When we look really hard at this
world right now, especially those of us who have been around for more than 50
years, we find it to be considerably more dangerous than it ever was, riddled
with violence from video games to movies to terrorism and children being
slaughtered in their classrooms, coupled with personal conduct going down the
toilet. We hear a lot of talk regarding
these troubles, especially school massacres, between political and community
leaders, colleagues and professionals, families and friends, and students and
teachers. They want to know their root
cause. They also say they want them to
stop and that we begin discussing ways to prevent the atrocities that dominate
the news. Such desires for solutions
inspire me to think of the possibilities that many people experience with the
Buddhist practice called Lamrim.
Although this training, according to
highly regarded Tibetan teachers, contains quite a number of contemplative
exercises, there are three that have particular relevance for the violence and
mayhem we are facing in today’s world. Guided
by a competent instructor, most people begin to realize their value within a
very short time. They center on the disadvantages
of self cherishing, the advantages of cherishing others, and the exchanging of self
for others. In fact, if their results
are used as the basis for discussing the problems we have in our societies,
they’re particularly intriguing. They’re
profound. They mine the depths of
everything. They bring wisdom to the
table of negotiation. It’s worthwhile to
examine them in the context of three questions.
What part does self cherishing play in this troubled world?
When we are enmeshed in self
cherishing we can’t see anything but our side (“My pain, My car, My job…”), our
wish to satisfy our desires (“I want, I don’t want, I wish you…”), and we are
often oblivious to the fact that we may be harming others as well as ourselves
(“I didn’t know, I had no idea, It’s not my problem…”). For example:
When we hear a child screaming
uncontrollably in the supermarket, we may wish he would shut up to make us feel
better. If he were our child, we might
even try and silence him for exactly that purpose.
Having learned that the Taliban treat
their women with so much cruelty, we may experience an intense desire to destroy
such men so we feel better for having cleaned the world of people like that.
When an alcoholic or drug addict
experiences the need for her substance of choice, her desire soon relegates all
other priorities to last place, and our misplaced hate may lash out at her to
satisfy our urge to punish.
When a teenager is bullied in school,
his desire to assuage the pain may turn into murder; we fear he could harm our
children, and it’s possible we desire his death.
How would cherishing others lead us out of such dilemmas?
Having observed our side and the
other’s, we are able to see more clearly, especially what is harmful as well as
recognize the importance, the innocence of the other’s being, and begin to
realize and know the way out of the failure to find peace. For example:
Cherishing the distressed child and
not his behavior, we notice that we begin to feel better, perhaps even
compassionate.
Cherishing the Taliban and not their
cruel behavior, we lose the intensity of our desire to destroy but not to
prevent what they do; maybe we even begin to develop a wish to see them gain
clarity.
Cherishing the being of the addict,
we may discover that her addiction to alcohol or drugs is akin to that of
cancer, and our loving kindness begins to lead us toward helping open more
rehabilitation centers.
Cherishing the adolescent who murdered
to relieve the pain from bullying, we may feel moved to actions that resolve
what led to the death of its victims.
How does failing to exchange self with others lead us deeper
into failure?
When we don’t step into the shoes of
the other, we stay in our thinking and theorizing and lack the understanding of
the realization of knowing. Thus, truly
cherishing the other may be impossible as well as any considerate or viable
solution. For example:
When we do not look at ourselves through
the eyes of the crying, squealing child, we don’t see we are clutching our
pain, trying to close our ears, not understanding what is going on in his mind,
or feeling he is important. Instead, we
flee or we punish the infant or ourselves.
When we do not realize what the
Taliban men are experiencing, then we don’t understand what is nourishing their
ignorance or comprehend our own minds of murderous destruction that carry out
such acts.
When we do not feel the inner being
of the alcoholic or addict, we won’t see our fear, hate or repulsion of him or
her nor understand the addiction as if it were a cancer. It’s likely we’ll do nothing to help
rehabilitate this person or others.
When we cannot trade places with the
bullied teenager, then we cannot understand his pain, and we find it almost
impossible to cherish his being while disparaging his deadly and suicidal
actions. We probably won’t garner enough
effort to find ways to prevent such disasters or offer him the treatment he
really needs.
Looking for solutions to violence
using the Tibetan Buddhist practice of Lamrim, of course, may not be attractive
or make sense to the majority of people in western, middle eastern, or even
eastern societies. It may be years
before enough practitioners have made it into the leadership ranks whereby they
influence others to listen, practice, and understand its value. However, the three contemplations of self
cherishing, cherishing others, and exchanging self for others deserve to be
heard, employed, and understood. They’re not easy, but they’re not difficult once
experienced and comprehended, they simplify what we see as complicated, and
they open us to wisdom. Anyone who consistently uses these three exercises
knows their importance to finding and implementing solutions that stop and
preclude world violence. Since it is quickly
known that they offer a way out of difficulty on an individual level, why not
apply them for the good of all? Why
should we permit things like thoughts, emotions, and traditions to stop us from
liberating ourselves from brutality and bloodshed? Aren’t we more intelligent than that?
