Fw: Middle East& Non -Violence

[Guest guest]

(Sharing parts from a longer post. Gloria)

 

Brother,

 

If you can recall the Vietnam War..

During the merciless war, many scenes of altruism were reported:

monks and nuns were sitting calmly before advancing tanks; women and

children raising their bare hands against barbed wire and bayonets;

students confronting military police; youths running through

clouds of tear gas; mothers with babies in their arms caught in

btw gun fire; hunger strikes held silently and stoically; monks

and nuns burning themselves to death to try to be heard above

the rattling sound of machine guns and rumbling tanks.

 

Here is a true story. On one spring day when a team of 18 Buddhist

monks/nuns attempted to evacuate about 200 civilians trapped in a

combat zone. A participant described what happened:

 

"The idea was to form 2 lines of Buddhist monks/nuns in yellow

robes and lead the civilians out of the war zone. They asked me

to carry a big Buddhist flag so that combatants of both sides

would not shoot at us. A nun was quite badly wounded by stray

bullets. The trip lasted terribly long, as we had to stop many

times, lying down on the streets and waiting for the shooting

to lessen b4 continuing. We left the district early in the

morning, but arrived in Pleiku only after dark. And what a bad

time for arrival! It was a time for the rockets. Pleiku was

shelled. Unfortunately, we were very close to a military camp,

and one rocket fell upon us, wounding 7 of us. Children and

women kept crying. We asked everyone to lie down and tried our

best to help those who had been struck by the rocket.

 

The most wonderful thing that happened that day is that we went

through both Saigon and NFL soldiers but none of us was shot at.

Had we not carried the Buddhist symbol I do not know what would

have happened. It seemed that as soon as they saw and recognized

us, they immediately showed their respect for life."

 

On that day and on many other occasions, Vietnamese Buddhists

parted the red sea of blood that was flooding their land. They

displayed the equanimity, the courage and altruism of peace

makers. Rather than feeling the rage, they saw the soldiers

as thoughtful and kind, acknowledging them for their ability to

respect life even in the midst of war.

 

"The term "engaged Buddhism" refers to this kind of active

involvement by Buddhists in society and its problems to

actualize Buddhism's traditional idealism of wisdom and compassion

in today's world. In times of war or intense hostility, they will

place themselves btw the factions, literally or figuratively."

.... Kenneth Kraft

 

Thich Nhat Hanh writes: "We need such a person to inspire us

with calm and confidence, to tell us what to do. Who is that

person? The later Buddhist sutras tell us that you are that person.

If you are yourself, if you are your best, then you are that

person. Only with such a person - calm, lucid, aware, will

our situation improve."

 

"Because personal peace is connected with world peace on a

fundamental level, we cannot meaningfully 'work for peace'

as long as we feel upset, angry or confrontational. Non-

violence is a day to day experience." ... Kenneth Kraft.

 

 

with metta and both palms together,

brother yick