In the wake of the events of September
11, a number of Buddhist teachers and practitioners have
offered thoughts and prayers for guidance during this time.
Teacher Responses
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Violence is
Never a Solution --
We Are All Responsible
Claude Anshin Thomas
Friday, 21 September 2001
Having been abused in sexual and physical
ways as a child, having been a soldier in war and having
continued to respond in violent ways to the uncertainty
of the world around me I have become acutely sensitized
to just how profoundly we are conditioned by a culture of
violence. As a result our existence becomes effected and
controlled by a encroaching circle of mistrust, rage and
hatred and the more we deny this reality, avoid looking
at it, the more deeply we become controlled by it. Such
is the nature of the 1st Noble Truth as taught by the Shakyamuni
Buddha: THERE IS SUFFERING!!.
Through our unwillingness and/or our inability
to experience the reality of violence in our own lives and
in our own actions, the existense of victim and perpetrator
within us. The tighter the grip of suffering becomes and
the more likely it is that this suffering will be perpetuated
through our own self-destruction and ultimately in the destruction
of others. Through the reality of my own life I have the
experience that this cycle can be transcended, it can be
transformed.
We live in a world where violence perpetuated
in the name of religion is and has been a norm. Where religious
groups, sects and denominations compete with each other
for the attention of the world to grow their minions, increase
their wealth, material possessions and grow their institutions
with what appears to be complete disregard for the suffering
that is inflicted in the name of whatever deity or teaching
they may use to justify their actions. All this to advance
their particular ideology. Their view of the world. THIS
HAS TO STOP AND CAN. WHAT CAN WE DO?
Uncover our own violence, a natural condition
of who we are, and care for it with compassion and patience
that it may become transformed. This will only be accomplished
when we become firmly rooted in the Spiritual Reality of
Life the place of knowing beyond the intellect. This will
only be accomplished through DISCIPLINED SPIRITUAL PRACTICE,
the tools of which can be acquired through the art of Mindful
Living.
In the next days, weeks and months it is
my great hope that all spiritual teachers and persons in
positions of leadership who will be providing support for
all those that have been effected by the attacks which occurred
on the 11th of September, 2001 in New York, Washington D.C.
and in Pennsylvania will not exploit this situation for
their own greed and will use this as an opportunity to work
together to a common end using their considerable power
and strength to help and support healing the suffering that
has once again so dramatically been brought to light.
In Gassho,
Claude AnShin Thomas (Zen Peacemaker Order)
