The following reflection originally appeared in the newsletter I sent out on October 3rd, 2024.
Feel free to read just the bold words and skip the rest.
Introduction
It’s election season in the USA. I’m probably not the only one tired of constant ads, door-to-door canvassers, giant signs filling my neighborhood, and the heightened social anxiety that encompasses this time.
However, it is also possible to make it through this period with grace, to maintain a sense of calm and center, and to engage politically in a compassionate way.
In turn, I have some reflections today on Buddhist thought around politics, as well as some ways to engage in political conversations or hear speech from your least favorite politician without getting angry, anxious, or annoyed.
May this reflection help create harmony amidst this season of division!
A Coming Of Age
When I was 23 and doing social activism work in Southern Mexico, I had a life-changing realization one morning. I was deep in the mountains, helping administer micro-credit projects to poor families in coffee cooperatives. I reflected that a really good thing was happening with these projects. I saw firsthand that, say, having extra money to get a few more chickens or open a meat store helped to make a positive impact on real people’s lives.
And yet, I also saw that this good work could happen, and there could still be deep suffering.
I saw members of the community caught in suffering. I saw myself suffering, even amidst my privilege to be able to drop in and out of that world.
This was the early budding of my interest in spiritual practice. I desperately wanted to help alleviate the world’s injustices that in prior years had left me rageful, apathetic, and at times weeping. As I write this, tears well up in my eyes just remembering the raw emotion I felt in those years.
In any case, in that mountainside moment, it dawned on me that my personal yearning was pointing not to microcredit projects, but to what I might now call “Buddhist politics.”
Buddhist Politics
For starters, it’s worth noting that there are some examples in the early texts where the Buddha directly talks politics with rulers, like when he told one king, “rely only on principle—honoring, respecting, and venerating principle, having principle as your flag, banner, and authority—provide just protection and security for your court, troops, aristocrats, vassals, holy men and householders, people of town and country, ascetics and holy men, beasts and birds. Do not let injustice prevail in the realm. Provide money to the penniless in the realm.”
In addition to the above, it’s also clear there are some ways the Buddha was quite politically radical for his day, like through ordaining women* and disregarding the highly discriminatory caste system.
However, for the most part, the Buddha seemed to not get too involved in politics, at least not in the way we conventionally think about it. Instead, he was primarily interested in helping people transform the world, one heart at a time.
He instructed people that it was beautiful to abstain from killing, lying, stealing, sexual misconduct, intoxication, divisive speech, harsh speech, pointless speech, avarice, hostility, and wrong views, but it was even more beautiful to prompt others to do the same.
He didn’t spend time criticizing and seeking out debates with those who didn’t do those things. Rather, he only offered teachings when requested, and prompted people through his example, motivating them to make changes of their own accord.
I once heard a story about Ram Dass, one of the early pioneers of Eastern spirituality to the West, trying for years to convince his family to practice various forms of yoga and meditation, but it never led anywhere. He reported that only when he stopped talking like a Buddha and had wholeheartedly committed to living like a Buddha that his family began to approach him and take an interest in what he was doing that had transformed his character.
In other words, speech is fine and dandy, but it’s action that leads the way.
At the deepest level, Buddhism is about reducing & removing greed, aversion, and delusion from our hearts. This is the stuff of meditation. And to the degree we can do that, we find more inner bandwidth to bring wisdom, love, and compassion into the world.
As far as I can tell, the heart of Buddhist politics is purifying our heart through meditation and living virtuously in turn. To the degree that we do this, we can use our living example to inspire change in those in our circle of influence, changing the world one heart at a time.
Importantly, this doesn’t mean we avoid politics in the traditional sense, or that we can’t engage in activism, voting, civic beautification, and other forms of direct action. In reality, the less we are consumed with our self-centered interest, the more we’re likely to do these things, living generously, and giving of our time, energy, attention, money, and care in places where it’s most needed. This may look like traditional activism or it may not at all. Whatever it is, the key is that it comes from a wise and loving foundation, as opposed to greed, aversion, and delusion.
*to be fair, orthodox Buddhism is filled with patriarchy and painful gender discrimination, and that continues to this day in some very notable ways; however, the point I’m making is even with that, the Buddha was still very radical in his support of women when compared with to both his contemporaries and the culture of that time.
Clinging to Views
To paraphrase a classic Buddhist parable, there are a group of people in a dark room and they are each allowed to touch one part of a large object.
Afterward, they all get together and rather than have a constructive conversation about the different experiences they had, everyone just starts arguing with each other. One says, “That object is sharp and pointy.” Another says, “You fool, how could you possibly think that — the object is clearly soft and silky!” And on and on they go.
In the political discourse of this country (and world), we act like this. We all see things from our limited perspective and assume it to be the whole picture. We criticize and speak poorly of those who speak about a different part of the object.
Curiously, in that parable, the Buddha goes on to say that even spiritual practitioners sit around arguing about whose practice or philosophy is best, rather than embodying the principles of those practices. I could see a part II where he would point out that even if one person got a sneak peek with the lights on and saw the whole object — giving them the 100% correct view — it would still be just as fruitless to divisively argue with everyone.
In turn, while the Buddha taught right view, he even more emphasized not clinging to views. To be clear, he’s not saying don’t have views. He’s not even saying there isn’t such a thing as a right or correct view. He’s also not saying, “don’t talk to people about your perspectives.”
Rather, the primary instruction is to notice & release the clinging, because when we grip tightly to our perspective, we get agitated, upset, and reactive whenever we encounter someone who sees it differently. In turn, we argue, even just in our own brain, and thereby create division, hostility, and disharmony.
It’s possible to hold views without clinging to them. This doesn’t mean we don’t act on those views, vote according to them, or get involved in social action. Instead, what happens is we can do all those things without:
- Getting reactive inside
- Creating division, dehumanizing the other
Inevitably, when I share this, someone says, well I should get reactive and angry; people are dehumanizing me, dehumanizing my fellow humans, or causing serious harm and oppression. Anger is justified and helps me take action.
On one level, I completely understand the point. There is a lot of painful, toxic BS out there. However, when I look closely, I see that the anger and reactivity don’t actually add anything.
To quote Mother Teresa, who when asked, “Do you ever become angered by all the examples of social injustice that you see around you in India and in other parts of the world in which you work?”, replied, “Why should I expend energy in anger when I can expend it in love?”
This is not easy to understand experientially, but a central marker of spiritual maturity is when we understand that not clinging to views (or their ensuing anger) doesn’t mean disempowerment, but rather harnesses us with the superpower of love-fueled action.
The simple, perhaps overly reductive route to learn how to let go of clinging to views is to meditate a lot, and become a student of your reactivity!
Cross-Political Relationships
At some point or another, most of us interact with people who have opposing political views.
It’s possible to engage with them in a compassionate way — if you can begin to see your views and the way you cling to them, you’re halfway there. When the sense of “I’m right; you’re wrong” is softened, there is a chance to have actual relationship.
The other half can be found through seeing the other person’s shared humanity. Consider for a moment how many people you have interactions with over the course of a year. Co-workers, family members, fellow community members, workers you interact with, people from a shared hobby, or who frequent a similar establishment.
In all likelihood, there’s a segment of that population with very different views from you. With every person, can you simply see their humanity? How they want to be happy and not suffer. How they are a feeling being who sometimes hurts inside. How they probably smile when they see a baby or may help an elderly or disabled person open a door. How they want to have safety and conditions that allow for success. How they were born to a mother and someday they will die.
When we can see people this way, compassion and care are what arises.
In turn, when you talk with that family member or walk past the neighbor with 17 extreme political signs in their yard, can you remember, “just like me, they are also a feeling being.” Chances are when you start to get annoyed and reactive, it’s because you started clinging to a view, “they are bad, wrong, deluded, etc.” and implicitly see them as “the other,” as opposed to someone in your circle of care.
Basically, to have cross-political relationships, soften your clinging, and increase your sense of shared humanity.
This doesn’t mean you don’t talk politics. This doesn’t mean you don’t vote, engage in activism, or take concrete action to address socio-political issues. This doesn’t mean you pretend like it doesn’t matter or that you don’t care. This doesn’t mean you don’t take a stand for what’s right. It just means you do it from a place of groundedness and compassion, which curiously, it’s actually energizing rather than stress-inducing.
In turn, when you do choose to talk about sensitive topics, there is a willingness to see where the person is coming from, to hear about the “part of the object they have touched.” There is sharing without an agenda to convince or be right. There is an actual relationship.
Importantly, if it doesn’t feel safe to be in relationship with someone whose perspective is toxic or threatening, you don’t need to engage with them. There is a lot of wisdom in that. Similarly, there are certain members of my extended family I no longer engage with politically, as it doesn’t seem even remotely like a two-way conversation.
When we’re together, they may still go on political tirades, and I just listen and eventually switch the topic. I pay close attention to the clinging in my heart, and take steps to soften that if it arises. If they cross a line, I say so, firmly but politely. When I’ve done this not from an agenda to be right or to put them down, but appealing to a basic dignity, they’ve generally respected that. If they didn’t, I would leave. You can always leave.
Buddhism is about ending greed, aversion, and delusion in our entire life, as much the quiet of meditation as conversations with people who see things differently from us. When we do this, compassion, love, and wisdom become the guiding forces.
A Non-clinging + Compassion Experiment
Take a few deep breaths, relax your body, and then go on Youtube and search, “[your least favorite politician] speech.” Watch for 10 minutes as a mindfulness experiment. Listen receptively and mindfully. Get more interested in your inner experience than who is right. Notice what emotions, sensations, thoughts, and reactions arise in you. See if you can spot that tension born of holding tightly to your views.
Notice that if you take that in and continue relaxing and softening your views, it doesn’t mean you don’t care, but if you’re like me, you’ll notice that you’re actually in a much better position to take constructive action or to speak in response, than when guided by the throes of your reactivity.
You might even try to see the shared humanity of the speaker — that they are a feeling being who wants to be well and not suffer!
As a note, here’s a compassion guided meditation I recorded for the people we find most challenging.
From Apathetic Non-Voter to Buddhist Voter
I had written another section on my journey from a decade of apathetic non-voting to voting out of Buddhist principles, as well as a number of ways to engage “politically” beyond voting.
However, for the sake of brevity, I cut that from this reflection and have it posted here.
For those who aren’t going to read that, the thought that got me to regularly vote was, “even if a part of me thinks it doesn’t matter or won’t make a big difference, can I understand that for many people, especially the most vulnerable and oppressed, it does actually make a difference who is in power, even if small. Can I cast my vote in their lot?”
The more I have engaged in “Buddhist politics,” there’s been a softening of the me-centered ego and a broadening of the circle of care that exists within my heart. I just try to help however I can, and as I shared in that link, it often involves many things beyond casting a vote.
Conclusion
If you find anything I’ve written here to be annoying, see your critical mind coming out, or hear an inner voice that says, “David should endorsed XYZ candidate,” or “David should have spoken to…”, I’d encourage you to look at the view you are holding onto! Maybe even try to see me with a shared humanity, to see my wholesome intentions. And then feel free to wildly disagree! Doing all this at once is possible!! Transformation happens one of these moments at a time!!!
Anyhow, I hope today that something can be gleaned about how to engage in politics without all the divisiveness, reactivity, and stress, and instead to have a grounded compassion for yourself, the vulnerable of society, and everyone else.
—————
If you would like to get a monthly’ish email with reflections like this one, along with some event updates, sign up here for the newsletter.