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REFLECTIONS ON THE DNC2RNC: SITTING
ZAZEN AT BOTH CONVENTIONS, AND WALKING FROM ONE TO THE OTHER
By Cedar Spring
It was a 6-week journey that resulted from a simple intuition
- to sit sesshin outside the conventions.
The urge that arose in me was this: simply to sit, to allow
the mind to settle, in the direct presence of the political
process. it was not about "sitting for peace" nor
protesting anything nor influencing anyone, although all those
urges arise in me strongly enough. It was about coming to
terms with a self that includes unthinkable, frightening,
horrifying world events.
BOSTON - THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION
After a weekend of learning at the Boston Social Forum, I
found myself in Boston with Bob Lyons and several other Buddhists.
We sat 12 hours a day at the Holocaust Memorial Park, a sacred
spot in its own right and in the middle of the action.
We made a simple schedule - ringing the bell every 30 minutes,
optional brief walking, then sitting some more. Morning and
evening we chanted or spoke a brief dedication of the merit.
We invited people to write down requests, which we included
in the dedication. We had flyers explaining what we were there
for, and people took them. Dozens of people looked at us or
photographed us; a few asked questions or came to sit with
us. Many of the questions were simply about Buddhism. We gave
zazen instruction to a few, and some had their first zazen
there on the grass with us.
Wearing my sitting robes, I was the most photographed. As
the "back-up" person, I was there for hours, sometimes
alone. In the sense of being present with no escape, it definitely
was sesshin - noisy as it was. By the end, it was completely
impersonal. People needed what we pictured; their need made
it possible to sit still and to be patient; I thought that
what we actually gave was that image, the possibility of serenity.
WALKING 258 MILES
Faith has reported well on this, so I will add just a few
words.
Most of the people on the march were anarchists; the general
sense of things was anarchist. This came to mean:
- Making decisions was really hard. Fortunately, there were
people who went ahead and did what was needed - including
food, housing, and medic support but also police liaison
- and invited others to join them. In anarchism, you're
responsible for everything, including your feelings about
those people who never wash the dishes but take a lot of
airtime.
- Nobody ever tried to fix me, even though they generally
thought they knew better. (This applies both to those in
their 20's and older.) I couldn't match their political
knowledge, and they weren't interested in my Buddhist training.
But they were willing to let me be who I was, and I cannot
tell you how free I felt.
- I did not, however, get what I wanted very often at all.
I finally figured out that the only way to influence the
group was to have a lot of individual conversations at some
depth. This was too hard and I didn't try. Instead I just
tried to pull my weight in whatever way seemed best. The
idea of daily sitting as an offering from BPF to the group
morphed into a simple effort to sit myself every day, which
started to become more possible as it became more desperately
necessary.
- We were traveling with an oppressed group. Some of them
devoted their lives to political activism to the extent
of not having a home - going from one action to the next.
Most of them expected to be badly treated by police - based
on their experience. Some had been beaten and tortured -
in this country or others. While the support we received
from drivers, watchers, and the police in most places was
impressive, there were those calls of "get a job"
or "dirty hippie." We looked pretty scraggly,
most of the time.
- The group, though it never felt like a functional community,
managed not only to get to New York City with good public
relations the whole way, but to take care of several people
with physical or mental disabilities who also came the whole
way.
- There's a Zen idea of a homeless monk, of accepting whatever
is offered. This ideal has never been so real to me. Yet
I had my stash of chocolate, and went occasionally for protein,
while eating the free food daily.
- A lot of good food is to be found in dumpsters. I never
got it myself, but I ate it.
NEW YORK CITY
Like Boston, but scarier. The public eye was focused on the
protesters instead of on us.
Before I'd heard about scary police; here I saw them. They
did not look accessible to eye contact or anything else. I
have not heard of any violence by protestors. (Burning a paper
dragon may be annoying but it is not violent.) There were
1700 arrests, including uninvolved passers-by and completely
peaceful protestors. They put people in a bus garage where
they got sick, released them one at a time, some at 4 a.m.,
and took pictures of those who showed up for jail support.
Sitting in our park, we were quiet and safe. Going to protests,
the risk of arrest was real at any time. Afterward, I was
exhausted for a week.
WHAT'S NEXT?
I came away with both fantasies and convictions.
Sitting in public is wonderful. I fantasize a 24-hour vigil
outside the School of the Americas, until it closes for real.
I could imagine walking across the country and back and forever.
Walking meditation in public. In Boston, people stared at
our slow walking just as much as our sitting. During the march,
once, a line of us did kinhin in a shopping mall. People really
noticed.
First, however: Register voters. America Coming Together and
other organizations are conducting sophisticated campaigns
to persuade discouraged citizens to register and vote. This
must be followed by activism to end the war in Iraq.
Learning to talk with each other and to our so-called enemies.
There's an organization, Let's
Talk America and of course
Nonviolent
Communication.
A FEW ISSUES:
Global warming/climate destabilization: we have less time
left than we think.
The American Empire: read The New Pearl Harbor.
Human rights and civil rights everywhere. Specifically, persecution
and torture of the Falun Gong (Falun Dafa) in China and elsewhere.
Reading about them is like reading stories from the takeover
of Tibet. A web search will do it.
Water privatization: it's happening everywhere. Watch for
it in your home town. The movie - Thirst.
There is no separate self. All of this is our self.
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