Monday, September 12, 2016

Deep Looking and Listening

Read deeply the following Thay's message regarding the tragedy of 9.11. http://tricycle.org/magazine/waking-up-nation/
The followings are key phrases excerpted from the article.

Quote:
That shock can wake us up and it can help make awareness and mindfulness last. During this time, people are in a position where they have the capacity, and the opportunity, to look deeply into their situation and the situation around the world. That is why it is so important to make use of our suffering and not just complain about it.

America is getting angrier and more afraid every day because the negative seeds are being watered, and that is why we need people who have the capacity to water the good seeds. With calm and stability in us, we can perform an act of forgiveness that can bring down the level of suffering in this country and elsewhere.

It seems that America is dreaming, that America is not aware of what is going on within itself and outside. If we live in forgetfulness rather than in mindfulness—in a dream—we are creating violence without being aware of it. The way we live our daily lives and the way we consume creates a lot of suffering, a lot of injustice. We think it does not harm us, or others, but it can be very violent.

I know that without suffering there is no way to cultivate understanding and compassion. When you suffer, you understand yourself. What happened in New York caused great suffering, but if we can learn from it, the suffering can become a bell of mindfulness in waking up the whole nation.

Of course we need action, but action based on fear and anger is always destructive. I would propose as the first action learning to be calm, learning the practice of mindful breathing, embracing the anger and the fear. And then, if we look deeply into the situation, we see that we are not the only people who suffer, and that we may have participated in creating others’ suffering. They may feel that they are victims of our discrimination, of our attempt to destroy them.

The suffering comes from the fact that communication is blocked. Many suffer from injustice, from discrimination, and listening to them is the most effective way to change the politics that have led to this kind of violence. The whole nation, not just a group of people, should take up the practice of deep listening; it can be a collective practice of looking and listening deeply to our own suffering and the suffering outside. That is action. The other side will notice this effort to listen, not as politicians, but as human beings.

We should lock people up with compassion, and we should try to talk to them and to water their seed of compassion, so they can wake up and then join us in the act of building more compassion. Killing them is not the way. By killing them, we create more of them.
:Unquote

(My commentary)
I wonder how many Americans can understand this Thay's precious message. Many Americans are not humble enough to listen deeply. So, they can't understand that everything is their own creation. There is always a cause for a consequence. That's why we need to understand the root cause to solve the problem fundamentally. If Americans understand that their luxurious lifestyle is possible at the sacrifice of a lot of poor people in other nations, they will be astonished and have to generate compassion for such victims. Then they will be ready to listen deeply and truly understand that it was no wonder the tragedy of 9.11 occurred because they had been too arrogant and greedy. I still remember that Hillary Clinton explained the assassination of Osama bin Laden was the justice of America.

(Cf.) http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LA87R7A

Thay's calligraphy