We sit and offer Metta for the victims of the Orlando shootings, their family and friends, and all victims everywhere of violence.
We especially note all heinous crimes in which people are targeted for who they are, their race, beliefs, ways of life.
Let us continue to work for a world without hate and violence.
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And it is also a good time to remind folks of this, as I have already been asked today:
It is taught by most Buddhist Teachers I know that we should sit and offer Metta and the like for all harm-doers and potential harm-doers as well. Why?
In Buddhism, we tend to see even the violence doers as victims of greed, anger and ignorance. We tend to avoid saying there are "bad people", and merely that there are people who act badly due to their own suffering inside. Thus, I can wish even a killer "peace" and "contentment" in Metta, with the idea that if they truly knew peace and contentment, there would be no violence. If we fail to do so, we are actually nurturing anger and divisive thinking in our own hearts.
It may help to understand this by considering that what we are actually doing is sitting and offering Metta hoping for an end to the cycle and ripple effects of anger and division that caused this act and might be born and continue from this act, long after this one act and even though the shooter is dead or apprehended. We are offering Metta here, not to the harm-doer as a person who harms, but rather to end the Karmic causes and effects that led him there, filled him or her, ripple onward from this, and may lead to more violence in the future. It is much as if we were to offer Metta for a destructive Tsunami wave that has done great harm, hoping for a calming and healing of all that continues from that storm, the violent hurricane conditions that first caused the wave and may lead on to do further harm if the storm persists.
We sit and offer Metta for a future time and world in which such events will not happen, and none of this will be necessary.
Gassho, J
SatToday
PS - Let me add that, even though Buddhists tend to say there are no "bad people," only "bad actions", and that even the harmdoer is a "victim" of greed, anger and ignorance, I believe that most Buddhist Teachers of all schools will allow that there is still reason to stop or punish criminally the wrongdoer via prison or the like, or even to use violent force ... even (although not all Buddhists agree on this) to use deadly force ... to prevent likely future violence by the person or a group. Most (not all, and there are some prominent absolute no holds barred pacifists among Buddhist Teachers) would say that this is in keeping with the Precept to Preserve Life because the deadly force is being used to preserve the lives of even more innocent victims. At the same time, we must do all we can to minimize violence in response, and we should try not to act out of anger in our own hearts.
In this case, it looks as if it was the act of one individual ... or a small group of extremist people. We must not overreact. If we overreact, or feel anger, we may also end up targeting innocent people for who they are, their religion, race, beliefs, ways of life. As well, it is best to turn the other cheek where possible, offer flowers for bullets, turn swords to plowshares ... "respond" with gentleness and not always with bombs. Perhaps we too the latter too often.
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Originally Posted by Jundo
