Excellent - Buddhism must be a socially engaged way of life, in my opinion. There is a story from the Pali cannon in which the Buddha berates a group of monks for not taking care of a sick fellow monk.
Once the Buddha and Ananda visited a monastery where a monk was suffering from a contagious disease. The poor man lay in a mess with no one looking after him. The Buddha himself washed the sick monk and placed him on a new bed. Afterwards, he admonished the other monks. "Monks, you have neither mother nor father to look after you. If you do not look after each other, who will look after you? Whoever serves the sick and suffering, serves me."[Emphasis added.] This is the kind of Buddhism we need in the world.
The Groundless Ground of Social Action
Speaker: Laurie Leitch & Elaine Miller-Karas
Laurie Leitch and Elaine Miller-Karas begin by telling their respective stories of how they were each led to their work of helping trauma survivors across the globe.
They move on to speak about the dialectic nature of life, elaborating on how there is a resilience that can emerge when someone experiences trauma. Laurie and Elaine also speak about the ’state of grace’ of ‘being present’ in the midst of uncertainty, and how they apply this principle to their lives. They conclude with a detailed discussion of the nature of their work, sharing stories about their recent experiences working in Haiti with survivors of the earthquake.Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Tags:
No comments:
Post a Comment