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COLOMBUS, OHIO, March 1, 2005: Rinzai Zen Buddhist Priest, Kobutsu Malone, writes very candidly in this article about punishment in any form, corporal or psychological. Reverend Malone says, “The deliberate infliction of pain on an individual in response to an action after it has occurred can in no way change the effect of the original action nor can it serve to educate or awaken the individual. The physical or emotional pain or injury of punishment done to a child or an adult creates only fear and trauma. It not only damages the person being punished, but it damages and enslaves those who inflict the punishment. The abuse of physical violence visited on anyone is a deliberate act which scapegoats the person through lack of control over our burden of internalized oppression.” Reverend Malone also elaborates on the prevalence of violence in North American culture, “Arrogance and aggression permeate our society, our history, our religious traditions, our so-called ‘judicial system’ to the point that we can not dare to even question the premise of punishment without drawing shocked response from our fellow citizens. We live in a nation surrounded by violence, we worship violence and the infliction of pain in our entertainment, in our day-to-day interrelationships with each other.” Over time Rev. Malone points out that punishment leads to oppression out of fear and, when the oppressor is not around, resentment, rage, or anger are expressed by the person being punished. Alternatively, the individual being oppressed may take the imposed violence out on someone else and the cycle of violence continues. Rev. Malone sums it up, “The only truly effective and successful methods of dealing with correction of behavior comes through compassionate communication, comprehension of social responsibility, education, restraint and discipline. Punishment simply does not, and has never, worked.”

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