Engaged Buddhism in Our Material World

I believe that unless we, as individuals, begin to meditate and train ourselves in mindfulness, we could very well see the destruction of our planet in the next few decades. Everyday we are confronted, at least in the media, with racism, poverty and injustice (social and economic). I remember in the 90's when it seemed like all of the politicians spoke of "globalization" and how it would change the world. I remember the first George Bush talking about the "New World Order" and how it would be an answer to the problems the world faced. The economically disadvantaged remain so and "those across the tracks" and "on the other side" of the economic and social spectrum are still there, even though we have the power to come together to solve those issues. It seems our leaders, both religious and political, have learned that "to divide is to conquer" so they keep us divided on social issues so that we cannot create a concensus among our citizens to demand the solving of these problems.

However, we have seen the opposite of what was said then. The tragedy in the United States that we call 9/11 simply cemented the pieces together that has brought us to the brink of hundred's of years of conflict. The Bush Administration, because of their hunger for Iraqi oil and for revenge on Sadam Hussein (for whatever reason) lied to the American People about the reasons for going to war. It seems that the United States imperial ambitions have intensified and that many of the United States leaders are willing to lie or do whatever is necessary to justify military action. Much of this is financed and backed by big corporations who have a stake in the conquest of other nations. President Dwight Eisenhower in his farewell address to the United States, warned of the Military Industrial Complex, the very entity that now seems to be a guiding force behind the United States' foreign policy.

For the first time in the history of the United States, that we know of our elected leaders have showing a blatant disrespect for international law and for treaties that we have heretofore supported. The United States is loosing what may be it's most precious possession in the world, and that is its reputation among other democratic nations.

On top of all of those issues, we find ourselves as citizens of the United States having our civil liberties destroyed. We worry about more terrorist acts within our borders, and a failing economy that has seen gas prices skyrocket and prices get higher on many of our needed products and services.

Our time is divided between our families and our work. There is very little time to even spend with our friends and our extended family. Something as important as meditation is brushed aside as something unimportant because we don't have the time.

I think our lives are like a garden. We have to cultivate and grow our attitudes and our worldviews. There again, from a Zen perspective, it is our concepts, ideas and notions that have gotten us into trouble. I want to strive to cultivate four things in my life that I believe are vital if I am to live a spiritually successful life in this present world.

First of all, I want to cultivate compassion. We don't have to look very far to see examples of how compassion is an unusual trait in the world in which we live. Sure, we hear occasionally about some hero(s) who was compassionate, but compassion is not an easy thing to cultivate. That is why, in mindfulness meditation when the discursive mind moves from topic to topic and we find ourselves thinking more than we are focusing on our breath, that we train to keep our minds in check so that we do not end up doing actions that are not compassionate.

Secondly, is cultivating love. One of the practices that has been beneficial for this from my perspective is the Tibetan practice of seeing everyone as "my kind mother." Even though some of us might have had a bad relationship with our "real" mothers, we can all grasp the concept of what it means to love our mothers. Our mothers were the ones through whom we received the blessing of being able to be born into this world as humans and to begin to understand the concepts that lead to enlightenment. Our mothers took care of us when we were babies, and when we were sick. In most cases, mothers are there, no matter what, for their children. We can image each person with whom we come in contact is our mother. This will help us to cultivate love toward others.

Thirdly is courage. It takes a great deal of strength, both spiritual and physical to be courageous. We know of many who have been courageous under terrible circumstances. Many have rescued others from earthquakes, plane crashes, tornaodos and such. But, it also takes courage to decided to live a life of mindfulness and to practice precepts such as the five mindfulness trainings or the refuge vow or even to begin to try to understand the Heart Sutra. These vows and concepts are very far removed from what we usually hear and think.

And fourthly is wisdom. Wisdom might be the most important one of the precepts. When I was in high school I had an anthropology teacher that used to tell us that the most important thing we could do to succeed in her class as to "apply our knowledge." One day, I was thinking about that statement and I realized that one of the definitions of wisdom is the application of knowledge. We can know everything, but if we cannot apply what we know to our everyday life, then what good is the knowing?

It is difficult however to be engaged sometimes because if you are like me, you try to stay as much out of conflict and disagreement as possible. I don't think it is possible to really be engaged if we are not involved in the day to day life of our community and our world. I also think it is through involvement in these areas that we lean (or hopefully we learn) how to work with our own issues such as prejudice and fear. The Shambhala Tradition speaks of heading toward an "enlightened society" That is a concept that I don't think is impossible... more later.