Jason Espada: Creating the Beloved Community

This is beautiful and wise, well articulated and true, and deeply needed. This speaks to my deepest values and visions. Thank you Jason Espada. May we all honor Martin Luther King tomorrow and today and every day by being part of creating the Beloved Community. A peaceful, just, sustainable, and caring world is possible. It is up to us. — Molly

 By
JASON ESPADA

The Metta of Martin Luther King - Part III - A World Perspective

Metta, or love, leads to the most inclusive state of mind and heart. It has to be this way. Here is Dr. King on the subject:

‘In a real sense all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny...’

‘I strongly feel that we must end not merely poverty among negroes but poverty among white people. Likewise, I have always insisted on justice for all the world over, because justice is indivisible.’

(I love that last line: ‘justice is indivisible’…)

If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective.

I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture of their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up …..

When we are capable of so much more than what we are doing, all this needs to be spoken, and kept in mind.

What would Martin Luther King think of our world today? If I could meet him now, and spend a few hours talking with him, I’d want to tell him of all that’s happened since 1968, both here in the USA, and in the world.

I’d tell him that the Vietnam war finally ended in 1975, in large part due to massive anti war protests;

I’d tell him that before the war there ended, that Nixon and Kissinger ordered an unprecedented bombing of that country, Cambodia, and Laos;

I’d tell him of the right wing take over of our country, starting in 1980 with Reagan;

I’d tell him of our America’s continued militarism since then, in Central American, and in the Middle East;

and I’d tell him of two stolen elections;

I’d want to tell him of the great, world wide, pre-war, anti war protests of 2003, with millions of people participating,

and that they didn’t stop Bush and Cheney from going to war against the people of Iraq;

I’d want him to know that in 2008 we elected an African American president, a man who ran holding up of many of the ideals of Mr. King himself, but who then turned his back on progressive values;

I’d tell him this is something quite a few people on the left are still sorting out…

In 2020, I’d try to tell him about Trump;

I’d want to tell him of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and of the peaceful, non-violent revolutions that took place in the Philippines, the Czech Republic, and South Africa;

I’d tell him that Nelson Mandela was released from Robbin Island prison after 27 years there, became president of his country, and won the Nobel Peace Prize;

and then I’d try to tell him about our world now,

about the internet, and all that’s made possible;

I’d tell him about Seva, and Kiva, and the Himalayan Cataract Project;

I’d want to tell him about Grameen Bank, too, and micro-finance;

I’d tell him about the extent of this country’s militarism, and how it’s much worse now than it was;

I’d tell him about the power of multi-national corporations, their effect in the world, and how it’s much worse now than it was;

I’d tell him about the gap between rich and poor, and people’s estrangement from one another;

I’d try to tell him about the present level of political corruption in America, and people’s despair and doubt that things can change, and how these are much worse now than they were back then;

I’d tell him about Occupy,

and about the mass deceptions of the media, and how it’s much worse now than it ever was before;

I feel certain that he’s listen and understand all this; that he’d likely be amazed, as we all are by some of it, and that he’d say we must not give up.

I’m also sure he’d give us the encouragement we need to face down what he called “the Goliath of injustice, the Goliath of neglect, the Goliath of refusing to deal with problems...”

I’m sure he would say, O, Keep your eyes on the prize – hold on!

Here is where I see so clearly in him what I’ve taken to thinking of as the Fourth Immeasurable – the Immutable Strength of Love, that never gives up, that is ‘all in’, fully committed.

O, that we all have such peace, and integrity!

because

In the end, there is the creation of the beloved community…

Lama Yeshe called this ‘the Mahayana Society’,

and, in the end, this is what makes it all worthwhile, the aim, for this, and for future generations, of one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide world

and so, I want to remember, and to urge others to do so as well

that this is our heritage;

that what looked completely impossible before, was done because people didn’t give up;

and,

that their strength and vision is with us now.

In the daytime,
you don’t think much of a lantern,
but when it’s night,
it becomes your treasure,
your safety,
your guide…

Remember!

Dr. King is our native born light, fully human, our own saint, and his legacy to us is more even than the great contribution he made to Civil Rights. Great as that was, his real gift to us is what continues now in those of us that would see this become a more just world. When we recall and are inspired by that life, then that very same courage, strength and clarity helps us to take the next step, from wherever we are now.

And amen to that!, I say again, Amen to that!

* * *

The complete essay, The Metta of Martin Luther King, can be found here.

From A Buddhism for Progressives, Great Circle Publications, 2017.