Good morning, thank you all for joining with us here at the temple today to practice together the Lotus Sutra. It isn’t easy to practice even a little bit of the Lotus Sutra in this modern age. In Chapter 15 of the Lotus Sutra, among other places in the sutra, the Buddha tells us in many different ways how difficult practicing the Lotus Sutra would be in the time after his death. Because it is so difficult, the merit accumulated from our efforts is much greater than any other way of practicing Buddhism. Alongside the Buddha’s words explaining the difficulty of practicing the Lotus Sutra are his words extolling the great benefit of actually overcoming the difficulties to practice.
Here we are today just a few days away from the anniversary of the spectacular and deadly attack on the Twin Towers in New York City. Like the assassination of President John Kennedy, September 11 will be a marker day in people’s lives. People will be able to recall what they were doing, where they were and all sorts of details on those marker days.
One of the activities that mark this anniversary for me is to speak about terrorism and retaliation or revenge, and the cycle it puts into motion. The perfect example in Buddhism for teaching on the harm of retaliation, revenge, or retribution is given to us in the story of Angulimala; the most famous terrorist. Angulimala was a serial murderer who would kill his victims, cut off their fingers and wear them strung on a necklace around his neck. Angulimala translates as finger necklace. You might recognize the word mala in his name, mala is what we call our prayer beads, though in Japanese it is called juzu. But mala is the widely used term throughout the Buddhist world.
The story of Angulimala is not a simple one. It begins with the child Angulimala being an outcast, a member of the caste of untouchables whom society would have nothing to do with. Through no fault except birth this person was reviled by society. His parents tried to raise him to accept his position in life and get on with life. How many times has a line similar to that been used even here in our own country.
We expect the lowest in our society to accept their place, to somehow magically against overwhelming odds and with little support to somehow transform their lives, as if the majority ever had to do the same themselves. The fact is that most of the majority if not all of the majority population in our society has never come close to challenging society in ways African-Americans have or in the ways that many immigrants have. Yes true, some Caucasian people have been poor and improved their lives, but they had a leg up, they were the same color as the society in which they were trying to move up in.
Yes there are examples of many people of color, of all the colors, having improved their lot in life, but often the truth is they have just barely improved their social status but not made a dent in the general prejudices that they are still confronted with just because of the color of their skin. There is nothing more frightening to the core psyche of a white man than a black man with a gun, we saw examples of this in the 60’s and it still exists today. Yet a white man with a gun is somehow not supposed to be feared.
Before I get to far down stream let me bring it back to Angulimala. He, in anger, left his home because he could not tolerate the horrible existence his family and society was trying to impose on him. In anger he decided that his only power available was to become so fearsome people and thereby control their emotions.
The Buddha, according to the story goes out in search of this terrorist Angulimala, even as he continues to kill and is hunted by the forces of the king. The Buddha in the midst of this reign of terror and the authoritarian response plants his life in the middle so that he can save not only the people Angulimala is killing but to save Angulimala himself. The image that comes to mind when I recount this story is that of Thich Nhat Hanh who during the Vietnam War would gather up other Buddhist monks and walk between the enemy lines carrying large flags.
Walking a path of hate and revenge is an easy path to walk, and it will always be populated with plenty of fellow travelers, though the destination remains elusive to all who travel that road. There is no peace or security that is long lasting by practicing the easy practice of hatred, revenge, and retribution. It is an endless cycle that regenerates itself.
For the entire history of man we have example after example of the pointless engagement in revenge or the use of force to overcome force. Hatred breeds hatred, violence breeds violence. The examples I could give would cause your eyes to glaze over and walk away.
In the book The Buddha and the Terrorist by Satish Kumar the Buddha says to Angulimala,
“The power of the sword is dependent on the weakness, submission and powerlessness of others. The power of love empowers everyone: it is self-organizing and self-sustaining. All beings, human and other than humans, are naturally equipped with this intrinsic power and it is released through the relationship of mutuality; reciprocity, friendship, and love. All efforts of control over and conflict with others end in tears, frustration, disappointment – or war.”
Today, the message I would like for each of us to try to really embrace is that all of our actions result in consequences, both as individuals and as society. As we think about our actions and what actions we wish our government to engage in which do we choose? Do we go with the easy to follow path of power over, of revenge, or retaliation, of retribution, of hatred and killing, which only generates more of the same? Or do we follow a more difficult path a path that by its very nature of being in opposition to force is fraught with peril, but one which ultimately yields the results we truly seek, that of peace.
In the story of Angulimala because of the risk the Buddha took, this person, Angulimala, is self-reformed and becomes a great teacher of Buddhism, able to explain the difficult and complex theories of Buddhism to even the most common person. I encourage you to get a copy of this small book and read for yourself. By the way the title of today’s Dharma talk is a quotation from this book: The Buddha and the Terrorist, by Satish Kumar.
With that I close today with a prayer of safety and happiness of each person today, even any enemies I may have or may have caused. I pray the same for our country and for all the peoples of the world. May we all make great effort not only for our individual happiness but for the happiness of every person, even those we find easy to hate.
