Buddhist directs compassion towards bankers

[marions ghost]

what do you think of this form of buddhist activism? The sitting man is hoping that others may want to join him.

http://buddhaonstrike.org/uncategorized/a-sitting-man-at-goldman-sachs/

http://buddhaonstrike.org/

[truebrit71]

1. Not going to happen...you have to be human first....

[marions ghost]

2. you make no sense

[truebrit71]

3. the bankers aren't human...

...therefore asking them to use compassion (as his sign states) is a waste of time...(like asking a shark to use restraint...)

[marions ghost]

4. OK I thought you were talking

about the sitting man.

Well I don't know if he's 'asking" them to use compassion. As I understand it he is meditating with compassion for the bankers--for them to let go of their addictions to wealth and power, the addictions that make them greedy and uncaring about what happens to anyone else as long as they get richer.

Yeah he may be attributing too much humanity to them. But that's one of the challenges I guess.

I think it's interesting. Fits with my feeling that we need to be witnesses, we need to be present --to this massive injustice being perpetrated in this country with no adherence to any sort of morality or ethics. Whether we need to sit out in the street or not, I don't know. One of the things about witnessing is that you need to be seen.

[gtar100]

5. That's funny. :) But the sad fact is that they really are very human.

They represent the person who lets greed overtake their reasoning and emotions. I suppose it's possible to be a banker and do good work - the job is required for any type of system involving money. But the temptations have gotten the best of them. Their job is to manage the flow of money but they developed a system that siphons off more to themselves than their efforts can justify. They may be comfortable in this lifetime but they must cultivate a great deal of denial about their separateness with all other life in order to continue taking what is not rightfully theirs to take. That sort of path scares the hell out of me but they don't even blink an eye about it, and would probably have a hearty laugh at me for worrying about such things. They are betting their lives that they will never have to face the consequences of their decisions and the suffering they cause others. After all, the dead never rise up to complain about what's been done, right?