Some meditate to leave the world.
Some meditate in the world.
To the Engaged Buddhist,
Meditation is the world.
Engaged Buddhism, as practiced in the modern American Liberation Movement, is in its infancy. America is new. Intersectionality is new. Engaged Buddhism is new. It is the perfect unfolding which is quintessential Buddhism, always changing form and never changing function while it moves through the minds and hearts of seekers.
Over the last fifty years, Engaged Buddhism has traveled West and addressed dying and violence, offering peace and forgiveness. It burst out of need; war, occupation and terrible suffering. Thich Nhat Hanh, HH Dalia Lama XIV, Bernie Glassman, Joan Halifax and Robert Aiken are some of the leaders in this international evolution/revolution of Buddhism applied in social structures. They have held the beacon steady in Peace, anti-nuclear, hospice, forgiveness, prison reform, deep ecology and more.
Withstanding the test of experiment, Gandhi’s favored process, Engaged Buddhist precepts are clear, resolute and sustainable when applied to all forms of suffering. It is an organic and timely fit with the American Liberation Movement in all its variations. This is just the start of the perfect match of the Buddha's insight of Interconnectedness to Dr. Crenshaw’s insight of Intersectionality.
Off the cushion and into the city street.
As The Razor's Edge, Larry Darrell, warns, “It's easy to be a holy man on top of a mountain.” And the Upanishads state centuries before, "Rise, awaken, seek the wise and realize. The path is difficult to cross like the sharpened edge of the razor, so say the wise."
Engaged Buddhism occurs in the center of struggling chaos, reaches for the light.
Engaged Buddhism informs the process, the challenges the outcome, aims for pure response:
Self-Discovery.