tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29879221285883169392024-02-19T08:15:14.965-08:00When Dharma Talks...I try to listengrantmatthewjenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15302796714842437413noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987922128588316939.post-87904971531689428882018-08-30T10:56:00.001-07:002018-08-30T11:01:03.169-07:00Gun Control (2015)<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
This was an essay that I wrote for a nonfiction writing contest in 2015. Clearly, because of the major incidents that have happened since - like the shootings in Las Vegas, Orlando, and Parkland, just to name to worst - it needs to be revised. I'll post that later.</div>
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Gun Control<o:p></o:p></div>
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By Grant Matthew Jenkins<o:p></o:p></div>
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As a kid in Kansas, I’d shoot people all day. Until we had to go inside, my lower-middle-class neighborhood friends and I would play the hell out of some Army, Cops and Robbers, and—back in a less inclusive and sensitive time—even Cowboys and Indians. As long as the game had guns—by which I mean a toy, a stick, or simply a finger—we wanted to play it. Indoors, outdoors—it didn’t matter. You just had to be able to generate authentic sound effects—<i>ttthhkththththththth</i><i>BOOGE!</i>—and you were good to go.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Despite our youth, the rules got complicated. The trick was to find a way to make sure that when somebody got shot, they would admit it, lie down, and play dead. Usually, the games would devolve into shouting matches about who shot whom and did they stay down long enough. Despite the delicate checks-and-balances, the object was always simple: to massacre the entire other team of 8 year-olds.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Only rich kids or kids with more permissive parents than mine had cap guns or black plastic M-16 look-alikes. Those are banned now. In 1989, a federal law was passed making it illegal to make such replicas without a conspicuous orange tip. The legislation resulted from a slew of high-profile incidents like the one in Memphis, Tennessee, where in 1988 police shot and killed a ten-year old boy who was holding a toy Colt 45. March 4, 1983, 5 year-old Patrick Mason was shot and killed by a Stanton, California, police officer who mistook Patrick’s toy gun for real. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Even before that toy gun law took effect, however, I had moved on to tamer prey, such as poetry and girls. But prior to puberty, I worshipped war, guns, and weapons of all kinds—drawing them, studying them in books, and talking about them with friends.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Perhaps I am the best argument for gun freedoms: culture and nurture really didn’t have any effect on me. In fact, despite my childhood fascination with guns and gun violence, I developed in the completely other direction, the direction moving from indifference to intolerance. However, there are other persistent and important arguments made in favor of unrestricted gun ownership that I am sympathetic to. <o:p></o:p></div>
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For starters, I believe that the right to revolution is essential to this nation, to any democracy. In other words, if we don’t like the way we are governed, we can change it. That right is inscribed in our foundational documents. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, “when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” Guns, of course, are such “guards,” the stick behind the soft-talk of political change, because the status quo, especially a dictatorship, will never relinquish power without being forced to. In part, this right to revolt is the spirit behind the letter of the 2<sup>nd</sup>Amendment, and, as part of a democracy, I must abide by all its laws, not just the ones I like. Respect for the rule of law is one of the things that has made America a beacon to the world. The only way to change this legal fact is to amend the Constitution, and right now the possibilities of that are exactly nil.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I also understand people’s desire to have the means to protect themselves and their families. Nothing gives me greater consternation than the thought of some axe murderer breaking into my house, torturing me, raping my daughter, and killing my sons. There’s almost nothing I wouldn’t do to keep them from such harm, including shooting someone. A 12-gauge shotgun would stop and most likely kill any intruder without much aiming. As far as property goes, I’m less sympathetic to the need for guns to protect it. After all, it’s only stuff and can be replaced—there’s no sense in getting shot over it. But one can never tell why someone would be breaking into your house, so I can’t blame anyone for shooting first and asking questions later. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Lastly, it is clear to me that most gun owners are responsible, law-abiding citizens who appreciate guns as protectors, hunters, collectors, and aficionados. A very small percentage of guns in the United States are ever used to commit crimes such as robbery or murder. According to sources like the NRA, gun manufacturers, the FBI, and Gallup, 70-80 million Americans own a total of 300 million firearms. The US Department of Justice said that of the 5.3 million violent crimes committed in the US in 2008, 8% (or 436,000) were committed with firearms. That same year, 10,886 murders—two thirds of the total—were committed with guns. Even if each murder were committed with a different gun, only 0.00004% of guns were involved. That means most people keep their guns safe and used for their intended purposes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But here’s the thing—I’ve never really been that interested in this topic. My parents never owned guns—I never hunted and rarely went to a shooting range. Yeah, my dad shot them when he was in the army, but he never owned any back then, so I didn’t have any around me when I was growing up. The kid who imaginarily blew his friends away on a daily basis is now a hippy liberal adult who would probably be in favor of much tighter gun controls in the United States, much like the ones they have in Canada. However, from my view, we have so many other more pressing issues to deal with—global warming, job creation, a corrupt financial system, corporate welfare, campaign finance reform—that guns have never been a top priority.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As a teacher of writing, I won’t even let my students write about the topic of gun control anymore. When I began teaching in the early 90s, I had no such rule but quickly learned that, left to their own devices, many students would inevitably write essays about how we should or shouldn’t eliminate handguns or have more restrictive law and regulations. Any mention of the Second Amendment in a paper would immediately draw my ire, and soon I banned the topic altogether (along with abortion). For decades now, I’ve enforced my fatwa against this annoying theme. But now, perhaps because of the ban, I feel motivated to finally tackle the topic myself.<o:p></o:p></div>
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How did I go from gun-totting tot to indifferent adult? I’ve often wondered how that change happened. Am I inherently liberal, or did I learn it somehow? Did I learn it by seeing news reports toward the end of the Vietnam war, by witnessing the footage of Ronald Reagan getting shot when I was in 5<sup>th</sup>grade, by starting to date girls who for the most part didn’t like guns? I really can’t figure it out. All I know is that my exposure to guns (fake or real)--pretending to perpetrate violence, watching violent movies or TV--none of it turned me into a gun-loving, violent person.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It wasn’t until I was a teenager and went with my best friend and his family to their cabin in Creede, Colorado, that I ever really gained experience with guns. In the cabin, as back home, Mr. B had a locker full of a large variety of guns, from Colt 45s and 44 magnums (the fashionable gun of the day, thanks to Clint Eastwood and Dirty Harry) to 12-gauge sawed-offs and 30-ought-6 hunting rifles with scopes. A small arsenal. When we would hike or camp high up in the San Juans, we’d always pack heat, some kind of combination of shotguns and high-powered hand-canons. Mr. B didn’t like bears, so he wanted to make sure we were protected.<o:p></o:p></div>
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He taught me the basics of gun operation and safety, things I had never learned as a child of gunless folks. As a budding liberal, I was suddenly and ironically fascinated with the processes of cleaning, loading, and handling firearms. Out in the wilderness, I started to look forward to the chance to try the different weapons in target practice. We’d set up the requisite and cliché bottles on stumps like we were in gangster films—it was romantic and fun—yet a sublime reminder of their awesome power. I remember Mr. B standing in his boots, jeans, and denim shirt lifting his arm to point a 44 at stump about 50 feet away. After the loudest report I every heard, the stump seemed to explode, splinters of oak flying. “You wouldn’t want that to be your head,” he said pointedly, as he locked the safety in place before handing the gun to me. Always on the fore of his tongue and actions was Mr. B’s concern for safety. Such actions taught me a respect for guns and their terrible power and consequences. <o:p></o:p></div>
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* * *<o:p></o:p></div>
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In my lifetime, I’ve witnessed three of the top five school massacres in the history of America. They are so well known, you only have to use the name of the place to identify them: Columbine (13 dead), Virginia Tech (32 dead), and Newtown (27 dead, 20 of them children). All of these involved guns, most acquired legally. We must ask ourselves, how is it that 4 of our deadliest 6 massacres have happened at schools? And all in the past 12 or so years??<o:p></o:p></div>
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But not all are so recent, advocates argue—things aren’t getting worse, they say. The attack that still holds at number one for people killed took place May 18, 1927 in Bath Township, MI where Andrew Philip Kehoe, 55, killed 44 and injured 58. But he used bombs to kill most of his victims, so it’s not relevant to the gun control debate. Number four happened before I was born on the campus of my alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin. When I was a student, not a day went by when I passed that clock tower that I didn’t think of Charles Joseph Whitman taking pot-shots over the edge of the 28<sup>th</sup>floor with his hunting rifle. From that height, he even sniped an unborn child sleeping in his mommy’s belly. The mother’s name was Clare Wilson, 18, anthropology student. Whitman also killed his own mother. In his suicide note, he said that he loved her very much. On the morning of the shooting, he was able to buy two guns, adding to the five he already owned, and over 700 rounds of ammunition. In his note, he complained of “irrational thoughts” and wanted his life insurance money donated to “a mental health foundation…[to] prevent further tragedies of this type.” I guess advocates are right—sadly not much has changed—but why are these school shootings happening more frequently?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Less famous is the Red Lake, MN school massacre, but there Jeffrey James Weise murdered 9 and injured 7 in 2005. Jeffrey was 16 and suffered from depression. In 2012, 43-year-old One L. Goh, a former student at the school, killed 7 and wounded 3 at Oikos University in Oakland, CA. He used a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun with four fully-loaded 10-round magazines. Since 1989, there have been 6 other school shootings involving 4 or more deaths. Of the 17 deadliest school attacks in US history, only three happened before I was born.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And gun violence is not getting worse?<o:p></o:p></div>
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In my lifetime, most of the top 10 largest non-school mass shootings in US history have also happened, six of them in the past 25 years:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">#<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Name<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Date<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Year<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Location<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Dead<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Injrd<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">1.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luby%27s_massacre"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Hennard, George Pierre</span></a>, 35<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Oct. 16<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">1991<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killeen,_Texas"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Killeen</span></a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">TX</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">23<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">19-22<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">2.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Ysidro_McDonald%27s_massacre"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Huberty, James Oliver</span></a>, 41<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">July 18<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">1984<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.5pt;" width="114"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego,_California"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">San Diego</span></a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">CA</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 0.5in;" width="48"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">21<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 0.5in;" width="48"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">19<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt;" width="31"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">3.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 135pt;" width="180"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Sherrill"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Sherrill, Patrick Henry</span></a>, 44<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 67.5pt;" width="90"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Aug. 20<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 40.5pt;" width="54"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">1986<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.5pt;" width="114"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmond,_Oklahoma"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Edmond</span></a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">OK</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 0.5in;" width="48"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">14<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 0.5in;" width="48"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt;" width="31"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">4.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 135pt;" width="180"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Hood_shooting"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Hasan, Nidal Malik</span></a>, 39<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 67.5pt;" width="90"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Nov. 5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 40.5pt;" width="54"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">2009<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.5pt;" width="114"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Hood"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Fort Hood</span></a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">TX</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 0.5in;" width="48"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">13<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 0.5in;" width="48"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">30<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt;" width="31"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">5.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 135pt;" width="180"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binghamton_shootings"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Wong, Jiverly Antares</span></a>, 41<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 67.5pt;" width="90"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">April 3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 40.5pt;" width="54"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">2009<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.5pt;" width="114"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binghamton,_New_York"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Binghamton</span></a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">NY</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 0.5in;" width="48"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">13<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 0.5in;" width="48"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt;" width="31"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">6.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 135pt;" width="180"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Unruh"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Unruh, Howard Barton</span></a>, 28<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 67.5pt;" width="90"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Sep. 6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 40.5pt;" width="54"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">1949<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.5pt;" width="114"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camden,_New_Jersey"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Camden</span></a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jersey"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">NJ</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 0.5in;" width="48"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">13<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 0.5in;" width="48"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt;" width="31"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">7.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 135pt;" width="180"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Aurora_shooting"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Holmes, James Eagan</span></a>, 24<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 67.5pt;" width="90"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">July 20<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 40.5pt;" width="54"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">2012<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.5pt;" width="114"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora,_Colorado"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Aurora</span></a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">CO</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 0.5in;" width="48"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">12<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 0.5in;" width="48"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">58<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt;" width="31"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">8.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 135pt;" width="180"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_O._Barton"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Barton, Mark Orrin</span></a>, 44<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 67.5pt;" width="90"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">July 27–29<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 40.5pt;" width="54"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">1999<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.5pt;" width="114"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta,_Georgia"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Atlanta</span></a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_(U.S._state)"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">GA</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 0.5in;" width="48"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">12<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 0.5in;" width="48"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">13<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt;" width="31"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">9.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(154, 154, 154); border-right-width: 1pt; border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 135pt;" width="180"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Edward_Pough"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Pough, James Edward</span></a>, 42<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">June 17/18<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">1990<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacksonville,_Florida"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Jacksonville</span></a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">FL</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">11<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">10.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leung_Ying"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Leung Ying</span></a>, 29<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Aug. 22<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">1928<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairfield,_California"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Fairfield</span></a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">CA</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">11<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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There are 70 more mass murders in the US not included in this chart in which at least 5 people were killed. All of them, except 4, involved firearms, belying the NRA’s argument that such crimes would happen even without guns. Reaching back to 1889, only a third (21) happened in the 80 years before I was born in 1969. 49 have happened since.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It doesn’t take research to find this information. All of it is on Wikipedia. Anyone can find it. If they want to.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But massacres are only the most shocking aspect of the dark side of our gun culture. Presidents and politicians, namely conservative ones supported by the NRA, like Ronald Regan, have gotten shot. We’ve allowed four major wars—Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq, and Afghanistan—to be waged and funded in our names. Video games such as <i>Call of Duty</i>, played regularly by children, now simulate the most intense, graphic, and violent firefight situations. I don’t even have to mention the blood and guts coming out of Hollywood, where you can’t show a naked body in a movie but you can depict countless human beings having their heads blown off.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Even the most ardent gun advocate/apologist has to admit that we live in what sportscaster Bob Costas controversially referred to as a “culture of guns.” He chastised the NFL for their laissez-faire attitude towards the glorification of guns after Kansas City Chiefs linebacker, Jovan Belcher, killed his girlfriend and then himself on Dec. 1, 2012. Gun advocates think that this culture is a good thing, embodying and emblematizing our God-given freedoms. Guns are power, virility, safety, liberty.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But even the reasons for guns to which I’m sympathetic begin to fall apart under scrutiny.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">According to the National Institute of Justice, “[i]n 2005, 11,346 persons were killed by firearm violence and 477,040 persons were victims of a crime committed with a firearm. Most murders in the United States are committed with firearms, especially handguns. In 2006, firearms were used in 68 percent of murders, 42 percent of robbery offenses and 22 percent of aggravated assaults nationwide.” </span>The simple fact is that, if there were fewer guns, there would be less crimes committed with guns and thus less crime in general. According to the calculations of James D. Agresti and Reid K. Smith of JustFacts, 1 in 240 Americans will be murdered with a gun. Think about that next time you’re in a crowded nightclub: living it up now, one of you <i>will</i>be shot to death in your lifetime.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Even more than murder, guns are used for suicides. A 2008 editorial in <i>The New England Journal of Medicine</i>on the public health side of the gun debate points out:<o:p></o:p></div>
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Firearms were used to kill 30,143 people in the United States in 2005, the most recent year with complete data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A total of 17,002 of these were suicides, 12,352 homicides, and 789 accidental firearm deaths. Nearly half of these deaths occurred in people under the age of 35. When we consider that there were also nearly 70,000 nonfatal injuries from firearms, we are left with the staggering fact that 100,000 men, women, and children were killed or wounded by firearms in the span of just one year.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The reality is that guns—intended for self-protection—end up more often being used for self-destruction. It just goes to show how the road to violence is paved with good intentions.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Then there’s the impact on children.<o:p></o:p></div>
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My children have all played with guns, despite my attempts to limit their exposure to them, particularly at early ages. With my boys, even if I’d taken away or never given them guns, they’d improvise one out of anything, a twig, a pen, or an always reliable index finger. They absorb this from the gun culture that steeps us, so prevalent that we can’t shut it out. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Yes, the massacre of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, ignited the topic of gun control again, but even that tragedy was not enough to change the tide of groundswell support for unabated gun ownership. Sure, this response is my bleeding-heart liberalism coming out, but one child dying from accidental or intentional gun violence is too many. It says a lot about the soul of a nation that will not sacrifice the “right” to own over-sized clips or semi-automatic assault rifles but will readily sacrifice innocent children for their so-called freedom.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Oh, and that toy gun ban? It’s a leaky sieve of loopholes. If you read the law, it excludes BB and “Airsoft” guns that shoot projectiles over certain rate, so many of those guns still look “authentic,” which is part of the allure of the organized play involving these guns around the country. Nor does the law prevent consumers from removing the orange tip that demarcates them as fake—just pop it off and you have your look-alike. The result? Incidents of criminals using toys in crimes, as well as of children being accidentally shot by police, is again on the rise. A Cleveland police officer shot and killed 12 year-old Tamir Rice within seconds of arriving in a Cleveland park in November of 2014. It seems the gun industry is so hell bent on preserving these dangerous toys as the “gateway drug” for later real purchases that they’ll do anything to keep the pipeline open, including sacrifice little children.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The body counts and statistics of those killed by guns in this society are much more concrete than the freedoms protected by guns, which cannot be as accurately measured. Certainly, though a massive undertaking, one can compile the numbers of homes defended by owners with guns. A 1993 survey suggests that 0.5-3.5% of gun owners use guns for protection every year. On the other hand, how many potentially tyrannical leaders in the US have been deterred by a gun-owning populace? Considering the tradition of the smooth transfer of power inaugurated with George Washington and the tight civilian control of our armed forces (our real “militias”), probably none. Despite the paranoia of a few survivalists, white supremacists, and “doomsday preppers,” there is no threat of tyranny from our federal government. Most likely never will be, so it’s no longer an excuse for unrestricted gun ownership. Anyway, how is a semi-automatic assault rifle going to stand up to a fully automatic one like is used in the military? Furthermore, do any of these people, who are otherwise support-the-troops patriotic, think the men and women of our armed forces are going to attack us and steal our liberty??<o:p></o:p></div>
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Then there’s the argument that most gun owners are responsible. Maybe most are. But perhaps some people are too delicate to handle guns. And who knows when a “responsible gun owner” one day might develop mental or emotion problems that prompt him to use guns as a solution to his problems? And if individual Americans are responsible, the corporations that profit from gun manufacturing are not. According to Dan Noyes of PBS, most criminals do not get guns stolen from upstanding citizens; instead, they get them from a corrupt system in which licensed retailers funnel guns from suppliers to the black market. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In support of gun owners, I also mentioned my respect of the rule of law and how the Second Amendment was framed to protect gun ownership. But here’s the one solution that no one is willing to talk about: It’s time to amend the Constitution to fix and clarify the Second Amendment and, more importantly, to outline reasonable, serious ways to regulate firearms. The Founders could never have anticipated the pervasive cancer that guns have become in this country, a cancer that daily destroys our nation’s youth more and more. The Founders may have felt the Second Amendment was right for their time, but it is wrong for ours. After all, they were right about something: we have the right, nay, the duty to change our Constitution when it no longer works for us, in our time, now; this is why they allowed for amendments. Now, it’s time to make the change. Will America have the selfless courage to do it?<o:p></o:p></div>
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References:<o:p></o:p></div>
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“15 C.F.R. PART 1150—MARKING OF TOY, LOOK-ALIKE AND IMITATION FIREARMS.” Section 4 of the Federal Energy Management Improvement Act of 1988, 15 U.S.C. 5001.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<http://law.justia.com/cfr/title15/15-3.1.3.7.1.html><o:p></o:p></div>
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Agresti, James D. and Reid K. Smith. "Gun Control Facts." Just Facts. September 13, 2010. Revised 12/28/12. <http://justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp><o:p></o:p></div>
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Carter, David L. et al. “Toy Guns: Involvement in Crime and Encounters with the Police.” Bureau of Justice Statistics. June 1990. <http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/tg-icep.pdf><o:p></o:p></div>
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Curfman, Gregory D., M.D., Stephen Morrissey, Ph.D., and Jeffrey M. Drazen, M.D. “Handgun Violence, Public Health, and the Law.”<i>New England Journal of Medicine</i>358 (2008): 1503-1504. 3 April 2008. <http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe0802118><o:p></o:p></div>
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Ferriss, Susan. “Fatal Texas shooting highlights struggle to regulate replica guns: Toys, BB guns and pellet guns subject to a confusing patchwork of laws.” Center for the Public Integrity. 13 Jan 2012. <http://www.publicintegrity.org/2012/01/13/7870/fatal-texas-shooting-highlights-struggle-regulate-replica-guns><o:p></o:p></div>
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Klein, Ezra. “Twelve Facts about Guns and Mass Shootings in the United States.” Washington Post. 14 Dec 2012. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/14/nine-facts-about-guns-and-mass-shootings-in-the-united-states/><o:p></o:p></div>
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“List of Rampage Killers.” Wikipedia. 2 Feb 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rampage_killers><o:p></o:p></div>
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Noyes, Dan. “Hot Guns: ‘How Criminals Get Guns.” PBS Frontline. June 1997. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/guns/procon/guns.html><o:p></o:p></div>
grantmatthewjenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15302796714842437413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987922128588316939.post-55735944202356424802013-01-20T12:21:00.002-08:002013-01-20T12:32:06.968-08:00The Power of (Non-) Violence<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I suggested in my post, “<a href="http://whendharmatalks.blogspot.com/2012/07/committed-buddhism.html" target="_blank">Committed Buddhism</a>,” from July
25, 2012, the possibility of a “Committed Politics” in Buddhism hinges on role
of violence: sacrificing self and relieving the suffering of others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Buddhism’s emphasis on compassion, I argued,
can offer us concrete ways that we, everyday, can make a difference in the
world by relieving suffering around us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But on further reflection, I wondered about the nature of
violence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the most famous
political acts by a Buddhist was the self-immolation by Vietnamese monk, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thich_Quang_Duc" target="_blank">Thích Quảng Đức</a>, to protest the U.S.-supported
South Vietnamese Government’s persecution of Buddhists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fact that he contacted American
photojournalist Malcom Browne from the Associated Press and others to record
the event demonstrates that he knew his act would make a difference to a U.S.
audience who could put pressure on the former French colony and Roman Catholic-dominated South Vietnamese government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It worked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Browne’s photo below
won the Pulitzer Prize:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZrZF0hAUAcQFG0hnTX-Bxe8tLjccUr0Vkn5Rh4E-951JzLnE6suCZxpdmlUk50U4rP2VvjjNlsSLmUgk-gq7gpP9sQtVAWGq3rKn2cm1lG-ps_3Hr2oox1qlzVqi7e88CAsJyFYkUXx-E/s1600/burning-monk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZrZF0hAUAcQFG0hnTX-Bxe8tLjccUr0Vkn5Rh4E-951JzLnE6suCZxpdmlUk50U4rP2VvjjNlsSLmUgk-gq7gpP9sQtVAWGq3rKn2cm1lG-ps_3Hr2oox1qlzVqi7e88CAsJyFYkUXx-E/s320/burning-monk.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
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<o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In his suicide note, Duc focus on spreading compassion
through his political sacrifice: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before closing my eyes and moving
towards the vision of the Buddha, I respectfully plead to President Ngô Đình Diệm to take a mind of compassion towards the people of
the nation and implement religious equality to maintain the strength of the
homeland eternally. I call the venerables, reverends, members of the sangha and
the lay Buddhists to organise in solidarity to make sacrifices to protect
Buddhism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am amazed by that sentiment almost as much as I am by the
photo, which clearly shows Duc’s serenity, dedication, and strength.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reporter David Halberstam, who became known
for his coverage of the escalating US war in Vietnam, wrote this about Duc’s death:
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“As he burned he never moved a muscle,
never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing
people around him.” To me, that is the supreme measure of fearlessness derived
from meditative practice and the long-sighted view of Buddhist commitment. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More than any other historical event, this
man’s courageous and solitary act embodies the political power of Buddhism. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To be sure, focused against himself, Duc's self-immolation was a non-violent act, and it returns us to my larger question:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>What does Buddhism
have to say about violence?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I suggested tentatively in the "Committed" post, it seems as if Buddhism does condone violence in certain situations, regardless of its mostly pacifist stance towards war. That stance is encoded in many of the written texts governing the behavior of both monks and lay persons.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
From the text of the Chinese Mayahana Five Precepts:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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“As the Buddha refrained from
killing until the end of his life, so I too will refrain from killing until the
end of my life.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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From the Eight Precepts, which come from the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Anguttara Nikaya</i> text and are for lay
men and women who want to lead a more strict practice:<o:p></o:p></div>
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“I undertake to abstain from
causing harm and taking life (both human and non-human).”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<o:p>Certainly, Duc broke these precepts when he killed himself, but his act raises the question of larger purposes. Of course, the fact that Duc did not physically hurt anyone else besides himself makes this kind of violence distinctly different from when others are affected. </o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What if we take this
precept literally?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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In the movie, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://youtu.be/EC0jChlBwHE" target="_blank">Kundun</a>, </i>we see this precept dramatized to the extreme. Because the Dali Lama and his monks have vowed to do
no harm, the extend that promise to the lowest levels of visible life. We see the young prince separate two beetles locked in combat, and when the arrival of Chinese road construction crews threatens to disturb and destroy subterranean life, we see the monks working ahead of the road crews and sifting worms etc out of the freshly turned earth. (These scenes made me wonder about how far you can take this sentiment, which is why I used the phrase, "visible life." What about the billions of microscopic life-forms that we destroy everyday without knowing it and being able to stop it. Are we beholding to them too through the precepts?)<o:p></o:p></div>
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Vegetarianism is another way Buddhist precepts extend the prohibition against killing to daily life. By eating only non-sentient life, such as plants, people can avoid killing higher life-forms. In fact, <a href="http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/55529/2/lusk%20-%20current.pdf" target="_blank">studies show that ubiquitous vegetarianism could have a massive, salubrious impact </a>on the planet by reducing water use, burning of fossil fuels, and growing more food on pasture lands.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How can we practice this precept of non-violence on a political level? </b></div>
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In my view, political non-violence as a political strategy is what marks the rise of modernity from a positive side. Certainly the Enlightenment, with its emphasis on reason and law over brute force and superstition, created the conditions for what we call to the non-violent movement. But the idea of non-violence as a means of resistance to power was first articulated by Henry David Thoreau in his essay, "<a href="http://transcendentalism.tamu.edu/authors/thoreau/civil/" target="_blank">Resistance to Civil Government (Or, Civil Disobedience)</a>." It may come as no surprise that he was highly influence by new translations of Eastern texts, such as the Upanishad and Vedas, that were emerging in the early 19th Century. In Thoreau, the confluence of East and West produced a new, rational way to fight oppression and injustice.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In his famous treatise, Thoreau recounts how he allowed himself to be arrested without protest or defense rather than pay a poll tax, which he saw as supporting a government that tolerated slavery. (He also was arrested later for not paying an obligatory Church tax). </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was put into a jail once on this account, for one night; and, as I stood considering the walls of solid stone, two or three feet thick, the door of wood and iron, a foot thick, and the iron grating which strained the light, I could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated my as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up. I wondered that it should have concluded at length that this was the best use it could put me to, and had never thought to avail itself of my services in some way. I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through before they could get to be as free as I was. I did nor for a moment feel confined, and the walls seemed a great waste of stone and mortar. I felt as if I alone of all my townsmen had paid my tax. They plainly did not know how to treat me, but behaved like persons who are underbred. In every threat and in every compliment there was a blunder; <b>for they thought that my chief desire was to stand the other side of that stone wall. I could not but smile to see how industriously they locked the door on my meditations, which followed them out again without let or hindrance, and they were really all that was dangerous.</b> As they could not reach me, they had resolved to punish my body; just as boys, if they cannot come at some person against whom they have a spite, will abuse his dog.</span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The bolded section here reflects one of the most important ideas behind the idea of non-violent political resistance: one may gain limitless strength from the fact that, though one' body might be incarcerated, one's mind and spirit are always free. It is these that are truly dangerous to an unjust or tyrannical government.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Through his act of disobedience, Thoreau advocates a broader brand of political action through a kind of withdrawal from society: "I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name--if ten honest men only--ay, if one HONEST man, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this co-partnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America.... Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison." We can see here the beginnings of the contemporary anti-income-tax movement. The larger argument he makes involves prioritizing the conscience of an individual over that of a (corrupt) corporate body (like a government): "The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right." </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thoreau's principles of non-violent resistance have been majorly influential since their publication, inspiring the work of people like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, in their search against colonialism and apartheid for independence and civil rights.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In his book, <i><a href="http://www.mkgandhi.org/ethical/ethical_religion.htm" target="_blank">Ethical Religion</a></i>, Gandhi points out that
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all violence comes from intolerance</i>,
not just some animal desire to kill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Think about that. Only people who fear difference or strangeness are impelled to hurt others--people do not naturally act violently. (Incidentally, I do have a reservation about this blanket statement, as I do believe that some people are "natural-born killers" who are psychotic or perhaps have a chemical imbalance in their brain or "destined to kill" who have suffered irreversible trauma themselves. However, I don't know enough about criminal psychology to make a very informed argument on that topic.) At any rate, one can easily agree that a government that oppresses its people does so out of fear of losing power or, in the famous case of the Nazis, because of hatred for ethnic difference.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The only viable and effective response to this fear and intolerance, according to Gandhi, is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Satyagraha<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">, </span></i>which may be translated as "the insistence on truth" or "soul force." This force may be tapped only by those who denounce violence, but it is universal and freely available to everyone (<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=RZDIUlha-UMC&lpg=PA34&dq=Gandhi%20%22theory%20and%20practice%20of%20Satyagraha%22&pg=PA34#v=onepage&q=Gandhi%20%22theory%20and%20practice%20of%20Satyagraha%22&f=false" target="_blank">Non-violent Resistance</a> 7). However, accessing it is not easy and requires commitment; </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>only the morally strong can employ non-violent
resistance: </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Satyagraha</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Symbol;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">requires willingness to suffer (poverty, injury,
even death), but it is a practice that can change a society:</span></div>
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<o:p>I'm not sure Gandhi would have agreed with Thích Quảng Đức's choice to immolate himself. But who knows? Perhaps someone can comment if they know his views of suicide. On the other hand, Gandhi did favor hunger strikes as a method of non-violent political protest, which is a form of killing oneself, albeit slowly. What's the difference?</o:p></div>
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<o:p>What Gandhi could agree on is that Duc's suicide required the supreme quantity of self-suffering. And this self-suffering, by Gandhi and his followers, was the key force that led to India's independence. In the United States, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_Nonviolent_Coordinating_Committee" target="_blank">Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)</a> used non-violent resistance to raise awareness about the violence of segregation and to bring about civil rights for African Americans and other ethnic minorities in the 1960s. </o:p><br />
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<o:p>Even in the 21st Century, social media has enabled even broader and more instantaneous manifestations of non-violent resistance. The "Arab Spring," including the non-violent protests and revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Iran, and elsewhere in the Middle East, testifies to the power of this practice to bring down despots, dictators, and immoral governments. In fact, the peaceful revolution in Tunisia was begun by an act of immolation like that of Thich Quang Duc. Click here to read more of the story of <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/01/2011126121815985483.html" target="_blank">Mohamed Bouazizi</a>, the 26 year-old street vendor who set himself on fire.</o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What does meditation
have to do with non-violence?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Like non-violent political action, meditation is a discipline, a practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By doing it, we change, shift, and become
better able to follow the precepts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Through meditation, we get in touch with what Gandhi calls “Satyagraha,”
or soul-force, which seeks truth<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and
love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I said before, if meditation
does not make us better people in terms of relieving suffering of others, what
good is it? <o:p></o:p></div>
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See Gandhi Non-violent Resistance pg 35 #3: <o:p></o:p></div>
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“For this exercise , prolonged
training of the individual soul is an absolute necessity, so that a perfect
Satyagrahi has to be almost, if not entirely, a perfect man.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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For American civil rights groups--like the SNCC, Freedom Riders and Montgomery protestors—prayer was a
large part of their practice.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Any kind of reflection, or deep soul-searching, such as in prayer or meditation, is required to draw on the fortitude necessary to endure the whips and scorns of oppression and injustice. However, as contemporary history has shown, no violence could ever have achieved the kind of freedom and peace that non-violent resistance has achieved. It is the way of change for the future.</div>
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grantmatthewjenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15302796714842437413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987922128588316939.post-80679249764440451652013-01-19T13:02:00.001-08:002013-01-19T13:04:01.096-08:00Breath/DeathWhen meditate, I sometimes imagine the rising and falling of my breath in the form of a sign wave, with the in and out moving a line up and down over time.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi81O5uuWs0pYomOXyPldD7H83AntSpgEZIYaJiXWFtjipSa3gkJe2DMhr1mtn1Mbhwxon75iVEvWrKrnyekNMBrhqmjfN5yq-p4wf8CdbqymHewQbbIiLoQ6yGl4E9HgN7zyYP1XLY-Kw_/s1600/Sine+wave.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi81O5uuWs0pYomOXyPldD7H83AntSpgEZIYaJiXWFtjipSa3gkJe2DMhr1mtn1Mbhwxon75iVEvWrKrnyekNMBrhqmjfN5yq-p4wf8CdbqymHewQbbIiLoQ6yGl4E9HgN7zyYP1XLY-Kw_/s320/Sine+wave.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Going up the slope of the wave, I am breathing in; going down, I am exhaling. This graphic representation of my breathing has often come in handy to keep my awareness focused on my breath.<br />
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After much practice with this meditation aid (or <i>mantra</i>), I have been able to contemplate the various parts of this living, breathing graph. And the parts of the wave that have intrigued me most recently are the peaks and troughs.<br />
<br />
The peak of a wave is when the lungs are full to capacity--in a sense, one is holding one's breath for a slight moment--I reach the zenith of the track and am still, lungs bursting with life-giving oxygen, before the roller coaster plunges down the slope and my lungs involuntarily, with the help of gravity, begin to deflate. I exhale.<br />
<br />
But when the cart of the breath reaches the nadir, things get much more interesting and perhaps a bit scary. At the bottom, it seems that I am out of life-blooming oxygen, as if I had floated to the bottom of the ocean. Again, I am still. Of course, the lungs are not exactly empty--we normally breath in a very small range compared with our total lung capacity, as the following chart shows:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxZWrNXVFwErPg9F4YO_z0vJdL3RMHWp11rHiwjnmECEUUITctals5qjCoFk9NNSKnoNNIl3cDG3O3B6fmlL7UzVXZycla5M4EeHVFCfErwn7QNrhGc6a-1yTcHdP2H4HFtba2Wfb56gWT/s1600/image002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxZWrNXVFwErPg9F4YO_z0vJdL3RMHWp11rHiwjnmECEUUITctals5qjCoFk9NNSKnoNNIl3cDG3O3B6fmlL7UzVXZycla5M4EeHVFCfErwn7QNrhGc6a-1yTcHdP2H4HFtba2Wfb56gWT/s320/image002.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Source:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.as.miami.edu/chemistry/2086/chap23/the%20respiratory%20system%20part%202.htm" target="_blank">U of Miami</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Surprisingly though, in a normal breath (the darker blue band in the middle) we only use about 500ml of air and leave approximately 1800-2200ml in our lungs, far from being completely out. Voluntarily with a little effort, we can only force another 1000ml out, leaving almost a liter we'll never be able to get out. In fact, our total lung capacity is almost 6000ml for men and about 4200ml for women. So as you can see, we are full of a lot of hot air.<br />
<br />
But tell all of that to a drowning man or a person suffocating in a fire. When we have exhaled our last breath, we are out of usable oxygen, regardless of our lung capacity. So too when meditating. When the sine wave reaches the bottom, I can't really get any more oxygen out of that breath. Only the availability of fresh air around me allows my involuntary respiration to draw me again back to the surface of life.<br />
<br />
During meditation, I contemplate the symbolic significance of the bottom of the sine wave more than I do the scientific, literal measurement of the capacity of our lungs. <br />
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If the top of the wave is life, then the bottom is death. Both are connect and contained within the elegant symmetry of the sine wave.<br />
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When I exhale and reach the bottom of the trough, it is only wishful thinking that my cerebellum will kick in and automatically contract my diaphragm and draw more air into my lungs. But in fact, I really don't know for certain if I will draw a next breath: I could have a heart attack, a meteor could hit the earth, a tree limb could crash in on my head, or the kid dreaming our world could wake up. I have no way of knowing.<br />
<br />
Although this kind of reflection may sound morbid, it is a stark reminder to stay in the moment. Because I never know if this breath may be my last, I try to pay attention to what is happening now and to make the most of my life as it is. Because this breath could be my last, it reminds me of my inevitable fate and offers me the opportunity to practice accepting my destiny. <br />
<br />
<br />grantmatthewjenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15302796714842437413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987922128588316939.post-73050531939559913142012-07-25T10:49:00.001-07:002013-01-19T12:17:55.693-08:00Committed Buddhism<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg38mVJwMW5Q4XvR9npP6HvLXgkaguwEk36zIAUVlLZYc30O2z4aauMi_AItp1PWrTk_Fl178rIdK9aHqZXMhCP8o0oumd3JJafEDU2ftNQApufdeCPW4rddJOH0iDBgR_K_hpapjpSc_rm/s1600/OccupyBuddhism3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg38mVJwMW5Q4XvR9npP6HvLXgkaguwEk36zIAUVlLZYc30O2z4aauMi_AItp1PWrTk_Fl178rIdK9aHqZXMhCP8o0oumd3JJafEDU2ftNQApufdeCPW4rddJOH0iDBgR_K_hpapjpSc_rm/s320/OccupyBuddhism3.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marx and the Dali Lama. <a href="http://www.tricycle.com/web-exclusive/occupy-buddhism" target="_blank">Tricycle magazine</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">I’ve been practicing Zen meditation for over 13 years, and have sat with various groups in all the towns I’ve lived in, groups from Zen to Mahayana to eclectic Buddhist-inspired meditation. For the most part, practicing Zen fits almost perfectly with my spirituality and world view, and daily sitting has become an important part of my life. I said 'almost perfectly' because I've had some problems with Zen and Buddhism in general that I've been thinking about for a long time.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">My main resistance to Zen (and Buddhism at large) as a practice is its relation to politics and power. The principle of karma, in which all is connected, and the principle of samsara, that the universe is a continual cycle of birth and death, seem to both prevent what I, as a Westerner, think of as political commitment.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Let me explain why.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Zen and other kinds of Buddhism give us what I call “the longest view” possible of time and eternity. This view derives from the concept of “samsara.” Samsara is ancient Sanskrit that translates literally as “continual wandering.” In the Assu Sutta, the Buddha says, “"From an inconstruable beginning comes transmigration. A beginning point is not evident, though beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating & wandering on.” This last phrase is the translation of the word samsara. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Samsara is the source of all desire and thus all suffering we humans face in the world. What is more, because of samsara, we are continually reincarnated into new lives in which we continue the cycle of suffering (until we reach Nirvana, or enlightenment). </span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">But samsara isn’t just a view of human nature; it’s a cosmology. Through the notion of samsara, there is no beginning or end to the universe. In fact, <a href="http://www.npr.org/2011/01/24/132932268/a-physicist-explains-why-parallel-universes-may-exist" target="_blank">there may not just be one universe</a>, and new ones could be born out of the death of the old. Not incidentally, theoretical physicists such as <a href="http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/02/qa_turok?currentPage=all" target="_blank">Paul Steinhardt & Neil Turok are revising the Big Bang theory</a> in ways that sound, to me, much like the ancient Hindu worldview of samsara. There is according to them no one single moment that begins the universe because our universe is just one manifestation of universes that keep being born through a bang and then collapsing into a bang and starting again on to infinity. This cosmology could be referred to as "the Big Rubber Band" theory of the universe, and it is a karmic view.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">If this worldview is true—that our universe will die and be born again infinitely—then why should we be concerned with petty, everyday problems like gun control, abortion, global warming, poverty, war, or any political issue? If the universe is cyclical and infinite, as samsara implies, we will all be back here sitting together in this room again someday and again and again infinitely. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">From that “longest perspective”, even the largest human catastrophes seem insignificant. And that’s an understatement. Buddhism from this vantage, teaches us to not worry and suffer in our political desire to solve humanities problems. Thic Nat Hahn writes that he reminds people who are worried about current events or personal problems to ask themselves, “Where will you be in 300 years?” The answer always makes me loosen my grip on my political kvetching and self-pity, but the answer does not help me to address this gnawing doubt I have about Buddhism’s ability to help us with our social and global problems. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">The way I have addressed this issue in my thinking is to focus on the compassion component of Buddhism. The point of the Buddha’s teachings is to relieve the suffering of others. In fact, in some strands of Buddhism, there are special “saints”, called Bodhisattvas, who must continue wandering in samsara until all souls have achieved Nirvana.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Herein lies my hope for a politically committed Buddhism. It’s not that I hope a Zen-minded politics will be liberal or conservative or be for some policies and against others. I don’t think something as grand as Buddhism can be reduced to these narrow notions of politics as decisions of power and resources.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">Instead, I think Zen practice, as a practice of patience and compassion (and its 5 precepts), can keep us mindful of what politics is really about, and that is to relieve the suffering of others. Committed Buddhism is kind of faith, when it comes down to it, but one that we can practice everyday:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">by following the precepts: (all are about others; the Buddha calls them “five great gifts”)</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
<ol>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">right living (no murder)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">right action (no stealing)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">right speaking (honesty) and listening (active, empathic)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">right sexuality (safe sex, keeping promises)</span></li>
<li> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">right consumption (intoxication, eating)</span> </li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">by putting a person over a principle </span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">by sitting with a group, or sangha </span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">by sometimes fighting (??)--I'm not certain about this one, but the Dali Llama’s guards fought the Chinese invaders </span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">by being for things (peace) rather than against something (war) </span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">by opening the door for someone, and other little, daily signs of generosity and compassion.</span></blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;">I believe, I have to believe, that these actions and others like them can increase compassion in the world. If we practice, the politics of power will take care of themselves.</span>grantmatthewjenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15302796714842437413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987922128588316939.post-68739232779066176392012-07-18T08:36:00.000-07:002013-02-09T17:05:05.210-08:00Tao of ParentingThis mp3 of a Dharma talk from May 8, 2012 titled <a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/44874916/Zen%20of%20Parenting.mp3" target="_blank">The Zen of Parenting</a> considers parenting as Zen and Zen as a kind of parenting, both for self and others. Non-parents included! 28 min with discussion.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFNT-btzBajaQqoFrdXOFs4rdK-yv80XlG_zkrmbE2WAuW_3OVHzAEjFYOWxQprsQTAS-lIt1mfvbP9v3Sr83kfMZmUyLAsdQesyR0RpqDvBkHczuXZ3r_yHgssrUN4FWG8sYqUihY0dLe/s1600/IMG_3272.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFNT-btzBajaQqoFrdXOFs4rdK-yv80XlG_zkrmbE2WAuW_3OVHzAEjFYOWxQprsQTAS-lIt1mfvbP9v3Sr83kfMZmUyLAsdQesyR0RpqDvBkHczuXZ3r_yHgssrUN4FWG8sYqUihY0dLe/s200/IMG_3272.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Outline:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Why is parenting Zen and Zen parenting?</li>
<li>The ingredients of parenting</li>
<li>Modeling, the Tao</li>
<li>Unconditional Positive Regard</li>
<li>Empathy and compassion</li>
<li>Congruence</li>
<li>Discipline not punish</li>
<li>Consistence and persistence</li>
</ol>
grantmatthewjenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15302796714842437413noreply@blogger.com0Tulsa, OK 74104, USA36.1539816 -95.99277535.9488471 -96.308631999999989 36.3591161 -95.676918tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987922128588316939.post-57600219142625088002012-07-17T17:56:00.002-07:002012-07-17T17:58:38.507-07:00Death and Its Discontents-Part 2<a href="http://podcast14815.podomatic.com/" target="_blank">This Dharma talk podcast</a> from July 15, 2012 is the sequel to the one from May 1, 2011. It is a much more personal and less intellectual approach to the spirituality of death.<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1724055573"></span><span id="goog_1724055574"></span>grantmatthewjenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15302796714842437413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987922128588316939.post-47405863139564202072012-07-17T13:42:00.001-07:002012-07-17T13:42:46.409-07:00Death and Its Discontents--Part I<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’d like to open with reading of a poem by Hahn Shan (aka
Cold Mountain), a medieval Chinese poet of the Zen tradition: </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Having a body or not having a body—<br />Is there self or no self—<br />I ponder deeply like this.<br />For a long time, I sit leaning on the rocks:<br />green grass comes up around my legs<br />red dust settles on my head.<br />Already I see worldly people<br />offering wine and fruit at my deathbead. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Essential
Zen</i> 74)</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve spent much time wondering and meditating on what my
Buddhist practice means in terms of death, and in particular, my death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, aren’t we all concerned
about our own deaths?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps
there are exceptions, but it occupies many of our minds, particularly as we get
older or experience a trauma.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I often use as a meditation guide—one that I read in a Sutra
that I can’t find, so please comment if you know—imagining myself (like Hahn
Shan above) walking in charnel houses where corpses are in various stages of
decomposition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This exercise
reminds me of the impermanence of my own life and shows me my own destiny, and
it keeps me a bit humble, as you can imagine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, this mantra, if you will, is just that,
imagination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am projecting
myself into the future in order to master my fears of death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somehow, though it isn’t fully
satisfying, so I have continued to seek understanding.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Aside from straight-forward imagining, Zen has indirect ways
of thinking about death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To
explain one of the most common, I borrow a word from Ian Zidalis’s recent
Dharma talks: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Anatman</i> (Sanskrit) or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Anatta</i> (Pali) = “no soul” or “non-self.”
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the poem I opened with, Hahn
Shan’s first three lines refer to this concept.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In his talk, Ian read from the book <i>What the Buddha
Taught</i> (1959), where Theravada scholar Walpola Rahula asked,</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
If we can understand that in this life we can continue
without a permanent, unchanging substance like Self or Soul, why can't we
understand that those forces themselves can continue without a Self or Soul
behind them after the non-functioning of the body?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
When this physical body is no more capable of
functioning, energies do not die with it, but continue to take some other shape
or form, which we call another life.... Physical and mental energies which
constitute the so-called being have within themselves the power to take a new
form, and grow gradually and gather force to the full.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ian compared this understanding of the soul to the
Hydrologic Cycle on Earth, where water moves through various bodies but always
remains water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus, Rahula is
arguing that death is not really and end because the energies that make up our
impermanent substance, or soul, continue to move through time, the universe,
and many (re)incarnations.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The cycle nature of the soul resembles the larger circles of
life in Buddhism, Samsara and karma, the circle of birth and death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From a scientific perspective,
spiritual cycles are indistinguishable from recycled atoms and molecules in the
physical world.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These cycles also teach us that there is not difference or
distinction between life and death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Again, poet Han Shan expresses it well:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Searching for some meaning to life and death,<br />Try comparing them to water and ice.<br />Water freezes over and binds into ice,<br />Then the ice melts, turning back to water.<br /><o:p> </o:p>Whatever dies had got to be reborn<br />And everyone alive dies once again.<br />Water and ice don’t harm each other<br />Life and death are both equally good! (Path of Direct
Awakening, 92)</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Han Shan’s analogy not only uses water as a figure for human
life but through it connects all beings, elements, and phenomenon in the
universe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, all is
one, as Buddhism stresses in its non-duality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, we can see these similarities on many levels of being
and time, from the biological to the geological to cosmological.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Biologically and anatomically, we ourselves are constantly
recycled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although the estimates
vary, biologists say that every atom in a human body is replaced every 10-15
years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In truth, we are never the
same person we were a moment ago.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the geological level, Poet Lorine Niedecker makes the
connection between the iron in our blood and that in the rocks of the Lake
Superior area:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In every part of every living
thing<br />is stuff that once was rock<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <br /> </span><o:p> </o:p>In blood the minerals<br /> of the rock<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(Collected
161)</blockquote>
<br />
In a note from Niedecker on the poem in the book’s footnotes, we see her Zen-like attitude towards the interconnectedness of life: “The sea went over and left me dry, parched for knowledge! The feeling of being a part of all this. How?—the body, the unconscious. Let us sing, as they say in church.”
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This geologic sense that Niedecker gives us of the
interconnectedness of my life to all things can also be magnified to a cosmic
scale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Last Dharma talk [Apr 3,
2011], I spoke of the “rubber band” theories of the universe and how they open
the possibility of a scientific understanding of reincarnation as samsara.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If both science and Buddhism are right,
we will all be sitting here again in an infinite number of lifetimes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This change does not just affect physical things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the idea of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anatman</i>, soul/spirit/mind/consciousness also change forms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, we (when there really
is no distinction between self and other, individual soul and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anatman</i>) return to the universe when we
die in the form of atoms, energies, soul, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That dynamic reveals the impermanence and interconnectedness
of all things.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Such eternal return includes all pasts and all futures,
including the concept of past and future.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Living in the moment, I detach myself from myself in the
form of the fear of death, which is the desire for life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
his book on death, Thich Nhat Hahn quotes the Buddha from the Sutra on Knowing
the Better Way to Live Alone, the <i>Bhaddekaratta
Sutta</i>:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The Buddha taught:<br /> Do not pursue the
past.<br /> Do not lose yourself
in the future.<br /> The past no longer
is.<br /> The future has not
yet come.<br /> Looking deeply at
life as it is<br />in the very here and
now,<br /> the practitioner
dwells in stability and freedom.<br /> We must be diligent
today.<br /> To wait until
tomorrow is too late.<br /> Death comes
unexpectedly.<br /> How can we bargain
with it?<br /> The sage calls a
person who knows<br /> how to dwell in
mindfulness<br /> night and day<br /> 'one who knows the
better way to live alone.' (Our Appointment 5)</blockquote>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Death is an attachment to a future that never arrives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the Buddha continues:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
When someone thinks about the way
this body…feelings…perceptions…mental factors…consciousness will be in the
future…his mind is burdened by and daydreaming about these things which belong
to the future, then that person is losing himself in the future. (Our
Appointment 6)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In some sense, as I mentioned in my last talk, this future
that the Buddha refers to is a future that never comes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we are fully aware in the present
moment, the future is not a concern and each moment is born anew, without
anticipation (a form of desire) of the next.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a sense, that moment between an exhalation and an
inhalation, where your lungs are still, is a kind of death; I mean, who knows
if you are ever going to inhale again?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sometimes in my meditation, I try to be present as long as I can in that
moment between breaths, and if I do, if I’m meditating well, I never know if
the future actually comes because I’m still mindfully in the present.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Personally, I carry this notion of the future a bit
further:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>my death is a future that
never arrives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Maurice Blanchot
argues, death is always only the death of the Other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I only experience other people’s deaths.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will never experience my own death
because once I am dead, my <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anatman</i>
will have changed forms and I am no longer “I” or “me”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this life, I only experience the
death of the Other, but that experience of the death of the Other is the self,
the experience of “no self.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet, as Ely Kugo has taught us, we have an ego that is
important to be aware of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anatman</i> may be translated as “no
self,” Buddhism does not deny the self because it eschews all dualisms. In the
above quote, the ego is necessary so that one “does not lose oneself in the
future” past or even the present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even the Buddha has acknowledged that grief and suffering over the death
of others, along with one’s own fear of death, are natural parts of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not that we won’t have these
feelings—its that we must practice mindfulness so that they do not rule us to
the point that we “lose ourselves.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As Dogen writes, “To study the Buddha way is to study the
self.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To study the self is to
forget the self” (Essential Zen 77).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The self, the study, the forgetting—these are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anatman</i>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We return to the Buddha’s words and find that he too returns
to the idea of the “person” or “the sage,” an individual ego who dwells in
mindfulness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I repeat that last
few lines:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The sage calls a person who knows<br /> how to swell in mindfulness<br /> night and day<br /> “one who knows<br /> the better way to live alone”</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I leave you with that quote as a way into discussion, as I’d
like to hear about others’ meditations on death and how it related to the ego.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Works Cited</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hahn, Thich Nhat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Our Appointment with Life: Discourse on Living Happily in the Present
Moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Berkeley: Parallax Press,
1990.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Niedecker, Lorine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lorine Niedecker: Collected Works</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>New Edition. Ed. Jenny Penberthy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Berkeley: U of California P, 2002.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rahula, Walpola. <i>What the Buddha Taught</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>New York: Grove, 1959.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ruppenthal, Stephen H, ed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Path of Direct
Awakening: Passages for Meditation</i>. Albany, CA: Berekely Hills Books, 2004.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tanahashi, Kazuaki and Tensho David Schneider, eds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Essential
Zen</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>New York: Harper Collins,
1994.</div>
<!--EndFragment-->grantmatthewjenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15302796714842437413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2987922128588316939.post-31033139018642544312012-07-17T13:37:00.000-07:002012-07-17T13:37:32.471-07:00PurposeThe purpose of this blog is to post my Dharma talks, whether in text or audio format, to share with others, particularly those in my Sangha at the Open Mind Zen Center in Tulsa, OK. But I welcome anyone to peruse and comment on its contents. As a lay person and member, I give the Dharma talk approximately once a month at the OMZ Center and have been doing it since 2011. So, I have some backlog that I hope to bring forth over the next several postings, as I post new material.grantmatthewjenkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15302796714842437413noreply@blogger.com0Tulsa, OK 74104, USA36.1539816 -95.99277535.9488471 -96.308631999999989 36.3591161 -95.676918