Accountabilty
from 
JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
With palms together
Good Morning Everyone,
There is an old Zen story:
When Bankei held his sesshin retreats of meditation, pupils from many parts of Japan came to attend. During one of these gatherings a pupil was caught stealing. The matter was reported to Bankei with the request that the culprit be expelled. Bankei ignored the case.
Later the pupil was caught in a similar act, and again Bankei disregarded the matter. This angered the other pupils, who drew up a petition asking for the dismissal of the thief, stating that otherwise they would leave in a body.
When Bankei had read the petition he called everyone before him. "You are wise brothers," he told them. "You know what is right and what is not right. You may go somewhere else to study if you wish, but this poor brother does not even know right from wrong. Who will teach him if I do not? I am going to keep him here even if all the rest of you leave."
Knowing right from wrong is just a beginning step, nearly any child knows the difference. It is our relationship to right and wrong that is of real value. Moreover, a crowd does not make ethical conduct easy. It takes a strong teacher to resist the group, yet sometimes in doing so, lifelong lessons are taught.
In this case, everyone knew what was right and what was wrong, yet there was disagreement on how to address the issue. When we approach someone who is doing wrong, what is our attitude?
From a Zen Buddhist perspective, everything in life is an offering, is pregnant with teaching possibilities. When we orient ourselves this way, letting our self-interest drop away, we are in a position to truly be helpful.
So many of us hold the common understanding that a crime must be punished in order to teach, as if punishment is a true teacher. We confuse punishment with the assumption of responsibility and accountability, but this is a very narrow view of these concepts.
What other ways can we hold someone accountable? In what other ways can we help someone assume responsibility for their behavior? Answering such questions requires thought and a degree of patience. It also requires us to consider the direction of our attention.
Punishment is often less for the perpetrator than for the society of his victims. Society seems to require blood for blood, tears for tears, in some primitive tit for tat exchange of suffering. We imagine it will make us feel good to see a criminal punished and the closer to the way the crime was played out the better. This is little more than revenge. As such its motives are impure and its effect is to increase alienation from the society than anything else.
Who among us has not heard the father say to the child, "this is going to hurt me more than you" as he lifts his belt or hand for a good whack across a bottom? My question is why should anyone be caused to suffer any more than they are? The whack does nothing but cause pain. Better would be an approach that would bring the child into the family, not push him away.
So our common approach has us building prison after prison, increasing our cost, increasing our suffering, and doing absolutely nothing to change anything. A definition of insanity, I think.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
There is an old Zen story:
When Bankei held his sesshin retreats of meditation, pupils from many parts of Japan came to attend. During one of these gatherings a pupil was caught stealing. The matter was reported to Bankei with the request that the culprit be expelled. Bankei ignored the case.
Later the pupil was caught in a similar act, and again Bankei disregarded the matter. This angered the other pupils, who drew up a petition asking for the dismissal of the thief, stating that otherwise they would leave in a body.
When Bankei had read the petition he called everyone before him. "You are wise brothers," he told them. "You know what is right and what is not right. You may go somewhere else to study if you wish, but this poor brother does not even know right from wrong. Who will teach him if I do not? I am going to keep him here even if all the rest of you leave."
Knowing right from wrong is just a beginning step, nearly any child knows the difference. It is our relationship to right and wrong that is of real value. Moreover, a crowd does not make ethical conduct easy. It takes a strong teacher to resist the group, yet sometimes in doing so, lifelong lessons are taught.
In this case, everyone knew what was right and what was wrong, yet there was disagreement on how to address the issue. When we approach someone who is doing wrong, what is our attitude?
From a Zen Buddhist perspective, everything in life is an offering, is pregnant with teaching possibilities. When we orient ourselves this way, letting our self-interest drop away, we are in a position to truly be helpful.
So many of us hold the common understanding that a crime must be punished in order to teach, as if punishment is a true teacher. We confuse punishment with the assumption of responsibility and accountability, but this is a very narrow view of these concepts.
What other ways can we hold someone accountable? In what other ways can we help someone assume responsibility for their behavior? Answering such questions requires thought and a degree of patience. It also requires us to consider the direction of our attention.
Punishment is often less for the perpetrator than for the society of his victims. Society seems to require blood for blood, tears for tears, in some primitive tit for tat exchange of suffering. We imagine it will make us feel good to see a criminal punished and the closer to the way the crime was played out the better. This is little more than revenge. As such its motives are impure and its effect is to increase alienation from the society than anything else.
Who among us has not heard the father say to the child, "this is going to hurt me more than you" as he lifts his belt or hand for a good whack across a bottom? My question is why should anyone be caused to suffer any more than they are? The whack does nothing but cause pain. Better would be an approach that would bring the child into the family, not push him away.
So our common approach has us building prison after prison, increasing our cost, increasing our suffering, and doing absolutely nothing to change anything. A definition of insanity, I think.
Be well.