Lest We Blame Others

Somewhere recently I read the story of how the writer had awakened to his role in the Exxon Valdez oil spill, considered to be one of the most devastating man-made environmental disasters ever to occur at sea. The writer of the story had flown to Europe to attend a conference for his work. He had gone for dinner at a nearby restaurant where he was having a drink while waiting for a table. On the television over the bar, he saw the news report that the Exxon Valdez had run aground in Alaska and of how her oil was rapidly spilling out into the remote and pristine Prince William Sound.

The news reporter said it was reported that the captain had been drinking and left the ship in the control of a third mate and that this was believed to have been the cause of the shipping disaster. But the writer, looking in the mirror over the bar, looked into his own eyes and saw only himself. And he realized that he had also contributed to this disaster.

He had flown to Europe in a plane powered by petroleum. Every day he drove alone in his car to the office where he worked. Many of the products he purchased were petroleum based and all were delivered to the store in trucks run on petroleum. As he gazed into his own eyes in that mirror above the bar, he found that he was to blame as well. If he did not fly, drive, and consume so much then Exxon and the other oil companies wouldn't be transporting so much petroleum and increasing the risk for such terrible tragedies.

This story came back to me when I read about the bush fires earlier this month in Victoria, Australia. There were reports of arsonists having started some of the fires in which 210 people have now died, uncountable animals were burned to death or severely injured and hectares burned. Arsonists, drought, almost no rain in the last few months, record-breaking temperatures were all cited as possible causes, but the very real possibility of arsonists seemed to catch much of the public's attention. One man who was arrested as a possible arsonist had to be moved to another location for his own safety. People were understandably shocked and infuriated that human beings could have deliberately set some of the fires. Then on February 20th, ABC News, Australia, reported  that "the Climate Institute and firefighters say Victoria's blazes were the result of climate change."

There have always been mentally-unbalanced people who set fires, but this time it was different. This time there was a twelve-year drought that resulted in the highest fire risk rating recorded in Victoria, if not Australia.

It wasn't just arsonists. It wasn't just bush fires as usual in Australia. It wasn't just a freak coming together of high winds and little rain.

It was us. Every one of us. Every one of us who flies or drives or takes a train. Every one of us who uses electricity to heat or cool their home, who eats meat or dairy products produced on a factory farm, who buys toys and clothing and technological marvels made somewhere else, who shops at a supermarket and buys food that has traveled an average of 1500-2000 miles to get to the store. Every one of us who consumes more than our fair share.

We have each contributed to Black Saturday.

We are each to blame.

But I Deserve It!

Our grandparents and great-grandparents knew the value of the goods they used and the food they ate. Very often they produced one or the other or even both. So they knew the foolhardiness of waste and superfluous production. They knew the value of money because without hard physical work, they wouldn’t have any. They knew to conserve what they had and to put away for the lean years and emergencies. And they knew that to help their children and grandchildren, they themselves needed to make sacrifices; and this they did out of love.

But it’s tough to grow a country and have a powerful military if people are too focused on living conservatively and producing only what is needed. With the growth of the media—newspapers and magazines, radio, television, the Internet—politicians and businesspeople found a way to entice people to consume more. If you want to remain in power or you want to rapidly increase your company’s bottom line, you must convince citizen consumers that prosperity is about to be theirs. And although they themselves do not yet have enough prosperity, they are within reach of it and if they just keep consuming more, they will get there.

But the problem was that if honorable people who had always lived conservatively and close to the land saw the destruction of that land or of natural resources and the utter neglect of human rights, they might ask difficult questions. They would ask what kind of a world they were leaving for their children, what would happen to moral values, how could growth go on forever, were the farmers and workers receiving fair wages? And so it became necessary for consumers to be increasingly removed from the reality of what the true costs of their consumption was.

Consequently, mining was done in regions where people did not have the political power or financial security to ask difficult questions. Forests were cut down and cleared away for the farms, which were in turn sold and concreted over for suburban housing. Animals were born, raised, and killed in closed buildings where those who were to eat them never saw the suffering or filthy conditions the animals were subjected to. Garbage was removed and buried where citizens couldn’t see it. Potable water was made readily and inexpensively available so people wouldn’t think to ask if the seemingly endless stream would always be available. Or if everyone had enough.

Television, with its mesmerizing plethora of flashing images, became a primary tool in refocusing consumer’s attention. Viewers, now addicted to that screen, avidly watched “reality television,” which bore absolutely no resemblance to the reality of over two-thirds of the world's population who were living near those mines, factory farms, and garbage dumps.

How much of a hold does television have on us?

Nielsen Media Research reported that during the 2005-2006 television year, the average American watched television four hours and thirty-five minutes a day. That equates to 20,000 commercials a year! Anyone who has been in a room with a television turned on knows how difficult it is to not look at it. The best hope for abstaining in such a room is to face away from the screen. This of course becomes increasingly difficult as the screens are becoming as large as some walls in those rooms.

And so we have our world today, a world in which materialism has become the new “Holy Grail,” a world where people are more removed from the reality of what it takes to support their material cravings than ever before. A world in which people have become so focused on gratifying themselves, they have largely stopped asking about the costs to those they share the planet with and the planet itself, and even their own children. A world in which people are at great risk of blithely sailing through life, clueless about the havoc they are creating.

Even good people, caring people, get caught up in the living of life without thinking, without accepting the responsibility to learn how their choices impact others. Even good people can tell themselves that it's okay to indulge themselves, okay to take more than they need, okay to not think of the consequences of their decisions. Even good people can fall into the trap of telling themselves that it's okay because they deserve it.

To which a question arises—what about the others who also "deserve it"?

Personal Responsibility

Perhaps one of the most memorable statements I heard during the summit was:

"People have a responsibility to act on their own and not wait for instructions on what to do."

Maybe it was due to the context that occurred to me, but I was particularly struck when I heard this. While it is doubtless comforting to leave everything up to someone else, especially someone who is wise and we rightly respect, we still remain responsible for our own actions. And it is our responsibility to do what is right.

As long as we are part of this world, it is our responsibility to be informed about it. It is our responsibility to investigate and ask questions, and then apply the moral principles we have learned to decide whether or not to do something or how to do it. This is why we study and examine those moral principles, to be able to use basic truths--for example, do not harm--in new situations. But if we remain uninformed, we will not even realize the harm we are doing. So we cannot wait for someone to provide us with instructions for every situation we encounter. We need to educate ourselves and accept our responsibilities.

The Interfaith Summit

I’d like to share with you some of my favorite comments that came out of the interfaith summit.

 Unity not uniformity

Interfaith dialogue could be the movement

from tolerance to understanding to respect to love.

Before we are a faith,

we are a people.

I was expecting to meet Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

Instead, I met people.

“When you pray, first move your feet.”

As people of faith, we need to engage with the world.

Religions are a means to an end,

not the end in themselves.

In meditation, as we move within,

boundaries will drop away and we will find ourselves without and one with everything.

Be relentless in the pursuit of compassion.

Gossiping

• From the perspective of practice, the major problem of criticizing others is not “whether he is in fact wrong and I am right,” but the fact that our ears and eyes are already making judgments and our minds are closed to everything but our own perceptions. Further, we are creating negative karma through the incipience of our ideas and depriving ourselves of merits. Therefore, our six sensual organs are like six thieves, and the purpose of practice is to prevent them from wildly pursuing the sense objects so that we can close the door to vexation. We should train our ears not to crave for pleasant melodies; eyes, agreeable surroundings; nose, fragrance; mouth, tasty food; and train our minds to be free of discrimination. Then we can concentrate on reciting the Buddha’s name and the sutras, performing prostration, sitting meditation, and other practices that will liberate us from the cycle of birth and death. If we keep up these practices, how could we have the time and the mood to pursue external distractions, or to comment on how others behave?
• If you criticize others and your mind is disturbed or vexed by it, you would have no one but yourself to blame. Do not be judgmental of what others do: be tolerant. Then, not only will you enjoy peace of mind but will avoid creating negative karma through your words. This is the first and utmost important principle in practice. Remember: “Act according to (rather than against) circumstances, forbear everything, then enjoy peace of mind.” This is the best antidote for a troubled mind.
• Don’t say that there are good people and evil ones. All judgments are but distinctions made by our minds. To those who really know how to practice, all sentient beings are helpful mentors.

~ Analects of Master Kuang-ch'in