Buddhism Without Beliefs - 7 - Activism

(For Podcast, click here.  For ITunes version, click here.)  

Today we finish our book series on Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor.  This morning, I would like to talk about how one practices Buddhism in a world of strident  and aggressive politics—do we engage or do we remove ourselves from the fray?  Stephen Batchelor wants to dispel the misconception that Buddhism is simply a practice of individual isolation.  When we look back on the Buddha’s life, we find that he did take time during the rainy season for introspection and meditation, but the rest of the time, he was out talking with people, encouraging them, advising kings and warlords and farmers and business people, people from all walks of life. 

Before I go any further, I want to declare a very important objective.  I am going to talk about activism only, without diving in ANY political debate, discussion, dogmatism or doctrine. I’m not going to advocate a particular candidate or issue.  I am adamant that these Sunday mornings of spiritual reflection are NOT to be used for any political persuasion.  We are together to simply learn skills and practices that help us relieve suffering, be happier and be better citizens in the world.  A key component of the Buddhist practice is to recognize that we are inseparably interconnect to each other, others who want and need the same that we do, to be loved and cared for, regardless of what their words or actions might imply.  Now, I concede that people go about trying to be loved and cared for in many unskillful ways.  Any of us who have ever gone to a bar looking for love may be guilty of that.   Regardless, we can learn to share loving-kindness and compassion with ourselves and with others, and that can make a great difference in the world.

What do the Buddhist practices have to do with the political process, with our responsibility as a human being to care about other human beings, to in fact care about all beings?  If engaging in the world is part of this practice, then how do we engage in a skillful way?

I thought a great example would be the Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi .  She is Buddhist, she is an activist, and she feels strongly that her Buddhist practice drives her political actions.  For those of you not familiar, Suu Kyi was the daughter of the man that founded the modern Burmese army and help Burma gain independence from the British.  He was assassinated when she was quite young, and also had a brother that drowned at age eight.  This woman knew sorrow from an early age.  Burma has one of the longest running civil wars and had been ruled by a military since 1962,   Her mother gain some prominence in the newly formed Burmese government, raised Suu Kyi as a Buddhist, then Suu Kyi had an opportunity to come to England and study at Oxford. 

She fell in love, got married, had two children, and then, in 1988, her mother became ill, and she went back to Burma to care for her.  She was unable to return to England for 24 years.  She could have left, but she determined that she would have been unable to as effectively confront the military debacle that was ruining her country.  She gave up seeing her children grow up in England.  She was not allowed to see her husband when he was dying from cancer.  She gave her life to fighting for democracy in her country. 

And yet, in Suu Kyi’s own words:  "It was not a sacrifice. It was a choice that I made. I decided to follow a path that I thought was right. And so really, I deserve no praise for it, nor do I really deserve compassion for any of the problems I might have met along the way because it was my choice,"

One of her most famous essays was Freedom From Fear, which began: "It is not power that corrupts, but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it."

So, we might think that we have no power.  We might wonder how we might make a difference.  We might think that violence or hatred is required.  Who knows?  Only you can decide for yourself.  Only you can determine what is needed when.  The Buddhist teachings encourage us that when we are present in the moment, only then do we have access to the unlimited innate wisdom within us--the innate power to see what needs to be said, what needs to be done, to relieve the most suffering.  What will do the most good?  That is our question to be answered.

I’ve been searching for the next book for us to discuss, and yesterday, thanks to Roz Stoneking, it came to me clearly.  Next week, we’ll begin Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, entitled, “Being Peace”.  They will be available in the bookstore next week.

Unity has a prayer that begins, “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.”

We can dare to imagine a world with more loving-kindness and compassion.  We can be the difference that we want to see.  We can join together to transform a situation.  Margaret Mead, a cultural anthropologist, has encouraged me from the first time I heard her quote,

“A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

As we go through the season of heightened political debate, you may feel powerless, but I believe that you are not; none of us are.  We each have the power to choose how to respond, what to do, how to make a difference.  Aung Sun suu Kyi discovered that patience and a clear focus can in fact move mountains.  She was released in 2010, elected to parliament, and took her oath of office just two months ago.  This last week, the US lifted its sanctions on Burma, sanctions that had been in place since 1988.

The situation in Burma is a complicated one, and Aung Sun Suu Kyi has her critics.  But, she has stood for what she believed in:  the value of human life and the power of democracy.  Here are the questions we can ask of ourselves:

What is mine to do?

What can I say or do to relieve suffering?

What can I say or do to create the most good?