UnMind 100. Death & Disaster, Dialog & Dharma IV

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Final solution —
What if there isn’t any?
Back to the cushion.

We concluded the last segment on perhaps an overly pessimistic note, that engaging the current spate of daily atrocities through the established political process may never result in any of your preferred outcomes. But Zen encourages us to approach life like the superior player plays the game of Go. The inferior player gets bogged down in territorial fights in one corner of the board, and may win that battle, but meanwhile the opponent is winning in all other areas of the board. Strengthening our position may not be as obvious as we think, or where we should invest the effort – at home, at work, in the political arena? Where do we place our priority for action, with limited resources and time? The dialog continues:

Someone asks: We see these arguments go into the issue of gun control. But not much emphasis on the mental health.

I say: Well, other than as an excuse, an avoidance of tougher issues to confront or blame.

What kind of compassion from the Buddha — talking about gun control, I know that if they wouldn’t have guns, they would choose another weapon, which is the case in Japan. So the underlying issue is still there.

I say: Okay, so in Japan, what other weapon would they choose?

They would drive into a group of people by bus… so the scale is smaller but the underlying issue is the same. And so from you, to the shooter, or his environment, what kind of compassion or comment can you give me?

I say: Yeah, a different take on compassion is that we are already the recipient of compassion, the compassion of the universe just to allow our existence. Scientists, physicists, and people who know will tell you that it doesn’t have to be designed that way — there doesn’t have to be an intelligence in the universe, it can theoretically exist without any sentient beings. So I think we start from a root base like that. Although we arise out of ignorance, and not everything we do is intelligent, we don’t know for sure, ultimately. We don’t know much at all, really, about reality. But one thing is for sure, it allows us to exist. And so, if you feel the recipient of that compassion, and that’s meaningful to you, I don’t see how you would need to get anything from anybody else, after that. Some people attribute that feeling to God.

And so again, if the kids started practicing meditation and they were raised in an environment where the outer influences on them at an early age — when they are easily influenced, other-directed, and impressionable, the formative years — it might make a difference. I grew up in the 1950s, a pretty prohibitive environment, in many ways. And I now know, looking back on the mistakes I made, that a lot of them were reactions to what I was being told and pushed to do, and not to do.

So this same independent thinking, and interdependent action, I think is probably native to a child, at a certain age. Then as they grow, they are conditioned, educated by peer pressure, by parents, teachers and the culture, to look at the world this way, instead of that way. My suggestion would be that young children as soon as possible start doing meditation. And that they do it in some non-sectarian, non-religious way. So that they are able to develop a healthier relationship to aging, sickness and death, you know.

As soon as these children were killed, nobody has seen a photograph of any of them. It’s all hidden. When people get old, like me, they put you away in a home, so that nobody has to deal with you, except nurses and professionals. In the old days, Buddha’s time, corpses would be lying out in the open. Sick people would be there on the street. You couldn’t hide from it.

So I think that if you go down the analysis of what is wrong, it’s a vast kind of picture. But I think we could at least begin with meditation. That’s why the problem of what do we teach in schools — critical race theory, teaching abstinence, having classes on sexuality and gender, or not having any — all of these factors to my way of thinking are different facets of the same problem.

I think that for us, again, the revolution begins at home. I failed miserably in raising my kids in my first marriage. When I look back on that I try to do something about it. If you had a time machine you could maybe go back in time and try to fix things. In our marital relations and family we all make these mistakes. So, I think that if we can grow up — and wake up — and we can individually start behaving differently within our small circle, then maybe that ripple effect can effect others. I don’t see any other solution. No top-down solutions.

Someone asks: Lead by example.

I say: By example. Matsuoka Roshi made this point about the monks that immolated themselves in Vietnam. He said that they stopped the war, those two famous incidents of the monks immolating themselves. Most people in this country would say they’re crazy, they’re nuts. And would disagree that that did anything to stop the war. In some cases you may have to be willing to be the crucifixion. You may have to be willing to be the sacrifice. There are many stories in history of people like that. Altruistic self-sacrifice for the benefit of the larger group. What works in one situation may not work in another.

Someone asks: I think that teaching Zen in classrooms just wouldn’t work. I’m not really sure why because kids go through so much stuff during their lives with peer pressure and adolescence…

I say: We have a couple of examples of teachers in our communal history. In one case we discussed the rowdiness of kids, and I suggested maybe a kind of dokusan, or interview. It was a large class, unruly 12-year-olds, in that range. It was a big classroom, with a relatively private corner office, partially enclosed. He invited each student to come in during the day to talk to him when the others were working on assignment. One person at a time, taking turns. He just invited them to talk about whatever they wanted to talk about. It didn’t have to be about the lesson or the class. He said that made a difference.

Another was a young woman at our Wichita affiliate. She had just taken a job at a school in a more affluent neighborhood, but still had the discipline problems she had had before. We talked through it, and I suggested looking at what we do at the zendo. We don’t boss people around and tell them what to do. We ring a bell, we have signals that everybody agrees to, to stop this and start that, et cetera. We chant vows, and so forth.

So she started with her kids. She bought a bell & brought it into the classroom. She would ring the bell ding-ding-ding-ding-ding like a rolldown, when she wanted their attention, like we do when we are going to give a toast at a wedding. That got their attention. And then she let them ring the bell for certain things that happened during the day as a regular thing. To get to take a turn ringing the bell was sort of a big deal. This was middle school. They put together four vows that they would chant or recite every morning together as a group. They had them do some meditation, just sitting still for a while and quiet, a quiet period. A lot of schools do that. And she said it was like a 180-degree turnaround.

So I think there is some evidence that some things can work. But you’re right. For a lot of children, what happens in the classroom is the least of their troubles. It’s what happens when they go home, and outside, in the neighborhood. Latchkey situations.

From a social perspective, we can look at how we can offer meditation in a non-sectarian way to private schools and private groups. Cracking the nut of the public schools, the county and so forth, you run right into the same political situation you saw happen after each of these shootings. There are too many people who are just looking for a job with the county, too much churning going on to get a program off the ground. But don’t give up! You’re creative.

No I won’t give up. Thanks very much for your teaching.

This concludes the dharma dialog that took place on this occasion. But the dialog continues.