Essays, Observing The World, -  Nov 02, 2024

Committed – Mountains and Waters Alliance Nov 2, 2024

Beloveds,

The United States has an election in just a few days, and we don’t know what will happen. Predictions are everywhere, but it is impossible to know. People are afraid.

We cling to the hope that our way of life will continue.

If you’re Buddhist, you may know that clinging is part of the causal chain that leads to suffering. If not, pay close attention and you can see it working.

Everything changes.

We do not know the future. Our actions have results, yet we can’t guarantee what those will be. This means that both despair and hubris are foolish wastes of energy. The future is unknown, and thus we can move into it with full hearts.

As I write today, November 2, 2024, the new moon has just passed and grows again. The turning known as Halloween, Samhain, All Souls’ Day, Day of the Dead, and other names throughout the world, honors the entry into dark and cold, fallow time, a rest for minds as well as farms. This year, storms and floods ravage places people thought were safe, climate change is undeniable, autumn finally turns cold. War rages, genocide expands, hate and fear flourish in the public realm. Night is like that, sometimes.

People have lived through such times before. Sometimes they return and thrive, sometimes they go forward reduced. As gently as I can, let me mention that our future must consume less than our present, yet every year we increase. (The alternative energy produced is simply being added to the supply demanded by our ravenous society for AI, internet, advertising, self-driving cars and other absurdities.) I encourage you to live in such a way that your well-being does not require increasing mining, child slaves, endless war, and the extermination of the wild. Please be ready to thrive without the gadgets. People have done so, everywhere before modern industrial society with its billionaires and without its soul.

There’s a political edge to all of this.

I’ve been reading and now listening to Timothy Snyder, who has studied authoritarian regimes for years, who wrote On Tyranny and now On Freedom. He’s both more worried and more hopeful than one might imagine. I recommend listening to this short talk now, before voting if you haven’t.

He says

“I lived in eastern Europe when memories of communism were fresh…. I have spent decades reading testimonies of people who lived under Nazi or Stalinist rule.  I have seen death pits, some old, some freshly dug. And I have friends who have lived under authoritarian regimes, including political prisoners and survivors of torture. Some of the people I trusted most have been assassinated.”

There are many voices of encouragement, and of sanity. I can’t post them all.

Please vote.

Remember to research issues and local candidates, before you find yourself without a local library, or with a school that censors original thinking. If you can find time to volunteer for someone who speaks your mind, please do it.

I’ll be working the polls on election day, and gathering with others for calm and support afterward. If there is violence after the election, know that there are people preparing for a strong and nonviolent action afterward, and if that’s needed, I’ll pass along what I know for those who want to help.

A few more things:

In the face of the Uncommitted Movement, which refused to vote for genocide and now seems to risk of electing a dictator – I propose a Committed Movement. These folks would promise to show up on Inauguration Day to pressure the new President Harris to stop funding genocide. Walking a fine line: (and it’s illegal for me to recommend a candidate anyway.) The whole thing doesn’t end with the election, it begins here. We can’t disappear.  Guess I’d better plan for a trip in January.

Sweet friends, please spend as much time in love and beauty as you possibly can. Join group prayer and meditation. Pray to whoever you like, or ground

yourself in the deep peace that sustains us all, or join me in asking for help from all our relatives whether forests or eagles, prairies or mice, even thunderstorms. There is an awakening happening. Don’t miss it by feeding the monster with fear or anger.

I’ll write again mid-November,

 

and that will include news, events and such. Right now I’ll just mention: Zen-style meditation on election day, online: November 15-17, work weekend here; December 1-8; December 21.  All the local events are described here. And there’s space for two residents, long-term or short-term.

Love and commitment,

Shodo