..续本文上一页ore." Just buy the things you need and only because you genuinely need them. Use them responsibly. Demand appropriate products with appropriate quality. Don”t mess with consumer junk no more! Give them the "Atammayata Seal of Disapproval."

　　Most of us live within minutes of some environmental tragedy, merely a blink of the eye if we live in a city or suburb. The forests around the monastery I am writing from are disappearing fast. A nearby dam ruins one river and a planned dam threatens another. The local market town is full of noise and the streets are full of plastic. The children eat junk food and toss the foil wrappers into the gutter. Men toss their whiskey bottles. Pesticides are used indiscriminately. You know what is going on around you. Say "No!" to dirty air, dirty water, dirty food, dirty money, dirty minds.

　　These three examples should be enough for you to get the principle. If you understand how to use atammayata in dealing with such situations, you will apply it to the issues on which you are working. Say "No!" to child abuse, malnutrition, deforestation, schooling, prostitution, political corruption, medical dishonesty, torture, media disinformation, war, crime, technological over-indulgence, violence ...

　　Now, some internal situations. To apply atammayata to social situation is just a start, merely a holding action. The roots of the problems are deeper, that is, within the hearts of people. As "engaged Buddhists" we must also work on the spiritual level. Our engagement is that we turn outer activism into spiritual non-activism. We use the work for others as an opportunity to say "No!" to our own egos, attachments, and ignorance.

　　For example, we are often motivated — to some degree — by outrage and anger. We see things going on in this world which we strongly feel are "wrong." We condemn these things as "wrong" and they don”t make us feel very happy. But our minds are still sloppy and we can”t distinguish the "wrongness" of certain actions from the "person" who does them. We easily slip into judging other people, the so-called perpetrators, as being "wrong." We attach to that "wrongness" more strongly, which becomes anger, outrage, hatred, wrath. We have become violent. Perhaps are demeanor is calm but our heart is violent.

　　The spiritual activist must find the means to say "No!" to the inner violence. We examine the process through which they are spawned, saying "No!" to each level of the concocting. We look bravely into our own anger and hatred as well as the fear and exhilaration that can accompany them, seeing the burning pain as they singe our minds. We see the ugliness of debasing human life — our own and the other”s — to such a pathetic state. We see the hopelessness of building a peaceful world through such violent thoughts. So, we say "No!" to them. Going deeper, we see that the "person" is not what our judging makes him out to be. She is a breathing being who also seeks happiness and a good life, just as we do. He is influenced by corrupt forces in society. We say "no!" to the limited vision of the human being that judges him as "wrong" and "evil." We say "no!" to our lack of compassion. We say "no!" to our blindness.

　　Then we can face up to the "wrong" itself. Where, really, is the "wrongness." Can we put a finger on it

　　 Does it stay still long enough for us to bring it to court

　　 When we look with Dhamma eyes, which we call vipassana, we see that the "wrong" is impermanent, unsatisfying, and not-self. It is void of any self that can be wrong. The wrongness itself is void. It is a word, a thought, a belief of our culture and experience that the mind projects onto reality. May we have the insight to say "no!" even to "wrongness."

　　 If we can take atammayata this far, our vision of the world becomes peaceful…

《Say No! with Atammayata》全文未完，请进入下页继续阅读…