activism

August 20, 2023

Activism is about taking action to make social change.

Up until 2016, I had already done over 30 years of work as a change consultant for major corporations and was planning to slow down and retire.  Then the presidential election happened.  I realized that my work was not done.  For the next four years, I watched what happened to this country and the world and had many sleepless nights.  I wanted to use my skillset to make a difference, but the madness often was overwhelming.  At times I felt so helpless.  I admire those who have chosen a cause and stayed with it to make a difference, but I thought doing one thing was just not enough for me. My perfectionism and grandiosity have become a trap for me.

Meantime, sitting among all the monastics in my Zen community, I had a hard time quieting down my mind.  I asked my teachers, “The world is on fire, how can we just sit here?” I did not want to commit to the so-called spiritual bypass.  Then I learned that the practice of Engaged Buddhism is a lot more active than just sitting.  This practice was first introduced to the West by Thich Nhat Hanh, the acclaimed Vietnamese Buddhist monk.  To be fully engaged, we need to practice clear seeing into the nature of suffering through mindfulness. Suffering is Buddhism‘s first Noble Truth.  The clear seeing leads us to cultivate compassion and engage in peacemaking to help ease the world’s struggles. The first Noble Truth says, “We are all suffering”.  When we want something that we don’t have or are unhappy with what we do have, we suffer.  

Many activists have been doing their work out of anger at the injustice in the world.  Anger, indignation, and disdain are the types of suffering that fuel negative energy and end up causing more suffering. We often see the world between good and bad, right, and wrong.  We operate from being righteous.  This is when an activist gets burnt out. But Buddhism teaches that we are parts of one being and there is no separation.  There is no good or bad.  There is suffering for all of us.  When we hate others, we hate ourselves.  Unitarian Universalism’s First principle says: “Respect the inherent worth and dignity of everyone”.  Bad people who do bad things are still worthy of our love and compassion. These teachings are the toughest to practice.

And intellectually, I know that if I just do my part while others do their part, collectively we will make a difference in the world. But the biggest challenge for me is to keep up my faith in our oneness and collectiveness.   

In one of the episodes of the TV show M.A.S.H., Father Mulcahy said to Dr. Pierce “When you doctors treat the patients, you can see the results right away. I often don’t feel my job made any difference.”  Some said they cannot give money to beggars on the street because they do not want the beggars to use the money on alcohol or drugs.  In both examples, our judgment has kept up our suffering. Our decision to do good has very little to do with the beggar or the patients. It is more about fulfilling our promise to be our best human selves. And the most difficult thing is to continue the work without knowing if we have made a difference at all.  To me, this is the true practice of our spirituality.

As Unitarian Universalists, we cannot forget that our social justice activism needs to be grounded in our 7 principles soon to be 8 principles which are the roots of our spirituality.  To avoid burning out while trying to do good work out there, we need to move from being social activists to spiritual activists.  This is the “change” work we must do for ourselves.