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Buddhistdoor View: Engaged Buddhism, Donald Trump, and the Way of Compassion

By Buddhistdoor | | Buddhistdoor Global

The Trump era is here. The past few weeks have seen the most controversial man to ever sit in the White House send the world careening into a flurry of heated exchanges between heads of state, with protests and mass movements spreading across the US, and a frenzied recalibration of alliances and power factions spelling turbulent times ahead for the world. Over the next four years, there will appear opportunities for social and economic transformation (Trump has pulled the US out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership) as well as potential for great harm done to Americans and non-Americans alike. Given Trump’s volatile personality, it is difficult to say whether his presidency will be for better or for worse, although it is understandable why so many think it will be for the latter. American Buddhists occupy a broad political spectrum. While the editors of Buddhist magazines (who are typically middle class Caucasian converts to Buddhism) generally lean left, there are large numbers of conservative registered Republican Buddhists, many of them of Asian descent. However, the ethnicity of Buddhist voters played a negligible role in the 2016 presidential election, at least according to a small pool of surveyed Asian and white respondents who mostly responded positively to democratic socialist Bernie Sanders. Based on the tentative conclusion that many Buddhists voted Democrat (whether for Sanders or Hillary Clinton), it is likely that they see the implementation of Trump’s policies and the general political climate of his presidency as profoundly harmful. We agree with the observations of many others that Trump’s excessive narcissism, pettiness, and angry and disingenuous rhetoric—and the dubious agendas of many in his inner circle—are leading to what comedian Jon Stewart called a “purposeful, vindictive chaos” already engulfing America and could do great damage to other countries. It is also quite likely that the American Buddhist community (like many others) is divided about Trump. Buddhist journalist Ken McLeod observed this when he wrote in an article how to “be present with difficult feelings without trying to change or control what we experience, and how that can open up the possibility of finding peace and clarity in the midst of our reactivity and confusion.” Some of his readers were dissatisfied with what they perceived as a missing call to action. He responded with an article challenging the premise of engaged Buddhism—a challenge that engaged Buddhists should not shy away from. (Tricycle) Engaged Buddhism, McLeod argues, is a well-intentioned movement that asks the wrong questions and gives the wrong answers. He proposes—and historically, he is on solid ground—that Buddhism has never been about making samsara a better place, at least in the modern sense of “social justice.” Buddhism is an essentially “mystic” tradition that has always been about liberating beings from this world, and that the responsibility of a Buddhist is to step out of the ego’s reactivity to the world’s ebb and flow.