Causing No Harm

Tara Brach

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4.8 • 10.6K Ratings

🗓️ 28 September 2011

⏱️ 55 minutes

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Summary

2011-09-28 - Causing No Harm - The mindstates behind violence--anger and fear--are universal and natural. If they possess us and drive our actions, we suffer. If we learn to meet them with a mindful awareness--if we step out of judgment and angry reactivity--we serve our own freedom and the possibility of peace on earth as well. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Transcript

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0:00.0	So tonight I want to explore something I've been reflecting on a lot and it's really
0:22.2	that when humans create a lot of harm on this planet, it's a call for us to deepen our attention.
0:33.1	Whenever it comes to our attention to the mind states behind it, like what caused that harm?
0:41.6	And it's a really important question, you know, I'm thinking of the ecological disasters,
0:46.5	like at the Gulf. You know, we have such a short memory of what the crises are and all of a sudden it
0:51.7	just fades. Well, there'll be more accidents. What's behind that? Can we sense into the greed and fear
0:58.8	in the culture that causes that or that causes an economic crisis that creates such tragedy in the
1:06.8	lives of so many people? You know, or, you know, for many of us, you know, 9-11 was just here. So we
1:14.5	think, well, what's behind the violence there and then the retaliation that create the more violence?
1:20.7	The cycles of violence, what's behind that? Can we sense the fear and anger behind that? And then
1:27.0	last week was so poignant for millions and millions of people, what's the mind state behind wanting
1:35.2	to see someone be killed behind believing that punishment, that killing people for what they're
1:45.0	being accused of is really going to create a better world in any way. What's behind that?
1:52.4	These are questions it feels important to ask. I think of our country, you know, there's
1:58.1	70% of the world countries in the world have gotten rid of capital punishment. So there's
2:04.8	30% United States and some third world countries that have retained it. Now 65% of our population
2:13.6	approves. So what is it? You know, it's such an important question. What is it if we approve of
2:21.2	something that we know doesn't detain crime? That we know hits people that can't afford a lawyer,
2:31.7	a decent lawyer, that we know often hits the wrong person, they get the wrong person gets killed.
2:39.1	What's the mind state that would have 65% of our country believe this is helpful?
2:48.8	These are questions that I've been asking, you know, what is it behind an eye for an eye
2:54.4	when we're believing that? So after 9-11, when a lot of people feared the very continuation of
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