Speaking and listening

Thirteen people met and meditated, spoke, listened, asked questions, ate lunch, did a little Qi Gong together, and came to a few conclusions:

Mostly, we agree. None of us wants to add violence to violence, but we don't believe we have the right to tell others how they must act. Some of us will stand with Antifa; some of us won't. We want to continue building relationships with other activists, continue holding public meditations, continue creatively to act in concert with the large community of people who want to prevent harm to others, now and for future generations.

We know we may not live long enough to see the fruits of our actions, but we remain hopeful that our actions will bear fruit. We embrace doing what we can to dismantle white supremacy and to rescue the planet from exploitation and greed. We may not all agree on how best to do that, but we agree on our aims and values, expressed through the ten paramis (also called paramitas or perfections):

Generosity (dana)
Moral conduct (sila)
Renunciation (nekkhamma)
Wisdom (paññā)
Energy (viriya)
Patience (khanti)
Truthfulness (sacca)
Determination (adhitthana)
Loving-kindness (metta)
Equanimity (upekkha).

The workshop ended at 3:30 p.m., and at 4 p.m. Sue and I needed to be across town at a play rehearsal. The author of the play is Som Subedi, and I've changed my photo for the day from a rather lack-luster one of the workshop, to a thoughtful portrait of Som. He is a Bhutanese refugee, which means he and other Bhutanese, like many Rohingya people from Myanmar, have been exiled from their homeland and their people by Buddhists engaging in "ethnic cleansing." It is helpful to remember that in every spiritual group, there are people who live by the principles (above) and those who do not--those who are as subject to prejudice, greed, and "othering," as if they had not grown up with those principles.