By Yuki Eric Michels

I dreamt recently that I was driving somewhere — I don’t know where, but I knew where I was going. I turned into the woods, onto a rocky dirt path, thinking I knew a shortcut. Quickly, the road narrowed until it barely seemed to be a road at all.

I’d gone the wrong way. What do I do? Tread back. Reverse, slowly and steadily, back the way I came until I’m on the road I had veered from. Return to the path I knew was right. I was on my way! I didn’t need a shortcut. As soon as I got back on that road, I knew to simply continue on.

I’ve made mistakes, and I’m suffering the consequences. I want my dreams back. I want a sense of hope and joy again. Yet, I’m reaping what I’ve sown, and I have to accept that. I know I’m not alone.

We all go through this together. We collectively face the consequences of our actions and inaction — and of others’ actions and inaction. I learned from Bhikkhu Bodhi that it is Buddhist dogma which conceives that “everything you experience is a result of your karma.”

There is always a multiplicity of webs of causation behind every event. Karma is one factor. Social and economic conditions are others, among many more. These other factors can create opportunities for karmic conditions to mature, or prevent them from maturing.

Additionally, our karma is not ours alone. To conceive of your actions as purely yours is to give false truth to the ego-identity. Who are you? What have you done alone?

We all share responsibility for the suffering in the world, and we are not the sole administrators of our own karma either.

I vow to remember this, and I vow to continue returning to this path. Thank goodness for this rare opportunity to encounter and take refuge in the dharma!

Shujo, muhen, sei – gan – do – o….

By Yuki Eric Michels

When the deep meaning of things is not understood,
the mind’s essential peace is disturbed to no avail.
The Way is perfect like vast space
where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.
Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject
that we do not see the true nature of things.

— Sengcan, Xinxinming (“Trust in Mind”)

Although I am a Buddhist, my bible is the Tao Te Ching. “The Way that can be spoken is not the eternal Way” — for me, this is the most important truth that can be put into words. The reality that can be spoken, or even merely conceived of, is not the ultimate reality. The true nature of things, at the end of the day, exists before and beyond our conception of it.

I have had great teachers who helped me understand the ways of things, who taught me truths and realities. And I believe my greatest teachers are those who taught me to question reality, to question the ways of things, and to not believe an asserted truth simply because it’s posited strongly — even (and especially) my own assertions. They teach me to remain open, supple, and curious.

Easier said than done, however, in a society that simultaneously tells us both, “Your reality is nothing in the grand scheme of things, so why even try to make a difference?” and “Your reality is the only reality, so do whatever the hell you want.” We are taught to simply inherit the world we are given, to accept the truths that we are told, and to act within the confines that we are born into.

Humans as a species have existed for 300,000 years, and we only have about 7,000 years of written human history. That means our contemporary economic and political systems have existed for approximately 0.1% of human history and 4% of written history. So why does it feel like it is so often framed to us that this society is the pinnacle of human civilization — that this is the “best of all possible worlds”?

Who created borders and nation-states? Who created profit and loss? How? And why? I believe if there is anything we ought to question, it is: Why are there certain things we are not taught to question, or even taught not to question?

A society that is rich, and yet creates poverty, is violent. A news media that feeds off of mental illness is deranged. An economy that profits off of war is diseased. We still live in a time of empires, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and the dispossessed masses are forced to constantly fight for their dignity.

“Rules of war” were created to ensure children aren’t subjected to famine and torture in clashes between peoples, and so that genocide couldn’t be rationalized away as a form of self-defense. Yet these levers have failed, and we are pressured to simply accept the suffering forced upon us and others, threatened with the prospect of an Even Greater Evil.

Why are these the choices we’re presented with? Why is this the reality we’re forced to accept? The quote that started this letter can be read in two ways: It is because we choose to accept and reject things, that we do not see the true nature of things. And, The mind’s essential peace is disturbed to no avail when we refuse to accept that we do not see the true nature of things.

I implore you to continue questioning the things we are not taught to question, and especially the things we are taught not to question.