The Begging Bowl

Buddhist monks, in practicing their call to holiness, rely upon the alms of the lay faithful to provide them with food, clothes, and other needs. Often, these alms come in exchange for spiritual services the monks perform for the laity such as weddings and funerals. The posture a monk observes when receiving alms is holding the empty bowl in hand so that the almsgiver may place the alms in the bowl. However, when a monk turns the begging bowl upside down, rendering the possibility of giving alms impossible, the monk is withdrawing consent from the the spiritual practice of the community.

In Burma, the upside down bowl became a powerful symbolic action in response to the military junta's repression of the pro-democracy movement. In a devoutly Buddhist country, the withdrawal of the monk's begging bowl represents the denunciation of the systemic violence and oppression of the country's military leaders.

02 June 2008

Freedom in Nonviolence

The coercive nature of violence is the real threat to freedom and peace in the lives of all peoples in the world today. Those of us who enjoy some semblance of "freedom" to exercise certain rights or privileges that have been granted us by some structure of government or other state apparatus experience the same coercive violence as those peoples who suffer tremendously for exercising the same rights contrary to the will of the powers of domination. The soul of the Land of Liberty is dying amidst a war of liberation and fight for freedom. Freedom is not a byproduct in need of salvation through violent conflict with an enemy. Freedom is an act of faith and an act of conscience.

Nonviolence is a choice, an expression of freedom that says to the attractive, overwhelming convincing power of violence "I don't need you to solve my problems." The martyrs who stand up for peace and justice through nonviolent speech and action and suffer the consequences of repressive state and corporate violence are the real "Freedom Fighters." They are the ones who realize Freedom cannot be bought or sold, won or lost. Their freedom is not a gift but a choice.
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