Thomas Paine – Engaging Peace

The Things We Carry Still. Part II

Posted on February 15, 2019February 14, 2019 by kathiemm

by Stefan Schindler

Members of Desert Lenten Experience hold a prayer vigil during the Easter period of 1982 at the entrance to the Nevada Test Site. Their sign reads “They will beat their swords into plowshares.” In the public domain. Author: National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office

Will we ever turn our swords into plowshares? The question haunts us still.

The kings of caprice cast shadows on the wall, and thereby turn us all into victims of their elephantiastical delusions. Plato’s cave . The matrix of manipulation. The self-crucifixion of what passes for civilization. A crime so horrific Thomas Merton calls it “the unspeakable.” Yet John Lennon spoke its polymorphous perversity with scorching clarity: “They torture and scare you for twenty odd years, then they expect you to pick a career.”

It’s been said that memory and imagination are what make humans human. If that’s true, then what we are – and what we do – is a function of what we remember and what we imagine. Difficult indeed to remember what one has never heard or read. Even more difficult, then, to imagine what could be.

Jean-Paul Sartre said: “A writer has a place in his age. Each word has an echo, as does each silence.”

Faulkner said: “The past is not dead. It’s not even past.”

Dylan said: “He not busy being born is busy dying.”

Thomas Paine said: “These are the times that try men’s souls.”

We are all on trial now. Jeremiah’s prophetic warning was never more relevant: “You shall reap the whirlwind.”

“The Wasteland” is not just a poem by T.S. Eliot; nor merely a medieval legend, best portrayed in Parsifal’s quest for the Holy Grail. The Wasteland is our fate, unless we change our ways. The Weapons of Mass Destruction that threaten our collective survival are matched in power only by the Weapons of Mass Dysfunction which turn humans into lemmings stampeding toward the cliff.

Chogyam Trungpa invites us to “recollect the sanity we were born with.” To do so is to break the chains of illusion which cripple both memory and imagination.

Martin Luther King said: “We must choose between nonviolence and nonexistence.”

To be or not to be – the choice is ours. To educate or ignorate – that is the question. Courage of conscience is our only hope.

TOWARD 2020 AND BEYOND

Posted on January 17, 2019January 17, 2019 by kathiemm

by Stefan Schindler

The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love. – William Sloane Coffin

Engaging Peace has a “comments” section that occasionally inspires stimulating dialogue. The editor of Engaging Peace has invited me to share my reflections on recent comments on my posts in, as it were, a main-page post.

I can’t see governments, including our own, fading away anytime soon (as Karl Marx hoped and predicted). Nor do I see in the near future a triumph of the proletariat, on either a national or global basis, establishing a civil civilization – a culture in which swords have been turned into plowshares, misogyny and racism at last relics of the past, and the common good of humanity resting on a firm foundation as cooperation takes precedence over competition. But I am not without hope that something sane, humane, and glorious may emerge from the mess we are now in.

America’s national redemption must come from the people, and their Judeo-Christian-Bodhisattva good-works on a daily and enduring basis. For me, that also means perpetual self-educating, increasingly honest socio-political discourse, and electing leaders brave enough to shatter the status quo. Embracing Thich Nhat Hanh’s notion that “To be is to inter-be,” I believe that love is the heartbeat at the core of our identity, and that, therefore, agape – universal brother-sisterhood – is our prime obligation as being-in-the-world-with-others, which Martin Buber expressed as “I and Thou.”

I believe that educated citizen activism is our best hope for survival. Given what’s left of our endangered democratic choices, that includes an obligation to vote for what is usually and clearly “the lesser evil.” For example, I believe that if Jimmy Carter had had a second term as president, the Reagan-Bush packing of the Supreme Court with Republican ideologues would not have happened; and, therefore, the judicial coup d’état in December of 2000 (the Supreme Court cancellation of further vote-counting, and their unconstitutional appointment of George W. Bush as president) would not have occurred.

I also believe that if Al Gore had assumed his rightful place in the White House, 9/11 would not have happened (with its subsequent multi-trillion dollar wars on the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, constituting yet another of America’s “crimes against humanity”).

Also – and of profound importance! – President Gore (having already published his book Earth in the Balance) would have transformed America into a leading light in the world’s long overdue attempt to rectify destruction of the biosphere, and confront, with all due pragmatism and rapidity, the globally increasing dangers of climate change.

In short, who sits in the White House, in Congress, and on the Supreme Court, does make a difference. Yes, the system is rigged; but we can – with intelligence and determination – mitigate the damage, and by voting wisely, perhaps steer the ship of state toward democratic ecosocialism, fiscal pragmatism, economic security, and lifelong health-care and education for all.

Change will not come without intense struggle. We are in a battle for the soul of our nation, and I shudder to think that Thomas Paine and Martin Luther King lived and died in vain. The Bill of Rights is increasingly threatened, but it is hardly obsolete, and it is certainly worth preserving.

I do not know if we will, collectively, survive the next 50 years. I suspect that “civilization” as we now know it will indeed collapse. But I also believe that we have a socio-political obligation to steer a path through the trauma to a brighter global culture for all future generations.

We are blessed to live in a society where freedom of speech still exists, where the right to vote still offers hope, and where protest has not yet become a crime.

So I’ll end here with a potent, poignant, intentionally satiric and ironic quote:

Oh no! [Fox News] has discovered our vast conspiracy to take care of children and save the planet. – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; newly elected Democratic member of the House of Representatives.

ODE TO THE HUMBLE-KING

Posted on April 4, 2018May 11, 2018 by kathiemm

Martin Luther King nominating Thich Nhat Hanh for the
Nobel Peace Prize.In the public domain.

By Stefan Schindler

Note from Kathie MM: Today, tragically, is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., whose courageous leadership on behalf of peace and social justice has been receiving renewed attention this year on this blog and elsewhere. Today, please immerse yourself in this new ode to the King from Stefan Schindler.

ODE TO THE HUMBLE-KING

“Wealth, poverty, racism, and war. These four

always go together,” said Martin Luther King.

His words ring with urgency and truth,

as we applaud the awakening of youth

from the nightmare of parents in the voting booth

choosing more of the same: carnival of greed,

devoid of shame; goes by the name “land of the free,

home of the brave,” but is in fact Plato’s cave.

“He not busy being born is busy dying,” said Dylan.

And yet, “toy guns that spark” will never kill

the “flesh-colored Christ that glows in the dark”

who still teaches compassion. “There are no passengers

on spaceship earth,” said Buckminster Fuller.

“We are all members of the crew.” This is something

John and Robert Kennedy knew. John Lennon too.

Meanwhile, the dream … is not over. We continue to …

Imagine: a Peaceable Kingdom on earth, free of strife;

where music … is the medicine of life.

These are, indeed, “times that try men’s souls,”

Thomas Paine declared, not really all that long ago,

when the country was young, and sought to be free

from the oppressive grip of tyranny. And now it falls

upon you and me to keep the faith, shine the light;

keep the fires of peace and justice shining bright

for all to see; as Buddha did on Eagle’s Peak.

Yes, we seek: the triumph and the glory of The Good:

planetary peace at last, in a spirit of … universal …

brother-sisterhood. I believe we can; I believe we will;

inspired by the life of Martin Luther King, whose words

still sing, and legacy still … shines like the sun.

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.

Spreading, now, the Golden Fleece upon the beach

that is the shore to the dream come true, we know who

carried the torch and lit The Way. Each day,

what a sight! Precious, with beauty and delight.

In the sacred hoop of the Peace Abbey School

of Life Experience, gathered in Unitarian ring,

we celebrate Gaia, Gandhi, Romero,

and remain inspired by … the spirit of

Martin Luther King.

Stefan Schindler; Peace Abbey Cottage Celebration of the Life and Legacy of Martin Luther King; The Life Experience School; Millis, Massachusetts; April 4, 2018.

Stefan is co-founder of The National Registry for Conscientious Objection, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, a recipient of The Boston Baha’i Peace Award, and a Trustee of The Life Experience School and Peace Abbey Foundation, Dr. Stefan Schindler received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston College, worked one summer in a nature preserve, lived in a Zen temple for a year, did the pilot’s voice in a claymation video of St. Exupery’s The Little Prince, acted in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” and performed as a musical poet in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York City. He also wrote The Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Awards for Howard Zinn and John Lennon. He is now semi-retired and living in Salem, Massachusetts. His books include The Tao of Socrates, America’s Indochina Holocaust, Discoursing with the Gods, and Space is Grace; his forthcoming book is Buddha’s Political Philosophy.

Socrates, Buddha, and Thomas Paine

Posted on September 29, 2017October 5, 2017 by kathiemm

An Illustration of the Golden Rule by Norman Rockwell used as the cover of the April 1, 1961 edition of the Saturday Evening Post. In the public domain.

by Stefan Schindler

The failure of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to embody their ownmost message of peace partly contributes to the increasing appeal of Buddhism in today’s postmodern war-torn world. Also, there is something absurd – counterproductive, self-defeating, and morally obscene – about the profit motive that is the engine of war. We must put a stop to that engine, before it puts a catastrophic stop to us all.

Transforming swords into plowshares, peace is the fertile soil for the world our children deserve; where schools are gardens of learning and the streets are daily bedecked with festivals, fairs, and creative arts; where cooperation has primacy over competition; where truth and goodness combine to produce beauty for both young and old.

Such is the Buddhist social democratic vision for a peaceable kingdom, offered to the world in what the Dalai Lama calls “a common religion of kindness.” Practical; peaceful; communal. Guided by Socratic dialogue and debate; where “virtue is pursuit of virtue.” Guided by what Thomas Paine called “common sense” and “the rights of man.”

To recall what Chogyam Trungpa calls “the sanity we were born with,” is to embrace voluntary simplicity, lifelong learning, and compassionate service.

It is to take the heart of the Torah – the Golden Rule – and make it the guiding light of an awakening culture: a culture committed to an ethic of universal brother-sisterhood.

It is to recognize that to be is to interbe. That individual authenticity is a function of learning, self-discovery, creative evolution, and service to community.

The word “Buddha” means “awake.” James Joyce daily prayed that he “awaken from the nightmare of history.” Social democratic Buddhism – also called Engaged Buddhism – shows a path out of Plato’s cave.

Buddha’s “Eightfold Path” includes “right vocation.” Right vocation exhibits right thinking, right speaking, right intention, right action – for all of which, the guiding maxim is: “Do no harm.” Buddhism is therapeutic; and the world is much in need of healing.

Was it merely coincidence that the Spirit of The Sixties combined with the introduction of Buddhism to the West to plant the seeds of peace and love which still remain our best hope for a global civilization rooted in creative evolution?

Echoing the saints and sages of the ages, and their mythic tales of archetypes, Jean Houston forty years ago invited us to embrace the Aquarian challenge of “the possible human.” She invoked William Blake; and she embodied the pioneering spirit of Joseph Campbell, Buckminster Fuller, and Teilhard de Chardin.

Today, Richard Oxenberg invokes the spirit of John Lennon when he asks us to imagine “meanings beyond words to speak … where divinity graces humanity … agapic God of a thousand names and no adequate name … where the holy is healing and wholeness.”

Freedom from is freedom for. The enlightenment journey begins with disengagement from society’s Weapons of Mass Dysfunction, resounding through the land in what Howard Zinn called “declarations of independence.”

The enlightenment journey proceeds along what Carlos Castaneda calls “a path with heart.”

The enlightenment journey opens to the realization that the meaning of life is learning and service.

The two wings of Buddhism are wisdom and compassion. Wisdom and compassion are the twin roots of the tree of life of a culture that is civil, civilized, and awake.

Co-founder of The National Registry for Conscientious Objection, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, a recipient of The Boston Baha’i Peace Award, and a Trustee of The Life Experience School and Peace Abbey Foundation, Dr. Stefan Schindler received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston College, worked one summer in a nature preserve, lived in a Zen temple for a year, did the pilot’s voice in a claymation video of St. Exupery’s The Little Prince, acted in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” and performed as a musical poet in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York City. He also wrote The Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Awards for Howard Zinn and John Lennon. He is now semi-retired and living in Salem, Massachusetts. His books include The Tao of Socrates, America’s Indochina Holocaust, Discoursing with the Gods, and Space is Grace; his forthcoming book is Buddha’s Political Philosophy.