The Wisdom of Nondiscrimination

Summary

This Dharma talk, delivered on August 17, 2007 at Stonehill College on the final day of a retreat themed Mindfulness, Fearlessness, and Togetherness, centers on the Buddhist teaching of non-discrimination as the foundation for true togetherness and peace. The speaker explains that suffering often arises from discrimination, and that looking deeply can restore insight into the interconnected nature of life. The talk repeatedly returns to the idea that beings are not separate, but inter-are, and that healing requires seeing beyond rigid distinctions of self and other. A major portion of the talk uses the relationship between mother and child to illustrate interdependence. The speaker describes the unborn child in the womb, sustained by the mother’s breathing, eating, resting, and smiling, and emphasizes that pregnancy is a profound practice in which the mother’s emotional and physical states directly affect the child. The father also has a role in supporting the mother so that she and the baby do not suffer. A story is shared about a pregnant woman who recites the Lotus Sutra daily for herself and her baby, with wholehearted support from her husband. After birth, the physical umbilical cord is cut, but the deeper connection remains. The speaker insists that one’s father and mother continue to be present in every cell of the body, a point reinforced by reference to modern science. The talk then shifts to a vivid analogy involving the speaker’s two hands. The right hand and left hand are presented as examples of non-discrimination: they cooperate without superiority, inferiority, or resentment. The right hand writes poems, performs calligraphy, rings the bell, and makes mudras, but does not look down on the left hand. When the right hand accidentally injures the left finger while hammering a nail, it immediately cares for the injured hand as if caring for itself. This example is used to show that true wisdom means not separating helper from helped, or self from other. The speaker notes that the left hand also lacks inferiority and does not suffer from anger or revenge, because it is free from discrimination. From this example, the speaker broadens the discussion to psychological and social suffering. In psychotherapy, low self-esteem is often treated as a problem, but in Buddhism, high self-esteem and even the sense of equality can also be forms of sickness because they still depend on the notion of a separate self. The speaker identifies inferiority, superiority, and equality complexes as all arising from self-centered thinking. Buddhist healing, therefore, is not merely about improving self-image but about dissolving the illusion of a separate self altogether. This is presented as a deeper form of liberation. The talk also extends the metaphor of the two hands to social and political relationships. The speaker suggests that if white people and Black people, or Jews, Palestinians, Muslims, Hindus, and others, could relate to one another as the two hands do, without discrimination, there would be no suffering and peace would be possible. The message is that ethnic, religious, and social divisions are sustained by mistaken perceptions of separateness. Looking deeply into interbeing can transform these relationships and reduce conflict. Near the end, the speaker mentions that the day’s Dharma talk concerns the three doors of liberation and asks the children to return for the closing ceremony. The community is invited to gather together to sing “No Coming, No Going,” reinforcing the retreat’s theme of shared presence and unity. The talk concludes by reminding listeners that they and their siblings are like two hands, emphasizing kinship, mutual care, and the practical expression of non-discrimination in everyday life.