To: The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate, and President Donald Trump
Reunify Families & No Internment Camps--Buddhist Leaders Advocate Compassion
To President Donald Trump & Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen,
We, the undersigned Buddhist teachers, practitioners, and organizational leaders, while recognizing the small step taken by the signing of an executive order to stop new separations of children of color from their parents at the southern border, are today expressing our ongoing, serious concerns. We stand with leaders of other faith traditions in expressing that the policy of separating children from parents was morally wrong and lacking in compassion. While much damage has already been done by this policy, we urge you take steps immediately to reunify the children with their parents. We also urge you not to construct a policy that creates new trauma by creating internment camps for full families like those that many Japanese-American Buddhists were imprisoned within during World War II.
Like other great faith traditions, our Buddhist tradition places a great emphasis on the practices of love and compassion. A genuine practice of compassion is engaged in without bias. Though individuals may differ in terms of culture, race, language or gender, we are all the same in wanting to be happy and not wanting to suffer. And those children currently separated from their parents are the same as any other children in wanting their parents’ love, affection and guidance. Recognizing this truth—how we are all the same in these fundamental ways—makes the continuation of the suffering these children are experiencing due to the former policy intolerable. Also, in terms of children learning compassion, the bonds of loving kindness between parents and children is the very ground in which it grows. The forcible separation of children from their parents and keeping them in detention centers has no doubt traumatized these children, interrupting their development, and thereby creating lasting negative effects on them and those around them. Again, when one contemplates the truth of this, the continued separation of these children from their parents is intolerable. When we as adults become insensitive to the plight of innocent children who land in situations beyond their control, we are also incrementally destroying our own humanity.
Creating internment camps for families to be held for indefinite periods of time is another way of creating trauma and pain and would be another policy devoid of compassion. It would also be a repetition of a mistake made during World War II when many Japanese-American Buddhists and Christians were held indefinitely in such camps. Overall, a policy of “zero tolerance” will always be problematic. As a nation of immigrants and diversity, we need tolerance. It is in tolerance that we find our human connections, compassion and wisdom.
So, it is with minds focused not only on the welfare of those children and families at the southern border but also on the welfare of our nation’s leaders and all our citizens that we urge you to immediately reunite these children with their parents and to institute a policy which includes tolerance and compassion.
Lorne Ladner, PhD Teacher and Director of Guhyasamaja Center, Fairfax, VA
Wilson Hurley, LCSW Resident Teacher at MSTC, Fairfax, VA
Tenzin Buchung, Buddhist scholar and translator, PhD Candidate at Emory University, Atlanta, GA
Venerable Losang Dondrub Spiritual Program Coordinator at Guhyasamaja Center, Fairfax, VA
Venerable Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Jampa, Abbot Emeritus of Gyumed Tantric College, Senior Teacher at Sera Mey Monastic University, Touring Teacher, Head Teacher at DNKL Center, Redding CT
Professor Robert Thurman, PhD Je Tsongkhapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Studies at Columbia University, President of The American Institute of Buddhist Studies, Co-founder of Tibet House US, New York, NY
Venerable Thubten Chodron: Buddhist teacher, Abbess of Sravasti Abbey, author
Jose I. Cabezon, Dalai Lama Professor of Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Studies UC Santa Barbara; Vice President, American Academy of Religion
Tara Brach, PhD Founder of Insight Meditation Community of Washington, Washington, DC
Bikkhu Bodhi, Chair, Buddhist Global Relief
Dr. Jack Kornfield, Spirit Rock Center, Woodacre, CA
Lama Tsultrim Allione, Founder and Resident Teacher of Tara Mandala, Pagosa Springs, CO
Anne C Klein, PhD (Lama Rigzin Drolma) Professor in Dept. of Religion at Rice University; Cofounding Teacher of Dawn Mountain Center for Tibetan Buddhism, Houston, TX
Harvey B Aronson, PhD (Lama Namgyal Dorje) Cofounding Teacher of Dawn Mountain Center for Tibetan Buddhism, Houston, TX
Joseph Goldstein, Insight Meditation Society, Barre, MA
Khenpo Tsultrim Tenzin, Spiritual Director of Tibetan Meditation Center, Frederick, MD
Dr. Gareth Sparham, Translator
Acharya Judith Simmer-Brown, Shambhala International and Naropa University
Rev. Tenku Ruff, Soto Zen Buddhist Association, President
Telo Tulku Rinpoche, Shadjin Lama of Kalmyk Republic, Russia; President, Buddhist Union of ...
We, the undersigned Buddhist teachers, practitioners, and organizational leaders, while recognizing the small step taken by the signing of an executive order to stop new separations of children of color from their parents at the southern border, are today expressing our ongoing, serious concerns. We stand with leaders of other faith traditions in expressing that the policy of separating children from parents was morally wrong and lacking in compassion. While much damage has already been done by this policy, we urge you take steps immediately to reunify the children with their parents. We also urge you not to construct a policy that creates new trauma by creating internment camps for full families like those that many Japanese-American Buddhists were imprisoned within during World War II.
Like other great faith traditions, our Buddhist tradition places a great emphasis on the practices of love and compassion. A genuine practice of compassion is engaged in without bias. Though individuals may differ in terms of culture, race, language or gender, we are all the same in wanting to be happy and not wanting to suffer. And those children currently separated from their parents are the same as any other children in wanting their parents’ love, affection and guidance. Recognizing this truth—how we are all the same in these fundamental ways—makes the continuation of the suffering these children are experiencing due to the former policy intolerable. Also, in terms of children learning compassion, the bonds of loving kindness between parents and children is the very ground in which it grows. The forcible separation of children from their parents and keeping them in detention centers has no doubt traumatized these children, interrupting their development, and thereby creating lasting negative effects on them and those around them. Again, when one contemplates the truth of this, the continued separation of these children from their parents is intolerable. When we as adults become insensitive to the plight of innocent children who land in situations beyond their control, we are also incrementally destroying our own humanity.
Creating internment camps for families to be held for indefinite periods of time is another way of creating trauma and pain and would be another policy devoid of compassion. It would also be a repetition of a mistake made during World War II when many Japanese-American Buddhists and Christians were held indefinitely in such camps. Overall, a policy of “zero tolerance” will always be problematic. As a nation of immigrants and diversity, we need tolerance. It is in tolerance that we find our human connections, compassion and wisdom.
So, it is with minds focused not only on the welfare of those children and families at the southern border but also on the welfare of our nation’s leaders and all our citizens that we urge you to immediately reunite these children with their parents and to institute a policy which includes tolerance and compassion.
Lorne Ladner, PhD Teacher and Director of Guhyasamaja Center, Fairfax, VA
Wilson Hurley, LCSW Resident Teacher at MSTC, Fairfax, VA
Tenzin Buchung, Buddhist scholar and translator, PhD Candidate at Emory University, Atlanta, GA
Venerable Losang Dondrub Spiritual Program Coordinator at Guhyasamaja Center, Fairfax, VA
Venerable Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Jampa, Abbot Emeritus of Gyumed Tantric College, Senior Teacher at Sera Mey Monastic University, Touring Teacher, Head Teacher at DNKL Center, Redding CT
Professor Robert Thurman, PhD Je Tsongkhapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Studies at Columbia University, President of The American Institute of Buddhist Studies, Co-founder of Tibet House US, New York, NY
Venerable Thubten Chodron: Buddhist teacher, Abbess of Sravasti Abbey, author
Jose I. Cabezon, Dalai Lama Professor of Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Studies UC Santa Barbara; Vice President, American Academy of Religion
Tara Brach, PhD Founder of Insight Meditation Community of Washington, Washington, DC
Bikkhu Bodhi, Chair, Buddhist Global Relief
Dr. Jack Kornfield, Spirit Rock Center, Woodacre, CA
Lama Tsultrim Allione, Founder and Resident Teacher of Tara Mandala, Pagosa Springs, CO
Anne C Klein, PhD (Lama Rigzin Drolma) Professor in Dept. of Religion at Rice University; Cofounding Teacher of Dawn Mountain Center for Tibetan Buddhism, Houston, TX
Harvey B Aronson, PhD (Lama Namgyal Dorje) Cofounding Teacher of Dawn Mountain Center for Tibetan Buddhism, Houston, TX
Joseph Goldstein, Insight Meditation Society, Barre, MA
Khenpo Tsultrim Tenzin, Spiritual Director of Tibetan Meditation Center, Frederick, MD
Dr. Gareth Sparham, Translator
Acharya Judith Simmer-Brown, Shambhala International and Naropa University
Rev. Tenku Ruff, Soto Zen Buddhist Association, President
Telo Tulku Rinpoche, Shadjin Lama of Kalmyk Republic, Russia; President, Buddhist Union of ...
Why is this important?
Sign on to this letter advocating from a Buddhist, mindful and compassionate perspective for reunification of immigrant children with their families and for not creating long-term internment camps like those used to imprison Japanese-Americans in WW-II. Many Buddhist teachers and community leaders have signed; this is an opportunity to add your name as well.