Maitrisara:
Gracing the Earth: Buddhist Reflections on a Damaged Planet
BUDDHAFIELD DHARMA SERIES I: FESTIVAL TALKS 2009-10
MAITRISARA - GRACING THE EARTH: BUDDHIST REFLECTIONS ON A DAMAGED PLANET
Buddhafield Dharma Series I: Festival Talks 2009-10
These booklets have come out of the Dharma teaching on the
Buddhafield Festival , and the wider Buddhafield project.
Originally posted as audio talks on FreeBuddhistAudio
(www.freebuddhistaudio.com/browse?p=Buddhafield), they’ve now
been edited and published on-line to reach a wider audience. You’ll
find the rest of the series online at issuu.com/buddhafield .
Buddhafield itself is at www.buddhafield.com or on Facebook - and
in a field in the West of England!
Thanks to Akasati for most of the work in preparing and editing
them for publication. Her essay introducing the series is available at
issuu.com/buddhafield/docs/akasati-ecology_buddhism_and_buddhafield
December 2010
BUDDHAFIELD DHARMA SERIES I: FESTIVAL TALKS 2009-10 PAGE 3/29
Maitrisara - Gracing the Earth:
Buddhist Reflections on a Damaged Planet
Humankind is capable of extraordinary resourcefulness and
courage. We are also capable of extreme greed, malice and
stupidity. Some people have started to talk about humankind in
terms of a virus or a parasite, spreading rapidly and damaging our
host planet. It’s not hard to draw that conclusion but it is a self view
which is likely to increase our difficulties not address them. Leaving
ourselves out of the field of compassion in this way is likely to
exacerbate our behaviour of excessive consumption, itself based on
a sense of lack as we shall see. In this chapter, I want to explore
Buddhist perspectives on why we have damaged our relationship
with the life of the planet and how we can move towards a human
presence which “graces” the Earth. This would mean a sense of
community which includes nature, and nature of course includes us.
In the word used by Thich Nhat Hanh, we “inter-are”.
So how is it that we have damaged our own planet home?
We now know that we are drawing on the world’s resources faster
than they can be restored and renewed. Thirty years ago the planet
was being used at full capacity. By the end of the millennium, we
MAITRISARA - GRACING THE EARTH: BUDDHIST REFLECTIONS ON A DAMAGED PLANET
had increased our overall use of resources by 20%, so by then we
needed 1.2 earths to sustain ourselves, using resources at a rate
20% faster than the planet can renew. Some resources, like fossil
fuels are non-renewable within a meaningful timeframe. In terms of
Buddhist ethics, in living beyond the capacity of the planet we are
breaking the second of the five precepts and ‘taking the not given’
on a global scale. We are in a state of overshoot, beyond the
capacity of the planet to sustain us. As the new millennium dawned,
this kind of debate was typical within green and alternative circles
but since then it has made its way into the mainstream galvanised
by the alarm that climate change predictions have prompted.
How is it that most of us haven’t noticed the severity of this
problem? Or if we vaguely knew about it why didn’t it impact on our
choices or lifestyles? Partly, this perspective of sustainability runs
contrary to the dominant world view of growth and “more is better”
or perhaps it is an inconvenient truth we fear and would therefore
rather deny. It could also be the nature of exponential growth itself
which has a habit of creating situations which sneak up on us. The
research states that we have exponential growth in the use of the
BUDDHAFIELD DHARMA SERIES I: FESTIVAL TALKS 2009-10 PAGE 5/29
major resources . This story rather beautifully illustrates our
dilemma:
“French children are told a story in which they imagine having a
pond with water lily leaves floating on the surface. The lily
population doubles in size every day and if left unchecked will
smother the pond in 30 days, killing all the other living things in the
water. Day after day the plant seems small and so it is decided to
leave it to grow until it half-covers the pond, before cutting it back.
They are then asked, on what day that will occur. This is revealed to
be the 29th day, and then there will be just one day to save the
pond”.
The most likely future scenario of this unsustainable demand on the
earth’s resources following an exponential pattern, even accounting
for technological innovations, is the collapse of our ecosystem
resulting in increased pollution, food shortages, industrial decline
and falling levels of human welfare. Climate change is an important
factor in this but not the only story. Only significant changes in the
way we consume and manage resources will make any difference.
Deep ecologists go further. It is our attitude to the planet as “our”
MAITRISARA - GRACING THE EARTH: BUDDHIST REFLECTIONS ON A DAMAGED PLANET
supply of resources that is the problem, the deep ecology principles
suggest that:
The well-being and flourishing of human and non-human life on
Earth have value in themselves. These values are independent of the
usefulness of the non-human world for human purposes.
A Sense of Self: The Ultimate Consumer Item?
Why do we behave like this? What would the Buddha’s explanation
be? One of the principles the Buddha taught was that ultimately, we
are insubstantial. We are a process. We do not have an everlasting,
enduring existence. There is no fixed “me”.
We seem to find this rather threatening to live with and have a
craving to be “somebody”, to create our sense of ourselves. But the
various methods by which we try to do this do not seem to work.
Or, if they do work for a while, it does not seem to last. So then we
look to the next thing. There can be a rising feeling after a while that
we are losing at our own game. We live with a sense of unease,
BUDDHAFIELD DHARMA SERIES I: FESTIVAL TALKS 2009-10 PAGE 7/29
which can be subtle or extreme. In Buddhist terminology this is
‘dukkha’, translated as unsatisfactoriness, or suffering.
A favourite way of bolstering our sense of identity is by owning
things. At times we even apply it to people, treating them as
objects. This is reinforced through the messages we get through
popular media: “You’re not good enough unless you own this” and
“You’re not good enough if you don’t look like that”.
Buddhist activist and teacher Joanna Macy puts its like this:
“the dominant message of consumer society which is that you are
not good enough, you’re not smart enough … this is one of the
cruellest aspects of it….. the curse of taking from people their
birthright to be happy in their skin …. infecting people with the virus
of acquiring things and putting themselves in debt”.
One might argue that other human cultures have been just as
concerned with possession and status. That may well be true,
however on a practical level our technological development makes
us more ‘efficient’ in stripping the planet’s resources than humans
MAITRISARA - GRACING THE EARTH: BUDDHIST REFLECTIONS ON A DAMAGED PLANET
of previous eras, creating a further amplification of the impact of
our appetites.
We have created a society that fuel feelings of inadequacy, in a
mutually reinforcing relationship between the individual and the
collective. Caught up in a mass delusion, we are looking in the
wrong place for contentment. We are overly concerned with
appearances, both physical and social, such as our status and our
reputation. As a culture, we hunger for money and possessions to
make ourselves feel alright. But does that mean that we end up
being more concerned with the phone we use than the quality of
what we communicate through it?
In fact, maybe our whole relationship with money is a delusion.
Vishvapani explains the relationship between the Buddha’s teaching
and our relationship with money in the light of the 2008 “global
financial crisis”, a key feature of which was the collapse of the
American bank Lehman Brothers:
“When the Buddha left home on a quest for the truth he joined the
sramana movement of religious wanderers and found himself in a
whirlpool of “speculative views”. His culture was haunted by fear of
BUDDHAFIELD DHARMA SERIES I: FESTIVAL TALKS 2009-10 PAGE 9/29
death, which was profoundly threatening whether it meant
obliteration or rebirth. The sramanas sought the true Self, or atman,
because that alone would survive death, and their philosophies
obsessively circled the nature of identity. One of the Buddha’s
greatest contributions was the realisation the sramanas’ ideas
about identity were based on emotional needs, especially the need
to avoid uncomfortable truths. In mistaking their rationalisations for
reality, he said, people wove a net and became entangled.
Perhaps money is the modern atman – the key way our culture
structures reality. Lehman Brothers was worth $15bn at the start of
the week and nothing at the end. Shares in the Canadian
communications company Nortel were worth $250bn at their height
and $150m when it filed for bankruptcy. The value of banks
themselves is bound up with the worth of the debt they hold, which
no one can calculate. Where has the money gone? The only possible
answer is that it was never “really” there in the first place”.
So, are we a hopeless case as a species, hell bent on messing things
up?
MAITRISARA - GRACING THE EARTH: BUDDHIST REFLECTIONS ON A DAMAGED PLANET
The Buddhist view is that we are like dusty mirrors. The dust of our
habitual greed, aversion and ignorance covers the beauty and
authenticity of our deeper potential. The essential work of a
practicing Buddhist is to clear away these obscurations. We make
this heroic attempt with the help of meditation and our efforts to
live as skilfully as we can. This means living with awareness, which
could be said to be the fundamental Buddhist virtue, from which all
other qualities proceed. Some of the fruits of greater awareness are
equanimity, contentment with simplicity and the release of energy.
Awareness
If our existential problem is a feeling of inadequacy and of lack, will
Buddhism help us to foster a sense of confidence, adequacy and
sufficiency? Is that what we should set about trying to do?
Certainly it is helpful to have an idea of the qualities we wish to
develop, or to embody more fully. However, having clarified what
we want to cultivate, it is not always helpful to be too focused on
results. The main effort we need to make, moment-to moment, is to
maintain as much mindfulness as possible, without holding too
strongly to a desired, short-term outcome. The quality of awareness
itself has transformative power. For example, the more aware we
BUDDHAFIELD DHARMA SERIES I: FESTIVAL TALKS 2009-10 PAGE 11/29
become of the extent to which we are driven by feelings of
inadequacy, the less hold those feelings actually have in our life. The
natural outcome of this is to feel more self-confident. Awareness
brings a greater perspective and a new freedom from our
unconscious drives.
In bringing awareness over and again to this sense of lack and the
way that we try to escape from it, we become intimate with it. We
become aware that our escape strategies do not really work. In
time, that effort of paying attention bears fruit as we come to
understand these underlying drives more deeply. If we find that we
have become less addicted and more forgiving both to ourselves
and others, even in small ways, then the practice is working.
When we become too focused on results, we may notice that we
are subtly trying to get somewhere else, away from whatever we are
experiencing right now. This kind of avoidance is the opposite of
true awareness: we may simply be transferring this unconscious
feeling of lack to a different sphere. Rather than feeling inadequate
that we do not have the right kind of jeans, phone or car, we may
feel bad about our lack of contentment or confidence. Feeling bad
about ourselves usually means that we have shut down our
MAITRISARA - GRACING THE EARTH: BUDDHIST REFLECTIONS ON A DAMAGED PLANET
awareness in some way. Mindfulness is an art, which requires the
ability to consciously stay with all of our experience, however
pleasant or unpleasant.
Equanimity: Sustaining the Gaze
Pain and pleasure come and go. Equanimity is the ability to ride
life’s ups and downs without becoming intoxicated or downcast.
Equanimity can sometimes be confused with indifference. This is to
misunderstand equanimity, at least in the Buddhist sense of the
term, which is a manifestation of both compassion and wisdom. The
German monk Nyanaponika Thera once wrote that equanimity “is a
perfect, unshakable balance of mind, rooted in insight” But what is it
a balance between?
On one side there is effort, initiative and action. On the other side
there is a patient willingness to be with things as they are. When we
practice meditation, we need enough effort not to lose awareness.
But if we struggle and strive, craving to achieve something and get
somewhere, we sabotage our efforts. When the engines of a boat
are switched off, the wind can gently take the sails: we just have to
turn into the right direction.
BUDDHAFIELD DHARMA SERIES I: FESTIVAL TALKS 2009-10 PAGE 13/29
In this way we bring in a healthy practice of non-attachment. This
can be a confusing idea initially. It’s really about detaching, or
letting go of needy or neurotic attachment, but without disengaging
our emotional response, especially to what is painful. Emotional
disengagement can sometimes be dressed up in spiritual language,
whilst rationalising underlying numbness, denial and cynicism. We
have bypassed the heart. To avoid this misunderstanding, we can
understand it as 'positive detachment': As Tejananda writes“an
emotional engagement which is exclusively positive (not to be
confused with some kind of emotional non-involvement or
alienation). What we're 'detached' from is our reactions of craving,
aversion and indifference which usually get in the way of our full,
positive emotional engagement with people”
To remain engaged in this way, we crucially need to be able to deal
with our own responses to suffering and not turn away. This
capacity is sometimes referred to as “sustaining the gaze”. We
sustain our gaze towards the troubles of the world, without fixating
on a desired result and without needing to be the one who fixes it.
It takes a particular kind of courage to stay engaged when we do not
know what we can do.
MAITRISARA - GRACING THE EARTH: BUDDHIST REFLECTIONS ON A DAMAGED PLANET
This is the basis of a process pioneered by Buddhist activist and
scholar Joanna Macy called the Work that Reconnects9. The
fundamental principle is that the pain that we feel in witnessing
damage – is healthy and natural and above all necessary in the
process of healing.
“Instead of viewing anger, sadness, fear or a sense of despair as a
personal failure, we see our pain for the world as positive evidence
of our interconnectedness in the web of life. And if we are
consciously interconnected, our actions will naturally become more
compassionate, contributing to the healing of the damage that has
been done.
Sustaining the gaze, experiencing and communicating our heartfelt
response is the key to cultivating the equanimity we need, enabling
us to call on the energy and creativity required of us.
Simplicity
Many of us are familiar with the principle that we are going to need
to consume less in the future. Simplicity in Buddhism is expressed
very positively, not as a grim denial. In fact, the five precepts of
BUDDHAFIELD DHARMA SERIES I: FESTIVAL TALKS 2009-10 PAGE 15/29
Buddhist ethics highlight this in the positive version of the third
precept:
With stillness, simplicity and contentment, I purify my body.
But are we being asked to deprive ourselves of what we need? This
reaction is common. What underlying mental states fuel this fear of
deprivation? Unless we can work at the level of the underlying
energies, we are going to be fobbing ourselves and each other off
with excuses.
Simplicity practice requires work with our habits and with views we
are mostly only partially aware of. I have become more and more
aware that it is fear I have to work with directly. Our consumption
anaesthetises and distracts us from our fear of not being
substantial, fixed and enduring beings. We seek a false meaning in
our consumption (and its close relative - busyness) Without our
intoxicating pleasures, we are left with fear – a fear that can be
quite overwhelming.
The simplicity of raw and wild nature is a teacher in this respect and
I have observed my own responses and those in others when we are
MAITRISARA - GRACING THE EARTH: BUDDHIST REFLECTIONS ON A DAMAGED PLANET
presented with life more or less unmediated by human activity. We
feel our insignificance so poignantly, the environment rises up to
firmly remind us of our true relationship with the world. The
aphorism comes to mind: “Love tells me I am everything, wisdom
tells me I am nothing and between these two, my life flows” The
simplest things - heat and cold, getting wet, mud, wind, insects –
there are just so many things beyond our control. We delight
childishly in the little triumphs over it all - “look at my new tent!!”,
“this jacket is really waterproof you know” and sometimes we try to
convince ourselves that we can conquer it “I climbed all the way to
the top of there yesterday” At other times, we pin our anxiety on
little things that symbolize our disorientation. I remember a retreat
in India where the water had to be switched off for a few hours. I
was irrationally anxious, pacing around wondering why nobody else
was panicking. On a recent retreat in wilderness, I became obsessed
with the possibility of stepping on snakes.
Though most of us don’t get the opportunity (or don’t want the
opportunity!) to work with the challenges of wild nature, we always
have our own bodies to remind us of our simplicity of being,
existence stripped down to its naked essentials as it were. And
BUDDHAFIELD DHARMA SERIES I: FESTIVAL TALKS 2009-10 PAGE 17/29
alienation and dissatisfaction with the body seems to be ever more
common. According to body-centred therapist Christine Caldwell
our disassociation with our bodies leads to a loss of the boundaries
we need to tell us what it nourishing, what is enough and what is
too much. “When we inhabit our bodies and reclaim self-regulation,
we find that nourishment consists in having just enough of the right
thing” . We can probably all relate to experiences of the relief we
feel when we are liberated from our dependencies on those things
we thought we needed.
Simplicity is the cultivation of a sense of sufficiency, to really inhabit
our bodies and the places we are in, to know what nourishes us and
to know what is excessive and unnecessary. Abundance is a state of
mind more than we ever seem to realise. Gratitude is something we
can turn to independent of outer circumstances.
Energy, Effectiveness, Strength – and Anger
If we want to make a positive difference in the world, we need to
draw on that which nourishes us more deeply.
Active cultivation of awareness, equanimity and simplicity releases
energy. Energy is freed when we stop denying how things really are.
MAITRISARA - GRACING THE EARTH: BUDDHIST REFLECTIONS ON A DAMAGED PLANET
Ultimately, energy comes from the recognition that we are not
separate from any aspect of life and the expression of our
connection gives us energy. In the words of Dilgo Khyentse
Rimpoche:
“when you recognise the empty nature, the energy to bring about
the good of others dawns, uncontrived and effortless.”
Effectiveness comes from seeing problems without the shadow of
our own self-need getting in the way. For example, when we can
take our own point of view a little less seriously, sometimes this is
just what is needed to solve an argument or see a problem more
creatively.
There may be an inner voice as we read this saying “what use is all
of this? Awareness, simplicity and equanimity sound kind of quiet.
We need energy! We need a call to arms!! We need anger to keep
going!”
As a culture we are bit confused about this question of anger. Is it
healthy and helpful? Is it destructive? One answer is that there is an
intelligent and clear kind of anger, where agents of harm need to be
BUDDHAFIELD DHARMA SERIES I: FESTIVAL TALKS 2009-10 PAGE 19/29
challenged. Anger can be skilfully transformed into energy and
clarity. That is if the destructive kind of anger doesn’t burn us (or
someone else) first. Destructive anger can be recognised by the
tone of retribution, the target of the anger is a person or people
(rather than the action or situation) and for them to suffer, to pay
for their wrong doing would feel satisfying.
In those who have dedicated their lives to social justice, there is
sometimes a fear that if their anger is transformed, is softened, they
will lose the energy and motivation they need to act. But as the
destructive kind of anger is founded on retribution, on punishment
– it usually results in the waste of energy directed towards
counterproductive goals and then having to defend yourself against
the inevitable counter-attack. The social justice movement is
dogged by rifts and conflicts between different ideological positions
and whole organisations and sometimes entire social movements
can implode with infighting. The anger is spilling everywhere,
splitting the movement and alienating those who might otherwise
commit themselves to help. The other kind of anger, clear,
intelligent and based in loving kindness is maybe symbolised by the
swinging sword of the Bodhisattva Manjushri. It is not
MAITRISARA - GRACING THE EARTH: BUDDHIST REFLECTIONS ON A DAMAGED PLANET
compromised, it is not that easy to be around sometimes. But its
nobility and courage shines through.
This transformation has been commented on by Rita Gross, one of
Buddhism’s leading contemporary scholars in the field of gender
and equality.
“After being involved in serious meditation practice for several
years, I began to discover that I simply didn’t find anger so satisfying
anymore. Previously, I had always experienced emotional relief
through venting verbally, often with extreme sarcasm and cutting
intellect … I began to see that .. my fits of aggressive rhetoric only
caused mutual entrenchment, rather than any significant change in
those whom I confronted. I wanted to do something more helpful”.
As she went forward with meditation practice, she describes
working with the fear that she would cease to care about the
concerns that had been so important to her for so many years. In
actual fact, she found that her clarity increased. This made
communication more possible – and change more likely. It also
avoided exhaustion and resulted in her being able to access “a
BUDDHAFIELD DHARMA SERIES I: FESTIVAL TALKS 2009-10 PAGE 21/29
steady self-existing cheerfulness” Her commitment is as strong as
ever.
An Authentic Heart Response
When the anger and fear are transformed, compassion and wisdom
arise. And its compassion and wisdom that are the deepest sources
of our energy and the touchstones for our meaningful engagement
with the world.
As a young woman, before I came across Buddhism, I was always
very inspired by the statement by Lilla Watson, an aboriginal
woman activist:
“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if
you have come because your liberation is tied up with mine, then let
us work together.”
At the time it suggested a partnership rather than a helping
relationship which can so often contains the seeds of
condescension. When I became more interested in Buddhism, I
found that in the traditional teachings, positive emotions like
compassion have their “near enemies”. A near enemy is a reaction
MAITRISARA - GRACING THE EARTH: BUDDHIST REFLECTIONS ON A DAMAGED PLANET
which is very similar – in this case to compassion - but in fact it
altogether different and less healthy. The near enemy of
compassion is horrified anxiety and that is the driving force of much
of my actions – then and still. Lilla Watson, like many people
experiencing oppression seems to be saying she is all too conscious
of condescension and horrified anxiety directed towards her by
those who proclaim to want to “help” her.
Her statement also begs another question – and one which I have
found my Buddhist practice helpful in addressing. What is the path
to my own liberation? What am I liberating myself from? A lifetime
of conditioning says that I am one of the “lucky ones” and in
material terms, that is undoubtedly so. But Buddhist teaching would
say that we are all limited by delusion, by greed and aversion – we
are all living out the consequences of the deluded actions of our
past. Lilla Watson is not saying that my liberation doesn’t matter
because her life is less comfortable than mine, she is saying that my
awareness of the need for my own liberation is precisely what
would enable us to work together.
A particular meditation practice I was taught a few years ago helped
very much in this respect. It comes from the Tibetan tradition and is
BUDDHAFIELD DHARMA SERIES I: FESTIVAL TALKS 2009-10 PAGE 23/29
called Tonglen. In this particular form of it, you breath in and purify
an awareness of your own suffering. Once purified through your
heart, you breath out a healing response, visualised as white light.
When you become established with this aspect of your own
suffering, you call to mind those who are suffering in the same way.
This approach brings an open-heartedness and equanimous
compassion very different from the urge to “help” out of horrified
anxiety.
Successes and Struggles
Buddhist practice in our modern world flows against the stream of
many of our cultural norms. This can’t be done alone and there have
been attempts to create community for people who are interested
in the relationship between inner transformation and working for a
more just and sustainable society. Groups like the Network of
Engaged Buddhists14 in the UK have been active for over 20 years
organising retreats, producing publications and co-ordinating a
presence at demonstrations and protests. Buddhafield through the
festival, vegan cafe and its retreat programme and land projects
illustrates the potential of inner and outer manifestations of the
Dharma.
MAITRISARA - GRACING THE EARTH: BUDDHIST REFLECTIONS ON A DAMAGED PLANET
Engaged Buddhism views the transformation of self and the
transformation of the world as indivisible. And it covers a spectrum.
One end of the spectrum focuses on social change and includes the
work that could be described as political, trying to bring about a
more systemic shift towards a more compassionate, life affirming
society. At the other end of the spectrum there are the actions
which offer healing for the pain of the world, trying to alleviate the
damage - work in caring, service including health and social care,
prison work and so on. Other areas - in education for example fall
somewhere in between.
Buddhist wisdom offers the greater likelihood of effectiveness in
social change and healing work. How many times have decisions
that have adversely affected our communities and our planet been
based on rage, revenge and the egotistical craving to be noticed and
to make a mark on the world? To understand our deeper
motivations and to be realistic about the motivations of others,
Buddhist teachings and practice help us to get to grips with the
action which would really make a difference.
Perhaps one contribution we can make is a loosening around the
ideological debates that sometimes rage within social justice and
BUDDHAFIELD DHARMA SERIES I: FESTIVAL TALKS 2009-10 PAGE 25/29
ecological movements. There is often a strong identification, the
tendency to build a false sense of “me” and of “us” around a
particular set of ideas. Terribly well researched righteousness is a
common affliction.
Rather than weighing in on the “good” side of the “good” versus
“evil” argument - the underlying principle of so many conflicts, past
and present, the Dharma offers the understanding that we are all
subject to greed, hatred and delusion, which manifests in countless
ways in our minds and in our societies. All of us need to work to
purify these tendencies of the mind. There is no place of
righteousness on which to stand and no blame to heap. We can
simply come to trust that, to whatever extent that we are acting
from qualities such as awareness and equanimity, we will tend to
have a beneficial effect, in whatever context we find ourselves in.
Action, where needed, is done for its own sake and without being
overly attached (or entirely justified) by results. The teaching of
karma in that sense is an act of faith. What is done in the spirit of
love yields positive results whether they are evident or not. In
Buddhist activism, the phrase “what I do doesn’t make any
difference” is a wrong view as everything has an effect. What is a
MAITRISARA - GRACING THE EARTH: BUDDHIST REFLECTIONS ON A DAMAGED PLANET
strategic use of effort is another question and a topic of much
discussion at engaged Buddhist gatherings.
Intervene, Exemplify, Ignore, and Make Magic
If, to the best of our abilities, we try to embrace this path of
purification, how are we to respond to people who seem to be
rapidly proceeding the other way – mindlessly or sometimes even
wilfully harming? Reflecting on what the Buddha did when faced
with the unskilful actions of others, his responses can be seen to fall
into four categories.
He intervened, for example with the bandit Angulimala who had
murdered 999 people and was aiming to murder the 1000th to add
the final finger to his necklace of dead people’s digits. The Buddha
went looking for him, to communicate with him, to teach him. He
went to interact, to stop him murdering people.
He exemplified what he was trying to communicate. Calm, kind and
courageous – it’s interesting to recognise that so many people seem
to have become enlightened through meeting the Buddha, the living
embodiment of the teaching. Another occasion was when Ananda
and the Buddha came across a monk who had dysentery and was
BUDDHAFIELD DHARMA SERIES I: FESTIVAL TALKS 2009-10 PAGE 27/29
not being cared for by the other monks. The Buddha ensured that
the monk was taken care of and then went to discuss it with the
monks who had neglected him.
Sometimes he simply ignored unskilful behaviour, as in the case of
some of the tricks his jealous cousin Devadatta got up to – trying to
murder the Buddha three times. There were also instances when
the monks were quarrelling when he simply walked away.
At other times, he used a bit of magic, as when he strolled
peacefully ahead of Angulimala , who was unable to catch up with
him, no matter how fast he ran. Another occasion was when he
calmed a mad (and drunk) bull elephant, through the power of his
loving kindness. The elephant came to stand quietly in front of him.
Maybe we can draw on this repertoire at our own level, including
the magic!
These practices demand much of us and we can’t do it alone.
Practising with others mean that we can try to apply compassion
and wisdom to the contemporary ethical issues of our time. We
MAITRISARA - GRACING THE EARTH: BUDDHIST REFLECTIONS ON A DAMAGED PLANET
need to avoid doing this with self righteousness. Spiritually justified
self righteousness is particular irritating and alienating!!
Finally, in everything we do, we can cultivate our commitment and
faith in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. From that faith we can be
confident that actions based on compassion and wisdom will have a
beneficial effect.
BUDDHAFIELD DHARMA SERIES I: FESTIVAL TALKS 2009-10 PAGE 29/29
Appendix