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originally posted on the @cacradicalgrace IG account. this is needed/beneficial teaching for our time from one of Zen Buddhism’s most influential contemporary voices. 

i’ve been reading the quote over and over, it’s so perfectly succinct in its wisdom, so forgive my rambling thoughts on it that follow.

this is true Mahayana Buddhist view, that our liberation, our awakening, our freedom from suffering is tied together. in fact many Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhists (which includes Zen and Tibetan Buddhism respectively) take the Bodhisattva Vow embodied in Shantideva’s words, “As long as space remains, as long as sentient beings remain, until then, may I too remain and dispel the miseries of the world.” 

the Buddhist view (and i think reality bares this out) is that we are interdependent and interconnected, so there is no separate me that is not influenced by and does not influence others. if this is the case, collective liberation (collective transformation, collective change) is really the most authentic, fully realized, ultimate liberation. what happens to you, matters to me. what happens to me, matters to you. 

how can Authentic Love leave anyone out???

and when we think about systems and structures, is this not the same? if we take this larger Mahayana view and want to end suffering, then even if individuals have an awakening, a conversion of heart, and no longer harm, but the larger systems and structures continue to harm and destroy – then unnecessary suffering continues. 

collective change, collective transformation, collective liberation cannot genuinely and fully happen outside of individual change, transformation, or liberation. and individual change, transformation, liberation should lead (and if it is the genuine work of Love, i believe it does) to disruption and change of the systemic and structural status quo, which always leaves someone(s) out!

~j

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#CollectiveChange #CollectiveLiberation #Love #Justice #Interdependence #Suffering #FreedomFromSuffering #OpenHeart #Path #Practice #EngagedBuddhism #JinpaLhaga #Zen #Buddhism #RevAngelKyodoWilliams #RevAngelKyodoWilliamsQuotes