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General Buddhism => General Buddhism => Topic started by: sonamdhargey on December 16, 2012, 03:26:57 PM
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"If we lack the courage to confront evil acts, or tendencies toward hatred and discrimination, both within ourselves and in society, they will spread unchecked, as history shows. Martin Luther King, Jr., lamented, 'We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.'"
Keeping silence about something bad does not mean we are free from any wrong doing. Keeping silence means we are selfish and do not want to speak up because we do not want to be involved and be troubled, fear and shamed. We do not want to be part of the problem and let the problem escalates.
"By oneself, indeed, is evil done; by oneself is one defiled. By oneself is evil left undone; by oneself, indeed, is one purified. Purity and impurity depend on oneself. No one purifies another." (Dhammapada, chapter 12, verse 165)
What do you think?
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If we are privy to an act considered "evil", we should speak up, "confront" the person/s behind it and "right" the wrong doing. Many a times people keep quiet for fear of being labelled a busybody, trying to get your nose in other people's affairs.
We do not realise that by keeping quiet, we are silently accepting that whatever wrong doing is happening, is ok, acceptable. This is wrong, the murderer gets away with the crime, so to speak.
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"If we lack the courage to confront evil acts, or tendencies toward hatred and discrimination, both within ourselves and in society, they will spread unchecked, as history shows. Martin Luther King, Jr., lamented, 'We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.'"
Keeping silence about something bad does not mean we are free from any wrong doing. Keeping silence means we are selfish and do not want to speak up because we do not want to be involved and be troubled, fear and shamed. We do not want to be part of the problem and let the problem escalates.
"By oneself, indeed, is evil done; by oneself is one defiled. By oneself is evil left undone; by oneself, indeed, is one purified. Purity and impurity depend on oneself. No one purifies another." (Dhammapada, chapter 12, verse 165)
What do you think?
On keeping silence, I tend to see it as this: if the situation could be improved if we speak up about it but we did not, any resulting negativity that comes from doing that is really our fault because we could have done something about it but we did not. That itself is a negative thing. This does not apply on every situation, of course. An easy example is this: if your country is ruled by a bad government but you do not exercise your right to vote, and people suffer because of the government's actions, keeping quiet is negative in that sense because as a result of not speaking up, others have to suffer.
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Keeping silent about actions or situations that have been proven to have harmful consequences is an example of evil non-action. Take the case of the current heated debate about limiting/restricting the sale of guns in US. The pro-gun lobbyists are very strong because the lobbyists for limited/restricted sale of guns are fewer in number at all levels. This in turn is the result of many who know about the harmful consequences of the open and unrestricted sale of guns , and yet are keeping mum.US must have the most number of cases of random shooting of young people in schools and colleges. People keep silent and refuse to lend their weight to the restricted gun-sale lobbyists because it's 'other people's' problems so long as no one close to them have become victims of the crazy shooting sprees of mad men with guns.
Sad to say, people are generally only concerned about themselves and not about others.By keeping silent, they must realize that they are condoning acts of violence.Condoning is as good as supporting these acts because you allow them to be perpetrated.
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For one not to speak up or confront one doing bad thing, actually we are encouraging for the bad thing to happen. We indirectly allow on to someone creating negative karma which mean we assist one create the negative karma.
Because of our selfishness we witness someone doing bad thing. Keeping silent does not keep us on the safe side even though we are not the one carry out the negative action but we allow for negative action to happen. We are part of the negative action to be happened.
A lot of people today act like this! Don’t bother because doesn't want get involve. This is the current practice of the current society. So sad, spiritual teaching is very important for people to understand the great value of selflessness. Should one just let go selfish thought so many to be benefited. Look at a bigger picture of everyone contribute to the positive act will bring peace and harmonious to family, society and eventually the country.
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For one not to speak up or confront one doing bad thing, actually we are encouraging for the bad thing to happen. We indirectly allow on to someone creating negative karma which mean we assist one create the negative karma.
Because of our selfishness we witness someone doing bad thing. Keeping silent does not keep us on the safe side even though we are not the one carry out the negative action but we allow for negative action to happen. We are part of the negative action to be happened.
A lot of people today act like this! Don’t bother because doesn't want get involve. This is the current practice of the current society. So sad, spiritual teaching is very important for people to understand the great value of selflessness. Should one just let go selfish thought so many to be benefited. Look at a bigger picture of everyone contribute to the positive act will bring peace and harmonious to family, society and eventually the country.
The thing about keeping silent is, we create the causes for us to be collateral damage when the thing goes out of control. It is better to speak up whenever we can to avoid the problem from coming back at us, and even that would be something that would not be pleasant at all to bear when we know that we could have avoided it earlier. Thus, the best thing to do is to speak up when the situation requires so that we do not regret or suffer the backlash from not speaking up.
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Agreed Ensapa. However how many of us are willing to speak up and be placed on the chopping board? Especially if it is speaking out against your senior, how do we mindfully speak up and at the same time do not offend them? I myself have experience this many times in the previous company i worked with. We know our senior is wrong but because we depend our livelihood on them therefore out of fear and respecting the chair we just keep silence. In these type of situation in real life it is easier said than done.
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The Buddhist understanding is that good and evil are innate,inseparable aspects of life. This view makes it impossible to label a particular individual or group as "good or "evil" Every single being is capable of acts of the most good or the biggest evil.
Unwillingness to acknowledge the potential of supreme good and evil can stem from the fact that as individual
we are reluctant to see ourselves as either very good or very bad,hiding instead behind a collective moral mediocrity that requires neither the responsibility of goodness nor the guilt of evil.
Some view Buddhism as a teaching of tranquility and repose.-of passivity even where as in fact the practice of Buddhism is not about 'staying safe' It is constant struggle to create value and change.
The evil over which we must triumph is the impulse toward hatred and destruction that resides in us all.The process of acknowledging 'confronting and transforming our own fundamental darkness is the means by which we can strengthen the functioning of good in our lives.
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Remaining silent and not doing anything to right the wrong causes the downfall in two of the secondary Bodhisattva Vows i.e. “not correcting others who are motivated by delusions” and “not acting with whatever means are necessary according to the circumstances to stop someone who is doing harmful action”
Our inaction shows the lack of love or compassion for others who had been our "mothers" in countless past lives. It is a clear sign of our self-cherishing mind manifesting. Is there no gratitude for our “mothers”? Shouldn’t we repay their kindness towards us by helping them to right their wrong?
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Agreed Ensapa. However how many of us are willing to speak up and be placed on the chopping board? Especially if it is speaking out against your senior, how do we mindfully speak up and at the same time do not offend them? I myself have experience this many times in the previous company i worked with. We know our senior is wrong but because we depend our livelihood on them therefore out of fear and respecting the chair we just keep silence. In these type of situation in real life it is easier said than done.
Yes, it is quite hard to speak up in the real world. It is a common issue for all because the speaker get labelled and get targeted, and get entangled into office politics. Speak on the issue not the individual. If we lack of courage then we really need to check within ourselves. Fear of reprimand can be biggest factor of not speaking up and thus we don't because we depend the current job as our livelihood. Therefore we are comfortable with our job our comfort zone and we do not want to move out from our comfort zone be in speaking up or changing our job if the circumstances warrant it. Anyway begin by changing our mentality our attitude, personal change from within, gain courage from the work done, and maybe maybe one day you can speak up for the right reason, not because of the individual but because the issue at hand and the general benefit for all to hear your stand, to let others aware of it. You never how the others think until you speak up. Maybe everyone is not on the same side.
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If we are privy to an act considered "evil", we should speak up, "confront" the person/s behind it and "right" the wrong doing. Many a times people keep quiet for fear of being labelled a busybody, trying to get your nose in other people's affairs.
We do not realise that by keeping quiet, we are silently accepting that whatever wrong doing is happening, is ok, acceptable. This is wrong, the murderer gets away with the crime, so to speak.
I agree with what Jessie wrote. When we see something not right and keep quite about it, we are actually silently encouraging and supporting the person to continue doing things that are wrong which may cause that person to become more and more habituated to do the wrong things naturally over time.
Probably if we or someone have spoken up and confronted the person, he/she may realize, regret and stop doing what is wrong. But when we allow them to continue doing the wrong things, from a very small problem it may become a much much bigger problem later on. Better to speak up and be disliked by one person or even a group of people (well ofcourse we must be clever about the situation if we do not want to be beaten up) than to allow them to hurt many others.
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Agreed Ensapa. However how many of us are willing to speak up and be placed on the chopping board? Especially if it is speaking out against your senior, how do we mindfully speak up and at the same time do not offend them? I myself have experience this many times in the previous company i worked with. We know our senior is wrong but because we depend our livelihood on them therefore out of fear and respecting the chair we just keep silence. In these type of situation in real life it is easier said than done.
That is why i mention earlier also that speaking up also has to be at the right place and time. If we speak up when we are in a position where speaking up would bring more harm than good then why speak up? If we know very clearly for sure that speaking up would bring benefits then we should speak up. It is all about situations. Also we need to make sure that our conscience is clear when we speak up or when we dont speak up because that is the most important part of the whole thing. If after we speak up we cannot go past our conscience, it means we are doing it wrong.
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Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation. Tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego. His anxiety subsides. His inhuman void spreads on like a gray vegetation. - Jean Arp
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I agree that keeping silence when seeing wrong doings is as bad, if not worse than doing the wrong things, because if the don't voice out, it means we agree to the wrong doings and hence not making noise.
Sometimes we keep silence because we want to be "safe", don't want to be "caught", or at times we just want to look good. Either way, it is because of selfishness.
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Actually, to me, to classify something as evil in the context of Buddhism... I find it very strange. There is nothing in this world, even samsara that can be considered evil.
Evil is something that is based on a person's perspective. So for example I was brought up in a regular society that tells me stealing is bad, while my friend was brought up in a society that tells him stealing is good... then our perspective of what's evil will be different.
What I believe is not about 'evil' but I believe in Karma, for that is the universal truth that is equal to all regardless of what his or her believes that is controlled and contaminated by delusions anyway.
So the question here if we remain silent when it comes to something that can potentially hurt someone is not the best character a person should have... But is it considered evil? No, I dont think so... If it is not evil, what is it then? It means we are excessively, overly SELFISH that we do not care what happens around us or even to people closely associated with us causing us to remain silent just to preserve our own self (which wouldn't last long anyway).
I do not believe keeping silent is 'EVIL', but I believe if the action or result that come from us keeping silent is harmful, then we too are the cause of it, we allowed it to happen because we did not say anything against it. And yes... karma will catch up that when we are in that situation, we will face the similar or worst situation.
Therefore, if we are Buddhist, then we will practice first to open our heart and make everything that harms others OUR BUSINESS... then we can speak up with wisdom that will not damage anyone. After all, sometimes even with our best intentions to speak up to prevent something bad from happening, due to lack of wisdom, we end up making things worst.
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Actually, to me, to classify something as evil in the context of Buddhism... I find it very strange. There is nothing in this world, even samsara that can be considered evil.
Evil is something that is based on a person's perspective. So for example I was brought up in a regular society that tells me stealing is bad, while my friend was brought up in a society that tells him stealing is good... then our perspective of what's evil will be different.
What I believe is not about 'evil' but I believe in Karma, for that is the universal truth that is equal to all regardless of what his or her believes that is controlled and contaminated by delusions anyway.
So the question here if we remain silent when it comes to something that can potentially hurt someone is not the best character a person should have... But is it considered evil? No, I dont think so... If it is not evil, what is it then? It means we are excessively, overly SELFISH that we do not care what happens around us or even to people closely associated with us causing us to remain silent just to preserve our own self (which wouldn't last long anyway).
I do not believe keeping silent is 'EVIL', but I believe if the action or result that come from us keeping silent is harmful, then we too are the cause of it, we allowed it to happen because we did not say anything against it. And yes... karma will catch up that when we are in that situation, we will face the similar or worst situation.
Therefore, if we are Buddhist, then we will practice first to open our heart and make everything that harms others OUR BUSINESS... then we can speak up with wisdom that will not damage anyone. After all, sometimes even with our best intentions to speak up to prevent something bad from happening, due to lack of wisdom, we end up making things worst.
I would say that being silent when times demand that we need to speak up would be an act that will bring along a lot of negative karma because we are knowingly allowing the situation to get worse and we are not doing anything about it. For example if you see someone who is wrongly accused being executed and you know he is innocent but you choose not to speak out for him, it would be the same as you committing a murder because the negative karma of allowing something bad to happen is the same as actually doing the negative action.
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I agree with Q that 'Evil is something that is based on a person's perspective'.
However I believe that we are all born with a conscience that guides us to realise what is right or wrong, what is good or bad. A person may be termed as being born evil but it could be that he had a very abusive and traumatic childhood, or he had perhaps some injury on certain part of his frontal lobe that may have caused this person to be 'evil'/ lack of conscience.
Therefore could this be that this person has bought with him the negative karma from a previous life that had now ripened in this lifetime that had caused him to commit these acts of evil ?
Knowing that an act of evil is being committed and keeping quiet because we don't wish to get involved or closing a blind eye to it , consoling ourselves that this person will eventually be 'caught' is in itself initiating negative karma for ourselves. I'm sure that the very fact we know that an evil deed is being committed and feel horrible about it , shows that our conscience is kicking in ! Not doing anything about it also creates guilt in ourselves!
Buddhism teaches us to be kind and Compassionate to EVERYONE . Kindness and Compassion is the total opposite of causing harm to ANYONE !
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"The first step in the acquisition of wisdom is silence, the second listening, the third memory, the fourth practice, the fifth teaching others." ~Solomon Ibn Gabriol (the great Hebrew poet and philosopher)
I find the above words of wisdom by Solomon to be very practical. Most people (yes including myself) speaks and judge others too quickly. In life, not everything is as easily recognizable as black and white, right and wrong, evil and good. I am ready to be criticized by having lack of principles, weak in dharma or moral ethics. I do agree also with the other participants in this forum that people do not speak against evil because of not wanting to be nosy. I do think it stems from not wanting to take responsibility to do something about it.
Can one person speaking out move mountains? Yes I do think so as looking at history, there has been influential (both good and evil) men who have used their speech to create peace and war.
There is great victory in breaking the silent to what is outright evil and wrong. If it's not because of the persistent courage of many who broke the silent and strong hold of racism, today, we will not have Obama to lead the great America. This is one of many great outcomes of breaking the evil silent.
There is great danger in breaking the silent out of peer pressure and lack of wisdom..."ya, let's all jump on the wagon else I will be ostracized" mentality and fear. It starts from becoming bullies in schools, to using speech for war. ..to the point that people are influenced to commit the act, remain silent and not capable of repenting.
I pray the the Wisdom Buddha Dorje Shugden grants us unobscured wisdom that our body, speech and mind are used to benefit ourselves and others.
Source : http://iss.sagepub.com/content/7/2/187.short (http://iss.sagepub.com/content/7/2/187.short)
PRESSURE AND GUILT: WAR EXPERIENCES OF A YOUNG GERMAN SOLDIER AND THEIR BIOGRAPHICAL IMPLICATIONS (PART 1)
The psychoanalysts Alexander and Margarete Mitscherlich claimed in their widely discussed article (1977) that Germans would be incapable of mourning about and repenting of the disaster of the Second World War, the millions of deaths and suffering of the victims of Nazi terror. They argued that Germans would repress or deny what had happened to avoid suffering from severe depression. The Mitscherlich thesis is criticised in this study by displaying the wide landscape of deep personal involvement (called a `trajectory') in various autobiographical differentations of living within a world of total collective moral deterioration.
The research necessary to prove or disprove such a thesis works with `autobiographical narrative interviews' conceived by the author. The research style of meticulous structural descriptions is developed to utilise formal text indicators for localising such phenomena like fading out, delayed recollection, and compartmentalised phases of working-through. Typical for this method, its data arise from interviewing single cases, here that of an ideologically non-committed German. As a young German soldier in the Second World War, he too showed phases of incapacity to mourn and repent. But the informant did not remain in that state. Severe crisis experiences in his later private life led to sudden recollections of encounters with victims of Nazi terror. He started to mourn and repent. Besides empirical evidence of the feeling of personal entanglement in collective guilt also among those not engaged in intentional acts of immoral behaviour, we encounter the interesting phenomenon of delayed mourning about and repenting of the moral deterioration within the collectivity of `We, the Germans'. This finding is corroborated by data from many narrative interviews with other Germans who were non-committed to Nazi ideology but active in the German war machinery.
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This quote I remember from my childhood which really just sums it all up:
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing"
With that said, our silence can then be perceived as aiding evil... purely because if we know it is something bad/evil and we remain silent and do not do or say anything, we are supporting the act. We may argue the fact that it is not the intention but the non action speaks more volumes!
Hence, whenever we are in such a 'dilemma', just voice our opinion and speak our mind no matter how silly we think we sound. Because in speaking up, we actually care enough and we knock our ego down. Is this not spiritual practice? Imagine, this slightest non action can actually create such immense negative karma and we do it all the time in varying degrees!
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I believe that not speaking up means that I am selfish and I don't care. And it also means that it is ok for the other person to be acting that way which is wrong. What if the evil things that the person is doing brings negative karma? Do we still keep quiet? Whether the person listens to us or not, right or wrong, doesn't matter, so long as we voice it out of concern and care. We shouldn't let our pride and ego win!
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It depends, but for sure keeping silence if you know something bad is going to happen and will hurt or inflict injuries to others (physical or mental) is definitely non virtuous. Sometimes, when we speaks out of concern and care, people would get hurt indirectly too. Nevertheless, motivation in how and why we speaks is importance, it actually determines the results of the action of speech.