No Dogen or Zuimonki readings following Monday night zazen this week. Instead, we talked about the recent events in Iran, our feelings about the situation, and what we could do about it. As an added bonus, Sensei Taiun Michael Elliston joined us this evening, and added his views about the situation.What would Buddha do? The historical Buddha, Gautama Shakyamuni, was no stranger to the world of violence and warfare. India was basically a feudal state at the time of his life (Fifth Century B.C.), with one city-state frequently warring against another, and yet throughout his teaching, there is scarcely any mention of war, yet alone taking sides in any conflict.
Instead, he encouraged his followers to retreat from the world and enter the sangha, to look within to find peace and tranquility. Before one can calm the world, one must first calm one's own self.
Buddhism has been criticized by those who do not understand it as being solipsistic and self-indulgent. Some have responded to these criticisms by promoting something called "Engaged Buddhism," a term I dislike as it implies that there is an "Unengaged Buddhism," and thus validates the criticisms.
As Zen Master Dogen once said, it is rather easy to lay down one’s own life, or cut off one’s flesh, hands, or feet in an emotional outburst. Considering worldly affairs, he said, we see many people doing such things. Yet it is most difficult to harmonize the mind, meeting various things and situations moment by moment. A student of the Way must cool his mind as if he were giving up his life, and consider if what he is about to say or do is in accordance with reality or not.
The Buddha Way goes beyond "engaged" or "unengaged." It is about the right action, at the right time, for the right reasons.
1 comment:
From Karen Armstrong's account of the development of religions in India leading up to Buddhism, a warrior culture dominated religious practices. Traces linger on even though the old priests beat the verbal swords of older sutras into the plowshares of current Hindu texts.
The "warrior" pose among all the more common yoga positions, oddly named it would seem for part of a practice meant to explore and pacify inner being, is one vestige.
Armstrong also describes a more pacifistic Zoroastrianism arising on the steppes, becomeing a warlike cult when its originators were overrun by raiding nomads, spread by the same raiding to Persia where it is more pacifistic elements are still practiced [and suppressed] and finally arriving in the villages and fiefdoms of the emerging Indus valley cultures to become the root of several modern traditions. It is still startling to imagine that Buddhism had any roots in culturally sanctioned bloodshed. I have no sense of where Armstrong interpolated between established archeological reconstructions of different eras.
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