WINNING AND LOSING
by Sensei Robert Joshin Althouse (c) 2004

Fa-yen of Ch'ing-liang took the high seat before the midday meal to preach to his assembly.
Raising his hand he pointed to the bamboo blinds.
Two monks went and rolled them up in the same manner.
Fa-yen said, "One gains, one loses."

Case 26 from the Mumonkan

Yesterday I walked by our local high school which was preparing for a football game. The band struck up a military march while cheerleaders dressed in uniforms filed into the stadium in unison. I did not stop to see the game, but I'm sure both teams played their hearts out. At the end of the day, one team lost, and the other won. We are in an election year and never since the Vietnam War, have I experienced my country as so divided. The polarity between opposing views is extreme.

Life is full of polarities, such as the great markers of birth and death. My nephew, William Kriss-Wright died tragically from cancer last week at the age of 45 leaving behind a wife and three young sons. He had fought this cancer bravely for many months, and at the end, with style, with grace, he stopped breathing. Did he win or lose? From death's vantage point we all lose our lives. But what is our life? Does is just consist of winning and losing, and what does that mean? Failures are often opportunities for growth and learning. Success are sometimes moment of inflation and hubris.

We are in a time of war and we are told we are fighting a war against terrorism? How will we win this war? We know there is an organization called Al Qaedathat hates America and they have attacked us. Before we went to war in Iraq, they were a small, fringe group a radical Muslims. Terrorism is a strategy they have adopted for carrying out their
intentions. Terrorism is not a person. It is not a country. It is a mechanism. We can't win a war against pen knifes. And we can not win this war by killing every person on the face of the earth we call a "terrorist". For every human being we kill, a family is left behind to mourn and to plot revenge on the killer of their son, their child, their father.

We are in an election year. Can either presidential candidate win the war on terrorism? Isn't it a more meaningful question to ask: "Which one will put in place policies which better meet our needs?" How will their policies meet our needs for stronger communities, better education, food security, physical security and justice? I hope you will cast your vote this November for the person you believe will do the best job.

By the end of this year, one candidate will win the presidential election and we will go forward as a country, struggling to find our national identity in a dangerous, insecure, violent and chaotic world.
Will we do this together as a nation or will we do it acrimoniously, demonizing those we disagree with? Will we take responsibility for our enormous power in the world or will we withdraw in fear and isolation?

Will we ask the right questions? Because ultimately, it is the questions we ask that determines what our lives become.

Fa-yen along with Buddha and our Zen ancestors tell us our lives are "unborn". This is a game you can't win because the rules have changed. We walk this middle path of peace amidst the wreckage and carnage of a war-weary world.