Tag Archives: tolerance

America's Future, Applied Buddhism

Twentieth Anniversary–9/11/2001 Remembered

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It’s been twenty years since the worst terrorist attacks on the US in its history. The World Trade Center twin towers fell. The Pentagon suffered deadly harm. A similar attack on the Capitol failed only through the heroism of passengers that rushed the cabin of the plane flown by minions of Osama Bin Laden.

In the immediate aftermath of the these horrible events, political division was put on pause for eighteen months. Since then, the antipathy between Democrats and Republicans has grown. Given my own personal determinations to work on ending the cultural and political divide, I will make no further mention of it on this day.

Instead, I salute those first responders who did what they could to save lives. Many of whom, themselves, fell ill or died as a result of exposure to ash, fumes and toxic chemicals. Second and third responders, if you will, worked to rehabilitate injured survivors. Others supported the remembrance of the dead through memorials.

There are countless observances of this anniversary in person or on various media today. For myself and my family, there is only one that I can contribute. You who have been to this blog before, may have seen comments in 2008, 2011, 2014 and 2018.  All have mentioned the good fortune that protected my beloved wife from getting a well-deserved job at the Pentagon–in a section at or near the impact of the plane.

Not luck or coincidence, but her Buddhist practice, and mine, saved her life.  She really should have got the promotion. Coworkers were certain of that. It was several years later that the plane struck. The person who got the job died in the attack–as did the man who hired her. Others died as well. One, who went out on a smoke break outside the building, didn’t. Such is karma.

I watched all of the news coverage from a TV in my agency director’s office with others. He was away. Everyone at my wife’s office, a few miles away, were allowed to leave within a short time after the Pentagon event. I, 25 miles away elsewhere in Northern Virginia, could also have gone home. Most people did. After talking with her, I stayed and worked on a budget due in a couple weeks, knowing that she would be home for our teenage children let out from school.

It seems unlikely, improbable–difficult to conceive of restoring a faith in American democracy in this decade. Yet it is essential if the nation is to survive not another attack from without but one from within. On this day, I will rededicate my Buddhist practice to that end.

America's Future, Applied Buddhism, Politics

Kill the Will to Kill

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Two black men killed by police officers within 24 hours. Five police officers killed in Dallas and seven wounded shortly thereafter in apparent retaliation. The problem of “us and them;” the dehumanization of others who we view as less than us or our enemies. They disrespect, disregard or devalue our lives so we will do the same. There is another way.

“It is enough,” said Shakyamuni (also known as Siddhartha Gautama–the historical Buddha), “to kill the will to kill.”

His words came as a response to this question: “We are told that life is precious. And yet all people live by killing and eating other living beings. Which living beings may we kill and which living beings must we not kill?”

In his 1991 lecture on The Age of “Soft Power” and Inner-Motivated Philosophy, delivered at Harvard University, SGI leader Daisaku Ikeda said this about Shakyamuni’s words:

Shakyamuni’s response is neither evasion nor deception. . . . He is telling us that, in seeking the kind of harmonious relationship expressed in the idea of respect for the sanctity of life, we must not limit ourselves to the phenomenal level where conflict and hostility undeniably exist–the conflict, in this case, of which living beings it is acceptable to kill and which not. We must seek it on a deeper level–a level where it is truly possible to “kill the will to kill.” Read more here.

Ironically, it was just six months before Ikeda’s lecture that Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles Police (who were later acquitted on state charges of assault with a deadly weapon and use of excessive force but two of whom were found guilty of federal civil rights violations). The acquittal of the officers of state charges led to riots in Los Angeles in which 55 people died and 2,000 were injured. During the riots, King said, “can’t we just get along.” 

Dehumanization and the Us vs. Them dichotomy inevitably leads to the arguments and counterarguments between Black Lives Matter proponents and law and order proponents who deny that there’s a problem or the scope of it. Few, if any, are in possession of 100% truth nor are few 100% wrong. They just have an understandable but often less than helpful perspective. Here’s another excerpt from Ikeda’s Harvard Lecture, the second paragraph excerpted is the lead-in to the quote above explaining Shakyamuni’s response:

One of the most important Buddhist concepts, dependent origination holds that all beings and phenomena exist or occur in relation to other beings or phenomena. Everything is linked in an intricate web of causation and connection and nothing–whether in the realm of human affairs or of natural phenomena–can exist or occur solely of its own accord.

. . . .

As I mentioned in discussing encounters between different cultures, not all relationships are amicable. The reality of opposing interests and even hostility must be acknowledged. What can be done to encourage and promote harmonious relations?

In Ikeda’s first quote above, I intentionally left out his second sentence, in which he observes that Shakyamuni’s response is based on the concept of dependent origination. We are all, like it or not, interconnected. We are all human, living on this earth at the same time. When we interact we can choose to find hate in others or blame them for our misfortune. Or we can choose a different view. In over 35 years of marriage between myself, a white male, and a black female, we have traveled through most of the 50 states in America, to Canada and to Japan. We can count on the fingers of one hand the times that we have perceived any overt or perceptible discrimination against us by people of any other race. Why? Because we don’t regard others that way AND because we overcame opposition to our marriage from her father.

So, it is enough to kill the will to kill. But it is even better not to hate at all.