Engaged Practice for these Times

[This post is based on a talk given at the Energy Matter's Sangha on the observation of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.] The events of January 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol represented an upsurge of violence born of hatred and delusion on a national level. But the seeds of this movement have been latent for a long time, and for the last few years those seeds have been heavily watered by those in positions of power, to manifest and grow. These seeds and manifestations of hatred and delusion will not go away on their own. A great deal of healing needs to occur on this land, and we all have a role to play in it. My lineage is one of Engaged Buddhism, and that means that we practice for peace in ourselves, in order to bring that peace into our families, communities, and the world. We do this by transforming the roots of suffering, which according to the Buddha are greed, hatred, and delusion. Wise leaders from around the world share common teachings about not adding fuel to the fire.

• Jesus: "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do."
• Buddha: "Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule."
• Mahatma Gandhi: "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
• Martin Luther King Jr.: "Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

On the Buddhist path of practice, we recognize the Buddha nature of every person - that under layers of ignorance and hatred that may be there, there always exists the potential for wisdom and care, redemption and transformation, in every person. This recognition is part of what differentiates and identifies a righteous path - that it does not dehumanize those who may be considered one's enemies. Yet not a single one of these wise leaders had a relativistic moral compass. They were all very clear about right and wrong. What made them great was that they never adopted the methods of those who may be considered their enemies, those who had gone astray: never seeking to destroy them but always seeking to destroy the hatred and delusion they were steeped in. While Martin Luther King, Jr. always espoused non-violence as the path to justice, he made no equivocations about following a moral compass:

• "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."
• "The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict."
• "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
• "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
• "The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people."
• "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

You get the gist. Which is all to say, loving our enemies and non-violence is not a call to moral relativism. We hold to non-violence while being unshakable from the path of justice. How we are called to walk that path is dependent partly on who we are, our stations in life. For example, in the time of the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, it wasn't up to the Jews to stop what was taking place in the society around them. In fact, the Jews could not have stopped it. It was the moral duty of those in the majority to stand up and speak out. But though some individuals tried, the German people collectively did not stop one of the greatest atrocities of human history.

The hatred we are seeing now is white supremacy. The delusion, fake news and conspiracy theories. Americans are being called on to stand up and speak out. People of conscience often ask, "what can I do?", but waiting for someone to give you an answer to such a question can be paralyzing. There is no single path, and the point is not even to find an answer to that question. But if you hold the question in your heart and mind, "what can I do to actively bring goodness, sanity, wisdom, and compassion into the world?" - you will discover your path, one step at a time.

As the famous line by poet Antonio Machado goes, "we make our path by walking." None of us knows what the future holds. But the more of us can hold this intention of living, speaking, and acting courageously and in line with truth and goodness, our actions add up and we will tip the scales. Your intention matters, your thoughts, your speech, your actions matter.