I awoke this morning in a town called Hikkaduwa on the southwest coast of Sri Lanka.
I love Sri Lanka, it is a wonderful country. The people here are a shining example of what a healthy Buddhist society looks like.
The Buddha's vision was not simply of how an individual should behave, it was far more comprehensive than that. The Buddha envisioned the blueprint for how a society should behave.
That vision was one of compassion, kindness, generosity, personal responsibly and peace. A society that consisted of a fourfold sangha; monastic women, monastic men, laywomen and laymen all of whom coexisted in a complex inter-dynamic were each group relied upon the other to live and thrive.
Much of the time here I have been the only westerner around (except for when I'm with my traveling companion).
I am a stranger who doesn't belong, an other who is not part of this society.
In Donald Trump's America that would be cause for suspicion or aggression.
But here in Sri Lanka I've been treated with curiosity, amusement and friendliness. This is the world that I want to live in. Isn't this the world everyone wants to live in?
I have spent the last six years on a deeply personal, inward facing spiritual journey. I've indulged in the luxury of a "news strike". I've had the sense that what was going on in the outside world didn't have much to do with me.
I awoke saddened and deeply troubled by what has happened in my country (today is January 21, 2017). I awoke to the reality of the ugliness and hatefulness of the person who heads our country.
I love Sri Lanka, it is a wonderful country. The people here are a shining example of what a healthy Buddhist society looks like.
The Buddha's vision was not simply of how an individual should behave, it was far more comprehensive than that. The Buddha envisioned the blueprint for how a society should behave.
That vision was one of compassion, kindness, generosity, personal responsibly and peace. A society that consisted of a fourfold sangha; monastic women, monastic men, laywomen and laymen all of whom coexisted in a complex inter-dynamic were each group relied upon the other to live and thrive.
Much of the time here I have been the only westerner around (except for when I'm with my traveling companion).
I am a stranger who doesn't belong, an other who is not part of this society.
In Donald Trump's America that would be cause for suspicion or aggression.
But here in Sri Lanka I've been treated with curiosity, amusement and friendliness. This is the world that I want to live in. Isn't this the world everyone wants to live in?
I have spent the last six years on a deeply personal, inward facing spiritual journey. I've indulged in the luxury of a "news strike". I've had the sense that what was going on in the outside world didn't have much to do with me.
I awoke saddened and deeply troubled by what has happened in my country (today is January 21, 2017). I awoke to the reality of the ugliness and hatefulness of the person who heads our country.
What Trump represents is antithetical to my worldview and ethical system.
It compels me to pull my head out of the sand; to begin the process of relearning how to face externally instead of exclusively internally.
Since Trump "won" the election I've had a growing sense that I have to do something. Although I don't know how that will manifest I have faith that I will be shown what it is that I should do.
1 comment:
Mornin' Sis!
So, you know those stories of abbots who have a particularly troublesome monk stay around? A monk who bugs the heck outta everyone?
So that folks will have some grist for the mill?
This President is that monk.
We cannot grow in a vacuum. I'm so grateful for the last eight years, the years of grace and compassion.
I'm also grateful for these times, times that will show me how to get into action to improve my society and myself.
I love you so much,
Bro
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