YOBA in the news

3/8/2021

If you have access to the Herald-Times, you can see Russ Skiba's guest column which appeared today. He was invited to submit the piece after attending a Bloomington Multifaith Alliance meeting on anti-racism with Mark Fraley.

1 Comment

Sawyer

3/19/2021 07:39:49 am

Thanks Russ, both for your writing in this public way and for just bringing attention to what happened at the Indy General Assembly Feb. 18th, which I hadn't heard about.

Riffing off your/faith leaders' call for "respect for others" as the basis of "practical love":

I learned a new respect for the word/practice of "respect" through Roshi Joan Halifax's book "Standing At the Edge" (a book Ryan's recommended on the resource page). Her discussion of respect (chapter 3 I think) helped me see Buddhist practice as basically a natural expression of deep-rooted respect. (how many times can I, respectfully, use the word "respect"? :)

To "re" - "spect" literally means "to look again." A first look often a surface glance, automatic... so a respectful practice means a pause, or a sense of space, and a new looking with fresher, clearer eyes...

In that practice of fundamentally not taking for granted what/who I see in the world, as well as my own reactions to the world, I can't help but encounter things and beings as precious. Giving real attention, actually listening, we might witness self/others really as expressions of Buddha-nature -- and then the practice of acting accordingly.

Interacting with each-other-as-Buddha is the kind of respect that I see faith leaders/practitioners calling on us to embody. Imagine that in a legislative body...! I don't know what that would look like, actually, but I doubt there'd be booing involved and allowed, especially related to entangled racial issues that inherently require careful attention. It sounds like there's been some positive interaction between the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus and some of the (white) House leadership regarding responses to what happened; implicit bias training for legislators, reprimands, etc...

Bringing this "Buddha-respect" forward in addressing "400 years of disrespect" (and what that really means) feels to me like unavoidable practice for modern American bodhisattvas.

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