The Path of Compassion: Writings on Socially Engaged Buddhism

collected essays

Meditation master Thich Nhat Hanh penetrates to the heart of Buddhist morality when he urges us to "make peace right in the moment we are alive." A cup of tea, poured with clarity, taken mindfully, can help heal the world, although it might require a decade of meditation in preparation. Even one conscious breath can inspire a passerby to change her life-so important is the contribution of a single person to world change. In a sense, this discusison aniong twenty-one teachers and practitioners in this excellent, inspiring, and entirely necessary anthology is moot, because at the deepest level Buddhist practice is inherently, ineluctably engaged in the world. Any concern about Buddhism's apparent lack of formal, overt, political activism overlooks its message of non-duality-all beings, events, even thoughts, are inter-related, interpenetrating, and codependandy arising. The first half of the collection deals with thoughts on spiritual practice and social action. The absolute importance of bodying fordi the teachings into society is reiterated by a prime exemplar of this path, his Holiness, the Dalai Lama. The mind is the blueprint behind all positive and negative actions, he says; thus, controlling the mind and emotions and undergoing a profound inner transformation are prerequisites for lasting world peace and the "hope for the future." Poet Gary Snyder suggests the first step is to have "a good look at Original Mind through meditation," which leads one to "a deep concern with the need for radical social change." Zen Master Robert Aitkin links inner lucidity with deep ecology, where one "thinks like a mountain" or a black bear, "becoming truly intimate with him." This unrelenting contemplation on our Original Mind, the perception of the transience of all events, even suffering, and the endless round of samsara, blossoms into the phenomenal world of our living human neighbors through acts of compassion. "Me Bodhisattva lives by the sufferers' standards," says Snyder. The book's second half presents the biographies of exemplars of engaged Buddhism, and here the emotional weight of embodied compassion is deeply moving, engaging the reader in a shared sense of suffering and insight. The importance of even one person acting compassionately is incontrovertibly clear. Cao Ngoc Phuong recounts the act of high sacrifice her Buddhist sister Chi Mai performed when she immolated herself in 1971 for peace in waning Viet Nam. Zen sitter Judith Ragir describes her self-transformation provoked by rape, a horrific event that severely tested her Buddhist practice and left her cleansed with an astounding revelation. The exemplary embodiments of Buddhists who genuinely manifest the Dharma dissolve the illusory membrane between passivity and activism, inner retreat and outer foment. When we "speak with our lives and our bodies," says Thich Nhat Hanh, we can be very effective in changing the world, whether this action takes the form of "sitting for peace and standing for Parliament" or being an irrepressible Buddha at the supen=ket checkout. -- From Independent Publisher