A month has gone by since my last post titled Gaza Catastrophe. During that time the situation there has become unimaginably worse. I have felt compelled to write further.

We take refuge in love and clear seeing
We live courageously in this world of birthing/dying
Our hearts embrace all companions on this path of lucidity and freedom

I am crafting this post this with a heavy heart. Around me the sun is shining, birds are singing, the gardens are beautiful with life unfolding and at the same time, on the other side of the world, unimaginable suffering is being brought upon millions in a tornado of insanity that is degrading our moral foundations and normalising the outrageous, the appalling and the inhumane. I invite you to watch the following interview and allow yourself to feel. https://www.aljazeera.com/program/inside-story/2023/11/30/why-have-so-many-palestinian-children-been-killed-by-israel

As I and so many others have said again and again, “we are in this together”. The living world is an evolving web of communal responsiveness. All creatures along with all their environments are profoundly inter-dependent. The actions that we do, contribute directly and indirectly to the lives of everyone and so shape the future world. This inter-becoming comes with a challenging implication. It means that no individual person or creature can be in complete control of their life. Our very existence depends on others. We rely on situations and activities; on movements of creatures; and on cultures and ecosystems, beyond our control. I suspect that an unconscious recognition of this fragile and vulnerable nature of life contributes to states of fear, anxiety, hunger, desire, anger, aggression, depression, confusion, and even deep withdrawal. The same reality however, can nourish increased empathy, compassion and aspiration to support beauty and wellbeing throughout the world.

I watch the news, and fear for the too many people who actively or tacitly kill and maim and dehumanise others. I tremble for the people and corporations who make money from inventing and supplying tools, weapons and systems of coercion. Settler colonial mentality has become commonplace. It can apply to all humans wherever they see the earth as being merely a place to live, the biosphere as a larder and material storehouse to plunder, and other humans as either useful or threatening objects in one’s personal living space. Given various nation state’s support for Israel’s slaughter and persecution of so many Palestinians through supplying weapons and discouraging all forms of critical analysis of this tragic situation, it seems we are rushing towards a living hell. Through loosing touch with empathy and caring, through supporting situations in which we are increasingly consumed by concern for our individual and clannish well being, we are destroying the basis of life that sustains us. This is a recipe for collective suicide.

I wish I could tell you how to ‘fix’ this. But the idea of fixing things is perhaps still a vestige of colonial enterprise and human hubris. What we can do is to open our hearts to the non-negotiable interbeingness of everything and then to encourage the skills we need for living with uncertainty, ambiguity and collaborative action.

The Sanskrit word sila can be translated as ‘wholesome relating’. Sila points to an ambiance of serenity and open heartedness that blossoms with truly ethical behaviour. Is your tax money supporting weapons of destruction? Does it support institutions and tools of coercion? Does your consumption enhance the world or degrade it? Are we actively remembering to support and appreciate the lives of all living beings? Are we intentionally cultivating a heart/mind of spontaneous generosity? Are we using our senses and sensitivity to explore dharma and to come to know the world more profoundly and more compassionately? Are we refining our abilities to listen deeply and to speak truthfully? Are we learning to nurture each other in ways that support awakening? These questions deserve to be contemplated again and again and again.

It is true that we are inter-dependent phenomena but no-one can force us to hate, and no one can make us love. Namgyal Rinpoche said on a number of occasions that, “the practice of dharma is not a hobby”. A life of dharma demands courageous choice and sometimes even a patient doggedness. Only then will we see a such a life as a blessed treasure.

Over the last weeks, these contemplations and wrestings with conscience have been with me continuously. Wherever you are dear friends, I invite you to join me in this. Deepen your investigations, risk finding tears and wobbly stomach and the challenging vista of not-knowing. Utilise the various supports and contemplative techniques you have discovered in the course of your living, to deepen in wisdom and compassion and to share the radiance of this wherever and whenever you are able.

May wisdom and compassion,
the very heart and substance of being,
blossom continuously
for the sake of everything and everyone.

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