(This article was originally published <\/em>here<\/em><\/a> in November 2008 on <\/em>the website<\/em><\/a> for the Zen Buddhist Order of Hsu Yen. It is reprinted with permission.)<\/em><\/p>\n Dear Lord, let me not be a follower of people<\/em> Dear Lord, let me not lay judgment on others<\/em> Dear Lord, let me not stray from Your Sight<\/em> November 18, 2008 marked 30 years since Jim Jones and his followers created one of the most horrific tragedies against humanity in recorded history: the slaughter of hundreds of men, women, and children of all ages: death by poison. Some took their own lives willingly after killing their children first. Others, more hesitant, were killed by their family members by forced injections of cyanide. There was widespread belief that many of those who failed to die from poison or who tried to escape were shot instead, but only two people were found with lethal bullet wounds: Annie Moore, who left behind a suicide note; and Jim Jones himself. Images of the aftermath of the slaughter were too horrific for us to comprehend. There was no way for us to make sense of what the media was telling us. And showing us.<\/p>\n Today it is still just as hard to wrap our minds around what happened. Why did it happen? It\u2019s easy to look at this tragedy as a fluke: \u201cIt could never happen to me\u201d we say. \u201cNever would I have been a member of such a cult. Those people were surly not sane<\/em> people.\u201d<\/p>\n Maybe we\u2019re right. But maybe we\u2019re wrong.<\/p>\n What is it about us humans that we seek, with such ferocity, to belong to a group, to the extent that some of us will believe whatever we are told to believe for the sake of the group<\/em>? We put our own identity aside in favor of the group\u2019s identity. That\u2019s what we saw in the Peoples Temple of Jim Jones in the extreme, and it led to mass suicide and murder.<\/p>\n Are we all susceptible of \u201closing ourselves to the mob\u201d?<\/p>\n I think it is a potential, at least, that we are. And I think we must be extraordinarily watchful of our own tendencies to identify with groups of all kinds, not just religious groups. If we reflect on the evolution of our species, it involved the close inter-dependence of individuals within the group for survival. We are here today for the simple reason that we instinctually identify with the group \u2013 an instinct we inherited from our ancestors who survived precisely because it aided their survival. There\u2019s no reason to think that just because we\u2019ve become \u201ccivilized\u201d over the last few hundreds \u2013 or thousands \u2013 of years that this instinct has disappeared. Such primal survival instincts evolve over millions of years, not thousands.<\/p>\n And if we look closer, we can see ourselves living out this very group-identification instinct in many ways. Although we may not be a member of a religious cult, are we a member of a political party with which we identify strongly? Are we members of a church in which we feel so strongly that we would, silently or vocally, shun those who are not members, or at the least, try to convert them to join up? Do we not join the military to \u201cfight for our country\u201d by putting our own lives in the line of fire for the cause of the group \u2013 our country \u2013 killing those who oppose our country, our group<\/em>?<\/p>\n I don\u2019t intend to delve into this topic in great depth, for it is likely a bottomless pit that I could not climb out of \u2026 but it is valuable to see the bigger picture. An event like the Jonestown massacre, or the Nazi concentration camps, help us to remember that we are all potentially susceptible to being drawn into a situation where we commit horrible acts against ourselves and against others.<\/p>\n It\u2019s critically important that we watch for signs along the way if we want to keep ourselves out of trouble. The concern isn\u2019t whether or not we can or should belong to a group, but we should always ask ourselves if it is a group with sound moral, social, and ethical principles. Does the group exist for the sake of the group, or for the sake of the individuals in it? The moment a group exists to serve itself, it\u2019s time to depart and blow the whistle. Several of those in Jonestown did just that and were able to escape the compound shortly before the massacre.<\/p>\n Many of the followers of Peoples Temple had so strongly identified with the group that they were ready and willing to kill themselves, their children, and their parents. Obedience to the group, for them, had become blind obedience. We must never allow ourselves to become blind. Our eyes must penetrate this tremendous force \u2013 this instinct \u2013 hardwired in our psyche that encourages us to join a group and follow-the-leader. That is the only way we can be assured of not falling into a pit we can\u2019t climb out of. We must stop before we fall in.<\/p>\n The people living in the community of Jonestown were ordinary people like you and me. People with ideals of helping others, of sharing their goods with those in need. They worked together to build houses and clinics and schools. They shared in each other\u2019s joys and sorrows. They were good people who died a tragic death, a death that happened because many of them had closed their eyes to themselves. They lost sight of the sacred nature of life. When we lose this sight, we lose our humanity. Can there be any greater loss?<\/p>\n What can we do to prevent ourselves from inadvertently falling into the darkness, that darkness that led to the Jonestown massacre? We can be cautious when joining groups of any kind. And if we do join a group, we can ask ourselves some crucial questions:<\/p>\n Does the group exist principally to serve itself?<\/p>\n Does the leader denigrate other groups or other individuals?<\/p>\n Does the leader seek control over the group by threats, violence, or public humiliation of its congregants?<\/p>\n Does the leader elevate himself or herself over the group with self-proclaimed \u201chigher levels of understanding,\u201d or spiritual attainment?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Or \u2026<\/p>\n Does the group provide a service for the greater good of humanity?<\/p>\n Does the group seek to serve even those who are not members of the group?<\/p>\n Does the group allow congregants to leave as freely as they came?<\/p>\n Does the leader serve with humility and compassion?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The decision is always ours \u2013 how we choose to live our lives, how we choose to treat others, how we choose to treat ourselves. We can make those choices based on our sense of connection to humanity, or we can make those choices based on our desire for disassociation from it. One way leads to freedom, the other to entrapment. Utopia exists not in a communal enclave, but within our very own skin. As hard as we may try to look outward to find it, we never will find it there. It\u2019s in the opposite direction. In our own hearts.<\/p>\n Where we look, is where we go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (This article was originally published here in November 2008 on the website for the Zen Buddhist Order of Hsu Yen. It is reprinted with permission.) Dear Lord, let me not be a follower of people But a follower of Your Light Dear Lord, let me not lay judgment on others But seek understanding and compassion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":29485,"menu_order":11,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-29484","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29484"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51769,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29484\/revisions\/51769"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBut a follower of Your Light<\/em><\/p>\n
\nBut seek understanding and compassion<\/em><\/p>\n
\nBut should I falter, may Your Grace draw me back<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n