Killing with Kindness

Yesterday was a dark day, a narcissistic monster took the reigns of one of the most powerful countries in the world and immediately started doing things that will harm us all. None of this came as a surprise but nonetheless, witnessing the instant slide into all that is wrong, was still hard to watch. As one American commentator said, “This is a day of shame”. So what are we to do about it?

I’m going to come back to this but first I want to explore something that my own mind threw up during the run up to this mess. When the first assassination attempt on Trump failed my first thought was, “Stupid bugger, how could he miss? Had he succeeded so many people would be saved from the suffering Trump is going to cause”. So that wasn’t very Buddhist was it?

Well yes, but surprisingly not entirely. In Tibetan Buddhism there is something of a parallel. About seventy years after the Dharma arrived in Tibet a new king came to the throne who unlike his predecessors did not favour it. He immediately withdrew the funds from the monasteries and began to disband their monks. Here the story is that a Buddhist hermit called Lhalung Pelgyi Dorje, to stop him causing further harm for himself and others, decided to assassinate him. During a dance that was being performed before the king, he drew out a concealed bow and arrow and shot the king dead. He then escaped upon a black horse which, as he crossed, a river was washed clean and became white. Tradition has it that he escaped into the far north-west and remained in retreat for the rest of his life and at his death displayed the ultimate realisation by simply fading away while rainbows played in the sky.

Now to an early Buddhist this story would be unthinkable. Lhalung Pelgyi Dorje had done something wrong, despite the circumstances, and the karmic consequences of killing someone would be horrendous. No arguments, no ifs and buts, the first precept of a layman’s vows is DO NOT KILL. However, around a couple of hundred years later a new type of Buddhism began to emerge that called itself the Greater Vehicle - Mahayana Buddhism. And despite its greater emphasis on the importance of kindness and compassion, it introduced a different perspective on killing. It taught that the Buddha during a previous incarnation was in a boat with a hundred wise and saintly men and one bad man who was plotting to rob and kill them all. The Buddha, through his clairvoyance knew this and to save him from the terrible karmic consequences chose to kill him first. This he did in the full knowledge that he would himself be killing and that he would have to pay for it. Of course, just in the way Lhalung Pelgyi Dorje’s horse was washed clean, so the Buddha didn’t actually suffer the karmic backlash because his act was motivated by a deep selfless compassion. He had killed someone and it was OK. Actually it was a good thing.

This story let the cat out of the bag. While previously Buddhism had given a clear and unequivocal message which required no personnel reflection, now it had changed to a system where each person became responsible for their own moral choices. It had changed from a rule based system into a one that was conditioned by circumstances. The good side of this was that it allowed a greater subtlety but the bad side was it also allowed in making mistakes based upon poor or deluded judgement.

Now jump forward another thousand years - back to the time of King Langdarma and Lhalung Pelgyi Dorje. By now Mahayana Buddhism had developed further and become Buddhist tantrism and within these fresh cutting edge spiritual technologies were new means for recognising the non-dual nature of reality which included in their methods rituals for using magic to kill - whether it be the roots of ones own ignorance or others who were ones enemies. Here the stories are very clear, it’s not OK just to kill someone because they are an evil bastard. The motivation must be good and when they are killed they must be dispatched to a Buddhist heaven where they will be saved from their own inclination to do harm. Not doing this, just killing them, will still create an ocean of bad karma.

Unsurprisingly this seemed to many a bridge too far and there was a backlash that favoured a return to something less ambiguous. Later commentators observed it was all well and good going round 'liberating' people for their own welbeing but this was dependent upon having the wisdom of an enlightened mind and the flawless compassion of the Buddha. For lesser mortals these two factors were not necessarily present, much better to stick to kindnesss, compassion and patience and know that doing no harm was the greater wisdom.

So back to Trump. Am I saying it’s OK to assassinate him? Well, honestly in my heart of hearts I would not cry if this happened. But in my Buddhist self I think it better if I back off this vengeful streak in myself and remember that it is not more darkness that vanquishes the dark but light. The trouble with monsters like Trump - and there are so many around - is that they temp us into becoming just like them. Their fear and hatred starts to take root in our own hearts and we are currupted. Here I think of another story of an old Tibetan monk who had eventually been freed from a Chinese concentration camp after thirty years. When asked what his greatest fear had been, he replied, that he would loose his compassion for his captors.

So let’s make sure we keep the light burning, clear and bright, making our bodhisattva vows each day. It’s the best we can do - and inevitably it will have a good outcome.

NW. 21 January 2025, the day after the Trump inauguration.