Zen for Daily Living: A Zen monk reflects on gun violence in America

I was ordained as a Zen Buddhist monk in Sonamsa Temple in South Korea. Sonamsa is an ancient Buddhist temple nestled in the deep mountains of the Korean peninsula. Originally built in 529 C.E., Sonamsa is a beautiful and serene environment in which to do Zen training.

It was a cold October afternoon almost 20 years ago, and I was sitting in the main meditation hall listening to a lecture with the 300 other haeng-ja (aspirants to be ordained). The talk was being given by a gentle Buddhist monk. I’m guessing he was in his 80s, and he was so short that his head was barely visible above the podium. He was calm and kind, exactly what you’d imagine a Buddhist monk to be. And his talk was a common subject for Zen trainees. He was discussing “the twin wings of enlightenment,” which are wisdom and compassion. This classic Buddhist image of a bird soaring toward enlightenment conveys that we need both wisdom and compassion in our meditation practice: insight must be coupled with kindness.

And then, suddenly and unexpectedly, this Buddhist monk switched to English as he started pounding the podium with his fist yelling “George Bush is not wise and George Bush is not compassionate.” I was the first Westerner ordained in my Zen lineage, and the only non-Asian in the room. When this previously peaceful monk suddenly became enraged and started yelling in English about the current American president, all eyes in the room immediately focused on me.

What would be so extreme about American politics and culture that an otherwise serene, elderly Buddhist monk, in a remote mountainous temple on the other side of the world, during an ordination training retreat, would suddenly become visibly livid with anger?

That was over 15 years ago. How does the rest of the world see the United States now?

I thought about that cross-cultural acrimony last week when I was talking with one of my daughters. We discussed our usual topics: chores, homework, plans for the summer. But I could tell something was wrong. After some prodding she replied, “I could get shot going to school tomorrow.”

What could I say? She wasn’t wrong. Just a few days before, on May 24, an 18-year-old fatally shot 19 elementary students and two teachers at a grade school in Uvalde. As of May 25, according to National Public Radio and the Gun Violence Archive, there were 213 mass shootings in the first 145 days of this year. On Memorial Day weekend, right after this mass shooting at an Uvalde elementary school, our country had another 11 mass shootings. We are averaging more than one mass shooting per day as both gun sales and gun violence continue to rise. How many more mass shootings will we have by the time this article is published?

This level of gun violence is a uniquely American problem. After a mass shooting in New Zealand in 2019 that left 51 people dead, its government acted to do a gun buyback program and murders plummeted. This pattern of a mass shooting, followed by gun control which then successfully limited mass shootings and gun violence overall, has happened in other countries as well.

It’s true that people kill people, but guns make it exponentially easier and faster to kill. I recognize that guns are a part of our culture and I don’t expect us to ban and eliminate all guns in the civilian population. But you don’t need military grade weapons to hunt deer or practice target shooting. In the United States, we actually have more guns than people. As White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre recently observed, if guns actually made us safer, we would be the safest country in the world — which clearly we are not.

Many of the arguments against gun control strain the limits of credulity. Some argue that we need more religion in schools and society. As an ordained minister and psychologist who does spiritually-integrative counseling I am an advocate of religion and spirituality; but Europe is far less religious than the United States and European countries have only a fraction of the gun violence that we have.

Others argue that some dimensions of American pop culture, such as video games and movies, cause our uniquely high gun violence. But American video games, movies and other cultural exports are hugely popular in most parts of the world, yet none of those countries that eagerly consume our cultural products have anywhere near our gun violence.

U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., recently tried to blame critical race theory and “wokeness” for our high rate of gun violence. But mass shootings have been a traumatic presence in our society long before critical race theory and what Johnson calls “wokeness” entered into our wider public discussions. It’s also worth noting that many countries that champion the progressive attitudes that politicians like Johnson blame also have far lower rates of gun violence.

Some NRA advocates will argue that having military grade weapons among our civilian population makes us safer in case we are invaded by a foreign country. But very few countries in the world even have the capacity to attempt military invasion against us, and the few countries who have the ability to attempt an invasion would not be deterred by civilian ownership of guns. Proponents of this “national safety” argument might want to consider when the last time our country was actually invaded. Which is more likely: for you to be killed by a foreign invasion or for someone you care about to be killed by gun violence in your own community?

Incredibly, some politicians are arguing for arming teachers and militarizing our schools. While that would be great for the NRA, it will do nothing to make us safer. If the police in Uvalde were too terrified to act why would we expect grade school teachers to stop an armed gunman? The same politicians who argue for militarizing our schools often argue against school funding for educational endeavors. Mass shootings don’t just endanger children in schools, we have mass shootings now in virtually every setting of our country.

Opponents of gun control will also try to blame mental illness, yet those same politicians also don’t support expanding access to mental health care. And as Arthur C. Evans Jr., the CEO of the American Psychological Association observed:

“Blaming mental illness for the gun violence in our country is simplistic and inaccurate and goes against the scientific evidence. … Americans own nearly half of the estimated 650 million civilian-owned guns in the world. Access to this final, fatal tool means more deaths that occur more quickly, whether in a mass shooting or in someone’s own home. ... The overwhelming majority of people with mental illness are not violent. And there is no single personality profile that can reliably predict who will resort to gun violence. ... Based on the psychological science, we know some of the steps we need to take. We need to limit civilians’ access to assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. We need to institute universal background checks. And we should institute red flag laws that remove guns from people who are at high risk of committing violent acts.”

A few years ago there was a shooter warning at the hospital I worked at. It was terrifying. All I wanted to do was help my cancer patients, but I had to remain sequestered in my office while I feared for my patients. A few months ago I had to pick up one of my children from the mall. Thirty minutes after I picked her up, there were reports of a shooter. A large majority of Americans, including Republican voters, support common sense gun control measures. The rest of the world simply does not have to live with the fear of mass shootings and often views our attitude toward having military-grade weapons widely accessible in our civilian population to be traumatic and dysfunctional. If we as a nation engage in the same patterns we will get the same results; it is time for change. At the moment, civilians can easily obtain firearms that will outgun the police; is this the best way to structure our society?

In the United States we have enacted a great deal of positive societal change. We can do so again. As a nation we need to ask, what are our highest priorities? What do we truly value? How many more people, often children, have to die before we as a nation act?

It is easy to feel despair over the direction of our country. It’s normal to feel anger and sadness. But we can’t remain stuck in our emotions. Meaningful social change can happen. Not long ago the vast majority of Americans were against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people having the right to marry. Now marriage equality is the law of the land, which the vast majority of Americans support.

For those wanting social change, remember that change can happen. The first step is not to become overwhelmed. Just as there is trauma occurring in our society, there is also good that is happening in our society. Ground yourself in the good. Maintain practices and relationships that sustain you.

Working for peace in the United States helps foster peace throughout the world. There are alarming trends happening in our country, but there are also great things about our society. Our country is worth fighting for. We all need time for rest. And when you are able, find ways to return to your path.

Dr. David Zuniga is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Austin, and he is also a vice bishop in one of the oldest lineages of Korean Zen; his website is a free, interdisciplinary source of support: drdavidzuniga.com.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Zen for Daily Living: A Zen monk reflects on gun violence in America