Who Hears This Sound?

I am writing in response to Carol Heinz’s letter in the May 2008 Correspondence about Adyashanti’s statement that to be a living organism is to kill. Heinz took offense that Adyashanti did not distinguish between killing sentient organisms and nonsentient ones.

Though the suffering of sentient beings is painful to see, because they are so similar to us, there are many people who also feel the suffering of so-called “nonsentient” beings. I am one of those who have a sense of the suffering of plants, fungi, and so on. I rarely speak up for them, lest people think I’m crazy, but I think they are crazy not to notice that every living thing clings to life and will pass into death more gracefully if it is respected first and has a sense of being useful after death. Only when you include all living creatures in the equation can you realize the degree to which others die so that you may live.

C. Elise Brewin Berkeley, California

Reading the interview with Adyashanti, I was reminded of the Tao Te Ching — specifically the lines “Those who know do not talk. Those who talk do not know.”

Daniel Pierce Palm Desert, California

The Sun has opened my stodgy, sixty-six-year-old mind, but it is in danger of slamming shut after your interview with California guru Adyashanti, alias Stephen Gray. He is a reminder that spirituality must be grounded in a governing story or myth; otherwise it is abstract nonsense. (“I was the toilet”? Give me a break.) When spirituality doesn’t contribute to the community and the common good, it becomes one more instance of self-serving narcissism. What ever happened to doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with your God?

Bill Lenters Rockford, Illinois

Thanks for the insightful interview with spiritual teacher Adyashanti [“Who Hears This Sound?” by Luc Saunders and Sy Safransky, December 2007]. I first read an interview with him in Tricycle magazine and was instantly enamored of his statement that if Buddhism were a business, it would go bankrupt, because no one is getting enlightened.

My life has improved since I read his message, even if my meditation practice has given way to lots of singing and rock climbing.

With all due respect, The Sun’s usual interviews with leftists and anticapitalists just aren’t that interesting. They all sound like Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, which I have a feeling most of your readers have already read.

Ben Smythe Idyllwild, California

I enjoyed reading Luc Saunders and Sy Safransky’s interview with Adyashanti [“Who Hears This Sound?” December 2007], but I was disappointed by Adyashanti’s cavalier response to a question about killing animals for food. He replied, “If we eat a vegetable, we’ve killed it. If we eat an animal, we’ve killed it. To be a living organism is to kill.”

Though all living beings must kill to eat, there is a marked difference between killing a sentient being and killing a nonsentient organism, especially when the animals consumed have endured horrific suffering, both prior to and in the process of being killed.

Carol Heinz Seattle, Washington

Reading the introduction to Luc Saunders and Sy Safransky’s interview with Adyashanti, I shared the interviewers’ concerns as to whether this spiritual teacher would say anything we hadn’t heard before. By the end of the interview I was smiling and shaking my head: Of course we’ve heard it before. That’s the point. As Adyashanti reminds us, awakening is almost never permanent. Thanks for the refresher.

I’m grateful, too, for The Sun’s refusal to succumb to advertising, and I hope the decision makers at the magazine will always follow the advice Adyashanti’s teacher gave him: “If you ever think you can’t handle those temptations, stop before you do something stupid.”

Liz Covington Falls Church, Virginia

As the fascinating interview with Adyashanti winds down, Luc Saunders asks a timely question about the possibility of an evolutionary leap in consciousness for humanity. In response, Adyashanti makes the offhand statement that most of those who believe in such a vision are “aggrandizing their own egos.” He goes on to say that he sees no great leap on the horizon.

His answer probably comes from a justifiable disdain for New Age quackery, but it certainly does not give the question its due. If the point is that too much emphasis on the big picture will distract us from individual awakening, I heartily agree. But as much as I appreciate Adyashanti’s no-nonsense approach to individual enlightenment, I believe we ought to be listening just as carefully to the likes of David Korten, who called for a “great turning” in your pages a few issues back [“Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” interview by Arnie Cooper, September 2007].

After “I” wake up from the dream of “me,” it follows that I will dive right back in and participate in the dream of “us.” No matter how dismal the situation appears, it is our responsibility as awakened beings to bring about a world where compassion and wisdom are practiced on a mass scale. Many reputable spiritual leaders, speaking from their hearts and not their egos, are trying to discern the best way to accomplish that. They deserve all the support — and constructive criticism — we can muster.

William M. Johnson Guilford, Connecticut