A fringe cultist pastor in Florida, Terry Jones, recently figured out how to get lots of free press... just announce that you're going to burn some Qurans. As obscure as this fellow might be, over 150 media outlets could not resist providing this fringe lunatic with airtime to espouse his message of xenophobic intolerance. And those commentators tsk-tsked about his inflaming tensions between Moslems and Christians around the world, conveniently ignoring their own participation in turning this molehill of a story into a media mountain. These journalists were actually giddy reporting that to insure his safety during the burning, Jones would be 'packing heat', completing the widely pervasive image of the bible thumpin' gun totin' American fanatic. My, isn't that rich!
The situation got so bad that General David Petreus, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, spoke up in a measured tone, "Images of the burning of a Koran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan -- and around the world -- to inflame public opinion and incite violence. Were the actual burning to take place, the safety of our soldiers and civilians would be put in jeopardy." Essentially, he was warning Jones, 'hey buddy, you're gonna get Americans killed with your little publicity stunt'.
You know, all someone had to do is tell Jones that burning a Quran is actually a sign of respect. It's generally held in Muslim culture that if one needs to dispose of any written page on which Allah’s name or any verses of the Qur’an are written, it must be done so with respect... such papers should be burned or buried, not thrown in the garbage. If Jones only knew he was actually kissing up to the Muslim world with his actions!
Another, more chilling example of hate and intolerance is Michael Enright, a 21-year-old man, who is being held without bail on charges for stabbing New York City taxi cab driver, Ahmed H. Sharif, after asking whether he was Muslim. Enright was arraigned in a Manhattan court Wednesday on charges of attempted murder as a hate crime, assault as a hate crime and weapons possession. The prevalence of such hate-propelled violence is indicative of a culture with one leg holding onto hope and liberalism... and the other testing the waters of facism.
As hate crimes, intolerance and injustice grow around the world, practitioners of "the new spirituality" are finding it difficult to keep their eyes focused on the inner reality, when so much is out of whack out there, in the outside reality. Thus, seekers of inner truth are now grappling with the issue of engagement - how does one respond to the world? How can I ignore so many cries for help? Why not just concentrate on my own journey? What do these whack jobs in backwater Florida have to do with me, sitting here in this nice cool yoga studio? What would Lao Tzu do? What would Buddha do?
There is no easy answers to this question. Every seeker must find his or her own way through this difficult passage between detachment and engagement. But one thing is clear, when religion becomes dogmatized, it inevitably becomes removed from the immediate concerns of the people and develops an institutional survival instinct. The result is that spirituality and social action will be divided. This is as true for Buddhist monasteries ignoring the ravages of the Vietnam war, as it is for the Catholic Church, when it commanded that its priests to remain silent if they had evidence of child abuse in the clergy. It cared more for its own survival than the needs of their flock.
However, a new movement called 'Engaged Buddhism' has emerged, that draws from the ideal of the bodhisattva and teachings rooted in an interconnected view of the universe. It enables a new kind of Buddhism - one that is actively engaged in politics, ecology, and social action. For example, consider the Dalai Lama's recognition of the 'enemy' as a fellow human being, and Suu Kyi's non-violent battle for democracy. Other proponents of Engaged Buddhism include Thai activist Sulak Sivaraksa who has successfully used Buddhist means for ecological conservation, Sri Lanka's A.T. Ariyaratne whose Sarvodaya Shramdana Movement has built bridges of peace between Sinhalese and Tamils in times of war, eco-philosopher Joanna Macy who has evolved a new paradigm of enlightened, socially and ecologically responsible living, among others. Through their work, they are attempting to transmute values like compassion, loving-kindness and interconnectedness into tools of constructing a global consciousness.
The need for responsibility arises from the recognition of our interdependence with other human beings, other societies, other nations, and nature. It must form the core of each action we perform, as human beings and as spiritual practitioners. As the Dalai Lama says, "We must develop a sense of universal responsibility not only in the geographic sense, but also in respect to the different issues that confront our planet. Peace, for example, starts with each one of us. When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us. When our community is in a state of peace, it can share that peace with neighboring communities, and so on. For some of us, the most effective way to do so is through religious practice. For others it may be non-religious practices. What is important is that we each make a sincere effort to take our responsibility for each other and for the natural environment we live in seriously."
"The realization that we are all basically the same human beings, who seek happiness and try to avoid suffering, is very helpful in developing a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood; a warm feeling of love and compassion for others. This, in turn, is essential if we are to survive in this ever shrinking world we live in. For if we each selfishly pursue only what we believe to be in our own interest, without caring about the needs of others, we not only may end up harming others but also ourselves. As interdependents, therefore, we have no other choice than to develop what I call a sense of universal responsibility. Today, we are truly a global family. What happens in one part of the world may affect us all."
The issue here is that far too many Americas instinctively revert to hate and intolerance, when understanding and loving kindness is actually what's needed to heal the rift between the West and Mideast. And in this case, the book burning, gun toting fringe cultist isn't the only hater here. My own instinctive reaction was to hate him. When choosing between love and hate, it's not always so easy to see that you aren't choosing love.
And so, today, I have decided to perform a loving kindness meditation to benefit the soul of this troubled man. And so I recite:
May all beings be at ease!
Let none through anger or ill-will
Wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings;
Radiating kindness over the entire world
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths;
Outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill-will.
I wish for this person to be free from pain and suffering, just like me.
I wish for this person to be happy, just like me.
Because this person is a fellow human being, just like me.
I invite you to do the same.
