Fires That Purify

I've just spent the past 3 days attending a Conference for Change in Vancouver sponsored by the Dalai Lama Foundation. It was attended by 120 invited guests who are involved in humanitarian projects all over the world. (How this Hinjew shrink from Queens got an invite is subject for another time.) During Saturday evening we broke up into smaller groups to have dinner. It was here that I had the great fortune to be able to spend some time with Shawn A-In-Chut Atleo. Chief Atleo is an exquisitely rare instance of humanity at its best. He has recently been elected to be the first National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Canada. He is by no means a physically imposing individual (perhaps 5'8'') nor does he have the appearance of a wise old sage (he looks to be a quite youthful man in his mid 40's).

During dinner the question was asked about a definition of peace and what it would take to finally achieve it. I spoke about my belief that as long as we perceive the world to be divided into "us and them" there would probably always be the ease with which we inflict harm on each other. When I was asked what I thought it would take to end this, my response was an attack on earth from an alien civilization. Then Chief Atleo started to speak. He told us about the "Highway of Tears" that exists north of Vancouver. It is along this highway that indigenous people "disappear". There is sadly little that is currently being done to end this or find the perpetrators. In a rare instance, recently one pig farmer was convicted after they found the DNA of over 30 of the missing people in his pig feed. Chief Atleo is aware of over 500 missing people.

As the evening wound down I asked the Chief for a few minutes of his time. My question to him was why all of his time was not spent either weeping or using an assault weapon. He did admit to weeping. But he then told me that as most of his friends were "no longer with us" at this point in his life he was "just grateful to be able to do the work". His practice is a Buddhist meditation in which he breathes in the evil and breathes out healing and love. What an honor to be in the presence of such magnificence!

The next night I was at a fund raiser. It was attended by 300 people who clearly had a great deal of money. During the evening a 9 year old boy performed by masterfully playing classical music on a piano. His talent was superb and the 20 people who were listening were blown away by both his talent and the profound rudeness of the 280 others who's talking made it almost impossible to hear him. As we rode home some of us were trying to figure out how people could be so insensitive. My response was to comment that for me there was no difference between this crowd and the vast majority of Americans who go about their daily lives while so many of our youth are slaughtered in war every day.

I don't own an assault weapon because I know that if I did I'd probably use it. So perhaps it’s time to breath in the evil and breath out the love.