Hari wrote:
> In an aired radio interview with a psychology researcher from Duke, the DL was asked whether if he was sitting next to hitler he would kill him. The DL consulted apparently with his colleague lamas, & then said along the lines:
"Yes - I would kill him if I cold. But the important thing is to do it without any anger in your heart".
While I am no expert on/fan of the Dalai Lama, that is a common response. The motivation for action should not be anger as it creates an angry reaction in response. It is like having a fight with your boyfriend: if he will not engage in the argument, it dies out right there. Anger only survives if it is met with matching anger. Just common sense really.
> My sister who is a Hindu 'guru' - uses similar terminology, the great sin is 'attachment. She counts the DL as a personal friend.
Attachment is the problem. Desires/passion are part of being human. To act as if they were not there is both silly and dangerous. Attatchment to the desires/passions is what causes strife.
> However an oft held option is that to kill in "cold blood" - is an especially vicious & dangerous thing.
A Buddhist would never kill in cold blood. All actions are to be taken in the spirit of compassion. Killing in cold blood would require a delusional state.
Todd, I believe, (if I am wrong I apologize) asked me how I resist in bed, jail, etc. Well, in the digest form of LBO I receive, right after Hari's post was Kelley's post about 'shroom people. I think the best way to explain my resisting is that I resist the darkness and the shit. Wherever a person finds herself, there is always the temptation to jettison discrimination and wallow in the darkness and the shit. It is the path of least resistance.
'Shroom people are people with false consciousness.
The reason violence is such a charged issue for me is that when a person acts with violence, he often feels himself to be most alive. Anger/violence helps a human being to cohere (again, the notion of self/no-self). In a way the exercise of violence helps foster false consciousness, which in turn fosters more violence in order maintain itself.
Kelley talks of a balancing act one must do to get through both meetings and life. I think there is also the balancing act of having the capacity to understand and work away from false consciousness while still acknowledging desires/passions. What your sister and I would call practicing "unattachment."
The sometimes frustrating fact is that 'shroom people are so deeply attached to their passions/desires that when you try to point out to them that they live in darkness and shit, they ignore you and carry on.
So Kelley is very right when she doubts that "that people will bow down before facts and truth as if they have no ego-invested stake in remaining in the dark and standing in shit."
The investment in that ego/self is huge, and performing acts of violence helps keep the investment going.
Brian Dauth Queer Buddhist Resister
P.S. Are my posts easier to read now?