From The Editor Archives: 9 /11/02

The Anniversary of 9-11: A Buddhist Approach

We're coming up to the anniversary of 9-11 — the destruction of the World Trade Center and the other terrorist attacks. Approaching this from Buddhist and Taoist perspectives is
very important, I believe, and instructive to people in general. It's all too easy for one to get caught up in hatred and thoughts of revenge and returning hatred with hatred.

If one would walk a Buddhist path to Ground Zero it would be with mindfulness and compassion. There would be mindfulness that all things rise and fall, joys and sorrow alike; there would be gratitude for the lives of those who died and the joys they brought to others. And there would be compassion, for those who died and the widening circles of family, friends, acquaintances, other New Yorkers, and other citizens of this country, and of the world, who were affected by their deaths. And how could one not have compassion for the terrorists themselves who suffered at their own hands — who blinded themselves to all but their deeds and its preparations, who moved freely in host countries — open societies — among people who trusted them, leaving destruction and deceit in their wake? As the terrorists literally consumed themselves with their own hatred, they created new waves of suffering in their wake.

It's too easy to return hatred with hatred, particularly as war preparation seems to be growing here for an American attack on Iraq. We should consider and learn from the Tibetans, so brutally killed, as their country was ravaged by mainland China. There was no Tibetan Liberation Army. With Buddhism permeating native religions, the Tibetan people and the clergy did not return hatred for hatred, blow for blow. They understood that they would be creating spirals of suffering for other living beings, even for those beings who were their killers and destroyers of their country's very life. Instead, the Dalai Lama and many other Tibetans left their country to spread the Buddhist dharma to the West, in a peaceful manner.

The US is a world power, and clearly has a different place in world history than Tibet. But if Buddhist truths are universal, they apply to all people of all nations. These truths are that we should understand karma — how actions begets action. Therefore, we should always try to act wisely and with compassion toward all humans and other sentient beings, with the interests of the many in our hearts and minds, and not the interests of the few. The rise of Islamic extremism and of Al-Qaeda could certainly be examined in this context. And so too should the nationalism and imperalist policies of the world powers likewise be examined.

To kill another living being dispassionately and not filled with hatred, is in some way preferable to killing when one is filled with rage. This may be the way of a Taoist or Zen warrior or even of a hired killer. But such a path, I believe, does not lead one up the mountain of discriminating wisdom and compassion toward all living beings, nor does it necessarily lead to the destruction of bad karma. History goes on its way, with its spirals and seeming detours, and evil is often engaged and defeated at great cost for the sake of a greater good — one thinks of Lincoln, the abolition of slavery and the killing of millions in the Civil War, and also of the war by the Allies against Nazi Germany and the Axis powers. The American-led invasion of Afghanistan after 9-11 to search for bin-Laden, destroy Al-Qaida bases, and remove the Taliban from state power could also be viewed in this context of a just war.

I don't believe that Buddhism is necessarily pacifistic. But there are degrees of attachment and non-attachment, even to life, and degrees of strength in one's resolve to not add to injurious karma. For nations to pursue wars — whether aggressive or defensive wars, or just or unjust — involves tremendous suffering for all concerned. Instead of war, or guerrilla war, the Tibetan people as a collective chose the path of peaceful, non-violent protest. To choose peace and not war, to turn the other cheek, and be willing to die rather than fight and inflict pain and new cycles of violence for the sake of peace, are certainly not actions that most people could do. But we could try to capture something of the Buddhist spirit of non-violence of the Tibetan people in our own lives — being aware of hatred as it arises in the mind, watching these thoughts and feelings rise and fall, as do all of our thoughts and feelings; being non-attached to things and events as we could have them be; being attached to selflessness, to doing good, to not perpetuating destructive karma, and to acting compassionately and with reverence toward all living beings.

May we approach the anniversary of 9-11 with these things in mind. I also offer our Golden Lantern readers a poem I wrote a month or so after the event itself, as the first submission to our 9-11 Memorial Page. Dave and I would value your feedback and
thoughts on 9-11, in letters to the Editor, and in prose commentaries or in poems, approaching this tragedy from a Buddhist and/or Taoist perspective, as I have tried to do.

May all beings be happy, peaceful, and free from suffering.

— Paul Dolinsky