Reading Dharma "Off the Cushion"

This is just a place-holder. No time for photography today--busy growing the Buddhist Peace Fellowship of Portland. Reading more deeply, talking, holding meetings, listening to others.

Income inequality grows worse. The policies of the federal government are increasingly elitist, increasingly disconnected from the realities of hunger, poor health, racism, and houselessness. The news of yet another Black man, Philando Castile, killed by police, and the police not held accountable, breaks my (and many people’s) heart(s). 

This, from Jasmine Syedullah, in Radical Dharma:  “We might not all feel the same for the same reasons, but we don’t have to. We are not mercenaries. We are defending ourselves against the modern threats of mass disposability. We are not just hungry, we are starving. We could become one rather than scramble to defend our stuff and our families. Together, there are no individual selves to be defended. Together, self-defense is collective transformation.”

Beautiful intentions, fine words. And yet we are mere human beings: primates, tribal beings, making mistakes and trying again. And so I gather with others. We ask each other what we can do to stand for justice. Again.