Good morning. Welcome, everyone. So I want to speak this morning about nonviolence as a Buddhist practice. This relates to a number of the paramitas or transcendent practices we're going to be studying in our practice commitment period in April and May. It relates to generosity. especially the practice of paying attention actively, being ready to respond to the situations of our life in the world. It also relates to skillful means, how to attempt to respond to the world and to our lives in a way that may be helpful, even if we don't really know what to do, to be ready to respond when there seems to be something skillful to do.

[01:02]

So I want to talk about nonviolence in a number of contexts. The most important word that I associate with this is respect, to act respectfully. And this relates very much to our precept of benefiting all beings. And we chant sometimes the metta sutta, may all beings be happy. how in our life and in our response to the world, how do we, what does it mean to respond nonviolently? What does it mean to respond with respect? And I would add that nonviolence does not mean passivity. And it doesn't mean necessarily the absence of anger. It's about how we transform anger

[02:05]

when it arises. So our precept about anger is to not harbor ill will, to not hold on to anger. But how do we use in a constructive way the energy of anger when we see some harm being done against ourselves or others? As I have sometimes talked about, I'm also applying this to the context of societal response. And I have an activist side. So to me, this practice of respectfulness is very important to that, of transforming anger. how do we oppose harmful actions without demonizing particular other people or beings as evil.

[03:15]

I don't think that in Buddhism there's some force of evil out there. There are evil actions. There are harmful actions. The word evil is one translation of a word used in Buddhism, but I think it's, you know, it's about harmful actions. I don't think they're evil people or evil beings. And also I want to say, so maybe I should make my disclaimer whenever I talk about societal issues. Many of you have heard before that as a religious non-profit, 501c3, we're not supposed to talk about or advocate for particular political candidates or particular legislation. I don't want to do that. But I do want to talk about things going on in our world. responsibility. And I don't think it's separate from how do we respond nonviolently to the difficulties and problems and situations in our own lives and in our interactions with family, friends, co-workers, and even on our cushions or chairs when we feel some difficulty in ourselves.

[04:20]

It's possible to do violence against part of oneself. And again, the Buddhist practice is nonviolence. express respect, generosity, caring, patience, to respond skillfully to the harmful actions of oneself as well as of others. This isn't easy. Living a spiritually whole and wholesome life isn't easy. It's a challenge. And on the level of societal context, I want to say, I don't think of this as an absolute, like nonviolence is an absolute value. So many Buddhists would disagree with me. But I realistically think we need to have a police force. We need to have armed services, armed forces to respond appropriately to protect citizens.

[05:32]

And I'm actually very happy that we have in our Sangha at least a few that I know of, veterans of the armed forces. But also how do we respond with nonviolence to harmful actions? So again, the word respect, I think, is very important in this. How do we respect even those whom we disagree with? How can we be willing to listen to those who we disagree with? It doesn't mean we should agree with something that we think is harmful. And one aspect of our Buddhist practice is to speak our truth. And yet, how do we do this respectfully? This is, as some of you know, I've been, as a member of Chicago Buddhist Peace Fellowship, at times active in the Occupy movement.

[06:36]

which is a little dormant right now, but it's going to be a big issue in Chicago in May because our mayor has seen fit to invite the G8 and NATO summits. So there are going to be many people coming to protest that, to protest what is being done by the global corporate economy who are meeting here in Chicago in May. And so these issues of violence and nonviolence are going to be very much in our face in Chicago here. And Chicago Buddhist Peace Fellowship is going to, at least some of us will be involved in that, trying to encourage nonviolence to speak our truth. in a non-violent way. Again, sometimes some of the people who are protesting will sound very angry.

[07:42]

And non-violence doesn't mean that we should not feel anger again. But how do we use it? How do we transform it? How do we not see Whomever, the corporate CEOs, the big bankers, the police certainly, as some evil enemies. That's not helpful and it's not realistic. Again, what does it mean to benefit all beings? Basic Buddhist precept, basic Mahayana precept, that we're all in this together. not as some theoretical idea, although maybe that's where we start, but really when we practice this upright sitting and sustain a practice of upright sitting, we see how we are interconnected. I may want some of the people who are acting to harm our climate or our society and making a lot of personal profit from it to stop doing that.

[08:46]

But it's not that I wish them personally ill. I really don't. They also have human fears and suffering and pain and so forth. How do we see ourselves as connected to everyone, even those who we think are acting harmfully? This is the very heart of nonviolence, and it's difficult. But the reason I decided to speak about the practice of nonviolence today, there's more to say about that. There are things like nonviolence training and how to actually, in the middle of a difficult situation, listen to and respect the so-called other. This is not part of our usual

[09:48]

karmic human greed, anger and confusion. This takes, requires effort and intention and taking on the practice of nonviolence. But the reason I'm speaking about this today is I want to speak out. I feel obliged to speak out this week against violence against women that's happening in our society. And as a man I particularly feel like I Need to say something. So, there's many levels of the way in which women are mistreated in this society. And as a white male, I know that I am gifted with the privilege of being a white male in America. And in many places in the world, rape is now an instrument of war, intentionally.

[11:07]

And according to some reports in our armed forces, too. It's too prevalent. It shouldn't be there at all, of course. But now in America, contraception has become a political issue. And I'm appalled. and outrage. So I want to speak about that. I feel like the well-being of women is being threatened in our society. So this has come to the fore this week in terms of I don't think he's a politician. I think he's an entertainer. So I'll mention him by name, Rush Limbaugh. That was a young woman who's a law student who spoke about women's health and the dangers of not including contraception within health care.

[12:17]

And he basically said that any woman who uses... He replied it to her, but from what he said, you could generalize that he was saying any woman who uses contraception should be required to post sex videos online. That American discourse has reached that is just disgusting to me and obscene. Again, I don't personally wish Rush Limbaugh any ill. I think anyone who uses hate speech, though, that encourages violence, maybe shouldn't be given a microphone. For those of us men who don't know, contraception is used in many ways for women's health, not just for birth control. And I recognize that this is a complicated moral issue.

[13:26]

I've taught at Catholic universities, and I have a friend who's a bishop, Catholic bishop. I haven't spoken to him in a while, but anyway. But I want to talk about this. And I think a part of what we are as Songha is an opportunity to speak about difficult things. So I'm going to leave time for for other responses, but I'll say about, well, abortion as well. I've heard one Buddhist view, we don't have a pope in Buddhism, there's no official Buddhist view, but one Buddhist view that I first heard expressed by Chozen Bayes, who teaches in Oregon, which I like, is to be anti-abortion and pro-choice, both. So, you know, I think abortion should be avoided. And of course, where sex education isn't allowed and where abstinence is taught as the only form of birth control, there are more abortions.

[14:33]

That's according to what the statistics show. So to talk about supporting life means to support the health and well-being of women. And there are now politicians who are saying that contraception, even contraception as well as abortion, should be, you know, a woman doing that, even in cases of rape and incest, should be punished as a murderer. It's just appalling. Women have a right to good women, good health care as much as men. Of course, our health care system in this country has lots of problems for all of us, except for maybe the very wealthy anyway. So I'm angry about all of this, as you may hear, and yet I feel like I want to express that it's something to talk about and something to listen to.

[15:35]

And again, talking about Buddhists and Catholics, you don't have to be a Buddhist to come here and practice with us at all. And actually, many members of the Sangha are at least former Catholics, if not practicing Catholics. I don't know if there's anybody who's a practicing Catholic. So these are difficult issues. The precept that we use in our Tsukiroshi lineage Bodhisattva precepts about sexuality says not to misuse sexuality. And I think that's very important. What does that mean? Well, again, respect is foremost. Non-violence, respect, not being deceitful. not being manipulative, being respectful to the other who is also connected and not separate from us.

[16:46]

But again, I wanted to say something about this as a man. that we should know as men, speaking to the men here, that women are, in America now, are under threat. Maybe that's a kind of melodramatic way of saying it, but with this kind of political discourse, maybe not. So again, this idea of nonviolence as a Buddhist practice is to listen to others, to express respect, to not feel like there's somebody over there who is the enemy who we have to demonize or harm. It doesn't help. But nonviolence means that we are willing to say what our truth is and express that and use the situations where anger arises to turn that towards commitment and resolve and clear seeing.

[18:23]

So all of negative emotions through Buddhist practice can be transformed. We have, I think, at least eight of our psychologists in our Sangha here today. And there's a lot of modern Western psychology that has a lot to do with Buddhist practice and ancient Buddhist psychology. But this idea of respect, again, to try and find a way to listen to others, to communicate, to dialogue, and to bring this into not just these societal issues, although they're as well, but also into how do we try to respond with patience, with attention, to the difficulties that happen in our life with others we're involved with,

[19:28]

And even, as I said in the beginning, in terms of the parts of ourself that we may not like, or that we may sometimes have problems with, how do we act respectfully? May all beings be happy. We chant in the Metta Sutta. It's pretty challenging. Our starting point as human beings is not necessarily to wish everyone to be happy. And some perspectives that our culture encourages is to sort of do unto others before they do unto you. Anyway, it's a kind of competitive idea. But I'm going to stop talking now and off and encourage. any of you who have any response to any part of this for us to talk together. And we have a limited time to talk. But still, if you have something to say, please do. But I wanted to start and ask Joanne if you, Joanne works in women's health issues in various ways professionally.

[20:38]

So you don't have to, but if you have any comments or response, I want to ask you, I'll offer the floor to you first. Thank you, Joanne. My thoughts on this are respect of self comes first. And if we had more respect of self, then our behavior would be quite different, perhaps, in relation to others. And that includes our sexuality, I believe. So... If we truly loved ourselves and our bodies, I'm not so sure there would be so much need for sex with others, frankly. That being said, once in a relationship... The culture has such an incredible impact on our choices about things.

[21:43]

what we think relationship is and how that happens. I don't know about anyone else, but when I was growing up it was learn on your own, no guidance whatsoever. Try to learn from girlfriend talk. How accurate can that be? These things are still very taboo. They're not discussed, not talked about. And I know girls today, many of them don't understand or appreciate their bodies and the functions of their bodies. And that's where it starts, really. So respect and love of self is so key to all these things, I think. Thank you very much. And if you want to add more later, you work in Can you say a sentence about what your work is? I have an organization that's primarily online that educates parents about options for childbirth and promotes the midwifery model, undisturbed birth, breastfeeding and bonding as the ideal ways to bring children into life.

[23:05]

Thank you very much. So thank you, Joanne. Anybody else, anything to say, men or women? Please feel free. Any responses? Yes, Jared. I really appreciate what you said. My grandmother died in 1916 of a botched abortion. Oh, I'm so sorry. She already had two children, little children. So it directly speaks to how crucial these issues are for women's lives. And it's been almost a hundred years since then. We should not have to be fighting these battles. And one of the things that has really struck me in all of this is the Catholic Church position stands at the same time as 98% of American Catholic women at some point in their lives use birth control.

[24:13]

So it amounts to saying, almost to calling for hypocrisy on the part of those women, all the women. Yes, Michelle. I work with a number of young women now in a community mental health agency. And what's striking me about their very poor sexual choices is the fact that they have no relationships at all that are sustained or mutually fulfilled. I think until you really talk to these now and realize how jam-packed their schedules are, how families are fragmented, how they really feel adrift. It's the first person that shows them what they perceive as anymore, their understanding.

[25:18]

A hand that might be out of reach becomes a relationship. And I think our whole sense of relationship as a culture has been turned on its ear by social media So how many high school friends now will have 500 Facebook friends but can't name one good friend that they can go to and really pour their hearts out? And I think as a culture we've objectified, many of us in culture feel objectified. sexual relations have just become another part of a mindless activity. So I really see it as a grasping behavior. And I think the answer is very, very simple. It's respect. It's reaching out. It's mutual understanding and appreciation. And I personally fear for the young girls I sit with because I really don't see that happening outside of therapeutic sessions.

[26:28]

Thank you. Yes, Deborah. Thank you so much for raising this topic. As I look at my own history with females in my family and all the children that they had, all the women had no choice, 9, 10, 11, 12 children, 100, 200 years ago. And the suffering that that created. And how hard in the 50s and 60s we fought for women's control over their bodies. And so I see my own granddaughters and wonder about their future. It means for them we have to rewind these rights over and over and over. That when will the hating of women stop? And I feel that from, I don't know what to call it, the Congress, the people who control our society.

[27:55]

And of course, it's very predominantly male. And again, as a man, I don't know if it's appropriate to apologize, but I feel some responsibility. Yes, Alex. I was going to comment and say, I think a number of people have expressed this idea, I just find it dumbfounding that this issues take up motions and take up laws for consideration that directly address this issue and try to complicate this issue and find smaller ways to chip away at whatever our society has done in the past to safeguard women's health around this issue.

[29:13]

And as I said, I find it political agenda. So it's fine. Yeah, and thank you, yes. And I think there are ways to respond by, well, I don't know. We each have our own way. So for me, being part of Occupy speaks to the out-of-control legislature nationally and sometimes in states who are beholden to huge amounts of, now unlimited amounts of investment by corporations who seem to have made a, anyway, there's a link there between corporate power and what's happening to our environment and to our Mother Earth and how women are being treated. In my mind, there's some linkage there. How do we say, please stop to that force that has so much control

[30:19]

And I think the American people, vast majorities, who haven't been manipulated by all the money that's put into propaganda around these issues, you know, are pretty aware. And yet, we don't have control over our own society. The American people don't have control over our own society. So anyway, you may disagree with my saying that, but that's just how it is. On my Facebook page I had a lot of people posting things that were sort of anti-Rush this week and I hadn't heard anything about it. I didn't go look at it. I think that it's so easy for us to get caught up in what's new and that the news is just stream of consciousness for our society that can distract and misinform far more easily than it can guide or give us any sort of insight.

[31:29]

And so I think sometimes, while these sorts of events can be nice reminders, they need to remind us to look at the deeper issues rather than to get distracted. I think for years, Republicans, Democrats, the media, all of it has been, hey, look over here, look over here, look over here. And to tell you the truth, I think the real powers that be don't care whether we're Republican or Democrat. They just want us distracted. And so while I very much appreciate this issue, the only way we're ever going to battle these things, rather than getting caught up in the battle of the moment, which, in the end, we're really just playing into those distractions.

[32:34]

Thank you. Yeah, I agree that the mainstream media is in many ways an instrument of misinformation. I say this having formerly worked in TV news and for NBC News and ABC News in New York. Anyway, so I feel the culpability of the media and I think we can get distracted. I should mention maybe, you know, that Rush Limbaugh, if I didn't already, did apologize to this woman. Of course, that was a result of his losing many sponsors, thanks to the outrage. But yeah, no, I think that how we treat each other in our lives is what this is about. At the same time, legislation that blocks women from getting appropriate health care affects has an effect, so it's tricky. But thank you.

[33:37]

Yes, Steve. Yeah, I work in business for corporations, so maybe I'm a little more cynical that way. But my feeling is that if there was money to be made singing Kumbaya, Bill O'Reilly would be a folk singer. I just think that We have to make sure, I think it was very good with Rush Limbaugh, that people went and basically aggravated the sponsors, and the sponsors withdrew. He obviously would not have apologized if the sponsors had not withdrawn. I think it really becomes incumbent on us on how we purchase. I think that's, maybe that's part of right livelihood and everything else, but I think it really becomes, maybe this is kind of a warning sign, we have to look at who's sponsoring these things and direct our money that way. Purchasing and anything else. Yeah, and it can be a lot of work to research all of that.

[34:41]

But yeah, I think there are lots of ways of responding and several have been mentioned. And I think also, as Roy was saying, just in terms of our personal respectfulness with each other, and that's important too. So it's, yeah, thank you. Quezon. and watch them sort of empower themselves through creative practice and learning skills and tools.

[36:12]

Yeah, I think that's very important, that there is more awareness. Just on the media level of the response to Rush, that's one example, but I think there's much more awareness than there used to be. And this is part of, I feel like part of Sangha. is this long-term perspective that each of us on our own Kushner chair and all of us together by sustaining awareness and attention and our efforts to be responsive and caring. the part of the mission of Sangha, going back 2,500 years, recognizing to some extent the slowness of societal change, but that to bring more awareness and caring to the world is a big part of what we're doing here.

[37:41]

And that's not separate from how do we take care, as Joanne said, how do we take care of respecting ourselves and our own bodies and hearts? Other comments? Yes, Jeremy. I think I've struggled with the question of should I apologize as a male to women for the treatment of women, and I'm kind of thinking about that. And I think that the dialogue kind of needs to change, as opposed to me asking myself if I should apologize to women, more so maybe how could they be doing that to our bodies, because I don't see I don't see the line between treating the mothers of our future in such a terrible way and taking away options. And so I think maybe I see it more so now as this is an injustice against women, it's an injustice against humanity.

[38:44]

Thank you. Yes, I feel that too, as a man. When women are being intentionally harmed, their well-being is intentionally being harmed, that affects me too. I have a mother, I have a sister, I have a wife. But also just as a human being, it changes the quality of how we are together. Thank you. Yes, Joanne. Yin and yang, we're all male beings. Yeah. And one of the positive changes in our society, there was another state this week that has legalized gay marriage. Recognizing that we all have male and female sides is a very important part of this. And I think the men who are trying to impose laws that harm women are just not willing to face that reality.

[39:55]

And so it's a long-term process of education. And there is positive change happening. Yes? But I see this as not just violence against women like others have been saying, this is violence against all of us. And in ways that we are all, I think, subject to feeling judged on a daily basis and feeling like we are all in some way similar in our society, everyone can wind up feeling like a defective commodity. And people will respond in different ways to that. Men will respond in ways that are maybe somewhat roughly characteristic, and women will respond in ways that are roughly characteristic. But this is, I think, a symptom of the greater violence towards everyone in our culture that has been going on for a long time, but continues to manifest in different ways.

[40:59]

Thank you. That wasn't garbled at all. That was eloquent. Yeah, so this is the context of non-violence, and that we all need to study non-violence in terms of our own being on our cushion and chair, in terms of how we relate with each other, and in terms of how we respond to difficulties in the world. And there's not one right way to respond.

[41:22]

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