lotusinthemud

an open letter calling for peace ~ plum village

Dear Human Family,

Watching the tragedy of war continue to unfold daily in Ukraine, we open our hearts to the suffering of people young and old. As an international community of Engaged Buddhism in the Plum Village tradition, we observe the war with pain and alarm.

In our Buddhist community, every Christmas we listen with great joy to the sound of Russian church bells, and we open our hearts to the rich spiritual heritage of Russia and Europe. Our teacher, the venerable Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh, has said that “A bell is always a bell; whether it’s Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, or Buddhist, it is still a bell.” Listening to the bell, no matter what our cultural or religious roots are, we can have a deep encounter where we touch peace and a shared spiritual dimension. We all yearn for peace. We all need peace.

Our community’s own roots lie in the tradition of Engaged Buddhism in Vietnam, where more than three million people died in a war that lasted nearly 20 years and some two million fled as refugees. We know from our teacher that war is never a solution. It leads only to division and hatred that can last for generations.

Our teacher worked tirelessly for peace in Vietnam by never choosing sides. Instead, he appealed to adversaries to look deeply into each other’s pain, anxiety, and existential fear, and to consider the war’s horrific toll on all victims. Forced into exile, he became a spiritual leader of a global movement for peace, reconciliation, and disarmament.

Buddhist Peace Fellowship: To Muslim Kin, from Buddhists in the wake of Christchurch

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Dear Muslim family,

As Buddhists, we bear witness to your suffering and grief, and offer prayers of deep metta to you across the world in the wake of the Christchurch massacre.

Wherever Muslim kin may feel under threat, from New Zealand to Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Tibet, India, Palestine, Turkistan, Thailand, Europe, the occupied US, and more, we offer love.

We support your right to live free from fear, and we vow to confront anti-Muslim sentiment that might make you feel anything less than safe, beloved, and holy in this world.

We share our prayers in recognition that white, Christian, or Hindu supremacy, colonization and occupation, or violent nationalism by any dominant group — including Buddhists — are systemic manifestations of the Three Poisons: greed, hatred, and delusion.

We must work to uproot these poisons not just from within ourselves, but also where they sit in structures of oppression in society.

Throughout space and time, people in our families have been on either side of such religiously-justified, angry nationalist violence — attacked for our faith, attacking others, or both.

Taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and joining movements for justice, may we continue to learn how to skillfully turn toward peace.

This is our hope, and our deep commitment.

With sadness, solidarity, and love in this time of grief,

 

Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Equality Labs

Dedunu Suraweera, Sri Lankan Buddhist Community on Staten Island

Dorjee Tseten, Students for a Free Tibet

Sonamtso, Students for a Free Tibet

Myokei Caine-Barrett Shonin, Nichiren Shu Order of North America

Ouyporn Khuankaew, International Women’s Partnership for Peace and Justice

Ravi Mishra, Awaken Meditation App

Katie Loncke, Buddhist Peace Fellowship

Mushim Ikeda, East Bay Meditation Center

 

If you support this statement, we welcome you to sign your name by adding a comment below. 

(by following the link at the bottom of this post)

Notes:

Our signatures and affiliations do not necessarily represent organizational endorsement. We speak for ourselves, in a diversity of Buddhist lineages and social movement organizations to which we belong.

We the undersigned are Buddhists who are not also Muslim; however, we want to honor and recognize those who do carry both traditions. 

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Rohingya ~ Dharmavidya

QUESTION: In light of Medecin Sans Frontiere’s recent comments on the Rohingya, and the backlash against Aung San Suu Kyi, I wonder if you might be able to post on the site about your thoughts. 

SHORT ANSWER: Violence springs from delusion and we strive to overcome it and bring compassion into the world, but understanding the roots of particular delusions is complex and difficult.

LONGER ANSWER: I have no solution, but I can, as you ask, post some thoughts. This is not a situation that I have followed in detail so there is a danger that I may be misinformed. That said, it appears that the Myanmar government decided to drive the Rohingya out of their country and set about doing so in a brutal manner, but have now agreed to let many of them back in, though understandably many are frightened to return as there has been killing and persecution. The Myanmar government has a different version of events, but most of the international media are not taking that account seriously. Although the recent dreadful events are suddenly shocking there is, presumably, a long history to this problem and it is difficult to understand the whole situation without knowledge of this.

The Buddhist view is easy to state in regard to immediate events: hatred is not overcome by hatred, by love alone is hatred overcome. This is a clear principle. On this basis, one prays for an end to the killing and ill-treatment and some reparation for damage already done. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the case, lethal violence is not the answer. But where is the love?

One then comes to the really difficult question of what should be done. Stop the killing, certainly, but what then? How ease the tensions that led to the killing in the first place? Is it better for the Rohingya to go back to Myanmar or to go back to Bangladesh? Where did they come from in the first place? Why did they go to Myanmar? To the Burmese, I gather, they appear as interlopers, unwanted illegal immigrants. The USA is currently trying to get rid of illegal immigrants and this is causing a lot of social friction in that country. They are not shooting people, but they are breaking up families in many cases. The problems caused by the strong feelings people have about immigration are troubling many countries at the moment and passions can run very high indeed.

I would prefer a world in which people were free to move from country to country as they wished, but I can see that when this happens on a large scale with people of a culture deemed alien by those already resident in a country, it is experienced as invasion, and the historic response to invasion has generally been armed resistance. My ideal, therefore, may not be attainable in the real world. This means that many real life situations actually require delicate diplomacy and compromise. This leads me to ask how it has come about that this situation has got so bad that nobody notices until people start being slaughtered. The international community - if one can make such a sweeping generalisation - seems not to have seen this coming and not to have done much, if anything, to avert the catastrophe.

Issuing condemnations rarely does much good. The popular media want to have heroes and villains and when somebody seems to have switched from one of these categories to the other it causes great confusion, but this confusion is really the result of a way of thinking that was wrong from the beginning. People are people and they have to deal with the situations that come before them and in those situations there are often a complex balance of forces in play. What decisions has Aung San Suu Kyi actually made? What were the influences that she was juggling when she made those decisions? Why did the pope not even mention the Rohingya during his visit to Myanmar? How is a newspaper reader in a country on the other side of the planet to make sense of what is happening? What is needed is not the passing of moral judgements. What is needed is for help to be mobilised, informed by an in-depth understanding of the full situation. I myself cannot claim to have such an understanding, but there must be people in positions of authority who do.

The resolution of complex international problems requires more than knee jerk reactions. It requires in-depth understanding and resolute compassionate action that somehow helps all the main parties. This is, however, asking a lot since all the players who have the power to assist also have vested interests. These comments do not just apply to the Rohingya crisis - they apply to refugee problems all over the planet and all the other actually or potentially lethal political situations - N Korea, Syria, the stand-off in the Gulf, Ukraine, and so on. We pray and work for a wiser, more compassionate world, an end to bloodshed and enmity, reconciliation and repair, while all the time knowing that there are few certainties and real progress requires the wisdom of Solomon.

Who actually loves the Rohingya? Where will they find a secure home? What have they themselves done to make this development more likely? Who else can help and how? Why do the Burmese feel so angry? What can bring peace? These are the kinds of questions that need to be understood.

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Words

Today, like a huge number of people, I am reeling from the result of the referendum whereby the UK will leave the EU. This will have huge repercussions far beyond the shores of the island on which I live. Millions of people will be affected, including, of course, some of our Order. some of the effects are to come during the next weeks and months, although we have seen resignations and financial institutions moving their staff, the stock market hit already.  There will be much uncertainty in the future, including the possible breaking up of the UK itself.

I have been dismayed, during the last few weeks, over the quality and content of the rhetoric used. Lies, half-truths, blaming, finger pointing, promises without substance, threats. 

What did the Buddha say about speech?

Right Speech

samma vaca

The definition

"And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, & from idle chatter: This is called right speech.” 

— SN 45.8

Five keys to right speech

"Monks, a statement endowed with five factors is well-spoken, not ill-spoken. It is blameless & unfaulted by knowledgeable people. Which five?

"It is spoken at the right time. It is spoken in truth. It is spoken affectionately. It is spoken beneficially. It is spoken with a mind of good-will.” 

— AN 5.198

The danger in lying

"For the person who transgresses in one thing, I tell you, there is one evil deed that is not to be done. Which one thing? This: telling a deliberate lie."

The person who lies,

who transgress in this one thing,

transcending concern for the world beyond:

there's no evil

he might not do.

— Iti 25

Speak only words that do no harm

"One should speak only that word by which one would not torment oneself nor harm others. That word is indeed well spoken.

"One should speak only pleasant words, words which are acceptable (to others). What one speaks without bringing evils to others is pleasant."

— Thag 21

Self-purification through well-chosen speech

"And how is one made pure in four ways by verbal action?

"There is the case where a certain person, abandoning false speech, abstains from false speech. When he has been called to a town meeting, a group meeting, a gathering of his relatives, his guild, or of the royalty, if he is asked as a witness, 'Come & tell, good man, what you know': If he doesn't know, he says, 'I don't know.' If he does know, he says, 'I know.' If he hasn't seen, he says, 'I haven't seen.' If he has seen, he says, 'I have seen.' Thus he doesn't consciously tell a lie for his own sake, for the sake of another, or for the sake of any reward. Abandoning false speech, he abstains from false speech. He speaks the truth, holds to the truth, is firm, reliable, no deceiver of the world."

— AN 10.176

So much of what we have heard and read about during the campaign has been divisive, abusive, bigoted and against all of the principles the Buddha taught. Was it, as it was portrayed, to educate and benefit the electorate? How much of it was manipulative? How much of it was to divert attention from the real sources of dissatisfaction? How much of it was to serve the aspirations of the politicians in question? I cannot see into their hearts, it’s true.

Words have led us into this uncertain situation. And words, slogans, aped by others, have led to the death of a young woman of principle. It was following the shooting and stabbing of Jo Cox, herself a fearless defender of the defenceless, in the face of threats she was receiving, that we saw a different rhetoric. 

As Dharmavidya wrote in The Feeling Buddha:

“Buddha saw the potential of communication…..The purpose was to convey the message of peace in the world through peace in the heart.”

The reaction, as Jo was celebrated in cities around the world on what would have been her 42nd birthday, showed how people were inspired by her words, her fearless championing of those who needed such support, with positivity and joy and determination. She was someone with a firm and positive purpose in life. And her words lit up and inspired so many.

So, on a day that has come from much darkness, let us not lose sight of the light that words can engender.

the path of compassion and nonviolence

Most people believe that following the path of compassion and nonviolence is something related to religion. In fact, these are secular ethics and have nothing to do with religion

~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama

violence is a state of mind, an expression of ignorance

We are not innocent children victimized by a big, bad world; if our world is big and bad we made it that way. This is what the Buddha taught. The "other" is a child's boogeyman, the projection of our own fears onto a terrifying object of our imagination, which in turn terrorizes us. Our ignorance is not seeing that we are the other. We cannot afford to confuse innocence with this ignorance. Violence is not a permanent, immutable, fixed object. It is a state of mind, an expression of ignorance, with no more solid substance than a cloud. We cannot make a frontal attack on violence. Even protecting ourselves from it fuels its boogeyman existence. But the Buddha taught that we can change. This was his good news: that there is a way to alleviate suffering by freeing our minds from geed, anger, and ignorance. Yet until we apprehend the ways in which we are Oklahoma City, the bombs and the baby bears, the victims and the violators, we will continue to blame "the," all the while proclaiming our innocence and evading our responsibilities.

~ Helen Tworkov, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review

the dalai lama - one of the top 25 political icons

David McNew / Getty Images

To countless Tibetans, His Holiness the Dalai Lama is a spiritual leader and a head of state in absentia. But to people around the world, Tenzin Gyatso is not only the greatest and most public advocate for Tibetan rights and the virtues of Tibetan Buddhism, but for interfaith tolerance and peace as well. For decades — and from exile since 1959 — he has worked to resolve tensions between Tibet and the People's Republic of China. And like Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. before him, the Dalai Lama done so in a manner defined by nonviolence and tolerance. In 1989, he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

The Dalai Lama's humility has endeared him to presidents and religious leaders of several countries, affording him the opportunity to raise awareness and drum up support for Tibet on a global scale.

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reminiscing and the real world

This is a post by Modgala - she has agreed that I can share any of her writing:

Student riots and anger that are exploding here in London in response to the increased fees, and conversations with Massimo have inspired me to share – both about past activities and what I feel we can do in the present.

I guess we are all worried, I know my fellows in the faiths forum are worried about the effect of cuts on the needy, and we have been exploring “what are our roles”. Now we have student riots too.

I am reminded of “September 11th”. Dharmavidya and I were at a protest against an arms trade fair in London that day. We had gone to the conference centre with the local people in the official protest and were waiting for the large procession of unofficial protestors to arrive. There was a large police cordon separating the groups however Dharmavidya and myself, in our robes, ringing our bells were allowed to remain in the middle ground, close to the police cordon. Most protestors were not aggressive, however I remember one trying desperately to “wind up” and attack the police. We drew closer to the cordon, ringing our bells, distracting the angry man, as they went by other protestors gave us the thumbs up; fortunately no serious trouble evolved.

free aung san suu kyi - 62nd birthday action

Free Aung San Suu Kyi - 62nd Birthday Action

tibet protest monks receive hero’s welcome in dharamsala

Dharamsala, May 12: Five Tibetan monks, who staged protests against Chinese rule last year in Amdo Labrang and later managed to escape Tibet, arrived to a hero’s welcome in Dharamsala on Sunday.

Tibetan exiles, including representatives of Tibetan organisations, bearing Tibetan National Flag and Khata (ceremonial scarves) greeted the monks as they arrived here early morning by bus from Delhi.

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