In my little corner of the social media universe, particularly on Facebook, pretty much as soon as one of these horrific and now ubiquitous mass shootings happen, many of my friends pretty much immediately begin posting notices mocking those who’ve called for “thoughts and prayers.” That immediate visceral and hostile response is usually in response to some politician whose own immediate response to the horror are those offers of thoughts and prayers, but who has an ugly history of adamantly resisting any meaningful gun control here in the United States.
I get the frustration. And anger at the obvious hypocrisy.
But. There is a straight forward issue, a hard correlation between a country being awash in guns and mass killings. And with that some pretty obvious fixes. But, all of a sudden that isn’t the issue. Instead it becomes about people who believe in a god. Here’s a little American politics 101: You do that and you lose. Lose. Lose as in not winning. Lose.
That observation made, there are any number of directions one can go reflecting on how we choose to engage the questions of our lives. And with that I find myself thinking about the unity of action and consequence.
Actually I find myself reflecting on that whole mess of means and ends a lot of late. And it is about more than parsing various issues and keeping one’s eye on the ball. As important as that is. Ultimately, however, for me it is all a spiritual practice. Actually pretty much everything is for me. In part this has to do with my age and temperament. But, also, it is about my original vow as a Zen Buddhist.
This attending to everything is rooted in my own visceral experience of our fundamental unity. When there is no separation, what does that mean in how I meet the various events that arise in my life? A question you might find of use, as well.
I find an interesting example of how this works in a rubber hits the road way reading the Hindu spiritual classic the Bhagavad Gita. And, yes, I do understand even though the nineteenth century writer Ralph Waldo Emerson praised the text as a wonderful example of Buddhist wisdom, it is not. It is Hindu.
That said it touches the issue of our fundamental unity and does it in some very interesting ways. Ways I think we who are Zen Buddhists can learn from. The Gita calls us to action while cautioning us to let go of the results. Not rocket science. But.
I find something quite important in that small assertion. The Gita correctly observes how “action alone is within your control.” The point is bare and hard to avoid. Our control “never extends to the fruits.” That’s just the way it is in a world where things are verbs not nouns, and our actions are currents in a great stream rushing headlong to a distant sea. And this is true whatever we call ourselves, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, pagan, atheist.
Social activist and sometime Unitarian Universalist minister Fred Small observes how this deep understanding inspired Mohandas Gandhi in his actions. Mr Small writes “By letting go of results, Gandhi could devote all of his attention to the quality of his action without agonizing over every possible consequence, which he knew he couldn’t control anyway.” He then makes the essential point “…means and ends (are) the same. So long as the means (are) sound, failure and defeat (are) inconsequential.” Everything is connected. We cannot know how what we do will play out. But, also it means we are what we do.
So, gun control? Climate change? Race? Economic disparity? Grab the corner of that most calls to your heart and give it your effort. And do it without hope or fear. Or, assuming there is anything specific that will follow. The play of things are too caught up in too large a mess for us to predict outcomes.
And with that a cascade of suggestions. First, just bring my, your, our attention. And, with that something to note. What is love but attention? So, of course attending to what we are doing means bringing love to the matter. And here the dance of authentic spiritual practice is fully engaged.
And with that the hard truth that means and ends are the same becomes an invitation into intimacy. And intimacy is our experience of the connections, of our ultimate unity. Noticing this invites us into something other than salving our own egos and prejudices. Instead with intimacy, with attention, with love our actions become the great work.
And the great work is the healing of this world.
Sort of actualizing our thoughts and prayers.
Two cents on a Tuesday morning…
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