By Eurydice Hirsey
During the summer at Plum Village in 1994, my husband, Barry Roth, was ordained as a Dharma teacher; I took the Fourteen Precepts of the Order of Interbeing; and our son, Matthew, took the Five Wonderful Precepts. After returning home, we all looked deeply into our family life with mindful discernment, and rededicated ourselves to cultivating a more engaged lifestyle. We felt a heightened awareness of the great need for social justice and, last June,
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By Eurydice Hirsey
During the summer at Plum Village in 1994, my husband, Barry Roth, was ordained as a Dharma teacher; I took the Fourteen Precepts of the Order of Interbeing; and our son, Matthew, took the Five Wonderful Precepts. After returning home, we all looked deeply into our family life with mindful discernment, and rededicated ourselves to cultivating a more engaged lifestyle. We felt a heightened awareness of the great need for social justice and, last June, we participated in a human rights delegation to Guatemala with six other peace activists.
Although Buddhism has not been widely cultivated in Central America, the spiritual practices of the indigenous Mayan culture are filled with a truth inherent in all spiritual traditions. We did not meet anyone who had not lost a family member either to disappearances, murder, or torture. While their pain was a constant companion, anger was not. Love, not anger, motivated them.
Seeing, hearing, and touching the very heart of suffering in Guatemala brought to vivid life the deep need for The Fourth Precept. You cannot close your eyes to the truth in Guatemala—the dismal effects of profound poverty and a long history of murder and repression are everywhere. You are forced to witness in the banal, a legacy of centuries of brutal human rights abuses. Yet, in the midst of this ocean of samsara, we felt a reservoir of hope, kindness, and deep resolve among the Mayan people—a resolve to end the suffering nonviolently; a resolve to bring out the truth in order to transform it; a resolve to create anew. In the steamy jungles and dense rain forests of Guatemala, the depth of mindful awareness shines a very steady light on compassion and determination.
Eurydice Hirsey, True Precious Light, is a chiropractic physician in the Greater Boston area.
