Not Doing Group Harm

San Francisco Zen Center Dharma Talks

07/28/2024, Shosan Victoria Austin, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. Studying Zen precepts, our tradition transmits a wealth of teachings to help us stop harming at personal and interpersonal levels. At this time in the West, we need to develop our ability to stop supporting harm and evil in groups and systems. Understanding and admitting how we may have supported collective harm actively, by collusion or tolerance, consciously or unconsciously, we can remove the hidden supports of collective harm. Humility in our group roles and behaviors opens our hearts and mind to what gives life to our participation in institutions, systems, and shared culture. When we scale up our practice of compassion and skillful means to plant our group behavior in the sensitive, responsive ground of the precepts, we find new ways to live and be lived for the benefit of all beings.