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ACTIVISM

BUDDHISM’S NON-PREFERENTIAL PROBLEM

Some people are beneficiaries of a system that enables certain individuals to amass inconceivable riches while countless others are condemned to lives of squalor and disenfranchisement. And while Buddhism extends its systemic lenses on a much wider framework of human suffering, the in-between area of the immediately near us is sometimes neglected.

AUTHENTIC GENDER EQUALITY

As more people explore the option to alter their biology, gender issues have surfaced in so many ways it’s hard to recognize certain facets of culture we used to take for granted. There is no longer a ladies room or a men’s room for that matter in New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

THE WONDER OF THE UNPREDICTABLE

It is strange that we can keep on upholding the notion of the superiority of our own civilization over earlier and currently different forms of society and cultures. And furthermore, it is strange that we find this position to be legitimized by the power that our economic superiority ensures us.

SLAVERY WAS ONCE AN ACCEPTED BUSINESS MODEL

That is why the industrial agriculture and meat industry can exist. It is due to a basic experience of discernment and independence that violence in any form grows. That thinking does not allow us to see ourselves as part of a larger and interdependent whole, but creates a world where we feel separate from other people and everything else alive. It is a thought pattern that appeals to our fears and greed, which has defined the world in purely economic terms, builds on the idea of ​​eternal growth and profit, and which constantly brings us to battle against others and nature.

ALONE TOGETHER

The lack of what might be called, as Jung suggested, soul connectedness, to the deeper aspects of our interior world, has become replaced instead with endless distraction and continuous, immediate, bombastic stimulation, and it is exhausting. We are not only constantly struggling with what assaults us daily, by the minute, in fact, but, instead of seeking out another with whom to commiserate, or a field of others to simply enjoy some real human connectedness, we are now trained to seek further stimulation and excitement, only to find it as empty of substance and dry of human touch.

STOP SHOOTING!

Why do we allow this daily rampage to go on and on? Changing the law, by itself, won’t entirely solve the problem. But praying for peace and wishing for all others to renounce their violent habits and tendencies also will not soon solve the problem. This problem is not solely within our minds, and not solely environmental and cultural, or legal. It is the interplay of all of these: it is our collective karma to live in a society that glorifies the ability to violently defeat others.

FROM THE GREEN TRANSITION TO TRANSITION IN THE INTIMATE SPACE

Our current dominating ideology is that of the neo-classical economics thinking combined with Darwinist philosophy of survival of the fittest. It teaches us that we are in an eternal battle zone where money constitutes the ultimate goal, and only the fittest survive. To get money, we must work hard. And we must fight others as competitors, and seek to place ourselves in the front, by all means. Besides from the fact that such a strife indeed does inflate our self-focus in quite materialistic ways, it also ties us up in very tight time schedules, leaving little room for self-inquiry.

GUIDE FOR PEACEFUL RESISTANCE

This is a time for skillful and effective action, informed by meditation practice, inspired by compassion. With the rise of the far right movements emphasizing racism, misogyny, bigotry, xenophobia, and more, for me, sitting on the cushion, though always vital, is no longer enough.

STANDING ROCK

On behalf of the indigenous people at Standing Rock, a member of the Yaqui tribe in the Southwestern part of United States has yesterday requested help to pacify the situation in North Dakota. In full regalia he made his prayer for a peaceful solution before the Buddhist master and benevolent sorcerer Chokling Rinpoche, and a group of 5000 people from all over the world.

DEEP ECOLOGY

All life has intrinsic value, irrespective of it’s value to humans, Norwegian Philosopher Arne Næss said. He believed that the environmental crisis of the 20th century had arisen due to the lack of acknowledgement in our modern societies concerning the value of the natural world as a whole and through a process of falling in love with the world, the wish to protect the environment itself would come naturally.

BUDDHIST MASTER ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE

We need the leaders of all religions to be involved. It’s very important that religious leaders, politicians, business people, and industrialists have a genuine dialogue. I think everybody will care, if not for other reasons, then at least for his or her future descendants.

ACTIVISM 2.0

It is as if the house of human civilisation is on fire and a few of the inhabitants are trying to yell to the others that the house is burning. The other people hear it but would rather ignore it since it seems like a hassle to put it out, and would rather just continue what they are doing.

ENGAGED BUDDHISM

Engaged Buddhism is not a separate school from others; it is more of an interpretation of social commitment that appears in all trends of contemporary Buddhism. It emphases the unity needed between the inner work and the work in the world, the social action as deep compassion, the result of a deep understanding of reality, their dynamics and mutual causalities.

FUNDAMENTALISM IS NOT PEOPLE, IT’S AN ATTITUDE

There is no copyright on the tendency to be close-minded, shutting off reason and empathy. It can unfold within the mind of anyone.
The resulting arrogance, and the aggressive and abusive behavior that the fundamentalist attitude breeds, can be changed by opening our hearts with kindness and freeing our minds through insight.

WHY DON’T WE WORK HARDER TO GET BIG MONEY OUT OF POLITICS?

This election has caused me to spend time deeply reflecting on my own life choices and beliefs, and a deep question has been continually weighing on my mind: Why don’t more loving, intelligent people work harder to eliminate Big Money’s negative influence on almost every sphere of human activity?

CHANGING FROM THE TOP DOWN OR THE BOTTOM UP

Meditation develops one’s open-mindness, sensitivity and appreciation, while enhancing one’s ability to stay focused and engaged with more challenging experiences. Wouldn’t meditators of all traditions therefore have a key role in contributing to solutions for the difficulties the world is now facing?
The debate is open.

UNIVERSALISM

Human beings believe separateness is the true reality, not interconnectedness. They believe in the autonomy of me from you, the separateness of body from mind, climate from man’s activities. Think of the many trillions of different subjects in trillions of endless lists of separated items and disciplines to be fixed, improved, voted on or changed.

CULTURAL FACTORS SHAPING BUDDHA’S MESSAGE

In contrast with the Buddhist message, which affirms the preciousness of our human birth and our original enlightened nature, there are psychological and socioeconomic forces in our western culture working in exact opposition. Several developments in our cultural history have dramatically shaped our view of ourselves, displacing us from cosmic significance and eventually led to a mood of nihilistic doubt about our awakened heart of compassion

FROM RECOVERY TO TAKING REFUGE: A TESTIMONY

I was struggling with anger and resistance to accept I was being an asshole to my loved ones, my sponsor asked: “have you kneeled to God lately?”. I was utterly surprised by that question. “What in the world is he talking about?”, I thought. I felt offended. I couldn’t believe he had the nerves to ask me to kneel.