Dear Lithium,
People who shouldn't be dying are. My government is a wholly complicit and I can't stop it. I'd rather die than a single Palestinian child be further subjected to the horrors of a genocide. What am I meant to make of the Buddha's call to non-action?
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Dear Action,
I’ve been studying Buddhism for a little while and this actually isn’t something I’ve heard before (from the teachings). I think this is a common Western misconception of what Buddhism asks of us. And if I’m wrong, and Buddha did tell us to sit idly by and watch horrors unfold, then Buddha was an idiot.
In the 9th century Linji Yixuan said “if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.” I don’t know what Linji meant by this but I do know a little bit about what it means for me. Maybe these non-action ideas about Buddhism and what it says is the Buddha on the road. Personally I don’t subscribe to a whole lot of doctrine, and I especially don’t subscribe to doctrine that I disagree with.
Above all else, my truth is what I make it. My Buddhism is the one that I, personally, know to be true. I take the teachings that I like, that I resonate with, and I apply them to my life. The other ones I let drop away, as they are not important to me right now.
I don’t know what the Buddha taught. Scholars can’t even agree on if the Buddha was real or not… unlike with Jesus there’s just not enough historical record for us to pinpoint his existence. But what I do know, in my heart, is a version of Buddhist ethics that, over 2600 years, was passed person to person from India to China to Japan and finally to the US. Today we have 16 ethical guidelines, but in the long ago, and how some people still practice today, there are 250-350 rules (depending on your gender ✨). So this is my doctrine, and this is actually relevant to your question, so hang on.
Here’s a small selection:
Cease from evil
Practice good
Save all beings
So the remaining 10 are a bit more straight forward than these three, yada yada don’t kill, etc. But I think we can look at these three here, the Three Pure Precepts, as they’re called, and grab all the info we need re:non-action during a genocide.
So you’re not actively participating in the slaughter, you’re not manufacturing arms, etc… “cease from evil” ✅
But the next two… these require ACTION. They require active participation on our part. Are you “practicing good?” Day to day, I practice good by being nice, by being open, by holding space, and by inching my life towards a place where I can help as many people as possible. This by nature has to look different for each of us because we all know how to “be good” in our own unique way. I’m not going to “practice good” by making sure the local ballot this November has important initiatives for our unhoused communities on it…. not exactly my wheelhouse—though a good use of time and energy for the right people for sure. So. What does your version of “practicing good” look like?
“Save all beings” is a stumper. All of them? Does the bacteria in my toilet count? What about beings in other world systems Galaxies away? From here we could do a deep dive into some Buddhist/Zen metaphysics… but that feels a bit aside from the point. Instead this one can be fun to take at face value… “save all beings” and remember this includes yourself too. Gotta make time to eat and sleep and fuck.
Notice how “practice good” is very much a practice… it’s something we work towards. This one is just like straight up “DO IT.” There’s probably more beings than you’ll ever get around to saving. If you make a vow to get endlessly rebirthed until you and your endlessly rebirthed friends save them all then maybe that’s the route to go… I’ll see you there. But aside from that dramatic move, we can really work on saving all beings one being at a time. We have to start with ourselves and the ones immediately around us, but from here we can really branch out and work in the ways that we best see fit. Maybe for you this means organizing around the genocide.
So, never mind pop culture Buddhism. Never mind teachings you don’t vibe with. The ethical principals are pretty clear and they also give you a lot of freedom to decide how to approach things for yourself.
With love,
Lithium
P.S. Non-action is often confused with the teaching of non-attachment… which is a very valid Buddhist teaching, albeit perhaps a difficult/advanced one. How do we practice good, how do we save all beings without being attached? May your journey be ripe.
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