Supposedly, as a Buddhist, I’m not supposed to judge people as “evil”.  Things are as they are, and we attach values and morals to that.  If we view people as “evil” we can justify treating them badly or harming them.  So, viewing someone as evil actually can create and foster even greater evil.  It’s inherent in Buddhist practice to try to not judge or categorize other people as being separate from ourselves regardless of their actions.  It’s also important not to fall into the trap of viewing ourselves as being morally superior. There is no good or bad…there just is.

However, Buddhism also teaches that suffering is common to everyone. I think we can all agree that’s true. Just look around you, turn on the news.  Today, a white man walked into a synagogue during a bris and massacred 11 people.  He shot them because they were Jewish, no other reason. Another white guy shot a couple of black people in a supermarket just for being black. They both viewed those people as being of no value. They were separate and different from them. These men demonized these groups in their heads until it became ok to kill them.  Everyone suffers and all suffering is at its fundamental root, caused by believing that we are separate from one another.

We’ve all heard of Karma.  Most of us have a very rudimentary view of how it works. I’ve heard people say it’s “karma” when a bad person has something awful happen to them. Like Karma is the cosmic justice system doling out divine retribution for assholes. We also don’t say “Oh well, Karma” when something terrible happens to a nice person do we? Karma is built up over many many lifetimes, and regardless of what John Lennon told you, it doesn’t come in an instant version. It’s more like soup, that you make over thousands of years.  Good wholesome ingredients make for a healthy delicious soup and as the saying goes…garbage in, garbage out.

So all of that being said…in my opinion, the acts of these men are evil. Wait, what? Yes, the acts were evil. You can choose two directions in this world.  Basically, all human behavior falls into two categories.  Not good and evil but beneficial or unbeneficial. If something you do adds to the greater good, well duh…that’s beneficial.  If you’re harming yourself or others that’s the opposite.  Everything you do every day falls somewhere on that spectrum.  It’s rarely ever black or white..sometimes you may be “semibeneficial”.  No one is perfect and altruistic all the time.  We are all imperfect beings and our actions often create suffering. If you are mindful of how you interact with people you can lessen that suffering you cause. The Dalai Lama says “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.”  Your acts, beneficial and otherwise, are what create your karma. It’s is the vast sum of all your actions over multiple lifetimes, and according to some people, dimensions.

Lately, the world seems full of evil acts… bombs being sent through the mail, mass shootings, hate and vitriol every time you turn on the tv.  We can call them evil. On the scale of “unbeneficial”, they are.  There are some who follow the Buddhist path who attempt to never view any behavior as anything other than benign they view everything through a lens of nonattachment.  They don’t react and make it a point to not have opinions.  I can’t. I live in this world. I have a vested interest in all sentient beings being free of suffering. “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others.”

What can we do to change any of it? How do we help others?  This really easy. Stop being quiet about it.  All of these really awful horrible things happen and we go about our daily lives like they didn’t. There are STILL children incarcerated and separated from their parents.  Black people are STILL being brutalized by police. Powerful men are STILL not being held accountable for sexual assault.  Hate speech by our president is STILL being tolerated by most Americans.  All of us who view any of these things as evil have a responsibility to raise our voices and rail against it.  We can no longer be silent. We cannot be separate. We are literally our brother’s keeper.  The people fomenting such horrors are viewing our silence as acceptance. We are hurting others by doing nothing. That needs to end. As Buddhist author, Ethan Nichtern says,

“We’re in a very dark place but now is the time for bravery.

Now is the time to take back our political system and Vote.

Now is the time to be generous toward strangers.

 

**I am by no means an expert on Buddism. Just a lay practitioner.