Live Session Summary, Sunday, March 16, 2025: It was good to be with you for our live session today. The focus of the session was on the Buddha’s teaching that all of us have the capacity to awaken—even those causing great harm—and that for the sake of our happiness and for the well-being of all we should not exclude anyone from our heart or from our vision of the beloved community.
Here are some of the main themes, poems, and quotes from today’s Live session: I spoke about a view that is common in many traditions of distinguishing between ‘good’ people and ‘bad’ people—the righteous vs the sinners; the chosen people vs the non-believers—and how these views can perpetuate divisions if we believe that our happiness depends on defeating or destroying those who do not think or believe the way we do. In contrast to these views, the Buddha’s teachings see all of us as having the capacity to wake up, to see things clearly—particularly to see what causes suffering and how we can find an end to suffering. So, the most salient distinction is not between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ but between wisdom, or clear seeing, and confusion or ignorance—not seeing things as they truly are and remaining swept up in delusion and suffering. The outgrowth of this understanding is to see those who are caught up in suffering, perhaps causing great harm to themselves and others, as deserving of our compassion as suffering beings. So, we do not make them into enemies even though we may disagree strongly with them and resist the harm they are causing. I shared Thich Nhat Hanh’s reflection that all of us have within us seeds of kindness, compassion, peace, generosity, and other wholesome qualities; we also have seeds of hatred, cruelty, greed, and other harmful qualities. Our happiness and freedom depend on cultivating the beneficial qualities and not nurturing the unskillful ones. I also shared quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Ajahn Chah that counsel us not to make anyone into an enemy: • “We must make it clear that it is injustice which we seek to defeat and not persons who may happen to be unjust. We have before us the glorious opportunity to inject a new dimension of love into the veins of our civilization. Our motto must be, ‘Freedom and justice through love.’ Not through violence; not through hate; no not even through boycotts; but through love. As we struggle for freedom in America it may be necessary to boycott at times. But we must remember as we boycott that a boycott is not an end within itself; it is merely a means to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor and challenge his false sense of superiority. But the end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the beloved community. (M.L. King, ‘The Role of the Church in Facing the Nation’s Chief Moral Dilemma,’ 25 April 1957) • “I've seen too much hate to want to hate, myself, and every time I see it, I say to myself, hate is too great a burden to bear. Somehow we must be able to stand up against our most bitter opponents and say: We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you.... But be assured that we'll wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves; we will appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.” (M.L. King, ’A Christmas Sermon for Peace’, Dec 24, 1967) • “If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” • “The enemy is delusion’ (Ajahn Chah) When we view human actions and human suffering through the lens of all of us being part of the beloved community and no one being excluded from our wish to alleviate suffering, then we avoid creating a world of ‘us’ vs ‘them’ that only serves to perpetuate suffering. We can oppose what we see as harmful, resisting cruelty, inhumanity, and dishonesty without making those causing the harm into an enemy. In this way, we can resist harmful actions without perpetuating division and conflict, which is essential if we are to break the cycle of separation and suffering. Poems I shared include: • ‘Walker’ by Antonio Machado. • “Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter. If your mind isn't crowded with ten thousand things, this is the best season of your life.” (Wu Men) • “The birds have vanished into the sky and now the last cloud drains away. We sit together the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains.” (Li Po) • ‘Clearing’ by Martha Postlethwaite; excerpts from ‘The Guest House’ by Rumi and ‘Peace is this moment without judgment’ by Dorothy Hunt Wishing you a good week ahead and I look forward to seeing you next Sunday, March 23 at 9am eastern for our next live session. Warmly, Hugh 🙏🏻 💜 🌻