Unknown Buddhist

I traveled to a few Christian churches today for possible collaboration for a local food drive.  Prior to the three meetings I attended, we had several prayers, but I neither felt the love or joy of Christ himself.  While I have told no one that I am Buddhist, many were upset they were collaborating with a non-traditional Christian, someone who did not openly practice the faith or regularly attend church.

Upon hearing their concerns, I am reminded of the Reverend David Benke, Lutheran Minister:

Twelve days after the September 11 attacks, David Benke followed Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu clerics to the podium of a Yankee Stadium event to honor the missing and the dead. Benke asked attendees to join hands and pray with him “on this field of dreams turned into God’s house of prayer.” He prayed “in the precious name of Jesus” and sat down.

Twenty-one pastors and churches charged Benke, president of the church’s Atlantic District, with six sets of ecclesiastical violations, including syncretism (mixing religions), unionism (worshiping with non-LCMS Christian clergy), and violating the Bible’s commandment against worship of other gods. Wallace Schulz, synod second vice-president, investigated the charges and suspended Benke, pastor of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Brooklyn.

Benke: “When I shared the podium with representatives of all the major faiths and prayed, that prayer became the center of a major controversy. The very next day, I began to get messages filled with hate. They were messages not from people outside of my tradition, but from within my tradition. And they were messages that nailed me to the floor, frankly, emotionally. They just said, “You were wrong to be there. You never should have gone to Yankee Stadium. You are a heretic. You have dishonored your faith.” One man said genuine terrorism was me. He said, “Planes crash and people die. Nothing big about that.” Genuine terrorism was me giving that prayer.”

We do not see the signs of spiritual development in a matter of moments. We cannot see the spiritual developments within weeks or months. Sometimes, it takes years. Spiritual development is evident by what a person does. Some see a difference between Paul (salvation is by faith alone) and James (salvation is by faith plus works). Paul dogmatically says that justification is by faith alone (Ephesians 2:8-9), while James appears to be saying that justification is by faith plus works.

The problem most people do not see is that everything is interdependent upon each other. We are very interdependent upon others. Without a cloud, there is no rain. Without the rain, plants cannot grow, without plants, we would not have paper, medicine, beauty and harmony. Many of us have breathed the same air as Christ and Buddha. Many have walked the same stretches of road Dr. Martin Luther King walked. We have seen the same sky, the same moon and the same stars as many of our ancestors.

What Benke did was very Christ-like, just as Dr. Martin Luther King when he nominated  Thích Nhất Hạnh for the Nobel Peace Prize:

“Here is an apostle of peace and non-violence, cruelly separated from his own people while they are oppressed by a vicious war which has grown to threaten the sanity and security of the entire world.

Because no honor is more respected than the Nobel Peace Prize, conferring the Prize on Nhat Hanh would itself be a most generous act of peace. It would remind all nations that men of good will stand ready to lead warring elements out of an abyss of hatred and destruction. It would re-awaken men to the teaching of beauty and love found in peace. It would help to revive hopes for a new order of justice and harmony.”

Regardless of what you think, we are all interconnected.

Peace.

Upon reading the headline today, “…autopsy confirmed Seau, 43, whose career as a star NFL linebacker spanned 20 seasons, died Wednesday at his home in Oceanside, Calif., of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest” I thought of two (2) other tragic deathS: Dave Duerson and Ray Easterling. What makes people like Seau, Easterling and Duerson so deeply strained that death by a bullet was preferable to life and love?

One could argue that Seau no longer loved, but moments prior to his death, he picked up a cell phone and texted his children saying he loved them.   Duerson texted his family and said he wanted his brain to be donated to science. Duerson and Easterling both suffered years of declining health and claimed from years of hard hitting football games.

There have been numerous reports that many ex-players are on the verge of bankruptcy, homelessness, and death. In the late 60’s and early 70’s the NFL owners installed Astroturf, an experiment that led many players to suffer numerous physical and mental impartment some years later. Gene Atkins could be a poster child for this. 46-year-old Atkins has good days and bad days. He struggles with his concentration, constant headaches and pain. Doctors indicate he has permanent brain damage from playing football.

Atkins was once of the most intimidating players on the New Orleans Saints, a safety who hit hard and wanted to put fear in offensive players.  But that was a long time ago. After football, he unraveled. A domestic dispute, an arrest, business failures, depression, constant headaches and by 2000, the thoughts of suicide. He, like other retired football players, live off Social Security and Medicare, despite the young age. This social safety net costs taxpayers a billion dollars for discarded, disabled players. For NFL owners, not a single cent.

There are two things I want to make clear: I once played football and my first wife attempted suicide. First, my football years were in high school and college. And although I had a try-out for a professional team, my knees suffered way too much from previous injuries. Secondly, although my first obviously never played football, she suffered from depression and did attempt suicide.

Regardless of racial, social or economic class, anyone who had to watch a loved one suffer understands the pain. As a spouse, father or mother, there is no length one would go to alleviate a loved one’s pain. But in the interminable time in-between the bliss, hell’s hallway is long, suffocating and dark.  In my case, my wife recovered but I still suffer recurring neurological tingling and tremors. All of this I presume is related to playing football, having suffered several concussions in both my football career and military career.

Yet, when I look to Buddhism, I find the Buddha noticeably silent. Buddhist Monk Tich Kwong Duuk burned himself to death at a busy Saigon road intersection on 11 June 1963. Đức was protesting the persecution of Buddhists by South Vietnam’s Roman Catholic government.  However, promised reforms were not implemented, the ARVN Special Forces launched nationwide raids on Buddhist pagodas. Several Buddhist monks followed Đức’s example, also immolating themselves. Eventually, an Army coup toppled the government.

While the do’s and don’ts of Buddhism appear vague, we must remember to continually reach out to each other. Reaching out to your community is the love that saves many a life.

What are constructive, destructive or neutral behaviors? Simply put, constructive behaviors bring positive results while negative bring unwarranted actions. Neutral actions tend be neither positive nor negative.

An unspecified, neutral action, such as proper hygiene and showering, may be mixed with the confusion that by brushing them, we can really make our bodies clean and ourselves really good-looking. But, we are merely doing what needs to be done – we are also perpetuating our samsaric human body.

Destructive actions will bring misery upon us. For instance, sharing drug needles, too much alcohol and driving at unsafe speeds can be very destructive. These destructive behaviors are rooted in our unhappiness. And rather than cease the cycle of suffering, we participate in the destructive behavior, hoping that its very participation will cease the unhappiness.

All actions have results. All actions have both long term and short term results. For a brief period of time, we may feel happy we had unprotected sex, shared a drug needle or dove excessively fast without receiving a ticket, but we may feel guilty sometime later. Long term worries include unwanted pregnancy, AIDS and other related issues. Positive actions of proper hygiene include being physically appealing.

The main factor that determines whether or not an action is destructive is the state of mind that motivates it. Destructive actions may be motivated by longing desire – similar to someone experiencing multiple partners. They may also be motivated by anger or hostility, like in the case of somebody who rapes many women because he’s angry. Or destructive behavior may be motivated by naivety – either naivety about cause and effect, or about reality, such as the example cited before of driving too fast, sharing drug needles, etc. The longing desire to repeatedly become fulfilled leads us to repeat the problem. We become attached and do not want to let go of it.

Destructive behaviors experience a lack of ethical self-dignity. Not caring about how our behavior reflects on us – and having no concern about how our behavior reflects on others, such as on our families, spiritual teachers, fellow countrymen, and so on.  If we have obsessive longing for a certain foods, alcohol, drugs, money or things and we exaggerate it into the most delicious thing in the world and then stuff ourselves with it, that’s destructive.  Engaging in something with the modern idea that it will solve all our problems is a good example of how we would violate our tantric (principle of being) vows. When an act becomes obsessive, then we violate our tantric vow.

Everything has to be considered relative to a context. This is because, remember, what makes an ethically neutral samsaric act such as having sex destructive is its being motivated by a disturbing emotion – dissatisfaction, obsession with sex, and so on. That’s what’s going to cause problem.

In the end, we are all connected. Our human spirit and interfaith must be the basis of dialogue, that each person must be willing to discuss our issues and be willing to change.  Our capacitity to make constructive choices (those that result in positive behaviors) depend very much upon our own ability to make peace within oneself. We must accept that each of us have conflicting elements. And only by reviewing the underlying causes can we be the fruit of another’s world.

Peace.

So, the Second Mindfulness Training, ‘Do not steal’ is a real bite. This is generally interpreted as including the avoidance of fraud and economic exploitation.  Yeah …. I am pretty much guilty.  The previous remind me of the Catholic’s Mortal sin. They are as follows:

1. Anger, hatred;
2. Blasphemy;
3. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit;
4. Envy;
5. Malice;
6. Murder;
7. Neglect of Sunday obligation;
8. Sins against faith;
9. Sins against hope;
10. Sins against love; and
11. Sins that cry to Heaven.

So from the above, I have hated, blasphemed, envied, neglected the Sunday obligation, had sins against love, hope, faith and some that cried to heaven. I was pretty much a real ‘dipstick’ in a previous life. In response to the rich man, Jesus answered, “Do not kill; Do not commit adultery; Do not steal; Do not bear false witness; Do not defraud; Honor your father and your mother.”  According to the Catechism all those who commit mortal sin and die without confessing it to a priest are doomed to hell.  Trust me, even when presenting them to a priest, all may not be forgiven … at least by the Church.

For a Buddhist, the second precept means to be aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression.  This is not a commandment, but rather a ‘right action,’ a path of discipline that leads to enlightenment. This means doing the hard soul searching work on a very profound personal level. It means to honestly evaluate personal motivation and your actions will affect others. In turn, wisdom, compassion, and enlightenment will remain open.

If I hadn’t been led to become a better man by the only true love of my life, I might still be that dipstick. But since I am no longer that man, I undertake honor and refrain from taking that which is not given.

Lastly, I reintroduce Thich Nhat Hanh once again. His thoughts on the second precept are as follows:

Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing and oppression, I vow to cultivate loving kindness and learn ways to work for the well being of people, animals, plants and minerals. I vow to practice generosity by sharing my time, energy and material resources with those who are in real need. I am determined not to steal and not to possess anything that should belong to others. I will respect the property of others, but I will prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on Earth.

Live in peace.