If rallies are the new brunch, then I partook twice on Tax Day. I had long planned to attend the afternoon Tax Day rally on the Cambridge Common to insist that Pres. Trump disclose his tax returns. Then a friend asked if I would like to go to a morning rally in resistance to the Keystone XL pipeline. The protest would urge people to divest from and close their accounts with TD Bank, one of four banks funding TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL Pipeline.
I went to both.
The day could not have been more beautiful, with the forsythia in full bloom in front of the bank. After opening prayers and sharing the scent of sweetgrass burning in a jar, we stationed ourselves with signs near the TD bank at the Alewife Brook Parkway Shopping Center in Cambridge.
There, we took turns leading call and response chants and swayed to Native American music. Responses to our signs and our chanting were generally positive, often enthusiastically so. Joggers, bicyclists, and people driving cars often gave us a thumbs-up or a shout-out. We concluded the rally with further prayers for Mother Earth, for the water protectors, and for the ultimate success of climate activism.
After a quick lunch I was off to Cambridge Common, where thousands were assembled, including a sizable contingent of Veterans for Peace with their flags waving beautifully in the breeze.
The excellent master of ceremonies was Michael Connolly , the newly elected brilliant state representative for parts of Cambridge and Somerville. I had heard Michael a few years earlier when he was running for Cambridge City Council, and was very disappointed when he didn’t win. A short time later he ran for state representative with the support of Our Revolution , the Bernie Sanders spin-off group that provided funds and especially volunteers. Michael is now waking up the state legislature with his important insights, wit, and drive.
Speakers argued in favor of a People’s Budget, rather than the military-heavy budget we now have, support for those who have been incarcerated, and strengthening public education against the threat of privatization. A message from Martin Luther King’s speech of just over 50 years agowas invoked: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
Wonderful signs abounded, including one with pictures of Putin and Trump reading “Married, filing jointly.”
Speakers pointed out that during Republican President Eisenhower’s administration, the top tax rate was 90%. What could we do today if we had that kind of money from billionaires and wealthy corporations? Instead, they do not pay taxes at all, trillions of dollars are stashed away in tax shelters, the poor and middle class are compelled to pay more, and essential services decline.
Babies, children on their parents’ shoulders, and adorable dogs added to the joy of the day. At one point a red-tailed hawk flew gracefully close to me, landing in a nearby tree, then took wing again and circled over the crowd. Perhaps it was curious at this remarkable gathering of humans.
I stayed a bit longer, sharing a wonderful time of solidarity with those around me. I left feeling strengthened for another week in the Era of Trump.
There is now clearly a battle for the soul of civilization. Civility is losing, but there is still hope. The battle might be titled: “The Dalai Lama versus The New World Disorder.”
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama – spiritual leader of Tibet, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize – is the most famous person on the planet. Not since Muhammad Ali has a single individual been so recognized and admired on every continent as a global voice for sanity, equality, and peace.
The Dali Lama offers the world “a common religion of kindness.” His offer is urgent because our survival depends on awakening from – in James Joyce’s all too apt depiction – “the nightmare of history.” The Dalai Lama reminds us that Martin Luther King was right: “Wealth, poverty, racism, and war – these four always go together.” That means so does their solution. Meanwhile, religion is all too often used as a shibboleth upon which to hang justifications for violence.
So, as the world becomes just too absurd, more people realize: It is better to swim against the current than to be swept over a cliff. The Dalai Lama represents a Renaissance of The Renaissance. A reawakening to life’s enchanting beauty, with peace as the only sure foundation for creative evolution.
The word Buddha means “awake.” Tenzin Gyatso is awake to Buddhist common sense. Enlightened self-interest is taking care of each other and the planet.
Compassion is the path to wisdom, and the fruit of wisdom.
Wisdom and compassion – the “two wings” of Buddhism – find expression in Buckminster Fuller’s observation: “There are no passengers on spaceship earth; we are all members of the crew.” Hence Martin Luther King again: “We must choose between non-violence and non-existence.”
How is it that Tenzin Gyatso, one of the world’s most broken-hearted individuals, is also one of the world’s most equanimitous and cheerful? The answer is partly that Buddhism always involves paradox, and partly that “awakening” is rooted in love-wisdom as the “strong force” of the universe.
Tibetan sage Chogyam Trungpa said: “Buddhism is all about recollecting the sanity we were born with.” That sanity is the jewel in the lotus at the heart of every human; it rings the bell of truth; and it sings with joy and creativity.
The battle for the soul of civilization appears to be reaching a breaking point. Those in control of The New World Disorder – the super-rich, directing the levers of power – consolidate their wealth with armed force. Economic apartheid is the world’s great divide. Modern industrial culture – profit-driven business as usual – cannot survive the strain.
Mike Marqusee, author of astute biographies of Muhammad Ali and Bob Dylan, was prescient: “The battles of the Sixties may someday come to seem merely a skirmish in a war whose real dimensions we have yet to comprehend.”
Must the absurdity of modernity be nothing more than a tragic opera ending in a sea of blood? No, says a global mind change at work, demanding sanity and reform.
The Dalai Lama is a symbol for a great awakening. His message embodies the heart of the Torah; a social gospel of The Golden Rule.
Exiled by Chinese conquistadores from his native Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso offers the world a timely version of Buddha’s political philosophy. That philosophy has edifying overlaps with Socrates, Taoism, Thomas Merton, and social democracy. Worth investigating, don’t you think?
To understand the courage of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the risks he took on behalf of civil rights, peace, and social justice. it is helpful to recognize the moral engagement embodied in all his efforts and eloquently expressed in his speeches. [Continued from January 16, 2017.)
Engaging in morally principled reasoning: “We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.”
Realistic language/ Telling it like it is: “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.
Addressing consequences of violence: “That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.”
Identifying better alternatives: “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.” “We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.”
Moral agency/accepting responsibility: “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”
And the greatest of these is moral agency. That is the force that moved MLK and other great moral leaders in their pursuit of peace and social justice. It will carry hearts and souls significantly further and shore up mental and physical health in a far more lasting way than will hatred and vengeance.