Engaged Buddhism is an oxymoron. Buddhism is engaged by nature, and so is life. What, after all, is disengagement? It is machinery that no longer works, negotiations that have broken down, relationships that are over, mental illness . . . Disengagement, at it’s very best, can be no better than indifference or disassociation. We use the term “Engaged’ to make a point. The point being, that we are made whole through the world rather than by imagining the world to be tainted or broken and withdrawing from it – whether through spiritual practice, hedonism, or even activism.
Understanding the interconnectedness of all things, and cultivating that understanding, inevitably leads to a particular world view. As we cultivate that view, it becomes stronger; not like a conviction we hold, rather as a predisposition to trace new connections, and to revise our old views and opinions. It expresses itself as a willingness to grow, and learn, and change.
Compassion is energized by the recognition that we are more effective when we neither to blame imagined oppressors, nor try to 'save' apparent victims, nor even to change the circumstances that we perceive to be causing suffering.
Something more. . .
That level of understanding is scary. We must let go of ‘them’ and ‘us’, and look for solutions rather than drama. We can no longer be nourished by unhealthy relationships. We stand on our own feet. We are no longer just looking for a way to get by.
In short, we are engaged. . .
like a warrior preparing for the unknown, or a poet alert for the next flickering turn of sensibility, meaning, and sound.
Watercolor by Michele Benzamin-Miki
