(another email from my friend Lisa Bright.)
When people think about Zen, they think of it as an esoteric Buddhist practice relevant only to Eastern culture and philosophy. Even when they are into Zen, they tend to regard politics and the current world affairs as something outside the realm of Zen practice.
What is going on in the world seems too messy and too deeply associated with unpleasant elements and thus "unspiritual." It's easier to comprehend if Zen practice is kept in controlled settings, such as in a calm Japanese garden, in a gentle tea ceremony, and in a serene Zen meditation center. That is reasonable, to a point. When we first set out to do Zen practice, it's helpful to begin in a controlled and safe environment. However, if our practice never leaves that fantasy world, it won't help much in dealing with the real world. So how do we apply our practice - not just Zen, of course, but also all spiritual practice - to the real world of politics?
When I say politics, I am referring to general public affairs of all nature which affect all walks of life everywhere, no matter where we may be. Whether we live in Washington DC or in a remote village in Somalia or Pakistan, we are affected by world politics. We can no longer buffer our lives against the organic and changing currents of global economy, climate, infectious disease and so on. Nations with stronger and richer governments push for policies and treaties that will bring higher dividends for their citizens, often at the expense of weaker and poorer nations. This same impulse applies to local, domestic politics: we want our district or county or state representatives work for our immediate interests even if that might be a disservice to oneself and the nation as a whole in the long run.
Unlike in ancient times when the news of any man-made or natural disasters took months to travel to different corners of their world, we live in a world of instant communication. We can see the horror of all sorts of disasters in graphic detail as they are happening, and our responses to them are strong and immediate. Sometimes these responses are timely and helpful, thanks to our modern technology. However, the flip side is that we do not always wait until all the information is gathered before forming our opinions. We sometimes react viscerally on partial, and sometimes biased, information and thus influencing leaders to make hasty decisions, with unintended consequences.
Once we react and express our emotions to any news -- whether it is right information or misinformation -- we feel as if we're invested in them and refuse to study opinions that are different from ours. More often, we feel coerced to form opinions before understanding the nature of problems. There seems little virtue in reflective and deliberate responses. And if this trait is displayed by a politician, they are deemed weak. If they change their opinions after receiving more complete information, they are deemed untrustworthy, lacking inner conviction. Another entrenched habit of ours is that we mistakenly think that we think, while we are only repeating well-rehearsed banalities of the day. In return, we over-value these false thoughts of ours. Only very rarely does anyone come up with a real thought. If it is raised, nobody could tell, for special interest groups would grab it, shred it to pieces, until it becomes unrecognizable, before it is ever being explored together in a rational manner. To our chagrin, we witness again and again that all sorts of catch-phrases being recycled until they've become bleached, and yet, the elected officials must behave as if they are the pearl of wisdom and should appear to consider them seriously. Our representatives are often too eager to respond to our every whims to the point where they become a farce. Now that the ordinary citizens can mobilize their opinions either for or against the policy decisions in greater forces, everyone seems much more enamored in using that power, rather than in developing informed opinions. We don't realize how irrational, fickle, and self-contradictory our emotions and opinions can be. Instead of examining our own freakish emotions, our wrath at not satisfying our various and different desires is redirected at the elected officials. We feel somehow righteous in our common damnation of our representatives, who do not seem to understand what we want! Some people go even farther, suggesting that we don't really need governing systems at all. "We are smart and we know what we are doing, so leave us alone", is what we're saying. Public opinions, especially in developed and democratic nations, have become a new form of tyranny.
What is most bewildering is the sheer inconsistency in what people say and want. We say one thing but we behave in direct negation of what we say but don't even realize the glaring contradiction. This is how our mind works. When we don't train ourselves how to watch our own mind and watch when and where our emotions arise and learn to trace the source of these emotions, our mind runs amok at every turn. I state this without a sense of judgment. I'm merely stating the fact that, if untended, this is what happens to our mind.
On the other hand, we could bring our mind onto the table and take a good look at it as an object. If we practise using our mind to work on the mind, we can see the absurdity of our impulsive minds. Instead of dancing to the tunes of our wild emotions that are in constant flux, we can coax our minds to see the unfortunate consequences of our own actions, when not thinking. Our mind, when well tuned, has the capacity to think a real thought, has the capacity to view the whole picture of what's going on, and has the
capacity to direct our thoughts and actions to the benefit of the whole.
Understanding our own mind is the key to understand the real world, and how we got here, how to unravel this messy conflicts, and where we should be heading. Let's take a look at our governing systems, including all the legal systems, regulations, treaties, policies, social services, and international relations. We have built these systems in place because we were able to study human minds and emotions objectively and institutionalized the strengths, as well as weaknesses, of the collective human minds. Most of legal systems and regulations are the result of our agreeing on our own emotional weaknesses: we learned that in certain conditions, we tend to behave in certain negative ways; consequently, we agreed to establish certain check systems in order to save ourselves from our own unthinking minds. Most of social service systems are the results of our agreed upon strength and wisdom: we agreed that we want to
cherish life and foster happiness of all beings, so we institutionalized systems to ensure the welfare of people.
The history of human civilization is a path of collective self-awareness. The more we can treat our mind as an object and examine its weaknesses and strengths, the better we can build systems that encourage our positive traits while discouraging negative traits. We do this to ensure that we don't have to repeat the same mistakes all over again. Understanding how our minds work is the same as developing true compassion to others' plight. I don't fully understand my own mind, let alone have control over it. Then how on earth can I claim to understand others' minds and think that they should exercise the full control over their minds? I fail, you fail, and we all fail at times. If, however, we know that it is our minds that we should work on, then we are on the right track. We may not attain higher wisdom any time soon to create a Utopia, but we can leave behind intelligent governing systems with which our children do not have to suffer as much.
This is how Zen practice works. One mind at a time. That is my own mind, not different from yours really.
Yours in the Dharma,
Lisa Bright
www.earthsangha.org