When the students at the Dharma Realm Buddhist University (DRBU) asked for insights on how to engage in the current Black Lives Matter movement, Dean of Academics, Professor Martin Verhoeven responded:

First, I want to commend you for caring, and for asking what should be asked, not only by you but by everyone. Feelings and emotions overwhelm—outrage and shame, shock and frustration, anger and compassion regarding what's happened in Minneapolis. But not just Minneapolis, throughout the world. Not to be affected, not to be nearly overwhelmed, would be an even bigger problem. […]

Anything less than seeing the non-duality of myself and all beings and all worlds is the problem. That distinction, that discrimination, that difference, once set up, is the precise root which grows into racism, to speciesism, to war, to environmental devastation, to exploitation, to abuse, and the notion that “other lives do not matter.” [...]

The Dharma clearly says that the mind that created this distinction is also the mind that removes it. It's this mind, our very own mind, that we're either neglecting or cultivating, that's at the heart of what’s going on in the world. Change your mind, change the world. Cultivation begins - and I would say it must begin - in this, the smallest of places. But it does not end there. [...] It has no boundary or limit. To think that self-cultivation is only about yourself completely misses the boat. [...]

"Living beings are boundless, I vow to liberate them all." That is the statement of engaged Buddhism. "Afflictions are endless, I vow to change them all." What is this talking about? Racism is an affliction. Violence is an affliction. Inequity and indifference are afflictions. Privilege is an affliction; poverty is an affliction. It's talking about a formula for profound engagement. All of these are born from the same mind that can remove them. Nothing is fixed or fated, doomed or destined. Nor are things just going to magically get better with time.

Lives matter. And right now, we need to focus on Black lives, and unless the fundamental false mind changes, tomorrow it will be another life, other lives... It's not about just sitting in meditation and getting your head calm and clear. Because, if you do meditation correctly, you will inexorably become aware that we are interconnected with everyone and to everything. From stillness, it all starts to move and radiate. This stillness is not the act of “stopping”; it is moving without hindrance. That is what the Sixth Patriarch [of Chan (Zen) Buddhism] means by “everywhere engaged; nowhere attached.” [...]

But “Nowhere attached” does not mean being apathetic and uninvolved; uncaring and aloof. Instead, it means your ego is subdued. You're acting, but not acting from greed or anger or animosity or ignorance. That's what it means to be “not attached.”