Category: Engaged Practice
-
Love. Heal. Act. Three Key Questions When Considering the Plight of the Earth
John Bell responds to three questions about how we love Mother Earth, face climate suffering, and taking responsibility.
-
Listening Circles for Healing Racism, for White People: Facilitators Guidebook
Dear OI Friends, In June 2020, within a week of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police, I invited white practitioners on our OI list to a “Listening Circle for Healing Our White Racism” on Zoom. One hundred (100) mindfulness practitioners showed up! After some welcoming, validating of them, and offering some framing thoughts, in pairs…
-
Right Livelihood in an Unjust Society
What is Right Livelihood? When doing research for this column, rather to my surprise, I couldn’t find all that much written on Right Livelihood, even though it is part of the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path. It is as if most Buddhist thinkers consider the matter relatively straightforward, simply a matter of choosing a job that…
-
A New Paradigm For Racial Justice and the Global Pandemic
Meeting suffering where it is – a path to freedom. Centering the lives of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in our practices meets the suffering where it is and offers a path to freedom. A New Paradigm for Racial Justice and the Global Pandemic” is an offering by Marisela Gomez and Valerie Brown. We encourage…
-
Buddhists Help Get Out the Vote
In this time of great fear, it is important that we think of the long-term challenges—and possibilities—of the entire globe. Photographs of our world from space clearly show that there are no real boundaries on our blue planet. Therefore, all of us must take care of it and work to prevent climate change and other…
-
The Paradox of Globalization: An Engaged Buddhist Analysis
From an engaged Buddhist perspective, globalization involves a seeming paradox. The growth of global telecommunications systems and cheap long distance travel means that we have more opportunities than ever to learn about people distant from us. Geographers such as David Harvey speaks of globalization involving “space-time compression”—that, in practical terms, the world is becoming a…
-
Engaged Buddhism and Businesspeople
A History Back in early 2013, a random encounter brought two strangers together that led to the Technology Leaders’ Circle Event with Thich Nhat Hanh and a small group of Silicon Valley CEOs on October 25, 2013. That event took place at the home of Salesforce founder Marc Benioff. Then in the fall of 2015,…
-
Engaged Parenting as Spiritual Practice
by Leslie J. Davis This essay was originally published on Lion’s Roar at https://www.lionsroar.com/engaged-parenting-as-spiritual-practice/ When I first learned about Buddhist practice, I immediately saw its parallels with parenting. The two practices share the same basic tenets for living an ethical life. We are asked to transform suffering. We practice non-violence, loving speech, and deep listening.…
-
A Preferential Option for the Poor and Oppressed in Buddhism?
In the Plum Village tradition, we all embrace the idea of engaged Buddhism as central to our practice. However, we have very diverse ideas about what constitutes skillful means in practicing engaged Buddhism. I have met people who think that simply by practicing loving-kindness meditation for all beings they are helping to make the world…
-
Practicing with Societal Barriers to Observing the Mindfulness Trainings
Thay has compared the mindfulness trainings to the North Star—we can use them to guide us, but, just as we will never reach the North Star, we will never fully live up the mindfulness trainings, for the simple reason that we are imperfect beings. But, beyond our own imperfections, there are other reasons we cannot…