Meditation on the Boston Tragedy
It always highlights the limitations in my progress as a "baby" Buddhist when these horrendous things like Newtown and the Boston Marathon bombing occur. I feel so much anger towards the people that are capable of inflicting so much senseless harm and suffering on others: children, people they don't even know. It is almost impossible sometimes for me to find any compassion in my heart for the instigators. I do not like holding that kind of hate in my heart for anyone: I know it's very toxic, and it accomplishes nothing but to poison me.. (It's not helping me that today is the anniversary of the VA Tech shootings, an incident that was particularly close to home for me..) I think to a certain extent, the emotional impact of all of these kind of violent events on our psyches can be cumulative: as these things keep happening, we either get a little more angry each time, or we get a little more burned-out and numb inside, neither of which is healthy.
Lodro Rinzler, who if you don't already know, is the author of a wonderful book (one of my favorites) titled "The Buddha Walks into a Bar - A Guide to Life for a New Generation," as well as a great blog on Huffington Post, where he often poses theoretical "What Would Sid (as in Siddhartha) Do?" speculations about issues that arise for Buddhists living in the modern world - often dealing with things like sex, drinking, dating (all of which, I might add, he is in favor of, within moderation, unless you are a monk or an addict.) He has a great sense of humor, a fine grounding in and grasp of Buddhist canon, and a great way of making it much less esoteric and more accessible to those of us (like me) that are not quite ready to dive headfirst into the more mind-twisting, heavier aspects of Buddhism.
Anyway, he posted a great article on his HuffPo blog today, titled "A Buddhist Meditation Practice for the Boston Marathon Tragedy." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lodro-rinzler/a-buddhist-meditation-practice-for-the-boston-marathon-tragedy_b_3088724.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNotifications It's well worth taking a look at, I think, especially if (like me) you are having a hard time processing the whole thing. It's also basically an excellent sort of "boilerplate" for how to meditate in the face of all such senseless tragedies, and it certainly seems like there's a never-ending stream of them in the last ten or fifteen years. I think his ideas are very useful, even if you are not a practitioner of Buddhist meditation, to help face these kinds of events and get through them, and hopefully head off some of that ever-increasing anger or creeping numbness. I'm going to give it a try, at any rate. As my dad used to say, "it couldn't hurt!"
I wish you all equanimity, peace, and healing, to both everyone here on our LJ community, and to all those affected by the events in Boston.
(cross-posted to my LJ journal and buddhistgroup community)
Lodro Rinzler, who if you don't already know, is the author of a wonderful book (one of my favorites) titled "The Buddha Walks into a Bar - A Guide to Life for a New Generation," as well as a great blog on Huffington Post, where he often poses theoretical "What Would Sid (as in Siddhartha) Do?" speculations about issues that arise for Buddhists living in the modern world - often dealing with things like sex, drinking, dating (all of which, I might add, he is in favor of, within moderation, unless you are a monk or an addict.) He has a great sense of humor, a fine grounding in and grasp of Buddhist canon, and a great way of making it much less esoteric and more accessible to those of us (like me) that are not quite ready to dive headfirst into the more mind-twisting, heavier aspects of Buddhism.
Anyway, he posted a great article on his HuffPo blog today, titled "A Buddhist Meditation Practice for the Boston Marathon Tragedy." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lodro-rinzler/a-buddhist-meditation-practice-for-the-boston-marathon-tragedy_b_3088724.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNotifications It's well worth taking a look at, I think, especially if (like me) you are having a hard time processing the whole thing. It's also basically an excellent sort of "boilerplate" for how to meditate in the face of all such senseless tragedies, and it certainly seems like there's a never-ending stream of them in the last ten or fifteen years. I think his ideas are very useful, even if you are not a practitioner of Buddhist meditation, to help face these kinds of events and get through them, and hopefully head off some of that ever-increasing anger or creeping numbness. I'm going to give it a try, at any rate. As my dad used to say, "it couldn't hurt!"
I wish you all equanimity, peace, and healing, to both everyone here on our LJ community, and to all those affected by the events in Boston.
(cross-posted to my LJ journal and buddhistgroup community)