Namaste.
My caring, compassionate friends seem to be of two minds these days. Either they are completely involved in the Resistance to the point of exhaustion or they are sticking their heads in the sand and declaring that they are no longer engaging in social media. Or they are vacillating between the two extremes.
I get it. I really do. It all feels incredibly important and overwhelmingly hopeless.
Lately I'm hearing rumblings of a third option: Engaged Buddhism.
The nifty thing about Buddhism is that you don't really need to be a Buddhist to practice its teachings. It is quite possible to deeply religious or atheist and also follow Buddhism. In Japan, many people are committed to the ancient animistic faith of Shinto while also studying Buddhism. And then there are people who end up as Buddhist nuns, monks, and priests. It's all good.
We can learn a lot from the ideas of Engaged Buddhism. The Fourteen Precepts of Engaged Buddhism is a great guide for how to be serene while still fighting the good fight.
For more specific ideas on how to apply these teachings to what's going on these days, read these articles:
Huffington Post: A Zen Master's Advice on Coping with Trump
Buddhist Door: Engaged Buddhism, Donald Trump, and the Way of Compassion
Yours in Solidarity!
THE YOPP! An ongoing analysis of the state of our nation since the election of 2016 from a political, economic, and social perspective with a focus on social justice. The Yopp! is meant to inform and inspire its readers to take action.
No comments:
Post a Comment