saffron defiance

this question of freedom erupts suddenly, comes into sight, after years of repression in Burma. there is a fearless flow of saffron and defiance in the streets of Rangoon. then disbelief, shock in the blindness and violence of an army that asks young men to shoot their fathers, their spiritual selves, their own selves. and i am reminded of a tibetan monk whose response to the question of how he felt about the chinese soliders he witnessed torturing and killing his fathers ~
"what kind of karma are they creating for themselves?" ~
his response leaves me in total amazement. the freedom of his mind and heart, to think and see that far ahead and behind with such open eyes to the interconnectivity of all life, over all time.

this must be freedom. the long view, in the present.
the expansive heart, in service to us all.

then each of us is all of us
the courage and the blindness
the spiritual and the bereft
the all time and the today.

it is a question of balance, an equilibrium of opposites.
more of us must face our shadows and come into the light, and be so courageous everyday ~

Thich Nhat Hahn on spiritual leadership and the monks in Burma,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74o9P6G2y18&feature=dir

when i was in india and walking the himalayas with saklanaji, the 80 year old tree planter, he kept up this call and response to the villages below us which was basically
"wake up! and save the trees! wake up!"
here TNH speaks eloquently about non-violent and compassionate action in Burma, and he is saying basically that we have been waiting for the spiritual leadership in America to wake up!

Alan Clements, activist buddhist, and first ordained american to practice in Burma weighs into this conversation, and is starting a world dharma institute is dedicated to and inspired by Aung San Suu Kyi Burma’s (detained) Nobel Peace laureate and leader of her country’s nonviolent "Revolution of the Spirit. "
http://www.worlddharmaonlineinstitute.com/