ARISE Love Letter: A Call to Clarity in a Time of Chaos
“If we practice mindfulness, we will know how to look deeply into the nature of war and, with our insight, wake people up so that together we can avoid repeating the same horrors again and again.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Love In Action: Writings on Nonviolent Social Change
Dear Beloved Thay, Sr. Chan Khong, and Community,
We are suffering. We are grieving. We are raging. And, we are taking care with much tenderness and the patience of our individual and collective hearts, bodies, and minds. We seek to lift up our voices in a hope that’s grounded in love-in-action and offer this love letter as an expression of our call to clarity in a time of chaos. We acknowledge that we are experiencing global crises and that the message below is focused primarily on the US and its impact around the world.
There is much to mourn. And, there is much more care and compassion to offer so as not to lose oneself in despair.
We mourn the devastating wars, violent conflicts, and political tensions across the globe – Ukraine, Haiti, Sudan, Taiwan, Iran and more. The war in Gaza - fueled primarily by the U.S. and enabled by the reluctance of much of the world to act - continues as the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people happens before our eyes. We name this genocide and call for an end to the violence and military occupation. We acknowledge this devastating suffering and all those directly and indirectly impacted by this violence. We turn to this violence and acknowledge the root causes of fear, greed, hatred, and delusion. We acknowledge seeds of generational fear and trauma in the perpetrators of the violence, within ourselves and our mahasangha, which we practice to embrace with care, so that compassionate deep looking may lead to insight and clarity, and ultimately to skillful action for peace. We will continue to practice to transform this suffering in ourselves and others. We will practice to water our seeds of non-discrimination and kindness and root out separation in our hearts. We will act intentionally to hold our elected officials accountable for fueling wars nationally and internationally, directly or indirectly.
We mourn the targeting of students and professors who express their support for a ceasefire and humanitarian aid in Palestine, especially immigrant students and professors who now find themselves extremely vulnerable to removal from the U.S.
We are here for you, we love you, and wrap our collective arms around you. We, along with the mahasangha, will practice walking meditation each morning and walk freely and solidly like our teacher did when facing deportation from Singapore for supporting the boat people from Vietnam stranded at sea. We invite the mahasangha to join an action or write a letter at least once weekly to your state's senator and representative asking for this harassment to stop and for support of our immigrant students and professors calling for justice and an end to this war. May they be safe and find comfort in our love in action.
We mourn the targeting of immigrants, Latinos and many who speak out against the disappearances and the complete disregard of constitutional rights while swiftly sending people to torturous prisons, whether in Guantanamo, El Salvador or beyond. We grieve state and federal violence and the selective use of the military in Los Angeles as well as in the many other cities that show support for its immigrants.
As we move about in our daily life, we will mindfully remember our siblings in these prisons and move for them, sending them the solidity of our groundedness. We will send Gathas of peace to our state officials and encourage them to see the non-separation between their blood relatives and our immigrant siblings.
We mourn the destruction of civil rights, the erasure of achievements, and the resurgence of subjugation aimed at Black-identified siblings, who have led the way and fought to establish and maintain foundations for inclusive freedom, social justice, and equity. Black folks have long engaged in good trouble, standing in the gap in alliance with marginalized siblings in their liberation movements, even when Black folks are not the direct or indirect beneficiaries.
We pause and remember with deep gratitude the legacy of individual and communal sacrifices in the name of freedom, the lives lost on the front lines of affirming our collective humanity, and the battles fought in the streets, the boardrooms, and the courtrooms to vanquish inequity and injustice for the marginalized in all aspects of society. As we bring these ancestors into our hearts, we call on them to strengthen our resolve to forge ahead on pathways to claim equity and justice. We breathe with our land ancestors of this great country and ask for their support in dismantling the ignorance and misperceptions that hinder inclusive happiness and liberation. And we challenge our elected officials, reminding them that they hold office courtesy of their marginalized constituents, and encourage them to stand up and defy efforts that target and threaten policies and programs for equity and justice.
We mourn the targeting of our trans and LGBQ siblings who face government sanctioned-discrimination in public spaces, educational institutions, sports, and employment.
We will continue to breathe in and out mindfully, acknowledging this injustice with each breath in and sending energies for an end to these hate-filled actions with each breath out. We embrace our trans and LGBQ siblings, offering loving spaces of refuge, in addition to our solidarity in mindfully engaged action to address and deflect harm. We will take every opportunity to engage with those who have the power to change these illegal actions.
We mourn the trauma inflicted on essential, talented, and committed federal workers along with the gutting of a multitude of U.S. agencies that offer protections and access to services to many communities inside and outside the U.S. These actions have global, systemic repercussions for public health, the environment, innovation, safety, and rule of law. The associated job loss directly impacts families and communities inside and outside the U.S.
As we engage in our daily work, whether inside or outside our homes, we will send the energy of compassion for workers targeted and families and communities impacted. We acknowledge their suffering and hold this with care. We will call on our state officials to stand up and challenge these unfair actions and join letter-writing and in-person rallying for the end to these mean-spirited and wrongful actions. And we will ask the Buddha to open the eyes, minds, and hearts of the engineers of these policies and actions to wake up from these wrong views.
We mourn the targeting of poor, low-income, elderly and disabled communities with the gutting of federal programs such as social security and Medicaid. These programs were already bare bones programs that provide sustenance to individuals, and by extension families and communities.
As we take in the nutriment of food for our body and mind, let us remember with each mindful chew how lucky we are to have food. We will remember our siblings impacted by these actions and send them the energy of these nutrients. Aware that many may not have ample food for their body and mind, we will use the energy of the food we consume to continue our engagement to stop these unfair policies and actions targeting the most vulnerable.
We mourn all the acute and intentional state-sanctioned violence our global majority communities are experiencing.
The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings of the Order of Interbeing offer us guidance for these moments, created by our beloved teacher Thay, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. During war and unrest, they continue to offer clear-sighted practices to engage in our communities.
We are reminded in the Tenth Mindfulness Training, Protecting and Nourishing the Sangha:
[W]e are determined not to use the Buddhist community for personal power or profit, or transform our community into a political instrument. As members of a spiritual community, we should nonetheless take a clear stand against oppression and injustice. We should strive to change the situation, without taking sides in a conflict.
How do we reconcile taking a clear stand against oppression and injustice with the seeming contradiction and misperception of indifference to suffering by not taking sides? If we pause and reflect on the Heart Sutra and non-duality, our understanding and heart might open to how ‘not taking sides’ points us toward a practical exploration of this deep dharma and ultimate liberation. Our teachers Thay and Dr. King, in the midst of war, violence, and oppression, showed us clear examples:
Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and my laughter at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.
Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart
can be left open,
the door of compassion.
Thich Nhat Hanh, Please Call Me By My True Names
Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. The beauty of nonviolence is that in its own way and in its own time it seeks to break the chain reaction of evil.
Martin Luther King Jr., Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community
Their message is clear: We are not separate from our oppressors and we must root our action in love and non-violence while we take a clear stand against injustice and oppression.
When we take sides, we create an "other" separate from us. Othering will not bring peace to the world. Othering is a practice on which colonialism is based. Othering traps us in cycles of domination, oppression, exclusion, and violence, where who we are is always conditioned by the construction of the ‘other,’ or othering. We will never be free. Refusing to take sides is refusing to follow the colonial logic of othering. It disrupts the power of domination without requiring that we are silent or inactive in the face of injustice and oppression.
With our mindfulness practices, we can sit, walk, talk, eat, and free ourselves from the illusion that we are a separate self, for ourselves, for our so-called enemies, and for those being oppressed by these enemies. We practice not to hate those who hate. We practice to keep our hearts and minds open. Each time they close, we nudge them open, again and again. We remind ourselves and each other that our true enemies are greed, hatred and delusion, and we practice to transform these enemies in ourselves and in those causing harm.
We act from this place of clarity and freedom from the illusion of separateness to provide refuge and protection to those impacted. We speak out with hearts of love and understanding to advocate and provide resources for peace, compassion, civil liberties, and equity. We aim towards liberation from greed, hatred and delusion in the oppressors and the oppressed.
This is our practice of love in action.
This is our call, from our hearts to yours, to stay open to love and to look deeper still. To understand the cause of each act of violence perpetuated against the so-called ‘other’ and to remember that the greater the suffering caused, the greater the suffering existing in the heart of the oppressor. And for their and our collective freedom, we ground our actions in practicing this transformation through our daily acts of love and understanding.
With Love in Action,
ARISE Sangha
Antoinette González, True Continuation of Suchness
Kim Fleisher, True Beautiful Dwelling
Lori Perine, True Harmonious Dwelling
Marisela Gomez, True Manifestation of Reverence
Renita Wong, True Wonderful Harmony
Victoria Mausisa, True Eternal Garden
Kat Liu, Joyful Engagement of the Heart (ARISE Coordinator)