With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,
Yesterday we watched "Good Night and Good Luck" a film about Edward R. Murrow and the McCarthy era in the United States. It was well worth watching and I am glad we bought it so we can watch it again a few times over. George Clooney did a wonderful job. It is an eloquent film.
The film is quite a reminder of things. A reminder that fear can drive us to the brink of willingly giving up our freedoms and responsibilities in order to feel safe. A reminder that such fear can be very easily exploited. And a reminder that keeping vigilant and courageous has its costs.
Of course, we don't need to be reminded. We are in a similar era. Our fear and safely needs are being exploited on a daily basis. In this din of warnings, people tend to cower, acquiesce to the powers that be in order to be assured of their safety. While safety is not such a bad thing, being safe at the price of freedom is.
We must be diligent in two directions simultaneously. We must be witness to the erosion of our freedoms and to the threat to our lives. Indeed, there are those in this world who would kill us, so afraid they are of change. Yet to become them is not progression but regression. In order to be safe and free, we must be without hindrance.
How to be without hindrance? Practice Zazen.
Be well.
2 comments:
Sensei, I don't know if this war climate will get us more safety and freedom. It seems that the opposite is happening. Yesterday here in Ohio, President Bush warned that he would use military force to defend Israel against an attack. I think they are preparing us for a strike against Iran. Iran’s potential for creating WMDs is much greater than Iraq’s was. And like Iraq, they are being judged untrustworthy to negotiate with.
"In order to be safe and free, we must be without hindrance. How to be without hindrance? Practice Zazen."
I would like to believe that there is a connection between safety, freedom and zazen, but it is difficult to see how that is true when the people on either side of a confrontation are usually not buddhists.
It seems like their actions affect us more than ours do them. I sit in faith without much understanding at this point.
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