Dear Friends in the Dharma/Dhamma,
As the secretary of a new interfaith body I am writing to religious
organizations of all kinds
to invite them to mentally re-open the question of what really happened on
that tragic day of
September 11th, from which such a lot of suffering has flowed. Our
founding Declaration and
Appeal literature is here.
http://www.mujca.com/allfaiths.htm
As I am also a practicing Buddhist, I thought it might be helpful to add
some reflections of a
more Buddhist derivation, albeit in doing so I am aware that many of my
readers will be much
more expert than I in what the Buddha said.
I should also add that I am aware that whatever the truth behind 911 we
still need to treat
people of other backgrounds as individuals, regardless of their faith or
nationality. And we do
also need to understand and not hate the perpetrators of 911, whoever they
really were.
One preliminary hurdle I may need to surmount can be expressed in the
following objection:
‘Don’t such ‘political’ concerns fall under the heading of matters which
are unconducive for
discussion within the Sangha?’
But if as Buddhists we can make a difference – both through our practice
of dispassionately
separating what we know from what we don’t (right view, right speech) and
through the
added-value that people of faith can bring to wholesome non-partisan
causes – then maybe the
tests we should use are ‘Will this be of service?’ and ‘If we can help
reduce the fog of
untruth, will this not help to reduce suffering here and abroad?’
‘Dotted lines’ are one thing, but if we draw too much of a big black line
separating a no-go
zone of ‘politics’ (concerning society, the ’external’ world) from
‘spirituality/faith/dharma’
(concerning us, our ‘inner’ worlds) , then perhaps we risk shoring up the
illusion of a
separate self, unconsciously buttressed as if often is by (highly
political) ‘wegoic’
assumptions about our ‘Free West’ society which is being challenged by
those bad guys ....
Another difficulty which some Buddhists raise goes like this:
‘Views are many but Life is short. How can we ever know the truth?’
Assuming that this scepticism isn’t simply directed at those who question
the official
Bin-Laden-dunnit conspiracy theory of the powerful, I would like to
sympathise with this
concern. But also to encourage you with my re****t-back, based on following
the 9/11 Truth trail
for four years now, that for all the false trails, man-traps and remaining
uncertainties, YES
we can know some im****tant things for certain (see for example
www.911scholars.org ) and that
these are enough to make a helpful difference both to our cognitive maps
and to our world,
potentially.
Greed, hate and delusion are not just nouns, existential conditions, but
also verbs –
unskillful acts and habits of mind, such as dogmatically attaching to
unquestioned and widely
promulgated views [or way out ones!] , or expressing impatient contempt
for ‘losers’ who
espouse unpopular views. And on the institutional plane the three poisons
keep turning up as
collective practices, e.g. the quite normal scam at the start of wars and
dictator****ps, of
trying to delude the world through deceptive re****ts, irrational
scare-mongering and
‘false-flag’ attacks of one kind or another (e.g. Saddam’s non-existent
WMD, the 1964 Gulf of
Tonkin incident, and the 1933 Reichstag Fire.).
So fellow Buddhists, May I humbly invite you to adopt ‘beginners mind’ as
you read Our
Declaration and Appeal (attached). Join us and help us to walk the middle
way, dispassionately
‘seeking truth from facts’ (Dalai Lama) and sifting through each next fact
or theory we come
across without any predisposition either to believe or disbelieve what we
are encountering. Of
course, that is an ideal: but perhaps the main thing is that rather than
shrink reality for our
own comfort, we allow ourselves to ‘always be disturbed by the truth’.
If you would like to respond to this letter, please do, either directly to
me on 01738 783677
or at keith[dot]mothersson[at]phonecoop[dot]coop or better still at a
purpose-created Buddhist
discussion thread on one of the British 911 websites:
http://www.nineeleven.co.uk/board/viewtopic.php?p=108518#108518
(you will
need to register to
post, but this usually takes just a few minutes, if you have any problems,
let me know.)
Thank you for reading this. May all beings know peace.
Sincerely and with Metta,
Keith Mothersson
Buddhist Representative and Acting Secretary
of All Faiths for 911 Truth
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