Jack Kornfield: Tending Ourselves, We Tend the World; Tending the World, We Tend Ourselves

With Jack Kornfield and friends Olivia and Jenn at one of Jack's events,

-  "The Psychology of the Awakened Heart" -

Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon, April 21st, 2013

The below is excerpted from Jack Kornfield's book,

"The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology."

I share this not because anyone need be Buddhist. Rather because these principles

hold a depth of wisdom that transcends any religious dogma and moves deeply

into the roots of awakening, consciousness, compassion and kindness,

and living the peace we all wish to see in the world. Blessed be. ♥ Molly

***************

This is a twenty-third principle of Buddhist psychology:

There is no separation between inner and outer, self and other. 

Tending ourselves, we tend the world.

Tending the world, we tend ourselves.
♥

     If we want to act wisely in the world, the first step is to learn to quiet the mind. If our actions are born from anger, grasping, fear and aggression, they will perpetuate the problems. How many revolutions have overthrown oppressive regimes, to then turn around and become the new oppressors? Only when our minds and hearts are peaceful can we expect peace to come through the actions we take.

     ... When we react to insecurity and terrorism with fear we worsen the problem, we create a frightened, barricaded society - a fortress America. Instead we can use courage and compassion to respond calmly, with both prudent action and a fearless heart.

     The quieting of the mind is a political act. The world does not need more oil or energy or food. It needs less greed, less hatred, less ignorance. Even if we have inwardly taken on the political bitterness or cynicism that exists externally, we can stop and begin to heal our own suffering, our own fear, with compassion. Through meditation and inner transformation, we can learn to make our own hearts a place of peace and integrity. Each of us knows how to do this. As Gandhi acknowledged, "I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills." It is our inner nobility and steadiness that we must call on in our personal and collective difficulties.

     Once we learn to quiet our minds, the second step for the bodhisattva is seeing the truth. We deliberately turn toward the difficulties of the world and shine the light of understanding. "The enemy," said Ajahn Chah, "is delusion." Delusion blames others, creates enemies, and fosters separation. The truth is that we are not separate. War, economic injustice, and environmental destruction stem from the illusion of separateness. It is delusion that separates us from other human tribes and from the trees and the oceans on this increasingly small planet. When we look truthfully, we can also see that no amount of material and scientific advancement will solve our problems alone. New computer networks, innovative fuels, and biological advances can just as easily be diverted to create new weapons, exacerbate conflicts, and speed environmental degradation. Economic and political change will fail unless we also find a way to transform our consciousness. It is a delusion that endless greed and profit, hatred and war will somehow protect us and bring happiness...

     Training in mindfulness, integrity, generosity, and respect can create a healthy society... We must courageously envision a world where all children have proper care and food, where instead of an arms race our creative efforts are put into conflict resolution. We must see how individuals of all castes, tribes, races, and orientations can be treated with equal respect and opportunity...A bodhisattva commits to heal suffering undaunted by outward appearances of failure and success...
     The work of both Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. was founded on these principles, on non-harming as a path to happiness... If we meet together in harmony and respect, care for the vulnerable among us, tend to the environment, and respect our citizens and neighbors, we will thrive and prosper. A strong and stable society arises through mutual generosity, not gross inequality... Whenever a few people are committed to the vision of a free and just humanity, transformation can happen, despite the greatest odds...
     We are limited only by our imagination. Yes, there will always be a shadow. Yes, greed and fear and ignorance will be part of our psychology. But there are ways we can live wisely. For the bodhisattva, raising a family, running a conscious business, and righting an injustice all can contribute to the fabric of the whole. Every one of us can sense this potential. Human beings can live with more compassion, with more care for one another, with less prejudice and racism and fear. There are wise ways of solving conflict that await our hands and hearts.

~ Jack Kornfiel, The Wise Heart

*************************
 

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. 

 - President Dwight Eisenhower      

The problem with the world is that we draw our family circle too small.

- Mother Teresa 

When the world is seen with the eyes of a bodhisattva,

  there is no I and other, there is just us.

- Jack Kornfield