Buddhist Ideas
I do not practice Buddhism but I do support a local sangha financially because I think they do good work in our community. I also think they often have interesting things to say about how to live.
For example, I was recently betrayed financially by a Cairo bookseller, who refused to deliver a large book purchase after I had paid him for it. This came as a shock because the Egyptians I have known have been mostly honorable and extremely trustworthy. Buddhist ideas and non-violent precepts have helped me think through how I should deal with this. In the end, what I decided to do is nothing. I'll let it drop, take it as a lesson learned and stop dealing with that seller. I might have made the same decision without Buddhist thinking to support me, but like most other earth monkeys I like to look around to see if any of the other monkeys agree with me--and so much the better if they're venerable monkeys in saffron robes.
This is starting life anew, but it is a fresh start that benefits someone who has wronged me, not a fresh start that lets me carry on without the burden of my own past mistakes. All the same I need it, and for a lot of the same reasons. With a fresh start, I don't have to be in charge of some kind of campaign against this man. There is value in that, and it is something I can afford, so I will take it.
I question some Buddhist ideas. The Tibetan Buddhists lost Tibet to the Chinese. I'll leave aside the obvious question of whether anyone actually owns Tibet or anything else, but the fact is that a peaceful traditional way of life that has persisted for thousands of years in Tibet has now been taken over by a militaristic non-indigenous occupying force, and the Tibetan Buddhists, with their profound wisdom and meditative power, have no meaningful response to it other than to flee and set up shop in other countries. I don't think they are ever going to regain control of Tibet, and the Buddhists once did control that country.
Spiritual practices are often powerful on the individual level, but seem to become less effective as they try to get beyond the individual to take on collective and social problems. Like Candide, I can tend my own garden as long as I remain healthy enough, but I don't see any wisdom out there that can show me how to solve problems that go beyond me.
Even among the people I know personally, I have little ability to help. If asked I can tell them what I think about the problems they're having, but in the end they have to make their own decisions. I can offer them small amounts of financial or material help, but not enough to change things too much.
I don't vote for similar reasons. The tiny range of political options offered in the USA leaves out too many things, and the available options are all designed to fill needs that other people have and I don't have. If a US election offered a more clear-cut choice, such as for example a choice between Raul Castro and John McCain, I'd hold my nose and choose McCain, but I know most other people would make the same choice for me. I wouldn't feel compelled to get involved personally. The actual choices we now have in the US are not significantly different. Ralph Nader is right that both the Democrats and the Republicans parties are set up to facilitate corporate control of US affairs, but Nader himself also leaves out too many things and doesn't represent an alternative for me.
This decision not to vote may not be the best stance for everybody, but it is what works for me. I've never had the ability to wield influence in a group and when I try to do something that is supposed to go in that direction, I always feel frustrated. I'm happiest when I'm not a social animal. Sartre said "hell is other people," didn't he? I know what he meant.
I'll tend my own garden until climate change kills it off; I remain thankful that I'm in a place where religious authorities do not run the government. Even if I don't vote, I would rather be here in the USA than anywhere else. I make that choice willingly and I pay my taxes. If I could vote on how my tax dollars are used, I'd do that. I'd stipulate that they not be used to buy bombs or guns. However, we aren't quite THAT democratic here are we?
posted by johncgreen@gmail.com @ 5:18 AM
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