Delusion and Compassion

On Sunday, November 15, Rev. Jay Rinsen Weik gave a talk on a Zen Buddhist perspective of the Paris attacks. Here is the link to the podcast

http://tiny.cc/dm195x

Here are my thoughts on the talk and event, again from a Zen Buddhist perspective.

Long before I encountered the practice of Zen; long before I found myself teaching special needs students, I studied, and later taught, history. In the four years of that honours degree, I studied the rise of the Imperial Age, the creation of the modern Middle East, the formation of Germany, the French Revolution, the Franco Prussian War, and on and on and on. One of the things that emerged in this study and remained a theme as I began to teach history to teenagers is that when you look at any event and ask, “What caused this?” the chain of causes and conditions can be traced as far back as you are willing to go. Like a giant game of 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon, you can take any historical chain of cause and effect as far back as there is record. So when people ask why are these things happening in Paris, Beirut and Kenya, this is one of the lenses through which I understand what I see.

But there is a more fundamental lens at play for me.

In Rinsen’s talk on Sunday, he spoke to that lens when he said “People are people and people are particularly good at being trapped in delusion.”

It was an excellent opportunity to begin looking at the teachings of the Six Realms of Suffering. Specifically, I found it useful to understand the mind of these violent attackers not as being trapped in the delusion of the hot hell realm, but in the realm of titans, or Jealous Gods.

As was outlined in this and earlier talks on these realms, the mind of the jealous gods is depicted as a realm full of large, powerful skilled warriors, armed and ready to cut down all who stand in their way as they try to obtain the ambrosia on a forbidden tree.

This is a mind that has an idea or belief system and the sharp edge of that delusion seems to be a way of holding that belief in which it is seen as the only way, the only truth, and an ideal that must be defended and crusaded for.

When I look through history, some version of this mind seems to be at work when people come to the point that they are willing to kill. When you look at a war, revolution or some other violent episode, especially when we can clearly identify an aggressor or perpetrator of an act there generally emerges an idea or philosophy that some feel can only survive if others perish.

Now, it would be very easy to turn at this point, as much of the conversation is turning, towards a line of thought that seeks to find the kind of answers that will make us feel safe now and make sure we can feel safe in the future. Those conversations are happening among governments and common people, but in terms of practice, there is a deeper consideration.

Rinsen pointed out in this talk that all of us visit each of these states. This is an important observation for me when the question is asked, “What kind of person can do this?”.

A person can do this. In many ways, a person not unlike me or unlike you. Dark thoughts come. The seeds of anger, hatred and blame are tossed into our mind. The depth of our delusion determines the fertility of the ground on which the seeds land.

I find I do have compassion for both the victim and the attacker here, but what is the source of the compassion? Compassion grows out of our witnessing of the suffering that is encountered. For the victims, they have lost their lives, their family members, their friends and their sense of security. The compassion that flows from that is flavored by its source.

For the attacker, I do not have compassion for what they have done. In this fragile human reality, there can be no reasoning that excuses or justifies such action. But I feel compassion for the suffering mind, so caught in delusion that it sees and believes justification and righteousness in these heinous acts. The causes and conditions that led to the triggering of that mind are long and deep.

When I see such wanton loss of life, I feel a gravity that pulls me to the arms of my wife and children. The sorrow and compassion for what the victims have lost makes me want to hold those precious things which I have not yet lost.

When I see a mind so deep in the grip of delusion that it would lash out and kill others, I am reminded of my own dark corners. I am reminded that any thought than can be thought, my mind can think. And then, I feel the gravity that pulls me to the cushion. Grateful that I have this practice and ready to look at and acknowledge the poisons that rest in the hearts of all people. May they not find fertile soil in my mind.