Beyond Tibet, toward peace

Continued from the last post…

We know that Tibet is in turmoil, that Burma is under a brutal military regime, and that numerous places around the world – America included – are in the midst of great violence and suffering. Several things need to happen if we are to see a world free of such violence and oppression. Here are my humble suggestions:

1. Follow Gary’s advice (and that of countless world peace-makers): be the peace you wish to see in the world. This is 1000% more difficult than it sounds, but it is work we can all begin right here, right now. My advice: learn meditation online, or -better- in a community near you. Our modern minds are absolutely flooded with stimuli; an effective meditation practice will help not only avoid the currents, but to actively calm them.
2. Reduce your reliance on consumer-goods. Buy locally, walk, use public transportation, live humbly. This is not a matter of absolutes, but rather of using your inner peace, calm, and awareness to be able to identify options of less consumption.
3. Open that awareness to the larger socio-political sphere. Politics can be overwhelming in complexity and sheer ugliness, but -like it or not- politics shape the world we live in. Does your city council give tax-breaks to box stores? Does your state invest in public education? As we openly determine what it means to live a good life, we need to engage in our society to help build the institutions in which that life can be lived, and we need to encourage others to think deeply about this as well.

Thinking about this reminds me of the Zen bull-herding images, a beautiful story of spiritual progress, compiled by a Chinese Buddhist monk in the 12 century. Click here for images and verses to all ten stages.

The story begins much as the lives of most of us, a bit lost in the world and searching:

I. The Search for the Bull

In the pasture of the world,
I endlessly push aside the tall
grasses in search of the bull.
Following unnamed rivers,
lost upon the interpenetrating
paths of distant mountains,
My strength failing and my vitality
exhausted, I cannot find the bull.
I only hear the locusts chirping
through the forest at night.

(go to the second image and verse)

Over the course of the journey and story, the bull (or sometimes ‘ox’) is found, a struggle ensues, but victory is won and the bull is tamed. The spiritual transformation and subsequent realization leave both the bull and self transcended – “This heaven is so vast, no message can stain it.” And in the end, the bodhisattva vow to work for the benefit of all beings leads the awakened one back into the world:

X. In the World

Barefooted and naked of breast,
I mingle with the people
of the world.
My clothes are ragged and dust-laden,
and I am ever blissful.
I use no magic to extend my life;
Now, before me, the dead trees
become alive.

I have abandoned the whip and ropes.