Writer, Psychologist and Family Nurse Practitioner
Episode #151
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“No matter how long we emphasize the need for real peace to all beings, there are still many individuals who don't accept our peace. If people don't accept our peace, where can it be found? Peace has to be found in us.
We have to digest, we have to chew real peace in our hearts by ourselves. It is pretty hard. The nature of ignorance is to lack deep communication with nature or with the universe. It is to separate, to isolate, to create discrimination, and differences so that finally we cannot communicate as a harmonious whole.
These differences we create appear as fighting, anger, hatred and war. We are always trying to fix the surface or object-discriminated aspect of the human world. In this aspect of the world there are countless holes through which ideas are leaking- the idea of nuclear weapons, the idea of peace or no-peace, the idea of armament or disarmament.
But if we want to fix some aspect of the world,
if we want to have a peace movement, it is necessary to remember that armament and disarmament are the same thing in a sense; they are a principle or doctrine created by human ignorance. If we attach to the idea of disarmament we create a problem.
On the other hand, if we attach to the idea of armament we create still more problems.
So why don't we see the idea of peace as just an idea that can be used temporarily in order to approach real peace. There is no other way to approach peace.
To approach real peace requires a very strong, stable, spiritual commitment, a vow. Just take a vow. Make a commitment toward real peace, just like Buddha sitting under the dead tree. But remember, even though we do make a commitment toward real peace, there will be many individuals who don't accept our way. So finally, where can real peace be found? With us. We ourselves must remain with peace. This is pretty hard, but we cannot stop. Buddha has to continue to sit under the dead tree. This is our sitting.
The more we sit like this, the more we realize the strength of human ignorance.
There is no reason why we create this terrible situation, but we do, constantly. When we make a spiritual commitment toward real peace, day by day, we have to go beyond whether people accept peace or not. This is not a political matter. It is a spiritual commitment toward peace. We have to taste it and digest it, constantly.
Next we have to live it. This is pretty hard, because the more we taste and chew real peace, the more we realize human ignorance. But the more we realize human ignorance, the more we cannot stop teaching real peace, living real peace. – writes: Dainin Katagiri
Valeria interviews Josh Sandeman on the topic of peace from the book: Zen Practice in Daily Life by Dainin Katagiri - Sōtō Zen roshi
Josh is a Family Nurse Practitioner working in an underserved population in Oregon. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1990 with a degree in American Civilization and Psychology. He then worked as a programmer/analyst and research assistant in Penn's Addiction Treatment Research Center for five years before enrolling in a doctoral program in theoretical neuroscience. For ten years, Josh also worked in Silicon Valley as a software engineer, before switching to medicine, a childhood interest of mine. He is married with two young sons, and an avid long-distance runner, and do science as a hobby.
