Internalizing the Qualities of Virtue

In our discussion last week, several people in the group said that refraining from judging sinners was not a huge challenge.  The real challenge is staying focused on your own path- your own quest for enlightenment and spiritual growth.  This is a wise response and a good practice in dealing with the challenge of judging other people who commit harmful acts.  As Bob Thompson often states in his sermons we cannot change the world without changing ourselves first.

However, a criticism of Buddhists is excessive self centeredness and focusing on your own practice and spiritual development.  For a way that decries the self as empty, there sure is a lot of focusing on the self in Buddhism!

That being said, I have always thought that a critical way to engage in social action (or more ambitiously, to liberate all sentient beings from their suffering!) we need to progress and evolve spiritually in order to be effective actors.  As we understand and internalize more about how the world actually is we naturally display more positive and useful qualities.  As we realize the truth of interdependence we cannot continue to idly harm our planet or our neighbors, because our expanding awareness prevents us from doing that.  And as our compassion grows we will find it impossible to sit on the sidelines when others are mistreated or when injustices occur that we can do something about.  But we will do so hopefully with a thorough understanding of the situation and with a strategy that will remedy the true problem and not just replace the problem with another one.

There is then an argument to be made that working on yourself and your own spiritual path to enlightenment is working on the problems of the world but in a humble and subtle way.  A person who truly internalizes spiritual values and the changes that need to happen in society will just naturally live and express them.  They will also do it better and with less effort than those who force themselves to follow a rigid code of ethics. 

The Way of the Bodhisattva - First Post

Last week in Buddhist discussion group a number of good points were touched upon.  I wanted to post them here so that people can follow along and participate with the conversation even if they missed group.

We revisited the introduction of the Way of the Bodhisattva because of a question Andy had.  The text explained that Shantideva's compassion is so expansive that he even wants to empty the hells of its denizens to liberate those beings from their very intense suffering.  This raises the question: What about justice?  Are not the punished there for a reason?  After all, they are the child abusers, the murders and the perpetrators of great injustices, but in Shantideva's worldview this is irrelevant.  Whether they did something to arrive in hell or not, they are suffering and thus are suitable objects for the aspiring Boddhisattva's goal of compassion.  

This point of discussion really gets to the heart of the matter.  The intro goes on to say that the doctrine of karma does not allow for any completely innocent victims.  This begs the question what did the victims do in their past or current lives to be in this place and time on the receiving end of injustice or violation? 

This is a challenging question to think about.  For me personally, I can't take things that far.  For me Buddhism is a psychological religion designed to point my mind in the appropriate direction for growth and enlightenment.  So in this context, what I learn from Shantideva is how to make people who are guilty of even the highest crimes people whose motivations and circumstances I can try to understand. This helps me find compassion and forgiveness.  I am made aware that my habit of being judgmental is a barrier to compassion and probably also an improper understanding of the situation.  When I am outside a situation I can easily side with the victim and judge another person as evil, bad, selfish or whatever.  But I believe that in Buddhist thought there is not really very much room for this judgement.  As all thing arise because of causes and conditions, to use the Buddhist terminology, can I be so high and mighty to not realize that I could be the victim of a terrible crime or also possibly the perpetrator? 

We like to sit on the outside and judge that we would never be involved in such things. I believe this is a very arrogant stance, but one that I often take without thinking.... are we so different from other people, that if we endured their life's circumstances, would we handle it so much better?  The lesson I take from Shatideva wanting to indescrimanetly empty the hells is that I will get closer to wisdom by focusing on understanding rather than indulging in judgment.