Imbolc New (Hare) Moon
For those of us who come down on the introverted side of the extrovert/introvert dialectic, an event like seeing the Dali Lama is a strain. When I got back this morning, it was like I had been at the MIA for a couple of tours. I was drained. Kate would remind me that I’m 67 and, yes, that’s true, but there’s an element of overstimulation, too much of a good thing. At the same time, an interesting morning and worth doing.
I have that slight tingle in my body that says, not yet fully recharged, even after a nap. That will pass. At some point I’ll be left with the image of the Dali Lama in his maroon visor, his remark about loving honey and being reincarnated as a bee, him refusing to bless the crowd, then greeting individuals with a blessing. Talking to Bill and Sister Irene. The long, long lines winding in toward the seating. The early Saturday morning drive.
At first, his blessing individuals after refusing to bless the crowd seemed contradictory, but as I’ve thought about it, maybe not. His answer to change is to point a stubby finger toward his heart, lying somewhere underneath those maroon robes. “First change yourself. Then show compassion to your family. Then your community. Then change will happen.” When he touches an individual, he expresses his personal compassion for them, his blessing. That he can do. To spread that same compassion to an abstraction, like a crowd seems inauthentic, to an individual, no.
I don’t agree with his emphasis on change your self first, nor do I agree with him on his conclusion that education is the answer to world peace. He crooked his index finger and said a tree that grows like this is difficult to change; but, he straightened it, one taught from the beginning…” This sounds right and makes sense in a facile, feel good way, but change is a social, communal affair that requires moving those in power to change their thinking.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with changing your own heart and educating the young in how to grow up compassionate. Hardly. Very, very worthwhile. But.
It will not and has not changed a regime like, for example, China’s ruling communist party. Nor would it have changed Hitler or Pol Pot or will it change the Tea Party crowd in the U.S. Congress. Changing these sorts requires organizing sufficient power to force them to change their ways. Not necessarily revolution, what I’m talking about is the essence of democratic politics, but this kind of change may require revolution.
And education without change in the structure of the economy and patterns of embedded classicism, racism and sexism will not and has not lifted groups out of poverty. Individuals, yes, from time to time, but whole communities? No.
