Call Out The National Guard?

Volume 67. September 1, 2025

Lo, the Buddha peered into the Gem of Suchness and saw …

National Guard soldiers, toting firearms and billy clubs, looking for trouble, menacingly prowling the streets of Washington D.C.

What is their job? Why are they here? No one really knows.

There’s no rampant crime. There is no widespread violence. There is no emergency of any sort in our nation’s capital.

Thug-like, the guardsmen walk around town scaring tourists and intimidating office workers.

Critics bewail a military occupation of an American city. Khaki- clad soldiers are not allowed to conduct domestic law enforcement.

One critic labeled the spectacle “a fascist fashion show.”

What in the Pure Land is going on here?

The president of the United States apparently has manufactured a crisis out of thin air and called in the troops to quell it. But, in reality, there is no crisis.

Believe it or not, that’s exactly what our highly exalted, rational mind does every minute of the day.

It conceptualizes. It names. It categorizes. It befouls reality.

Attached to the pollution, our mind creates an imaginary crisis.

If our thoughts are tied up, we spoil what is genuine.

What’s the solution — besides wine and anti-depressants?

Well, Buddhism advocates meditation.

Slow down. Relax. Breath.

Instead of purifying the mind-pollution, let it be.

When thoughts rise up, don’t repress them. Don’t attach to them.

Don’t interfere with them. Let them be.

Then, Buddha-nature appears. Buddha-nature is ever-present.

It’s your true nature.

By doing nothing, we achieve everything.

So, do we even need meditation?

Saraha, an 8th century Indian Buddhist tantric adept, thought not.

He is considered to be one of the founders of Vajrayana Buddhism.

In his song of realization, Saraha wrote:

If the Truth is already manifest, what’s the use of meditation?

Abide in the bliss of yourself.

Whatever you see, that is it,

In front, behind, and in every direction!

In other words, why defile what is already pure?

Peer into the Gem of Suchness. Behold Buddha-nature.

Experience the “Everything-Is-Alrightness” of the universe.

Don’t call out the National Guard for an imaginary crisis.

Call out the National Guard for the Dharma.