The World through a Seeker’s Eyes
Q: Just look around at all the marvels brought into the world by science and technology. Are you not impressed?
A: I’m not so much impressed as depressed. Look beyond the invention of all this marvelous and powerful technology. How is it being used?
I am using the word depressed more as an expression than to refer to an attitude of mind. My mind no longer becomes depressed over the tragic misuse of nature. Nothing can alter this course; it is the way it is.
Q: What is the cause of all the wars erupting at this time?
A: Who can say? These events have innumerable karmic tentacles that connect the past to the present and the present to the future. A supercomputer couldn’t trace all the factors creating any one event. This planet is full of dangers. All kinds of deadly toys are set to go off, and many of these dangerous things are in the hands of crazy people—or angry people, which amounts to the same thing.
But the world isn’t dangerous just because crazy men have arsenals of chemical and nuclear weapons, or because angry, vengeful demons control fleets of nuclear submarines and long-range missiles. The great and present danger is the fact that our minds are out of control. Each of us still trapped and living under the sway of our defilements is in a state of jeopardy. Anyone in this situation can fall into the lower realms of life energy and become a raging demon or a denizen of the hell realms. These realms are actually states of being that we can and do experience in our everyday life—fortunately not for long. If we practice properly, we can put a cap on these states of experience and abide continuously in peace.
Stop the war within yourself and you will do the world and humanity the greatest service.
Q: Why do political agreements, sweated and hammered out after hours and hours of negotiations, collapse? In the end, all the dialogue, all the wheeling and dealing, and all the promises come to nothing.
A: Because the people involved in these agreements have no political integrity. Perhaps political integrity is an oxymoron; politics and integrity are in two altogether different domains. We shouldn’t expect much good to come out of the political arena, for the different parties don’t agree to participate within an honest, moral, and ethical framework. There isn’t much common ground. No side has the intention to give away anything of real value.
Personally, I don’t follow the news, so I am not emotionally affected by world events.
The political playing field doesn’t evoke honor or integrity, does it? Essentially, diplomatic meetings and conferences only aim to keep the leaders from being too selfish or barbaric. When you come to see that politics are inherently unstable and inconclusive, you won’t be disappointed by the failure of accords, contracts, peace process covenants, and the like. Indeed, it is amazing when the parties involved can resolve even the smallest conflict. Your description of the bargaining process as “hammering away” speaks to the power politics that the representatives employ in their negotiations. When agreements are put together in the name of power, intimidation, and exploitation, they fall apart when the power shifts. On the other hand, agreements put together out of compassion, mutual respect, and selflessness thrive and endure.
If I were mediating a discussion between political opponents, I would have them sit together for twenty to thirty minutes before any talking began. This would raise the level at which the participants meet, and they would have an opportunity to meet more productively.
Q: What would you say are the significant factors in bringing about the paucity of political vision we Americans are currently experiencing?
A: Unless a government acts along time-honored guidelines that reflect natural wisdom, it will not be able to function on behalf of the people. Unless the leaders follow these guidelines, no clear vision of the future can emerge. What arises instead is a murky, distorted, limited view that only sees things in the short term.
The Buddha laid out seven basic principles that any government is ethically obligated to fulfill:
1. Meeting regularly and often to confer on pertinent matters.
2. Coming together, conducting meetings, and dispersing in harmony.
3. Adhering to the laws laid down in the constitution.
4. Honoring and respecting elders.
5. Honoring and respecting women, children, and the disabled, and protecting them from abuse.
6. Honoring and serving holy places and national shrines and traditions.
7. Organizing protection, sanctuary, and rightful support for the religious.
When there is collective concern for these matters, the people will be able to manifest a sensitive, intelligent vision that the government will be obliged to follow. I don’t think a government can function properly as guardian of the happiness and security of its citizens unless it is operating with these principles as its standard.
We can speak of the world as multi-dimensional. That is, there are parallel perceptions of the world operating simultaneously. What you see is what you are tuned in to.
For instance, we can involve ourselves in political matters or spiritual matters. These two perspectives of the same world differ radically from each other. The majority of people today have chosen to see and be in the world politically. This implies participation in world events that trouble the mind and heart. Bosnia, Israel, Iraq, Ireland, Rwanda, Colombia, Korea—the problems plaguing these and other countries never seem to go away. Nightmare scenarios are recycled, with minor variations, coming back onto the world stage for another round in the spotlight. Obviously, the way these problems are approached is critically flawed.
The difficulty lies with the politicians and with the people who consider these problems with political consciousness. By contrast, when we approach a problem from a spiritual perspective, we come to that problem with a willingness to make intelligent and appropriate sacrifices in order to allow others to be happy and feel secure. We let go of the idea that they are the enemy, that they are other in relation to us. We recognize that their predicament is not unlike our own.
Politically, one side loses. Spiritually, everyone wins. Giving up and letting go stimulates a similar response from the world, one way or another. Then comes the inclination for real justice, true goodness and fairness, and genuine bonding between diverse people in mutual respect. A spiritual perspective carries with it an appreciation of the karmic struggle all living beings have to confront. Everyone will grow old, become ill, and die. Only a few human beings will live beyond ninety years of age.
When all parties recognize the poignancy of the vulnerability of life, they can live together in an environment less clogged with fear and distrust. We are truly brothers and sisters here. With this in mind, agreements, treaties, mandates, or whatever we call these contracts between people are maintained and preserved.
It would be naive to expect that the world should simply begin to function in this way. We can only take our own stance in this perspective and bring forth its principles before others. The most powerful thing we can do to soothe the world and move it forward is to radiate loving kindness. When there is enough loving kindness in the world, this gentle but powerful force will generate a shift in consciousness, prompting an understanding of the value of and the need for peace.
This is wonderful mental training. Even if we don’t see the result in the outside world, we can feel it within ourselves. Life mellows and becomes more and more a simple opportunity for offering. When we approach people and situations with an interest in giving, we recognize that this is far more satisfying than receiving.
Recognizing the value of giving, we enter right into the heart of the Buddha’s teaching. We honor ourselves by functioning with wisdom and compassion. We honor ourselves by giving up things for the benefit of others. This doesn’t mean that we should sign away the house. It is simply an operative principle that we can apply to all our life situations. We develop our life according to our environment and our karmic situation. We use our talents and abilities to rise above base instincts and selfish conditioning. We become less interested in dominating and winning than in acceptance, contentment, and the simplicity of letting go.
Q: What’s the point of spreading loving kindness in the world? The world is only getting darker and things are degenerating more and more. Wars are becoming a common occurrence. There is increasing conflict between neighboring countries, let alone between the powerful, nuclear countries, and millions suffer from hunger and displacement. What’s the use of trying?
A: All this is true. On the other hand, what we read about and see on the evening news is just a sliver of reality. We can look at the news as another product fabricated and marketed to the consumer. Wars are presented as accepted events by the media. We aren’t shown much about efforts toward peace, nor much about interest in it either.
The momentum of hatred and fear generates an environment of distrust. When somebody offends somebody else, the offender is assaulted. This triggers a cycle of revenge attacks, and so it goes—Serbs hating Croats, Indians and Pakistanis distrusting each other, Tutsis and Hutus bent on genocide, Sinhalese and Tamils unable to share an island. So many scores to settle. Where is the letting go? Where is the goodness that shames hatred?
We all have a duty to spread metta, loving kindness, in the world. We must practice metta in all situations, because the world is bigger than this planet and time is greater than the events of this era. When we walk about, we walk for peace. When we sit, we sit for peace. When we work or speak with others, it is with a heart inclined toward peace. We make our own world peaceful and harmless so that peace can spread out from right here and right now—from consciousness. This effort appears seemingly insignificant in a world where tens of thousands of bullets are expended, and hundreds of mines blow the limbs off children daily. But the spreading of loving kindness, if done with great purity, has a profound effect. Mother Teresa was a great example. Whatever else she may have done through her social service, her loving kindness was what the world marveled at.
The inner peace that we are all capable of radiating into the world is the energy that transforms people’s hearts and minds. We sit to meditate with a heart full of metta because it has a great influence upon ourselves, our friends, and our society. It protects our personal world from dangers and builds peace-bridges to the larger world. The peace-bridges built today and tomorrow will gradually extend into the future. There will be a time when the horrors of this era will be forgotten. Our metta today will help pave the way, and may even be the critical factor in this transformation.
Q: As a social worker, I want to ask you just one question: what is normal?
A: The way things are.
You see it is easy to ask this question but impossible to really answer it. As a social worker, you would have already asked yourself, “What can be done for the world? What are the root problems of the world? How can I help?” Perhaps as yet you haven’t found satisfactory answers. A penetrating mind won’t find satisfaction in looking at these questions conventionally. These questions have to be seen from the bottom up, so to speak. You have to understand something about the nature of the world, the nature of the mind, the causes of problems and conflicts, and the way beyond problems and conflicts.
The understanding that transforms the way you see the world comes out of a radical restructuring of your view of reality. Then the ability to recognize what to do in any situation becomes normal.
Though tens of thousands of people have been working for at least a thousand years to try to improve society, it continues in its overall miserable state of injustice, exploitation, and intimidation. While some segments of society have progressed slightly, any improvement of the general quality of human life has only been cosmetic.
If there is to be a significant improvement in the quality of our personal and societal life, it must come from the minds and hearts of people.