Israeli forces kill one, injure several in occupied West Bank as reflected on by Sensei Michael Jinpa
Before dawn this morning, a thick fog rolled off Harborview Point. It settled against our cedar walls at Clear Mind Zen Sanctuary. I sat on the zafu in silence, listening to distant navigation buoys. My mind naturally sought calm. Yet, news arrived of another life taken and several more wounded by Israeli forces. This occupied West Bank violence sharply pierced our coastal town’s quiet. Dharma practice does not insulate us from collective agony. Indeed, it exists precisely so we do not look away when the world bleeds.
The Buddhist tradition teaches that violence is never an isolated burst of circumstance. Instead, it ripens from unexamined fear, greed, and the deep delusion of separateness. When state power and military occupation become entrenched, dehumanization settles into daily policy. Ancient texts speak of avidya, fundamental ignorance. This blinds human beings to reality. Another person’s breath, family, and dignity are inextricably bound to their own. Consequently, when one life extinguishes at a checkpoint or in an alleyway, the web of life frays for every single one of us.
Bearing Witness to West Bank Violence
During my years as a hospice chaplain, I sat by many drawing their final breaths. In those vulnerable hours, all artificial barriers dissolved entirely. Ideology, nationality, and doctrine simply faded. What remained was the precious, fragile pulse of a human being. They longed for safety and love. Reading of lives abruptly ended in occupied territories therefore desecrates that sacred ground. Each person killed or wounded carries a lifetime of hopes, ancestors, and grieving kin. Their sorrow echoes far beyond political headlines.
Here in Harborview Point, our community often wrestles with helpless dread. We are surrounded by painters, potters, and maritime workers. It is tempting to retreat into aesthetic beauty or quietistic contemplation. We might convince ourselves that conflicts thousands of miles away are beyond our moral sphere. However, the Buddha taught pratityasamutpada, dependent co-arising. Our own society’s economic systems, political alliances, and moral complacencies directly nourish or mitigate suffering abroad. Indifference is not neutrality; it is active participation in the machinery of harm.
Radical Compassion and Accountability
Radical compassion requires us to endure this violence’s heartbreak. We must not harden our hearts into hatred. Anger often presents itself as the only righteous response to injustice. Nevertheless, anger is a clumsy weapon. It tends to wound the one who wields it. Clear-eyed moral outrage, rooted in wisdom rather than vengeance, seeks the total cessation of suffering for all beings. It demands accountability. Furthermore, it insists on an end to systemic repression. Security built upon another population’s subjugation is a tragic illusion.
Bearing witness is our foundational spiritual labor. When we sit in meditation, we bring the injured, the grieving, and the displaced directly onto the cushion. We refuse to normalize their plight into background noise. We must allow our hearts to break open so wide that despair cannot find purchase. From that broken openness arises resolve. We speak clearly for human rights. We question our own complicity. Ultimately, we stand alongside all who nonviolently resist oppression. The call for an end to occupied West Bank violence resonates strongly.
As the bell resonates across our zendo and out toward the cold harbor water, it serves as a wake-up call to conscience. May the person whose life was taken today rest in unbroken peace. May those bearing bodily and psychic injuries find shelter and healing. And may all who hold power awaken from the fever dream of domination. They must recognize, before it is too late, that peace can only take root when justice is afforded to every human life.
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