“The point of spiritual practice is not to try to escape your life, but to face it exactly and completely.” – Dainin Katagiri (20th century Zen Master)
Increasingly, many are concerned that we in The United States are about to enter extremely challenging times, and it would seem we are not psychologically or spiritually well-prepared for the possible coming multiple levels of crisis on our horizon. The mainstream of America, since the end of the Second World War, has mostly escaped the truth of world history, which shows that throughout time it is more common than not for people to live in unstable and unsafe circumstances. So, it is important to see that many, if not most, Americans have been living in a period of prosperity and social stability uncommon in human history and have the possibly unrealistic expectation that such stability and prosperity will continue indefinitely. History would suggest this is unlikely. The laws of karma, given what we have done with this peace and prosperity, would also suggest that this is unlikely. We, as a society, have in this time made great strides in bringing into the social fold those who had been excluded, yet now are experiencing a backlash from those who see their privilege threatened. The great issue and threat of the 21st century, climate change, has been quite inadequately addressed and totally dismissed by many. Democracy and rule of law are threatened as never before in this country by forces who seek autocracy. These forces seem as a gathering storm on our horizon.
As we sit at the first quarter mark of the 21st century there are concerning strains and cracks appearing in our social order and new challenges that ought to give us pause to consider what the next quarter century may look like as we struggle to create a new stable narrative for the last half of the 21st century. We see political, economic, cultural, and ecological challenges erupting and we seem quite possibly entering an unstable period of social/political/cultural/economic/ecological dynamics that could become very unstable, possibly dangerous. The question then becomes – how does a person keep their personal balance and sense of values whole and healthy when the society around them becomes unbalanced, without coherent and positive values? What is a person who seeks to live an enlightened life while living in turbulent, challenging, even dangerous, times to do?
An enlightened perspective is that we are human beings who live within the geographical boundaries of this nation and share a sense of the idealism that has been identified as American, yet are realistic that there is a counter narrative to this nation that is its shadow side. Out of this shadow has emerged slavery, Native genocide, racism, sexism, narrow-minded religion, homophobia, exploitive capitalism, materialistic, hedonistic, narcissistic, arrogant, vindictive character traits and ecological mayhem. After all, we are human with all the human weaknesses. But it is our founding ideals that were meant to keep us aiming toward “more perfect union,” toward “justice,” “domestic tranquility,” and the promotion of “the general welfare,” securing “the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” At our best, our virtuous ideals hold sway; at our worst, the shadow takes over. A strengthened spirituality that allows us to face our circumstances “exactly and completely” is beneficial in sorting through our feelings about this country and our place within it when faced with the assertion of this shadow and its consequences.
It may be helpful to look to Buddhism and Zen for their insight which tell us a person can learn to live in a manner that does not look to one’s society for their sense of identity, balance, and well-being while still dedicated to its betterment, as well as to that of all humanity and life on this planet. It is very important to consider the world that Buddhism and Zen were born into. The story of The Buddha is of a privileged prince of India who lived a sheltered life, but who upon venturing beyond his palace discovered a very different world – one of poverty, illness, cruelty and exploitation. He saw human suffering as he had not known existed and dedicated himself to understanding its cause and what could be done to heal it. Centuries later, Zen was born within the cruelty and violence that was feudal China and Japan. The issue of alleviating suffering for the Buddha and the Zen masters was not about improving the general conditions of people’s lives. That was simply not going to happen. The suffering that was addressed was the natural psychological response people have to misery and oppression, the anger and despair, the emotional suffering that such circumstances elicit.
Initially, Buddhism was practiced as a monastic religion, monks withdrawing to live away from society, beyond the common misery. Yet, eventually, the development of compassion and wisdom, which is the core fruit of Buddhist teachings and practice, gave rise to the concept of the bodhisattva, an enlightened person who did not withdraw from society, but lived as a free and awakened consciousness, not identified with the society, yet dedicated to addressing the misery caused by unenlightened thinking. Bodhisattvas stayed in society to help people break free of the psycho/spiritual cause of their suffering, while preaching the need for enlightened society. They were healers and reformers.
When life typically meant dealing with despotic governments, petty judgmental communities, plagues, draughts, floods, famines, poverty, war, rampant childhood mortality, and incurable illnesses, the issue was how to live free from the emotional suffering these conditions brought. Buddhism addressed this conundrum by freeing a person from identity in the clinging ego that needs beneficial circumstance to experience peace and well-being. Its focus was not on accumulating material cushion from want, struggle and privation, but rather to develop perspective, inner calm, character, virtue, compassion, and wisdom as immunity to the stressors and calamities of life. The Zen perspective is to see life in a much bigger picture than immediate circumstances and in identification with the fads and customary thinking of society.
To build this strength requires the development of perspective and understanding of the insecure egoic mind which is achieved through meditation and mindfulness, the stopping of the insecure narrative of the egoic mind to discover the deeper realm of expansive clear awareness beneath it. The levels of this practice increase in perspective, insight, and clarity until ultimately the sense of oneness with, and peace in, any and all circumstances is realized. Then, whether coping with personal difficulty and tragedy or social instability and danger, one’s balance and sense of well-being is maintained along with the energy and perspective to be of guidance and aid to others.
The mid-20th century seminal figure of Existential Psychology, Viktor Frankl, inspired by ancient Greek and Roman Stoicism, a philosophy quite similar to Zen, realized from within a Nazi concentration camp that “Everything can be taken from a person but one thing… to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.” Choosing to focus into his own capacity for courage and human decency, reassured by the balance and beauty of nature, he endured the brutality of those who would take everything away and founded a profound psychotherapy. This is what is to be a bodhisattva, a hero of circumstance, one who lays the groundwork for the resurrection of decency, compassion, wisdom, and courage in times and circumstances where all that is cruel and ignorant in humanity take over, and this can be any level from between two people, to a family, to a peer group, to a community, to an institution, to a nation.
Perhaps the age of American exceptionalism is over, meaning the unbroken period of peace, prosperity and stability, the dedication to expanding democratic opportunity and liberal free thinking that has been true of this country since the end of the Second World War. Hopefully not. What it is time for, however, what has never gone out of need, is the time for exceptional Americans, people who see the need for compassion, inclusion, visionary science and arts, who will take America into the latter half of the 21st Century with reinvigorated democracy and dynamism – into a new age of political, economic, spiritual and ecological harmony. It is important to see ourselves as human beings in America, citizens of the world first, yet with an allegiance to the founding ideals of this nation, who have the inner reserves and faith to endure challenging times with faith, resilience and courage, our ideals intact.
We are in American society, but do not have to share the mindset of the culture that has fallen into regressive celebration of the ugly aspects of American character yet declare themselves “great.” We can see ourselves as evolving human beings who wish to lend our efforts to the evolution of our society, never giving up our choice to respond positively to our circumstance, growing in courage, resilience, and inner harmony, holding faith in democracy, decency, kindness and compassion as social policy. We can choose to be aspiring bodhisattvas holding to love of beauty, kindness, and nature, along with belief in the inextinguishable reservoir of human virtue to carry us through dark times. We are on a great journey of social evolution towards planetary harmony, and we are Americans. We are also citizens of the world. Let us be in this society, undiscouraged by what seems a regression into social cruelty and ignorance, this assault on democracy and push towards autocracy. We can face our circumstance exactly and completely, determined to be modern bodhisattvas shaping human society ever so gradually toward enlightenment. We can stand with all those throughout history and today who have faced troubled, unstable, even dangerous times with nobility and preservation of their humanity. In Buddhism, this is called “sangha,” the community which seeks enlightenment. We can be carried by the faith that history does, as the modern bodhisattva Martin Luther King, Jr. noted, bend toward justice, just ever so slowly and fitfully. Hold your center and faith and look to those who have done so throughout history as reassurance, as your sangha. Exceptional historical challenges bring forth exceptional human responses. This is our true greatness.