One of my daily devotionals got me to thinking even more deeply about two realities: peace and justice. I have often struggled to understand their juxtaposition. This lead to me grappling with the need for contemplation as well as action; action as an outgrowth of contemplation. Quickly, I was immersed in a chicken and egg dilemma. Which comes first? How does one achieve a “both/and” posture? The dilemma is ongoing.
I read an article by Paul Knitter containing the following description of his background and beliefs. He “has been an activist for peace and justice since the 1980s and has been inspired by the Engaged Buddhism of the last 50 years. Engaged Buddhism, a term coined by Thich Nhat Hanh, brings insights from Buddhist practice and teaching to social, political, environmental and economic injustice. In his book Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian, Knitter applies the Buddhist approach to Christians who are sincerely working for justice. If Christians insist, ‘If you want peace, work for justice,’ the Buddhists would counter-insist, ‘If you want peace, be peace.'”
My reading drove me to intensified pondering and questioning. Knitter continued, stressing the understanding of peace promoted by Thich Nhat Hanh to be one based on mindfulness. Some might call it awareness. However, I love the word mindfulness. It speaks to me of holding a thought or idea, a person or group deeply in my mind, letting my mind become full of awareness. Once my mind is full, my heart becomes engaged. From my heart, the fullness travels to my core, the totality of my being and I connect with the other in an intimacy that brings both joy and sorrow; delight and dismay. I touch their humanity with mine; mine with theirs until we are one in mind and heart and spirit.
So far … so good. However, there is a longer path to walk, a harder road to travel. I cannot rest easily with ‘being of one mind’. Those words may lead me to a complacency and exclusivity I had not suspected or expected. One of mind and heart may well exclude those whose hearts and minds differ from mine … or ours. Peace then becomes passivity. Challenge melts into complacency. Justice is neither present nor served. All of us can easily fall into a smiling presence that lacks substance. We can think life is all about putting on a happy face. Avoid what is unpleasant; deny challenges; dismiss painful choices. Rub the Buddha’s belly and all is well.
Somehow, this does not ring true to me. So, I pursue the reading. “Why? Just why do Buddhists insist on the priority of awakening over acting? Why do they want to ‘just sit there’ before they ‘do anything?’ Certainly, there are different ways a Buddhist might answer this question. But I believe that one of the recurring responses would be: to remove one's ego from one’s peacemaking, so that one’s actions will not be coming from one's ego-needs but from the wisdom and compassion that constitute one's true nature.”
Aha … there is more to the story than apparent passivity. There is a call to deep peace that disturbs, just as the bit of sand disturbs the oyster until it produces a pearl. We, the human oysters, are not at peace until we encase our disturbance with grace. We need to remove our ego from our actions. We can’t do that without contemplating who we are, whose we are, where are going, and with whom we are traveling. We need to ask the questions, examine our responses, and face our truth honestly, peacefully — yet justly.
It won’t be an easy task. We humans are quite adept at fooling ourselves, at glossing over our imperfections by labeling them idiosyncrasies. We say, “Well, that’s who I am.” Or, “I have to be me.” We comfort ourselves with the half-truth of those statements fearing the discomfort of facing the total truth. Discomforted by any suggestion dealing with change, we deny the possibility of transformation. We opt sleep over awakening; mindlessness over mindfulness. We live without being alive.
My thoughts returned to the obvious challenge in the sentence: “If you want peace work for justice.” Suddenly, it came to me. Two words, want and work, became so obvious I wondered why I hadn’t put them together. There is the mindfulness we need. What do I want? What do you want? What do we want, together as a nation and globally as sojourners on this planet?
When our communal mindfulness is clarified, we’ll discover that we are at peace. Then, we can and must work together to achieve justice. Work together, not fight with each other or against each other. War and warring will never resolve conflict. It will only accelerate and exacerbate it. It will only encase us in an either/or mentality. You will either do what I want and think I need or else. And I will refuse to see anything beyond my viewpoint, my perspective, my vision. Nothing else will suffice. Nothing else will succeed.
Collaborate, communicate, converse, co-create. No longer will it be a pursuit of “my way” or “your way.” It will become our way together. Change of mind and heart, thoughts and feelings will happen when my mind is full of your presence and your mind is full of mine.
Years ago, one of Hubby Dear’s companion teachers plagued his students with this cryptic statement: “It’s mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” Some, I’m sure heard this as a declaration of complacency. “Don’t give any mind to this situation and it won’t matter what happens.” In the light of my contemplative reading, I hear a different message. I hear words that mimic a Scriptural poignancy regarding our lack of awareness, our dismissing of mindfulness. I hear a sad commentary. If we lack mindfulness, if we refuse to mind, to give heed, to the ills of the world, something both dangerous and insidious happens. Life won’t matter. Nothing will matter.
Knitter reminds us of a piercing truth: “If the inner world is authentic, an individual's political, economic and service attitudes will always change organically from the inside out.”
Be mindful of peace. It matters enough for us to work for justice and see it happen.
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http://www.brunswickbeacon.com/content/balance-peace-and-justice-great-challenge
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