that it is more a matter of the Precepts and Vow to Save All Sentient Being than politics. There are a few issues ... the treatment of children at the border, whether people have dangerous drinking water filled with cancer causing substances, nuclear war etc ... which strike me as more a matter of the Precepts and Vow to Save All Sentient Being than politics.)

That said, "Good Buddhists" today and throughout history have disagreed on what is to be done as "the Precepts and Vow to Save All Sentient Being." Many Asian Buddhists can be quite politically conservative, as can many Western Buddhists. I have Buddhist friends who are both "right to life" and friends who "support a right to choose" on the issue of Abortion, just because of differing views on the lines to draw regarding the Precept on not taking Life and Vow to Save All Sentient Being. I know Buddhists who disagree on "Gay Marriage," because some have a more traditional view of the institution of family and marriage. I know Zen Buddhists who like their guns in the USA. Likewise for supporting or not supporting military action after 9-11 or in WWII in order to save life in the long run, or the nuts and bolts details of what our immigration policy should be on the Southern border of the US.

That said, some things are clearer than others. We should try to engage in "Right Speech," which is avoid languages (N-word, "retard" and the like) which may hurt others. We avoid anger, hate, jealousy, bigotry and division. We can disagree on whether there are 50 genders, 5 or only two. I also have some respect for history around here so, for example, I would not listen to preaching of "Holocaust denial" because it is simply untrue, but people can disagree on other points of interpreting history. Defending the KKK would never be acceptable as it is just a hate organization (and they exist on the far far left too).

However, let us peacefully and civilly agree to disagree, and to recognize each other as "Good Buddhists" if trying to be gentle in our opinions, loving, non-violent and sincere.

Gassho, Jundo

STLah

[Troy]

I live in a remote, rural, agrarian, mountain village of about 350 people. We're 98% White, 97% native-born, and have the highest church attendance of any county in a state already known for it's religiosity (but only Christian religiosity; there isn't a mosque, temple, or gurdwara within a hundred miles). The last church service I attended with my mother, the sermon was explicitly and casually White supremacist, with the easy candidness that comes from preaching to the choir. One of our best friends here often laments how local church services are really nothing more than weekly political rallies, drawing more upon material from Right-wing radio and TV news than the Bible. When Mother Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina was shot up in a domestic terror attack in 2015, Confederate flags sprouted like a plethora of noxious weeds all across the landscape, and the weekly paper started printing overtly racist screeds and fanciful revisionist fact-free odes to the Confederacy. We don't exactly celebrate tolerance and diversity here, and that's regularly emphasized by belligerent White men carrying sidearms into the hardware store or coffee shop on a daily basis (I can well imagine what they're carrying behind the seats of their pickup trucks). Less overt are the rumors of the Ku Klux Klan, which have active cells in nearby, larger towns. Within living memory these were called "sundown towns", where African-Americans were threatened with death if they were caught within city limits after dark.
How I remain tolerant is a bit of a koan, which I'm still wrestling with...imperfectly, with very limited results. I have a deep-seated tendency to arrogance and have real difficulty tolerating fools gladly, and a strong aversion to what Martin Luther King referred to as the greatest danger in the world; "willful ignorance and conscientious stupidity". However, in my head there isn't some contrived false equivalency; fellow hippies with their crystals and auras are qualitatively different from people who want to deport (or worse) anyone who looks, thinks, or acts differently than they do. The former makes me irritated; the latter, outraged (FAIR DISCLOSURE STATEMENT: my beloved is a first-generation immigrant from a Muslim country; my brother was Gay; my nephew just registered for the Draft). "Tolerance" should not be stretched so thin as to rationalize away our responsibility as Mahayana in the face of violence, bigotry, and discrimination. I do not believe that some esoteric notion of passively sitting for some theoretical benefit of all beings in any way fully and completely fulfills my bodhisattva vows to liberate all beings when those around me are being brutalized. I recall Dogen somewhere in Shobogenzo saying something to the effect not to thoughtlessly promote conflict, but acceding when you're in the right is nothing more than cowardice. Some things are innocuous silliness, and some things create real, grievous harm to living beings. Some things are simply not to be tolerated.
I also realize that I am rather foolish and demonstrably prone to becoming entangled in delusions of my own. Not everything that springs to my mind arises from clarity and wisdom; much of it arises from fears, insecurities, and prejudices, which in the moment can seem much more cacophonous, compelling, and certain (ANOTHER FAIR DISCLOSURE STATEMENT: I've been diagnosed with, among other things, dementia. No warranties or claims to serviceability expressed or implied). I also need reminding that no one is truly evil; they are led astray by delusion. Whoever I feel to be in opposition to is in reality whole and complete, imbued with compassion and wisdom; they've tragically lost sight of this under layer upon layer of greed, anger, and ignorance.
As for speaking out mindfully as a Buddhist, my first reaction is not to let my first reaction come out of my mouth (it usually contains an expletive, and perhaps an ad hominem). As clearly and calmly as possible, trying not to indulge my proclivity to be arrogant and insulting, I state unequivocally that I do not believe in racism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia, climate change is a hoax by the Chinese, the U.S. is threatened by a country with a defense budget the size of Singapore's that hasn't attacked anyone since 1798, etc., etc., etc. Other people read my occasional letters to the editor, others see the big rainbow flag with the peace sign in the front yard. I probably don't convince anyone of my way of thinking, but at least people who hold such noxious beliefs no longer engage me in offensive conversation. As for silence, as Bonhoffer said, "silence in the face of evil is itself evil." On the other hand, it has been suggested kindly by 2 well-meaning folk on 2 separate occasions that I might want to be a bit more circumspect; wouldn't want our home to mysteriously catch fire.
As for things getting worse, worse relative to what? All things are empty; they have no fixed self, but are constantly in flux as the transient causes and conditions which gave rise to and sustain them wax and wane. Therefore all things are impermanent. This includes empires, notions like democracy, species (including homo sapiens), and planets like the Earth and stars like the Sun and people like you and I. You are neither the first nor the only one to experience this; we are subject to old age, sickness and death; everything that we love and cherish will be taken from us, just as it was from our ancestors; just ask your great grandfather, or the Sumerians, or the Neanderthal. This is not a bug, it's a feature; it is the way of all things. You might as well feel attachment and grasp and cling to a wave in the ocean; it will rise and fall regardless.

[emoji1374]


ST

[Jippou]

Tolerance in an age of Intolerance.

I have a hard time with this as well. I consider myself a duel practitioner who does zen shikintaza meditation but also considers themselves Christian. I’m a vowed Cistercian lay monastic and a recent former Catholic who attends services at an Episcopal Church now. My faith is what makes me VERY liberal in some circumstances and somewhat conservative in others, but the last couple of years in America have been very hard on my faith. So much so that I wonder why I bother at all. I am very outspoken about where I feel people who share my religion get it wrong and worship political power and social norms instead of the namesake of the religion and his teaching message in the gospels. I’m so outspoken in fact that I border on being a jerk. In fact I probably cross the line quite often. It’s refreshing to be be able to come here and read through the forum and sit when I can with the weekly zazen videos. I don’t feel the anger and frustration here nor do I want to bang my head on a wall or call people ignorant and stupid for how their political beliefs are the exact opposite of their religious beliefs and they can’t even see it. Zen allows me breathing room for lack of a better word. It’s nondogmatic and the eightfold path is seen as a series of guidelines not absolutes. I don’t feel like yelling and calling out other zen practitioners for getting it all wrong. I’m able to just sit. Sit with the mystery and reality and life just as it is without feeling the need to philosophize and theologize or politicize it and that last really nice. Someday, I may decide to make this my permanent home. It’s in fact likely depending on what happens in late 2020.

Gassho, Jason
Sat today

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[Onka]

The only words I can think of that fit within this parameter of "banned words unless you are of a particular race" are racial slurs. What words are you thinking of that you would like to have the freedom to use in public without offending someone of a different race?



Could you please be less vague? There are MANY popular documentaries on such topics, like "Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States," most of which I can't find anything offensive in. People who are avid supporters of the Flat Earth theory are not necessarily offensive to anyone in particular in their views, except maybe to the scientific community itself. However, teaching things like holocaust denial or omitting it from history books carry far more serious consequences. What side of history would you like the freedom to teach and express that you currently feel is forbidden?



I understand that cultural misappropriation is tricky. I could very easily be considered as doing so while wearing my Japanese style robes in public. It is important to remember that many of the cultures whose style of dress has been used to accessorize the fashion industry have been disenfranchised brutally by Western society.



Separation of church and state goes both ways: the government cannot prevent you from practicing your religious beliefs freely, but they also cannot enforce laws based on religious beliefs. If your religious beliefs break a law, or harm someone else, financially or otherwise, it is illegal. It is also, typically, not a great business model to, for example, refuse service to a gay person in a business based on religious beliefs. To be practical, that is one less happy customer and usually results in backlash for said business. That's loss of income right there, but the other way around.



I have not heard of a single case of young children being pressured to explore "50 plus genders." All I have ever heard about are the ever growing resources for and tolerance of children who grow to know that they are not hetero or cis-- not pressured into doing so because it is trendy, and considering the suffering that growing up different has caused many of those close to me, I find it very distasteful to say that many of them chose their lifestyle to get attention. They simply want to be as they are and taken seriously as adults. It only seems "trendy" because so many more people feel safe enough to come out, due to this growing tolerance in society, the media and politics.



By living peacefully as we wish without harming or minding others doing the same.



I would personally study these topics as presented by the people involved in them or involved in studying them. Do I object because I simply don't like it, or do I object because of scientific data pointing to a negative result?

My final question is, how have you, personally, suffered in your life due to any of these topics, outside of the suffering in your own mind?

Gassho

Sat today, lah

Thank you Geika.
I've spent too many years fighting for my right to exist, the rights of others and literally fighting the far right whenever I encountered them. It has cost me a lot - my family, employment, being able to walk around safely. Burnout, responsibilities, very specific death threats against my partner and increased physical limitations have played a significant part in me seeking a way forward. Your response here is a guiding example.
Gassho
Anna

Sat today

[Onka]

I live in a remote, rural, agrarian, mountain village of about 350 people. We're 98% White, 97% native-born, and have the highest church attendance of any county in a state already known for it's religiosity (but only Christian religiosity; there isn't a mosque, temple, or gurdwara within a hundred miles). The last church service I attended with my mother, the sermon was explicitly and casually White supremacist, with the easy candidness that comes from preaching to the choir. One of our best friends here often laments how local church services are really nothing more than weekly political rallies, drawing more upon material from Right-wing radio and TV news than the Bible. When Mother Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina was shot up in a domestic terror attack in 2015, Confederate flags sprouted like a plethora of noxious weeds all across the landscape, and the weekly paper started printing overtly racist screeds and fanciful revisionist fact-free odes to the Confederacy. We don't exactly celebrate tolerance and diversity here, and that's regularly emphasized by belligerent White men carrying sidearms into the hardware store or coffee shop on a daily basis (I can well imagine what they're carrying behind the seats of their pickup trucks). Less overt are the rumors of the Ku Klux Klan, which have active cells in nearby, larger towns. Within living memory these were called "sundown towns", where African-Americans were threatened with death if they were caught within city limits after dark.
How I remain tolerant is a bit of a koan, which I'm still wrestling with...imperfectly, with very limited results. I have a deep-seated tendency to arrogance and have real difficulty tolerating fools gladly, and a strong aversion to what Martin Luther King referred to as the greatest danger in the world; "willful ignorance and conscientious stupidity". However, in my head there isn't some contrived false equivalency; fellow hippies with their crystals and auras are qualitatively different from people who want to deport (or worse) anyone who looks, thinks, or acts differently than they do. The former makes me irritated; the latter, outraged (FAIR DISCLOSURE STATEMENT: my beloved is a first-generation immigrant from a Muslim country; my brother was Gay; my nephew just registered for the Draft). "Tolerance" should not be stretched so thin as to rationalize away our responsibility as Mahayana in the face of violence, bigotry, and discrimination. I do not believe that some esoteric notion of passively sitting for some theoretical benefit of all beings in any way fully and completely fulfills my bodhisattva vows to liberate all beings when those around me are being brutalized. I recall Dogen somewhere in Shobogenzo saying something to the effect not to thoughtlessly promote conflict, but acceding when you're in the right is nothing more than cowardice. Some things are innocuous silliness, and some things create real, grievous harm to living beings. Some things are simply not to be tolerated.
I also realize that I am rather foolish and demonstrably prone to becoming entangled in delusions of my own. Not everything that springs to my mind arises from clarity and wisdom; much of it arises from fears, insecurities, and prejudices, which in the moment can seem much more cacophonous, compelling, and certain (ANOTHER FAIR DISCLOSURE STATEMENT: I've been diagnosed with, among other things, dementia. No warranties or claims to serviceability expressed or implied). I also need reminding that no one is truly evil; they are led astray by delusion. Whoever I feel to be in opposition to is in reality whole and complete, imbued with compassion and wisdom; they've tragically lost sight of this under layer upon layer of greed, anger, and ignorance.
As for speaking out mindfully as a Buddhist, my first reaction is not to let my first reaction come out of my mouth (it usually contains an expletive, and perhaps an ad hominem). As clearly and calmly as possible, trying not to indulge my proclivity to be arrogant and insulting, I state unequivocally that I do not believe in racism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia, climate change is a hoax by the Chinese, the U.S. is threatened by a country with a defense budget the size of Singapore's that hasn't attacked anyone since 1798, etc., etc., etc. Other people read my occasional letters to the editor, others see the big rainbow flag with the peace sign in the front yard. I probably don't convince anyone of my way of thinking, but at least people who hold such noxious beliefs no longer engage me in offensive conversation. As for silence, as Bonhoffer said, "silence in the face of evil is itself evil." On the other hand, it has been suggested kindly by 2 well-meaning folk on 2 separate occasions that I might want to be a bit more circumspect; wouldn't want our home to mysteriously catch fire.
As for things getting worse, worse relative to what? All things are empty; they have no fixed self, but are constantly in flux as the transient causes and conditions which gave rise to and sustain them wax and wane. Therefore all things are impermanent. This includes empires, notions like democracy, species (including homo sapiens), and planets like the Earth and stars like the Sun and people like you and I. You are neither the first nor the only one to experience this; we are subject to old age, sickness and death; everything that we love and cherish will be taken from us, just as it was from our ancestors; just ask your great grandfather, or the Sumerians, or the Neanderthal. This is not a bug, it's a feature; it is the way of all things. You might as well feel attachment and grasp and cling to a wave in the ocean; it will rise and fall regardless.

Thank you Emmet

[Seibu]

By reducing political correctness to political correctness the core issues of compassion and sympathy are taken away and give people an excuse to base their expressions on a certain level of thinking.

Gassho,
Jack
Sattoday/lah

[martyrob]

I see political correctness as just good manners. If somebody has been kicked around, sidelined, downtrodden, passed over and pushed in the dirt and they decide that they’ve had enough and ask of me that I, a middle class, middle aged, white guy whose had all the privileges that come with that and whose only problems in the world have been of their own making, if that person asks that I address them in a particular manner, using particular words rather than the ones I choose, then the least I can do is put aside my little self and accept that that would be the polite thing to do without getting into some hissy fit that my human rights have been trampled. I don’t see this as a Zen thing; just good manners.

Martyn

Sat today.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ippo]

Thoughts

(DISCLAIMER: It's not my wish to cause division, anger or anything negative here and I apologize in advance for potentially hurting anyone's feelings. I have a legitimate question that I'm struggling with.)

Hi all. As Buddhists, we try to live in harmony with everyone and all things but in the Western world right now, there seems to be a minority of certain people who are bent on making sure they have things their way and to heck with everyone else and their ways and opinions. Just a few examples: Certain words are banned unless you are of particular races. Only one side of history can be freely spoken or taught. Wearing the wrong earrings (YES, EARRINGS!!) can be seen as cultural misappropriation. Your religious beliefs come second to certain lifestyles and you can be fined or potentially lose your income for standing by your 'right' to religious freedom. Even targeting kindergarten aged children to consider alternative genders is being pushed (I do not think there are 50 plus genders. I personally think there are hetero, gay, bi and a few genuine cases of people trapped in the wrong gendered body. Everything else seems to quickly have become trendy). If you speak out against any of these, you are labelled a bigot, a 'phobe' etc. TV shows all take the same stance and it's as if we are being conditioned to all act, think and comply into 'not going against the grain'.
How do we remain tolerant? How tolerant do you have to be? What if you harbor negative ideas about some of these things? Do we simply just go with the flow and let things pan out for better or worse? What if you genuinely feel some things will be for the worst? How do you mindfully speak out as a Buddhist? Or do we just remain silent?
I'm really trying hard to drop all my negative feelings towards some of what I see these days and am just having a hard time with it.

I welcome everyone's responses and again, I'm very sorry if I have offended.

Gassho.

ST.

Long story short I have seen people get hurt, beat, slandered, yelled at, sworn at, marginalized, ostracized, etc. for challenging (even mildly) the views of the 'left'. In my own experience (not at all a reflection of the whole world) it is a problem. There are also very serious problems from the 'right'. Frankly, there really are just problems stemming from suffering, ignorance, and a fundamental unwillingness to listen and people's clinging to THEIR ideas.

I would like to end this with a far more poignant reminder, which should act as a pillar to practice and living in harmony with as many beings as possible:

'Zen mind is beginner's mind. A beginner's mind is a compassionate mind. A compassionate mind will change the world.'

This, I feel, should be a fundamental cornerstone in everyone's practice and life. I have formed connections with everyone kind of human imaginable, and it's wonderfully enriching, to be with people.

I wish everyone hear happiness, peace, joy. That is all.

Gassho,

Brad

SatLah