Everything is Impermanent. A teaching I must remember so I don’t stumble into the dark night of the soul. What helps me is the aphorism my late teacher the Venerable Sangharakshita gave me. ‘Reality is perfumed with compassion‘.
I am chanting it fervently right now. My central nervous system had begun to regulate after the recent Uprisings around the world activated by the public Lynching of George Floyd. And then in the last week of August, Trayford Pellerin is killed by the police in Louisiana on August 22nd and a day later Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back and paralyzed. And then on August 27th, a white adolescent Kyle walks around with a shotgun, police throw water to him, police don’t intercept him, and he ends up killing two white protestors.
This is a call to action. We are interconnected. The fact that people still walk the world with a mind full of hatred towards black and brown bodies, live in the world valuing the white body over my body; it’s time we must bring the Dharma and Justice together. To all Buddhists. We have the dharma to offer – it is a practice of conquering the three poisons of greed, hatred, and delusion.
Let’s put our fragile, guilty part to one side and come together and explore how we can be bodhisattvas in the world, and dare to be Ksitigarba the brave one who pulls people out of the hell realms. It’s time to turn the wheel of the dharma with the four reminders that help to transform our body, speech, and mind.