Walking By Sight

[Guest guest]

This week a constellation of observations and events have synergetically

combined to compel me to run, not walk, back to my favorite zendo and

restart the meditation practice that I had begun but quit doing because

I was battling hepatitis C.

What has transpired in this group this week has turned out to be

spiritual training for me. When I first joined this group I was in the

throes of hepatitis C treatment. I was in pain, I was in suffering, and

that pain and suffering enabled me to empathize with others who were

suffering from hepatitis C, however it affected their lives.

Unfortunately, my behavior this week has forced me to realize that since

recovering from hepatitis C treatment I have become less compassionate

and increasingly intolerant. In short, I have started walking a path

that will cause me to lose the respect that I have earned since I

joined.

Everything culminated in a concise insight when I read an article titled

" Walking By Sight " by Steve Hagen. He's the head teacher at the Dharma

Field Zen Center here in Minneapolis, my favorite zendo. He states that

Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, even Buddhism and Atheism, are

beliefs. To this list I would add the various political ideologies. He

doesn't say beliefs are bad, only that we must be careful with them.

They can cause us to see others as equivalent to their beliefs, cause

them pain and suffering, and do injury to ourselves in the process.

My behavior is a case in point. When I saw Bob stating what I consider

to be Republican ideology I chose to treat him as a Republican and not

as the human being I'd actually started to like. Since I don't like

Republicans I went on the attack, egregiously so. Bob may say that I

did little, if any, injury to him but I most certainly ignored my

responsibility to help the rest of you with hepatitis C, made myself

feel guilty, and damaged my reputation. In Steve's words, I walked by

belief, not by sight.

We have been wrestling with guidelines regarding politics and religion

and I suggest that when all of us are here, together, at Hepatitis C

Central that " We walk by sight, not by belief. "

I am troubled by the idea of prohibiting the expression of religious

belief altogether. Our beliefs no doubt inspire us to face the

hardships visited upon us by hepatitis C. Also, hepatitis C doesn't

just attack the our livers, it attacks our spirit and this could be its

most debilitating effect. Thus, I want to encourage all us to express

the wisdom that is given to us by our religious beliefs. When someone

expresses a religious belief that others are sensitive to, we should

gently say, " We walk by sight, not by belief. " And that should be the

end of it.

Prohibiting political discussion does not trouble me. However, we can

say things that are political in nature without realizing it. Again, we

should gently say, " We walk by sight, not by belief. " And that should

be the end of it.

We walk by sight, not by belief. What do all of you think?

Doug