According to Buddhist philosophy we are all enlightened being, bodhisattvas; we just don't know it yet. We are also all simple human beings, fragile and precious. Our conscious minds are clouded with delusions, delusions which prevent us from seeing either end of this paradox. Which is why the second precept, or noble truth, is some times put like this; ignorance is the root of all evil. When people do bad things, they have either forgotten that they are perfect souls, or have forgotten that the other is a fragile and precious human being.
I know this consciously, and much of the time I can live within this understanding. However, watching the video of Chrissy Lee Polis being beaten at a Baltimore McDonald's sorely tested me. My initial reaction was one of anger. When asked to sign a petition my first thought was; “can I write my name on my shoe and stamp my signature on one of those girl's forehead?”
As if to add insult onto injury, one of the McDonald's staff recorded the scene with his cellphone and posted it on line. Chrissy asked him to stop, but like the girls he was indifferent to her suffering. Now the video has gone viral, being viewed by thousands around the country. For his indifference he may face charges, and probably he should.
I wrote a blog about this a few days ago on Xanga. I got several dozen of comments, on Xanga and Facebook. They expressed shock, outrage and disgust. “I felt sick to my stomach” one Facebook friend told me. My readers saw Chrissy's humanity, saw her frailty and her preciousness. It's a shame the girls didn't.
Bodhisattva means compassionate warrior. According the American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron, a bodhisattva goes to the heart of suffering without flinching and without reservation. It means to do what we can to alleviate the suffering of others, but more importantly we go even when we can't do anything.
Watching that video is an act of Bodhisattva. We can't change what happened to Chrissy. Boycotting McDonald's, bringing the girls, or the man, to justice won't undo the assault. Chrissy will have to live with what happened to her. It would easy to sweep it under the rug. It would be easy to look away, to click the x and pretend the assault never happened.
We don't. We watch, and watch. Why? Because we see her suffering and our hearts go out to her. It is an act of compassion. Chrissy may never know or benefit from our compassion, but we do. Compassion is like a muscle, one we use too little in our society, it needs exercise.
The assault was an act of indifference. The girls were capable of such brutality because they did not see Chrissy as fully human. They couldn't connect to her suffering, couldn't feel compassion for her. The guy who did the taping? I can't say what was in his mind at the time. Perhaps he too was indifferent and insensitive. Maybe all he could think about was how many hits this would get on line, not how many hits Chrissy had to endure. Or perhaps his higher self, his Bodhisattva held the camera there because we all needed to see. We needed to have our compassion tested in this way.
If we can build our compassion, we can learn to see everyone as human first, and black, white, gay, straight, trans, Muslim, etc. second or not at all. If we build our compassion, then the next time something like this happens compassion might overcome fear, like the one elderly lady who tried to help. Maybe next time everyone will step forward. Maybe it won't happen again. I would like to think that, but my mind says its unlikely. More likely we will have to witness acts of brutality again and again.
In fact in the few short days since the assault happened we have seen other acts of brutality, against other trans individuals, against gay men, against American Muslims, against blacks, pretty much against anyone that is viewed as different, outside the norm. Faced with these acts it would be easy to give into despair and inaction. Instead I choose to view each act as another chance to exercise our compassion, both as individuals and as a society.
I hope that we can let the Bodhisattva in all of us grow until such acts are truly unthinkable. It will be the work of many lifetimes, but a work that is worthy our lives.
