Disengaged Buddhism

Amod Lele makes a strong argument for disengaged Buddhism:

The Cakkavatti, it seems to me, is tremendously inspiring in times like these. It reminds us to avoid the kind of hope I had dashed in the late 2010s, that a better world was around the corner. It warns us that things will get worse before they get better – and that the getting better may well not be in our lifetimes. Yet it also reminds us that material well-being is not necessary for moral improvement. The pessimistic slogan that comes out of it is “things will get worse before they get better”. The optimistic slogan, though, is “things will get worse but I can be better”.

If you step back and take a longer view of history, things get worse and better then worse and really bad and a bit better. There’s not much point in getting worked up over the big things.

But, there are a lot of little things on a personal level, at the family level, in an office, in a neighbourhood that you can do. It seems like the more someone is worked up about the big things, the less they even see the possibilities on the small scale.

You can have values and positions without watching the news constantly. Low effort social media posts aren’t going to solve anything and are reminiscent of Bonhoeffer’s cheap grace.

When I talk about values, I means how cruelty and vindictiveness have become default emotional states. And it’s not just the obvious side engaging in this—there’s positive glee from many Democrats I know at the pain of people who have engaged in wrongthink.

Andy Rotman has a fascinating book about hungry ghosts, in which he explores how Buddhist ethics have dealt with meanness, being nasty, or in his own words, “being an asshole”. I recommend this talk about it.