The atrocity at Wal-Mart this weekend left most of us stunned and somehow defensive. 'I wouldn't have pushed by the man...or his co-workers who were trying to help.....' It reminds me how upon hearing the story of St. Peter betraying Jesus with a kiss in the Garden of Gethsemane as a child I thought, 'I would never deny Jesus like Peter did'. Ironic, that even in my childish thinking I had a dark inkling that I had no idea what I would do/have done in those circumstances.
In Buddhism there's the apocryphal story of the disciples of Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) asking him how the cycles of existence started. Gautama firmly re-directs them by saying (very loose translation): you can spend all your time making money...you can spend all your love making time.... He tells them that they need to stay focused on the matter at hand---helping all sentient beings end their suffering by understanding the true nature of phenomena, thereby escaping the cycle of suffering and rebirth (saṃsāra). His words and actions were congruent: put our consciousness to work setting us free, not imprisoning us further with endless judgment, speculation and disgust.
We can spend all our time figuring out how such a painful thing as the trampled Wal-Mart worker can happen. Or we can get down to the matter at hand--we all have a fearful, trampling crowd of lemmings inside us.
And we all want to get the good deals--who knows if there will be more?
And of course, it's the need for more that is killing us 'and the horse we rode in on'.
Carl McColman over at Anamchara The Website of Unknowing has published an excellent post on this issue.
A quote from the post, with bolding mine:
The Rolling Stones once sang, “I shouted out, ‘Who killed the Kennedys?’ When after all, it was you and me.” Likewise, my friends, it was you and me who trampled to death that Wal-Mart employee in the midst of a Black Friday rush. We must avoid the temptation of seeing our culture as divided into consumerist goats and non-consumerist sheep. That just introduces another dualism into our lives, and solves nothing. We are all mad shoppers, we are all air and water polluters, we are all eagerly hypnotized by our baubles and trinkets while the world around us gasps in a fever. Read the rest of the post here: In Memory of the Trampled Wal-Mart Worker: A Contemplative Rant
What might the Buddha, the Awakened One, say to us about the Wal-Mart trampling? 'Keep looking for the trampling herd inside you. Observe your own monkey mind. All sentient beings' suffering arises from ignorance which disguises itself as desire, anger, stupidity. Let go of your ignorance. Stay awake.'
And, what would--no did--Jesus say? 'Take the beam out of your own eye so you can see more clearly to take the dust out of your brother's.'
Taking it in stride that we're all in the same boat--we're all some conglomeration of both 'consumerist goat and non-consumerist sheep'--we're a mess. We're trapped, botched and bungled.
On a spiritual level, we are all 'desperados', our culture is desperado. The things that are pleasing us are hurting us...for sure. And we're desperately needing something we can't get at Wal-Mart. The only positive out of this morass is that our pain and our hunger are driving us home. We better let somebody love us (our future and past selves? ) before it's too late.
Desperado, why don't you come to your senses
You've been out ridin' fences,
For so long - now.
Ohh you're a hard one.
I know that you've got your reasons.
These things that are pleasin' you
Can hurt you somehow.
Don't you draw the queen of diamonds boy
She'll beat you if she's able.
You know the queen of hearts is always your best bet.
Now it seems to me, some fine things
Have been laid upon your table.
But you only want the ones
That you can't get.
Desperado,
Ohhhh you ain't getting no younger.
Your pain and your hunger,
They're driving you home.
And freedom, ohh freedom.
Well that's just some people talking.
Your prison is walking through this world all alone.
Don't your feet get cold in the winter time?
The sky won't snow and the sun won't shine.
It's hard to tell the night time from the day.
And you're losing all your highs and lows
Ain't it funny how the feeling goes
Away...
Desperado,
Why don't you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate.
It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you.
You better let somebody love you.
(let somebody love you)
You better let somebody love you...
Before it's too late.
I'm sure I slaughtered what the Buddha might have said about this incident. But I copied the Eagles' lyrics word for word...so maybe I did get the Buddha right... translated for our desperado-days.
Redemption, as ever, is in the ashes of our desperation. What we're wanting is to find our place on the earth, in harmony with our species and all sentient beings. We have passed the point of no-return, I believe--and there's something strangely lightening about that. Like there's now hope, even as we crumble. We've got to take it to the limit...one more time.
Eagles Farewell Tour 2008, Take it to the Limit
The Virtual Tea House website became 'word-ripe' when, over a cup of jasmine green, I realized that the web has an expanding part to play in the communal aspects of spiritual growth.
With a master's degree in religion, my career spans 20 years in end of life care and I currently work in the field of child abuse intervention and advocacy.
Here in beautiful Central Oregon, my spiritual homes of the high desert and the mountains are both in proximity. And for good measure, four hours away is Grandmother Ocean and the stunning Oregon Coast.
I'm making decent progress on the goal set by my mother early on: she taught us that the goal of humanity should be to become ever-more eccentric, i.e. more fully human.
Entering the 'forest-dweller' phase of life, I am honored to host the Virtual Tea House for all who wish to explore how our lives are enriched and made new a thousand times each day by the spirituality we embody. Exploring this engagement together is the purpose of the Virtual Tea House.
Welcome! Let's have a cup of virtual tea together and share what brings us joy, what we are being taught by life, how we are leaning into the Big Questions posed to us each day in sometimes 'distressing disguises'.