Be Generous to the Human Condition

A few years ago, I had a meeting with our head teacher at the Zen center. Zen people tend to call these meetings dokusan, although the way it unfolds can be anything from a one minute blundered koan presentation to a long conversation about life - it really depends on the teacher's style, as well as the circumstances behind having the meeting in the first place. Anyway, during this meeting, the content of the conversation seemed to lead us both to the phrase I titled this post with: "Be generous to the human condition." It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? But what does it mean exactly?

I’ve been reflecting a lot on war again, given the crisis in Syria and the Obama Administration’s pressuring for military action there. My current post over at Turning Wheel media digs deeply into all of that. Warfare is, ultimately, a surface approach to a below the surface set of problems. Societies built on greed and power mongering. Pervasive poverty. Human fear and ignorance. You can cut off the top of a dandelion again and again, but it's only through uprooting it completely (and eating it's health-giving body :), that you'll be rid of it.

As such, we can use the phrase "Be generous to the human condition" as a reminder of our individual and collective struggles to go deeper. Our tendencies to seek quick and easy solutions, even when we might know that they're ultimately doomed. It is about recognizing all the foolish and destructive behavior that comes from our individual and collective delusions. To be able to just breath it in, and touch what it's like to be human in this world at this time.

Not because you're better than anyone else - you're not - but because doing so is one of the ways to soften the edges, develop compassion, and see that we're all in this together.

This practice, and life in general, is hard work. Not always, but often. And so even as we offer fierce critiques, or sit silently with the world's turmoil without any coherent response, it's helpful to remember to be generous to the human condition. Moment after moment.

A New Sangha of Social Action

Hi Everyone! I've been hard at work over the past week on some new material. As of July 1st, I am the new Guest Editor over at the Buddhist Peace Fellowship's Turning Wheel magazine. It's totally exciting, and to get us all started, here's my first TW post. Enjoy!

A Buddhist Take on Food Justice

Somehow, I forgot to post about the article I had published recently in Turning Wheel's online journal. It details an exciting food justice effort that is part of the Whealthy Human Village project I have been working on over the past several months. Here is an excerpt from the article. Thanks to Katie Loncke for including it in Turning Wheel's month of Food Justice posts, which I encourage everyone to check out.

In response to invites from members of the local Native community to collaborate, as well as what we felt was a lack of emphasis in Occupy Minneapolis on environmental issues, an offshoot group was formed in December 2011. The Whealthy Human Village is a multifaceted project that focuses on eco-centric life practices, food justice, indigenous rights, and healing arts. Underlying all of its work, really, is the thread of interconnectedness. Recognizing that we are not separate from each other, all living beings, and the history that shaped the places we live in, the Whealthy Human Village team is dedicated to redeveloping community, and helping people uncover or recover their connections to each other and the planet.

Buddhist environmental activist and teacher Joanna Macy speaks of the time we live in as both the “Great Unraveling” and the “Great Turning.” Many of the old systems and ways of thought are falling apart, bringing with them an enormous amount of suffering and difficulties. At the same time, new forms and ways of being together are sprouting up everywhere, attempting to heal the past, while simultaneously inspiring a brighter future by experimenting with it today. In many ways, Occupy Wall St. is one of the catalysts working to accelerate the unraveling, while groups like the Whealthy Human Village are dreaming up visions of the “turning,” or awakening, and then trying to make them realities.