{"id":994,"date":"2010-01-15T15:00:54","date_gmt":"2010-01-15T15:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2010\/01\/what-would-sid-do-about-the-crisis-in-haiti.html"},"modified":"2010-01-15T15:00:54","modified_gmt":"2010-01-15T15:00:54","slug":"what-would-sid-do-about-the-crisis-in-haiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2010\/01\/what-would-sid-do-about-the-crisis-in-haiti.html","title":{"rendered":"What would Sid do about the crisis in Haiti?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/b><\/i> Lodro Rinzler
<\/b><\/i><\/a>
Many people look to Siddhartha Gautama as an example of someone who
\nattained nirvana, a buddha. Each week in this column we look at what it
\nmight be like if Siddhartha was on his spiritual journey today. How
\nwould he combine Buddhism and dating? How would he handle stress in the
\nworkplace? What would Sid do?<\/i> is devoted to taking an honest look at what we as meditators face in the modern world.<\/p>\n

Each
\nweek I’ll take on a new question and give some advice based on what I
\nthink Sid, a fictional Siddartha, would do. Like us, Sid is not yet a
\nbuddha, he’s just someone struggling to maintain an open heart on a
\nspiritual path while facing numerous distractions along the way.
\nBecause let’s face it, you and I are Sid.<\/p>\n

—————————————————————————————————————————————<\/p>\n

I just have been feeling sick inside getting glimpses of the chaos in
\nHaiti. Being a Haitian-American who’s never been there, I feel close
\nyet far away. As a Buddhist, compassion and love are my most immediate
\nframe of reference. These may be labels but it is my experience. What has everyone been thinking, feeling, doing?
\n Also, what would Sid do??
\nMany blessings to all, Gemma<\/p>\n


\n
—<\/p>\n

Looking at the footage of the earthquake in Haiti<\/a> on CNN <\/a>
\nI can’t help but empathize with you Gemma. Natural disasters happen
\nso suddenly and there is something that my mind cannot fathom about a death toll of as many as 100,000 people<\/a>. Yet there it
\nis, images of Tuesday’s devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake that left bodies in the streets, the elderly wheelbarrowed to safety,
\nand young girls crying having lost the rest of their
\nfamily. It’s absolutely heartbreaking.<\/p>\n

It can also feel disempowering for those of us overseas watching these
\nevents unfold. If Sid was sitting beside me on my couch watching this
\nfootage I have a couple of ideas as to what he might do. <\/p>\n

When one becomes a member of Shambhala<\/a> there are three things requested
\nof them: that they practice and study the teachings of the Buddha, that
\nthey offer their service in the form of volunteering to help their local
\nmeditation center operate, and that they give something financially to
\nhelp pay for the space and staff that keep the place open. I think this
\nmodel for membership can be applied to a Buddhist response to the
\nHaitian crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Practice<\/p>\n

<\/b>Even if we are novice meditators we can keep our hearts open to the
\nsuffering we see and hold the victims of the earthquake in our
\nmeditation practice. If you know tonglen<\/a> <\/b>practice you can do tonglen
\nfor Haiti<\/a>, for the victims and their friends and families. At the very least you
\ncan meditate on loving kindness and, in your own words, dedicate your
\nmeditation practice to all of those suffering in Haiti.<\/p>\n

Service<\/p>\n

<\/b>Opportunities for people who want to volunteer in Haiti are few and far between. A hot tip directed me to the Center for
\nInternational Disaster Information<\/a> but it seems that they have already been inundated with volunteers and are no longer accepting offers. If anyone has a lead for medically trained professionals who wish to offer their services in Haiti please leave that information in the comment section.<\/p>\n

I salute anyone who is engaging Haiti relief work. However, if you are like me and unable to able to
\noffer your services directly to the victims you can help
\nraise awareness about the need for financial support.<\/p>\n

Generosity
\n<\/b>
Many organizations state that in the midst of this crisis the most highly recommended form of support is through making a donation. There are a number of organizations that you can donate to in order
\nto support Haiti. The Red Cross<\/a> is one of the first that pop into my
\nmind but that may just because everyone and their mom has donated their
\nfacebook status to read, “Please donate to the Red Cross for Haiti’s
\nrelief efforts.” All you have to do is text HAITI to 90999 and $10 will
\nbe sent to the Red Cross and added to your phone bill. If everyone who
\nread this post were to do that simple act I think we as meditators
\nwould have made a tremendous impact. I just did it. Maybe you’ll join
\nme.<\/p>\n

Other excellent organizations to consider are Doctors without Borders<\/a>,
\nCARE<\/a>, Oxfam<\/a>, and Freedom from Hunger<\/a>. I’m sure people will list other worthwhile organizations in the comments section.<\/p>\n

The important thing to remember is to continue to keep an open heart and not shut down and ignore the suffering of our fellow human beings in Haiti. If we can offer our practice, service, or generosity to the victims of the earthquake then we no longer need to feel disempowered. I imagine this is what Sid would do in response to this tragedy and invite others to share their own reflections on how we can help our friends overseas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lodro RinzlerMany people look to Siddhartha Gautama as an example of someone who attained nirvana, a buddha. Each week in this column we look at what it might be like if Siddhartha was on his spiritual journey today. How would he combine Buddhism and dating? How would he handle stress in the workplace? What…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":342,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism","category-right-lifestyle"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat would Sid do about the crisis in Haiti? - One City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2010\/01\/what-would-sid-do-about-the-crisis-in-haiti.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What would Sid do about the crisis in Haiti? - One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Lodro RinzlerMany people look to Siddhartha Gautama as an example of someone who attained nirvana, a buddha. 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Upon graduating he served for three and a half years as the executive director of the Shambhala Meditation Center of Boston and has led development efforts for Shambhala internationally since 2007. In addition to teaching dharma throughout the United States he chairs the Dana Group, a group formed to stimulate creative ways to promote generosity in Shambhala as well as coordinate all major fund-raising efforts. In addition to his weekly column here entitled \"What would Sid do?\" Lodro has a humorous blog \"New York is Ridiculous\" (newyorkisridiculous.com) which he writes from his apartment in Brooklyn, New York.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/author\/lodrorinzler"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/342"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}