October 2017 Zazenkai Talk (Offering Metta to Violent People)

For today's Metta (Loving Kindness) Recital, in the section of offering Metta to people difficult in our lives or in this world, I will be offering in my heart to "people like Stephen Paddock", the man who killed 58 people, and wounded hundreds more, in Las Vegas this week.

I feel I need to explain why, and the meaning of this. Someone might misunderstand or be confused. I am sorry that it is a little complicated.

Our Metta chant states:

1. May he be free of suffering; may he feel safe and still.
2. May he be free of enmity; may he be loving, grateful and kind.
3. May he be healthy and at ease in all his ills.
4. May he be at peace, embracing all conditions of life.

We must somehow not turn away, not forget ... yet see the real culprit as the "greed anger and ignorance" that infects human beings. Perhaps it is too hard to ask people to forgive, but at least, let us strive not to meet anger with further anger of our own. The best response to hate is ... peace.

Hostilities aren't stilled through hostility, regardless. Hostilities are stilled through non-hostility: this, an unending truth.(Dharmapada 3-5)

Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:
October 6th-7th, 2017 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI! »