I just updated my Never Ending Tour Page. Check out a few highlights such as:
NEW YORK, NY
•October 15, 2010 (Fri) 7 pm - Talk and Book Signing at the Interdependence Project 302 3rd Floor (Middle Buzzer) New York, NY, 10012
•Oct. 16-17, 2010 (Sat - Sun) - Non-residential Zazen Retreat at the Interdependence Project 302 3rd Floor (Middle Buzzer) New York, NY, 10012
MONTREAL, QC
•October 26, 2010 (Tue) - 12 Noon Luncheon at Allen Memorial Hospital (McGill University)
•October 26, 2010 (Tues) - 7pm Casa Del Popolo 4873 boul. St. Laurent Montreal, QC
SAN FRANCISCO
• November 7-9, 2010 Dogen Translation Project at San Francisco Zen Center
LOS ANGELES, CA
•November 10, 2010 (Wed) 7pm - Against The Stream 4300 Melrose Ave. Los Angeles, CA
VENTURA, CALIFORNIA
•November 12 (Fri) - 7pm An Lac Buddhist Temple 901, S.Saticoy Avenue Ventura, CA 93004.
LOS ANGELES, CA
•November 14, 2010 (Sun) 7pm - Bodhi Tree Bookstore 8585 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA
You have been told! Now you have no excuse to miss any of these!
I am in upstate New York for a couple nights, Spencertown to be precise. I'm not really certain exactly where I am. The GPS guided me here, just like the star guided those three kings long ago. Next stop in Montreal where I'll be basing myself ro the next 4-6 weeks (with side trips indicated above).
I gotta go make myself some food or I'm gonna starve.
Here's an email I just responded to:
I'm an officer in the military and I'm at a sort of crossroads in my career path. I used to be a fighting troop when I was younger - I was all gung ho about that 'fight for your country' stuff. Now, I'm being offered to go back to the fighting units and lead fighting soldiers.
Somewhere in all that, I discovered Zen, and the whole right livelihood thing is a concern for me. I understand that there aren't hard and fast rules, and that everyone has to figure things out for their personal situations. At the same time, I have come to understand the value of the 'do not take life' thing in and of itself, and not as some commandment. I want to ease suffering, and not to cause it. I don't want to hurt people. But at the same time, I know that things aren't ever that simple in the real world, and that is a lot of good that can be done by soldiers for physically protecting people who can't protect themselves. It's a difficult dilemma. In terms of violent human conflict, I don't see a lot of realistic solutions. If you choose to defend people, you will have to kill people. If you choose to stay out of it, those people you were going to defend may die anyways. If everyone lays down their weapons - well, that'd be great, but realistically, it ain't gonna happen. So where's the solution?
MY ANSWER (for what it's worth):
You're right. It's a dilemma.
The military is necessary. No doubt about that. Anyone who argues otherwise is just deluded and overly idealistic.Since if this is so, actual people have to serve in the military and they have to be trained to kill when needed.
If you do something that is necessary to society, that is right livelihood. Serving in the military is right livelihood. Absolutely.
Most of us agree that it would be nice if there was no need for the military, if the whole world were stable and at peace and that peace didn't need to be defended by deadly force. But we are not there now. Peace has to be defended by people who are trained to kill those who would destroy it. I'm sorry. But that's the way things are.
I wish this was not true. And I can wish all I want but that won't make it so.
The way to change things is to take the real situation and make it better. If Buddhist teachers are telling people military service is not right livelihood, they are standing in the way of the day when real peace finally prevails. The more people in the military who have a Zen practice, or some kind of meditation, the better.
I'm glad there are people like you in the military. I wish there were more.
As to what to do at the moment when you're required to take someone's life to defend someone else, it's too abstract to me to be able to say anything useful. I think at that moment you know whether to pull the trigger or not. Your practice will help you clarify this.
