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Post by David Frank on Mar 21, 2011 20:53:28 GMT -5
I've identified that my anger at the fact of Buddhist spiritual retreats at Auschwitz arises in part from not having a constructive outlet through which to take action to prevent the exploitation of Jewish suffering and loss for the spurious purpose of personal spiritual growth. That means I need your help. What can I do? What can we do? Your thoughts are essential to this exploratory conversation. Many thanks for expressing your goodness of heart by contributing. What do you think should be done?
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Post by Sarr Blumson on Apr 1, 2011 8:45:53 GMT -5
I would want to think about where action should be directed. I may be offended by their use of Auschwitz, but my offense is my problem not there's.
But Alan touches on another issue: the self absorption of so much "new age spirituality." It seems to me that Alan's work and Mussar in general, with its emphasis on care and compassion for the other (which it shares with real Buddhism, by the way) is exactly what our world needs right now.
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Post by Neil Harris on Apr 1, 2011 9:09:27 GMT -5
Rav Wolbe teaches that the oposite of "anger" is tolerance. It's not always easy.
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Post by joshgressel on Apr 1, 2011 9:56:25 GMT -5
Alan: Thanks for a great and thoughtful article. I appreciate the honesty, the self restraint, the reflectiveness, the openness, and the role modeling which are embodied in your article.
You might think with that intro I have some suggestion to offer but I don't. I believe, however, that external "action" is not the only criteria by which to calculate one's response. To do so is to limit ourselves and our effects on the world to the material world only. But the very act of feeling what you're feeling is already action, as is the reflection and the searching you've been doing. The containing you're doing is action. If we think of all of this as part of a spiritual process, action is only the visible aspect of multitudes of realities which are always occurring.
This isn't to dodge your question but to reframe it in a context which allows for the spirit. It's why I often shy from political action, because it over-emphasizes the material reality without delving into the spirit which should animate it.
I guess the best I could offer is to continue what you're doing, being a cauldron for a meaningful alchemical process. You seem to me to be uniquely qualified to address this question, because of your background in the Eastern spiritual traditions. I believe that the longer you hold this, the more clear and helpful can be your way of eventually addressing it. To the degree that ego is still involved, it might require getting to the point where you don't need to prove to them the error of their ways, but simply explain the difficulty you have with what they're doing. Ultimately, that would add further understanding to the world, rather than more violence toward the other.
Thanks again for sharing.
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Post by Deborah Garretson on Apr 1, 2011 9:57:54 GMT -5
I am new to Mussar and I really appreciate your piece on your anger. It was so helpful to see how you broke it down and considered various aspects. Thank you.
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Post by claude on Apr 1, 2011 11:45:24 GMT -5
1) I would like to honour Alan for his enthusiasm to find truth, and his awareness of the need to ponder (and not be over-zealous. 2) yes, all middot have two "ends," and each end is appropriate in certain circumstances. 3) The feeling and the possible consequent act are like the match and the fuse. It is necessary to pause at this point. ======
4) I became angry at all the steps I had to carry out to "register" so as to be able to write my comment. In particular, why do you need to know my age? Why not, as with many other WWW, there is simply a box: are you 13 or over? Anyone can falsify on their age, in either format. Please pass this suggestion along to the appropriate WWW person. Thank you. Anger => deliberate calm act.
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Post by debbie meron on Apr 1, 2011 11:56:05 GMT -5
alan...
first of all i'd like to say that i very much respect your idea of trying to sort out your feelings and figure out how to deal with them and where to go with them by posting this to the mussar community (which i am honored to be a part of)... i think this is already a step in the right direction not only because of the various answers you will get but by the help that the mere act of sharing may give you personally...
second i have to agree with the comment... "Rav Wolbe teaches that the oposite of "anger" is tolerance. It's not always easy." i think this says a lot...
and that leads me to my third comment... perhaps you should try to look at the whole thing from the perspective of the retreat participants... how do you think they feel... what do you think their intention is... what would they answer to your post if they could... how would it feel to be one of them...
fourth and closely related to the third is what do you suppose the spirits and souls of the dear departed ones whose lives were cut short at this death camp would say to you... how do you think they would react to what was going on there... what would they say to the participants at the retreats...
lastly... i'll add my personal view... these retreats don't bother me... it seems like they are using (not "using" the way you meant when you wrote the word to mean the same as abusing) this space in a respectful manner (i wouldn't say the same thing if a team was playing soccer there for example) and using the lessons of the holocaust to learn and grow from... if the death of so many of our people and this whole terrible tragedy can teach people something and help them grow then at least some small good can come out of an unspeakable evil (kind of like the way the state of israel grew out of it in a way)... but that is just my view... you have to somehow come to peace with all this and find your place in it... and i pray that you do... shabbat shalom... and thank you as always... debbie
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Post by Stephanie on Apr 1, 2011 12:16:46 GMT -5
Alan: As you noted yourself in this week’s entry, lack of humility is often at the very seat of anger. More often than not, my own anger results from my perception that someone has acted contrary to what I define (in my infinite ego) as “right.” That perception, of course, is based on a number of assumptions: first and foremost, that I know definitively what is right and what is wrong, and equally importantly, that the other person has wantonly violated my principles of right and wrong, either out of hatred or ignorance. Hence, my anger. Your anger with the Buddhist group seems to be based on your presumption that they are doing something wrong or disrespectful to the memory of those who died at Auschwitz; that they are somehow “exploiting” the dead. Since those who died are not here to speak for themselves as to what they find to be appropriate or exploitative(or not), it seems a bit of a jump to presume that someone who offers up respect differently than you would is doing so out of disrespect. I suggest that if someone who visits Auschwitz walks away a better person for it, however they come to that place, and if he or she learns a little more humility and humanity from being there, and is touched by it in some meaningful way that might induce them to go out and make the world a better place, at least some of the people who died there might feel genuinely honored. These “pilgrims” are people who for the most part do not share your ancestral link to the souls who reside at Auschwitz, but who come anyway at great effort and expense, hoping to make it part of their own spiritual path, hoping to make sense of the loss in whatever way (and however humanly flawed) that they are best able and with any luck to gain something from it, in order to temper the loss by making whole what is broken within themselves. By doing so, they make the world incrementally better. While it may not comport with what you believe is the “appropriate” and “respectful” way to approach Auschwitz, I think you must trust that they come with reverent intent, innocently - as children might - making sense of it in the way that makes the most sense to them. I am very new to Mussar, but it seems to me that Mussar teaches that these “pilgrims” are not worthy of your anger so much as your compassion and maybe even your gratitude for helping you and me to stretch ourselves spiritually and reaffirm our trust and our commitment to our own spiritual growth even as we question other's attempts to do the same. As for your feelings of frustration at not having an outlet for your anger – or your overriding compulsion to “do something” to express your frustration, I just wonder what role humility plays in your conviction that you must do something to punish or enlighten these people. It seems that in the past year, the energy you have spent being angry about this might have been spent in more productive ways. Finally, in light of your passion and commitment to the teachings of Mussar, I’m a little surprised by your reference to the “spurious purpose of personal spiritual growth” in any context. Is Mussar the only way, or just the best way?
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micha
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Post by micha on Apr 1, 2011 12:31:06 GMT -5
The Talmud says that a lesson we can take from how the Temple was destroyed is the need to eliminate "sin'at chinam" -- literally: "free hate". I have wondered for a while whether they are referring to baseless hatred, as the quote is usually translated, or pointless hatred. What makes the hatred valueless: the fact that I'm angry over something that shouldn't make me angry, or that I am angry over something I don't or perhaps even can't change?
But whatever the association or lack thereof between Alan's essay and the Fall of the Second Temple...
Something I encountered in a Season of Mussar II group was that Alan's presentation of Patience didn't resonate with some of the members in the group. Patience is in Hebrew "savlanut", which Alan notes is from the root "soveil", carrying a burden. Patience doesn't come from trying to rise above suffering but in learning how to constructively use it. And a few of the members who had some attachment to Buddhism were advocating elimination, instead.
(In a similar way, I don't think Mindfulness can mean the same thing in any Jewish path, including Mussar, as it does in Buddhism. We are about working toward the future; you can't be "in the moment" to the exclusion of thinking about where that moment is leading. Focusing on the process, not the moment. And part of the process is eliminating, hopefully by curing, that which needs repair.)
Similarly here... The true and very real evil exemplified by Nazism is being defined away. In true Buddhist fashion, they are letting go of the attachments that cause them pain in confronting Auschwitz and all it represents. And there are some things that one should not let go of -- such as the hatred of evil.
Thus I see an appropriateness here -- Alan is unable to tolerate their ability to tolerate the intolerable.
To do so one belittles the value of life -- of those that evil killed, of their own lives, but even the lives of those who did the killing. Human action has import, even when the human is a Nazi. We aren't clowns, we are in the "Image" of the Divine.
-micha
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Post by Jean Wodnicki on Apr 1, 2011 14:59:13 GMT -5
Though not a Mussar student, I am a student of Judaism and the 12 steps. I believe the anger Alan voiced over the Auschwitz situation is appropriate. However, Alan's question was about an action which could be taken to rid oneself of the anger, separately from any action he might take to address the problem itself.
Two pieces of advice which are consistent with both Judaism and AA are:
1: Take the actions you feel are indicated to address the situation, and then leave the outcome to God. (bitachon) (and humility)
2. Pray for the person/place/thing you are upset about. Pray that they will receive everything you would wish for yourself- health, happiness, peace, prosperity. Do this every day for two weeks. The upset will usually disappear long before the two weeks is up. If not, pray for another two weeks. I have never known this to fail.
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Post by yogawalker on Apr 1, 2011 15:07:08 GMT -5
Alan, Reading your message in this month's Yashar, I thought immediately of a book I just read by Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, "You Don't Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right." The title gives a fairly good idea of the content. It seems to me that the message of his book might help you reach equanimity even as you disagree with Bernie Glassman and his followers. Perhaps you have already read it. If not, you might find it helpful to deal with the pain you are feeling.
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Post by sindywarren on Apr 2, 2011 7:32:43 GMT -5
I think your anger in this situation is appropriate. We know from Mussar that the middah of anger is neither good no bad in and of itself. It depends on the context and your intention to define the correct balance. Your article presents a very balanced view of anger as it manifests in you in response to the Auschwitz "retreats." The question is, as you so aptly posed it, what to do with the anger? I don't think simply saying "be tolerant" is the right response. Rather, you should harness your anger in an appropriate way. Why not start a petition summarizing your thoughts, see how much support you can gather, and pass it on to Glassman? Or, write him a letter, using a respectful tone of course, expressing your anger? Once you have taken action, then perhaps it is time to "let it go" and try to move beyond it. But I think some kind of action is in line with Mussar.
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Post by Esther Cohen on Apr 2, 2011 14:00:49 GMT -5
Hello Alan, I wonder what a simple conversation with the leader of this workshop would offer to you. Have you tried just talking to him about your concerns - as a fellow spiritual teacher/seeker and a fellow Jew?
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Post by johnbrozak on Apr 2, 2011 15:29:44 GMT -5
Interestingly, (coincidentally!!) on the same day as I received Alan's Mussar reflection, one of the local vancouver parpers carried a small article that Denis Avey, a former British soldier who had been imprisoned near Auschwitz, had, after 60 years of silence written a book detailing how he had twice entered and left Auschwitz. The article contained a brief description of the situation and circumstances which I will quote here.
"He recorded seeing piles of "vaguely human" corpses of workers who died each day. They were carried away by fellow inmates who showed no emotion. Body carriers collapsed, earning them a beating and almost certain death."
"Men were pulled from lineups and taken away to be gassed, but there was no protest, so weak and dejected had they become.
Avey described the "foul air" of the sleeping area and putrid "soup" the men were served which he dared not eat.
He held whispered conversations with the inmate lying next to him who was in on the plan, finding out what he could about the concentration camp.
"Auschwitz III was like nothing else on earth; it was hell on earth. This is what I had come to witness but it was a ghastly, terrifying experience."
My suggestiion would to contact Mr. Glassman and offer to co-faciltate the week with him incorporating a Mussar perspective into their gathering and also having daily readings from survivors accounts (Viktor Frankl & others)and other books such as Avey's.
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Post by Esther Cohen on Apr 2, 2011 15:39:24 GMT -5
I have just visited the Zen Peacemaker website, and I get a very different impression of their "Bearing Witness" retreats that what Alan has presented here. Specifically, Alan mentions: "There is also the fund-raising appeal to those of us not going to Poland with the group. We can still show support by sponsoring a yahrzeit [memorial] candle for $108. And there is a nod to Jewish content by including a leader whose qualifications for this role are very questionable."
On the website there is an opportunity to purchase a memorial candle for $18 (that goes to a scholarship fund); there is another option of $108. As to Jewish content, they mention reciting victim's names, saying Kaddish, holding prayer services (in multiple traditions), and observing Shabbat. What requirements are needed to recite Kaddish and observe Shabbat?
I do not know this group, and am not familiar with what they do. But, I definitely get a different (and better) impression of what they do than what Alan has presented.
I am now curious as to what was shared with Alan by the two participants who took part in the gatherings and reported back to him.
Regarding anger - when we share perspectives based in anger with others, when is it lashon hara, and when does it serve a useful purpose? This is what I am left wondering about. When are we trying to incite other's anger (to validate our own) and when are we truly trying to gain perspective, and find out what call to action exists within our own anger. How do we discern the difference?
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