How to Not Know - Balancing Contemplation and Action

If you think of Buddhists as quiet, gentle people who meditate all the time, think again.  

​Our guest this week is a proponent of engaged Buddhism, a movement within the philosophy that turns contemplation into action, practice into purpose.  We learn from Pete that it’s not enough to acknowledge the suffering in the world, engaged Buddhists strive to do something to relieve suffering where they find it.

​If your efforts to help others - friends and family OR out in the world - fall short of your expectations, or if you are confused about how to start making a difference, this episode might be for you.

Pete Pierson has been a man of action his whole life, so it makes sense that he would be attracted to a practice and community that embraces action.  Once an Outward Bound instructor, as well as a firefighter and Mobile Intensive Care Paramedic in remote and extreme areas of Minnesota and Alaska, Pete knows how to help. He’s seen death up close, and as a UU lay minister, he was asked the big questions – Why?

Not finding a good answer to that question eventually led him to Zen and engaged Buddhism, which, as you will hear, taught Pete to make peace with not knowing.

He also knows the value of community and has been active in the many communities he’s called home.  While living here in Prescott long enough to go to grad school, he allowed himself to be recruited to run for the state house of representatives against an incumbent republican with dubious personal history.  He agreed to run, not because he thought he could win, which he didn’t, but in order to force the public conversation on vital issues.
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Now working as a farm laborer in Kansas, Pete is finding solace in physical work and taking care of family through the pandemic.  He is serving on the township board, doing freelance writing and non-profit consulting, and he doesn’t know what’s next.  But he’s ok with that.
In this episode, Pete reads from the essay “A Gift of Not Knowing”. His story takes us to a hot, windy day at the Wounded Knee Memorial in SD and a concrete example of how to engage with history, suffering, and cultural divides. As he explains, Not knowing is a good place to start.

SHOW NOTES
Key Take Aways: 

• Three Principles of Zen Peace Makers
  • NOT-KNOWING -  letting go of fixed ideas about yourself, others, and the universe.
  • BEARING WITNESS -  to the joy and suffering of the world
  • TAKING ACTION -  that arises from Not-Knowing and Bearing Witness

Do a Science:

• The next time you are in service or in dialogue around community or politics, and you are not sure what you should or could do, just acknowledge that moment. Notice that you don’t know. Know that that is a good place to start. 

​References:

• The Wounded Knee Massacre 
• The piece of writing we featured on the podcast Pete wrote for Zen Peacemakers International's (ZPI) Journal and can be found here. 
• A related piece for ZPI Pete referred to, regarding Not Knowing in the days of COVID: 
• Expanded in a longer audio piece on Stay Human; KAXE/KBXE-PRX June 2020 episode with Winona LaDuke titled “Pandemic and Protest,” 27:30 (introduction) to 39:20 mark, archived at: beta.prx.org/stories/326010.
• Other recent works of Pete’s include:
  • “Purpose;” naturalhistoryinstitute.org/purpose/
  • “Dragonflies;” naturalhistoryinstitute.org/dragonflies/.)
• For more on Engaged Buddhism, among a number of other resources and organizations: Zen Peacemakers International at zenpeacemakers.org/
• Be informed, and be engaged in whatever ways you can, in the efforts to fight the Enbridge Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline threatening pristine waters and wild rice grounds on Anishinabe land in Minnesota (Note: This likely is gearing up to be the next Standing Rock):
  • www.stopline3.org/#intro
  • www.honorearth.org/
  • friendsoftheheadwaters.org/index.html
• Information about David Stringer - Pete’s opponent for State Legislature in 2016.

Books
(All available at Indiebound)

• Roshi Joan Halifax's (Upaya Zen Center) Standing at the Edge: Finding Freedom Where Fear and Courage Meet. 
• D. T. Suzuki’s Introduction to Zen Buddhism 
• Thich Naht Hanh’s Being Peace
• Alan Watts The Way of Zen
• Jay W. Roberts Beyond Learning By Doing: Theoretical Currents In Experiential Education

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Resources & Recipes! 

• Real hand-harvested and processed wild rice is often subject to seasonal supply. Look for Native American cooperative producers/suppliers, such as:
  • nativeharvest.com/collections/all (where you can also find real maple syrup, jams and jellies, and more)
  • llwildrice.com/
  • redlakenationfoods.com/product-category/wild-rice-products/
    • Also: Their wild rice pancake mix is uniquely good, when available.
  • Another producer/supplier is Homestead Mills
• Cranberry Wild Rice Breakfast Burritos! Recipe Here

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