Compassion

in Action
A mini-collection on
spiritual activism
and creating an
enlightened society
From the editors of

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Love Everyone
A Guide for Spiritual Activists
Real political change must be spiritual. Real spiritual practice has to be
political. Buddhist teachers SH A R O N SA L Z B ER G and R EV. A N G EL KYO D O
W ILLIA MS on how we can bring the two worlds together to build a more just
and compassionate society.

Sharon Salzberg: Id like to start with a meditation. Settle your attention and energy into your body and
feel your breath. Find the place where the breath is strongest for you, bring your attention there, and just
rest. Feel your normal, natural breath, however its appearing, however its changing.
No matter what we go through, no matter where we are, we have this anchor, this centering point, avail-
able, if we remember it. So just rest your attention on the feeling of the breath.
If distractions come up that arent too strong, you can stay connected to the breath. Just see if they
can flow by. But if somethings strong enough to pull you awayyou get lost in thought, overcome by a
fantasy or fall asleepdont worry about it.
The moment after youve been gone, after youve been lost, is actually the most important moment.
Thats when you have the chance to gently let go. Its what one of my teachers calls exercising the letting-
go muscle. You have the chance to begin again. Instead of giving yourself a hard time, you can let go and
start over.
When you feel ready you can open your eyes or lift your gaze. Thank you.
Id like to tell the story of a conversation I had some years ago with a civil rights pioneer about love for
all beings and love for life, which become one.
Myles Horton was the founder of the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee, which was a kind of train-
ing ground for civil rights protestors and later for people beginning the environmental movement.

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This exploration of the relationship between spiritual practice and political activism took place at the Jewish Community Center in Manhat-
tan. The event was cosponsored by the Garrison Institute.

I asked him what he did to develop resilience or get a break from the pressure and stress of his work. He
said, I look at the mountains. I just sit and look at the mountains.
Then we segued to loving-kindness meditation, which is a big part of what I teach. He said, Martin
Luther King used to say to me all the time, Youve got to love everybody. And I used to say, No I dont. I
only have to love the people worth loving. And King would laugh and laugh and say, Nope, youve got to
love everybody.
Its a complex question. What in the world could it mean to love everybody? To love somebody that you
actually dont like, that youre going to fight and protest against?

Rev. angel Kyodo williams: You dont have to like anyone at all! [Laughter] People always tease me about
this. I hardly like anyone. But I love everyone. And that is possible. In fact, its the very thing that bridges
the spiritual life and the activist life.
When I came to Buddhist practice, I thought that when people were at the pinnacle of their practice
they would see the need to respond to the problems in world. Isnt that what would happen once you get
there, wherever there is?
But that wasnt my experience, so I switched my focus to the activists. They were trying to change the
world, and I felt that if I could support them with meditation and awareness practices, then they could do
it more effectively.
What I ran into, of course, was that they pretty much didnt love anyone. [Laughter] So love is what Ive
focused on, because in social justice work the only option is loving everyone. Otherwise, there is no path to
real change. Whether were leaning toward the spiritual community or the activist community, what we need
is the combination of a mind that wants to change the world and a mind that is steady, clear-seeing, and
seeks change from a place of love, rather than from a place of anger.
Its important not to get stuck in your own views. Even if you think yours is the right way, theres always
someone else who has another way. Then youre in an irreconcilable conflict that doesnt get resolved
except, I think, through love.
King and Gandhi understood that everyone holds some aspect of the truth. So when youre in the pur-

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suit of social justice, it becomes very difficult to hold onto your own idea of the truth. Youd think that the
more youre in pursuit of justice, the more you know whats right. But its actually the opposite.
Happiness and suffering, right and wrong, like and dislikethese are the paradoxes that exist for all
of us balancing the inner life and outer life. We think its one or the other: either we like and agree with
people, or were against them and we have to hate them. The question is, how do we exist in the space that
holds both of these dualities at once?

Sharon Salzberg: Thank you for that. That was beautiful. Happiness is another kind of inner resource for
people seeking social and political change. I dont see how any of us can keep giving when we feel depleted
and exhausted, when generosity is trying to come out of nothing.
The sense of replenishment we get from our own happiness is a gift not only to ourselves but to others.
Some people think of happiness as just avoiding conflict and seeking pleasure. They feel guilty about being
happy because there are so many people suffering. And people are suffering and its terrible. Yet its so hard
to really help others over the long haul without the inner resource of happiness.

Rev. angel Kyodo williams: Along with happiness, joy is one of the fundamental abodes. Lack of joy is
where we often have difficulty as activists. On the other hand, some of us who are doing contemplative
work tend to be conflict-avoidant. If we are abiding by right speech, then, heaven forbid, we dont talk
about race, because thats difficult.
Activists talk a lot about struggle, but I tell them we should get that word out of our vocabulary. I ask
them, Would you permit the people in your life to run themselves into the ground like you are? And they
say, No, of course not, thats not what were working toward.
If what were practicing now is running ourselves into the ground in order to have justice, at what point
will we practice something different? Because whatever we practice now is what we will practice in the
future.

Sharon Salzberg: I think one of the things the meditation community can learn from the activist commu-
nity is systemic thinking. By itself, meditation will produce a kind of good heartedness and compassion,
but I think its not directed at social and political systems.
Its like the person on the street asking you for a dollar. Meditation practice may help you look them in
the eye and see them as a suffering human being, which is an enormous thing. But that doesnt necessarily
lead you to ask, What is the housing policy in this city?
Its about looking deeper: what are the social causes and conditions that create homelessness? Ive
learned this kind of thinking from people like you, angel. I dont think it could have come from my own
meditation practice. It takes another kind of education.

Rev. angel Kyodo williams: Most of the people who are driving structural activism are doing it, at least
initially, out of their own experienceeither personal necessity or their relationships with people suffering
oppression. So we have a challenge because meditation and mindfulness have largely landed in a privileged
community of older white folks.
Im obsessed with the question of how we shift that. How do we not let our own circumstances deter-
mine where we focus the lens of our practice?
If our lens stays within our privileged circumstances, then we turn our compassion only toward
things that are personal and interpersonal. Rarely does that lens focus on systemic problems, because
the personal need to do that doesnt exist. People arent going to deal with things like racial injustice
and white supremacy because theyre not affected by it personally.
We need to solve this. We cant let such a powerful tool as meditation be limited by peoples personal
circumstances. We dont have the numbers to move this country toward greater social justice if the only
driving force is whether or not people are feeling the pain personally.
I think theres something in our social order that contributes to this. Theres something in the way we
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are practicing Buddhism that actually seems to make us more insulated. Even this practice that is supposed
to be about how we relate to the world and to the people around us becomes hyper-individualized. Its
time for us to cut through that.
That goes for the activists too. They say, Oh, I dont have the time, money, energy to do contemplative
practice. They only look at their current circumstances. And on the privileged side people say, Oh, Im
not touched by education issues, access to water, systemic racism.
What is social justice about? What is contemplative practice about? What joins them or aligns them so
were not only looking to our own set of circumstances to orient ourselves? How do we speak about these
things differently so love for everyone is what drives us?

Question: Rev. angel, I liked what you had to say about not necessarily liking people. For me, theres aversion
attached to that, so I dont know how you bring in the love. I am very distressed by violence toward women and
children, especially child brides who are sold to men at a young age. I feel, essentially, hatred for people who do
that and I dont know how to get in touch with equanimity.

Rev. angel Kyodo williams: I think the critical piece is learning the difference between aversion toward
the injustice and not loving the person. My experience is that it actually has to do with the relationship we
have to ourselves. The path to loving everyone is loving ourselves, and loving ourselves completely.
So we have to investigate what is not fully accepted in ourselves, what feels unworkable, untenable, and
needs to be left behind. I hate that I cant do anything about violence against women and children, and
that makes me hate the perpetrators. But I dont even know them, so generating hate for them is, I think,
almost impossible. What I actually hate is that I feel helpless.
For me, the behavior of individuals is an indication of the failure of society. When I sit with a sense of
the human being there, I dont actually feel hatred at all. I feel a kind of grief for their circumstance and
for the society that allows injustice to happen. Theyre just as caught up in it as every other person who
allows this to be the social order. Its hard to accept, and its a really, really deep practice, but I havent dis-
covered anything else to be true and actually workable.

Sharon Salzberg: I think that truth is contained in the Buddhas teaching. One time the Buddha told a
king, You should be just, you should be fair, and you should be generous. But the king forgot to be gener-
ous and so people started going hungry and they started stealing. Then the Buddha said to the king, The
point is not to start making laws against theft. The point is to look at why people are hungry.
So that is the prompt: Look deeper. Look at all the causes and conditions. But that kind of assessment is
so rarely applied in this country.

Question: Ive been thinking a lot about loving myself, but I feel like I have to like everything about myself
to love myself. But I had a realization when you were talking that I could just have some compassion
toward myself. I dont necessarily have to like every part of myself. Its a process.

Sharon Salzberg: Youre right. Part of the way I think about it is the contrast between self-compassion and
self-esteem.
Self-esteem is nice. You dont need to focus only on your faults. Maybe this morning you did a really
stupid thing, but you also did five great things. Give those a little airtime too.
Self-compassion comes in when youve blown it, when youve made a mistake. When I teach medita-
tion, I emphasize that so much! Its not going to be 9,000 breaths before your mind wanders. Its going to
be one or two breaths, or maybe five, and then youre going to be gone. Youre going to be way gone. And
thats the extraordinary moment when you can forgive yourself and start over.
That is the revolutionary moment in meditation practice. Its all about self-compassion, whether its
called that or not. It happens not when were applauding ourselves for something, but when we have

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strayed from where we want to be. How do we start over? Its got to be with kindness. So I think youre
right. Put that in the self-esteem column! [Laughter]

Question: Rev. angel, when you go back to your community, they may view Buddhism as something thats
for rich people, not for them. How do you approach it?

Rev. angel Kyodo williams: I dont talk about Buddhism to the folks anymore. With all due respect, I dont
care about Buddhism. Im not nation-building around Buddhism. We nation-build a lot. Were colonial by
inheritance, and we get very fixated on this thing that were building.
I just want it to work. I want people to be liberated. I just point to the basics and let people find their way
to whatever lineage, practice, tradition, or religion they want to find their liberation in. As long as theyre
clear that its about love and liberation.

Question: You were talking about how compassion and love can transform society. But were dealing with
a tremendous amount of injustice, so how do you reconcile patience with that?

Sharon Salzberg: I find that theres an amazing quality of patience in a lot of visionaries. People who have
a really big picture of life often have a kind of unflagging patience. Maybe its because theyre connected to
something bigger, whereas I may be more caught up in the immediate ups and downs.
Equanimity doesnt mean indifference. I think part of it is admitting how much we dont know, because
such a big part of the conditioning in this society is instant action. Then we look back and ask, Who knew
that this would actually lead to that?
Things take time, and theres so much thats unknown, but I dont feel despair. Maybe I should, but I
think there is significant movement happening, the beginning of many things. I feel a kind of happiness,
even. Its so hard to see the end of the story, very hard, but we get a lot of energy doing what we feel needs
to be done.

S H A R O N S A L Z B E R G is one of Americas best-known Buddhist teachers. She is a cofounder of the

Insight Meditation Society and the author of such bestselling books as Real Happiness: The Power of
Meditation and Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness.

R E V. A N G E L K Y O D O W I L L I A M S is a Zen teacher and founder of the Center for Transformative

Change. She is the author of Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace and co-
author of Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation.

Photos by: Christine Alicino

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 She Who Hears the Cries of the World

She Who
Hears the
Cries of the
World Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara of the Lions Roar, or Simhanada Avalok-
iteshvara (Shi Hou Guanyin), The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Purchase, The Dillon Fund Gift, in honor of Brooke Astor, 2000

In Buddhist iconography, compassion is embodied in the bodhisattva Kuan

Yin, who is said to manifest wherever beings need help. Engendering such
compassion is not only good for others, says CH R I ST I N A F EL D MA N , it is
also good for us. By putting others first, we loosen the bonds of our self-
fixation, and in doing so, inch closer to our own liberation.

Compassion is no stranger to any of us: we know what it feels like to be deeply moved by the pain and suf-
fering of others. All people receive their own measure of sorrow and struggle in this life. Bodies age, health
becomes fragile, minds can be beset by confusion and obsession, hearts are broken. We see many people
asked to bear the unbearablestarvation, tragedy, and hardship beyond our imagining. Our loved ones
experience illness, pain, and heartache, and we long to ease their burden.

The human story is a story of love, redemption, kindness, and generosity. It is also a story of violence,
division, neglect, and cruelty. Faced with all of this, we can soften, reach out, and do all we can to ease suf-

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fering. Or we can choose to live with fear and denialdoing all we can to guard our hearts from being
touched, afraid of drowning in this ocean of sorrow.
Again and again we are asked to learn one of lifes clearest lessons: that to run from sufferingto
harden our hearts, to turn away from painis to deny life and to live in fear. So, as difficult as it is to open
our hearts toward suffering, doing so is the most direct path to transformation and liberation.
To discover an awakened heart within ourselves, it is crucial not to idealize or romanticize compassion.
Our compassion simply grows out of our willingness to meet pain rather than to flee from it.
Compassion and wisdom are at the heart of the path of the Buddha. In the early Buddhist stories we
find young men and women asking the same questions we ask today: How can we respond to the suffer-
ing that is woven into the very fabric of life? How can we discover a heart that is truly liberated from fear,
anger, and alienation? Is there a way to discover a depth of wisdom and compassion that can genuinely
make a difference in this confused and destructive world?
We may be tempted to see compassion as a feeling, an emotional response we occasionally experience
when we are touched by an encounter with acute pain. In these moments of openness, the layers of our
defenses crumble; intuitively we feel an immediacy of response and we glimpse the power of nonsepara-
tion. Milarepa, a great Tibetan sage, expressed this when he said, Just as I instinctively reach out to touch
and heal a wound in my leg as part of my own body, so too I reach out to touch and heal the pain in
another as part of this body. Too often these moments of profound compassion fade, and once more we
find ourselves protecting, defending, and distancing ourselves from pain. Yet they are powerful glimpses
that encourage us to question whether compassion can be something more than an accident we stumble
across.
No matter how hard we try, we cant make ourselves feel compassionate. But we can incline our hearts
toward compassion. In one of the stories in the early Buddhist literature, the ascetic Sumedha reflects on
the vast inner journey required to discover unshakeable wisdom and compassion. He describes compas-
sion as a tapestry woven of many threads: generosity, virtue, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience,
truthfulness, determination, loving-kindness, and equanimity. When we embody all of these in our lives,
we develop the kind of compassion that has the power to heal suffering.
A few years ago, an elderly monk arrived in India after fleeing from prison in Tibet. Meeting with the
Dalai Lama, he recounted the years he had been imprisoned, the hardship and beatings he had endured,
the hunger and loneliness he had lived with, and the torture he had faced.
At one point the Dalai Lama asked him, Was there ever a time you felt your life was truly in danger?
The old monk answered, In truth, the only time I truly felt at risk was when I felt in danger of losing
compassion for my jailers.
Hearing stories like this, we are often left feeling skeptical and bewildered. We may be tempted to ideal-
ize both those who are compassionate and the quality of compassion itself. We imagine these people as
saints, possessed of powers inaccessible to us. Yet stories of great suffering are often stories of ordinary
people who have found greatness of heart. To discover an awakened heart within ourselves, it is crucial not
to idealize or romanticize compassion. Our compassion simply grows out of our willingness to meet pain
rather than to flee from it.
We may never find ourselves in situations of such peril that our lives are endangered; yet anguish and
pain are undeniable aspects of our lives. None of us can build walls around our hearts that are invulner-
able to being breached by life. Facing the sorrow we meet in this life, we have a choice: Our hearts can
close, our minds recoil, our bodies contract, and we can experience the heart that lives in a state of painful
refusal. We can also dive deeply within ourselves to nurture the courage, balance, patience, and wisdom
that enable us to care.
If we do so, we will find that compassion is not a state. It is a way of engaging with the fragile and
unpredictable world. Its domain is not only the world of those you love and care for, but equally the world
of those who threaten us, disturb us, and cause us harm. It is the world of the countless beings we never
meet who are facing an unendurable life. The ultimate journey of a human being is to discover how much
our hearts can encompass. Our capacity to cause suffering as well as to heal suffering live side by side
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 She Who Hears the Cries of the World continued

within us. If we choose to develop the capacity to heal, which is the challenge of every human life, we will
find our hearts can encompass a great deal, and we can learn to healrather than increasethe schisms
that divide us from one another.

In first-century northern India, probably in what is now part of Afghanistan, the Lotus Sutra was com-
posed. One of the most powerful texts in the Buddhist tradition, it is a celebration of the liberated heart
expressing itself in a powerful and boundless compassion, pervading all corners of the universe, relieving
suffering wherever it finds it.
When the Lotus Sutra was translated into Chinese, Kuan Yin, the one who hears the cries of the world,
emerged as an embodiment of compassion that has occupied a central place in Buddhist teaching and
practice ever since. Over the centuries Kuan Yin has been portrayed in a variety of forms. At times she is
depicted as a feminine presence, face serene, arms outstretched, and eyes open. At times she holds a willow
branch, symbolizing her resilienceable to bend in the face of the most fierce storms without being bro-
ken. At other times she is portrayed with a thousand arms and hands, each with an open eye in its center,
depicting her constant awareness of anguish and her all-embracing responsiveness. Sometimes she takes
the form of a warrior armed with a multitude of weapons, embodying the fierce aspect of compassion,
committed to uprooting the causes of suffering. A protector and guardian, she is fully engaged with life.
We do not always have a solution for suffering. We cannot always fix pain. However, we can find the
commitment to stay connected and to listen deeply. Compassion does not always demand heroic acts or
great words. In the times of darkest distress, what is most deeply needed is the fearless presence of a person
who can be wholeheartedly receptive.
It can seem to us that being aware and opening our hearts to sorrow makes us suffer more. It is true
that awareness brings with it an increased sensitivity to our inner and outer worlds. Awareness opens our
hearts and minds to a world of pain and distress that previously only glanced off the surface of conscious-
ness, like a stone skipping across water. But awareness also teaches us to read between the lines and to
see beneath the world of appearances. We begin to sense the loneliness, need, and fear in others that was
previously invisible. Beneath words of anger, blame, and agitation we hear the fragility of another persons
heart. Awareness deepens because we hear more acutely the cries of the world. Each of those cries has writ-
ten within it the plea to be received.
Awareness is born of intimacy. We can only fear and hate what we do not understand and what we per-
ceive from a distance. We can only find compassion and freedom in intimacy. We can be afraid of intimacy
with pain because we are afraid of helplessness; we fear that we dont have the inner balance to embrace
suffering without being overwhelmed. Yet each time we find the willingness to meet affliction, we discover
we are not powerless. Awareness rescues us from helplessness, teaching us to be helpful through our kind-
ness, patience, resilience, and courage. Awareness is the forerunner of understanding, and understanding is
the prerequisite to bringing suffering to an end.

Shantideva, a deeply compassionate master who taught in India in the eighth century, said, Whatever
you are doing, be aware of the state of your mind. Accomplish good; this is the path of compassion. How
would our life be if we carried this commitment into all of our encounters? What if we asked ourselves
what it is we are dedicated to when we meet a homeless person on the street, a child in tears, a person we
have long struggled with, or someone who disappoints us? We cannot always change the heart or the life of
another person, but we can always take care of the state of our own mind. Can we let go of our resistance,
judgments, and fear? Can we listen wholeheartedly to understand another persons world? Can we find
the courage to remain present when we want to flee? Can we equally find the compassion to forgive our
wish to disconnect? Compassion is a journey. Every step, every moment of cultivation, is a gesture of deep
wisdom.
Living in Asia for several years, I encountered an endless stream of people begging in the streets. Faced
with a forlorn, gaunt child I would find myself judging a society that couldnt care for its deprived chil-
dren. Sometimes I would feel irritated, perhaps dropping a few coins into the childs hand while ensuring I
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 She Who Hears the Cries of the World continued

kept my distance from him. I would debate

with myself whether I was just perpetuat-
ing the culture of begging by responding
to the childs pleas. It took me a long time
to understand that, as much as the coins
may have been appreciated, they were sec-
ondary to the fact that I rarely connected
to the child.
As the etymology of the word indicates,
compassion is the ability to feel with,
and that involves a leap of empathy and
a willingness to go beyond the borders
of our own experience and judgments.
What would it mean to place myself in the
heart of that begging child? What would
it be like to never know if I will eat today,
depending entirely on the handouts of
strangers? Journeying beyond our familiar
borders, our hearts can tremble; then, we
have the possibility of accomplishing good.
Milarepa once said, Long accustomed Photo by: Liza Mathews
to contemplating compassion, I have for-
gotten all difference between self and other. Genuine compassion is without boundaries or hierarchies.
The smallest sorrow is as worthy of compassion as the greatest anguish. The heartache we experience in
the face of betrayal asks as much for compassion as a person caught in the midst of tragedy. Those we
love and those we disdain ask for compassion; those who are blameless and those who cause suffering are
all enfolded in the tapestry of compassion. An old Zen monk once proclaimed, O, that my monks robes
were wide enough to gather up all of the suffering in this floating world. Compassion is the liberated
hearts response to pain wherever it is met.
When we see those we love in pain, our compassion is instinctive. Our heart can be broken. It can also
be broken open. We are most sorely tested when we are faced with a loved ones pain that we cannot fix.
We reach out to shield those we love from harm, but life continues to teach us that our power has limits.
Wisdom tells us that to insist that impermanence and frailty should not touch those we love is to fall into
the near enemy of compassion, which is attachment to result and the insistence that life must be other
than it actually is.
Compassion means offering a refuge to those who have no refuge. The refuge is born of our willing-
ness to bear what at times feels unbearableto see a loved one suffer. The letting go of our insistence
that those we love should not suffer is not a relinquishment of love but a release of illusionthe illusion
that love can protect anyone from lifes natural rhythms. In the face of a loved ones pain, we are asked to
understand what it means to be steadfast and patient in the midst of our own fear. In our most intimate
relationships, love and fear grow simultaneously. A compassionate heart knows this to be true and does
not demand that fear disappear. It knows that only in the midst of fear can we begin to discover the fear-
lessness of compassion.
Some people, carrying long histories of a lack of self-worth or denial, find it most difficult to extend
compassion toward themselves. Aware of the vastness of suffering in the world, they may feel it is self-
indulgent to care for their aching body, their broken heart, or their confused mind. Yet this too is suffering,
and genuine compassion makes no distinction between self and other. If we do not know how to embrace
our own frailties and imperfections, how do we imagine we could find room in our heart for anyone else?
The Buddha once said that you could search the whole world and not find anyone more deserving

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of your love and compassion than yourself. Instead, too many people find themselves directing levels of
harshness, demand, and judgment inward that they would never dream of directing toward another per-
son, knowing the harm that would be incurred. They are willing to do to themselves what they would not
do to others.
Anger can be the beginning of abandonment or the beginning of commitment to helping others.
In the pursuit of an idealized compassion, many people can neglect themselves. Compassion listens
to the cries of the world, and we are part of that world. The path of compassion does not ask us to aban-
don ourselves on the altar of an idealized state of perfection. A path of healing makes no distinctions:
within the sorrow of our own frustrations, disappointments, fears, and bitterness, we learn the lessons of
patience, acceptance, generosity, and ultimately, compassion.
The deepest compassion is nurtured in the midst of the deepest suffering. Faced with the struggle of
those we love or those who are blameless in this world, compassion arises instinctively. Faced with people
who inflict pain upon others, we must dive deep within ourselves to find the steadfastness and under-
standing that enables us to remain open. Connecting with those who perpetrate harm is hard practice, yet
compassion is somewhat shallow if it turns away those wholost in ignorance, rage, and fearharm oth-
ers. The mountain of suffering in the world can never be lessened by adding yet more bitterness, resent-
ment, rage, and blame to it.
Thich Nhat Hanh, the beloved Vietnamese teacher, said, Anger and hatred are the materials from which
hell is made. It is not that the compassionate heart will never feel anger. Faced with the terrible injustice,
oppression, and violence in our world, our hearts tremble not only with compassion but also with anger.
A person without anger may be a person who has not been deeply touched by harmful acts that scar the
lives of too many people. Anger can be the beginning of abandonment or the beginning of commitment to
helping others.
We can be startled into wakefulness by exposure to suffering, and this wakefulness can become part of
the fabric of our own rage, or part of the fabric of wise and compassionate action. If we align ourselves
with hatred, we equally align ourselves with the perpetrators of harm. We can also align ourselves with a
commitment to bringing to an end the causes of suffering. It is easy to forget the portrayal of Kuan Yin as
an armed warrior, profoundly dedicated to protecting all beings, fearless and resolved to bring suffering to
an end.
Rarely are words and acts of healing and reconciliation born of an agitated heart. One of the great arts
in the cultivation of compassion is to ask if we can embrace anger without blame. Blame agitates our
hearts, keeps them contracted, and ultimately leads to despair. To surrender blame is to maintain the dis-
criminating wisdom that knows clearly what suffering is and what causes it. To surrender blame is to sur-
render the separation that makes compassion impossible.
Compassion is not a magical device that can instantly dispel all suffering. The path of compassion is
altruistic but not idealistic. Walking this path we are not asked to lay down our life, find a solution for all
of the struggles in this world, or immediately rescue all beings. We are asked to explore how we may trans-
form our own hearts and minds in the moment. Can we understand the transparency of division and sep-
aration? Can we liberate our hearts from ill will, fear, and cruelty? Can we find the steadfastness, patience,
generosity, and commitment not to abandon anyone or anything in this world? Can we learn how to listen
deeply and discover the heart that trembles in the face of suffering?
The path of compassion is cultivated one step and one moment at a time. Each of those steps lessens the
mountain of sorrow in the world.

C H R I S T I N A F E L D M A N is the author of Compassion: Listening to the Cries of the World. She

is cofounder of Gaia House, in England, and a guiding teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre,
Massachusetts.
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 I Vow Not to Burn Out continued

Superman Buddha, Force Within

by Elisa Insua

I Vow Not to Burn Out

Mushim Patricia Ikeda says its not enough to help others.
You have to take care of yourself too.
AT THE END OF JANUARY, one of my close spiritual friends died. A queer Black man, a Sufi imam schol-
artivist (scholarartistactivist) and professor of ministry students, Baba Ibrahim Farajaj died of a mas-
sive heart attack. He was sixty-three, and Im guessing he had been carrying too much. It was only six
months earlier that Baba and I had sat together on a stage in downtown Oakland, California, under a large
hand-painted banner that read #BlackLivesMatter. A brilliant, transgressive bodhisattva, Baba had been
targeted for multiple forms of oppression throughout his life and had not been silent about it. When he
died, I was sad and angry. I took to staying up all night, chanting and meditating; during my daytime work,
I was exhausted.

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 I Vow Not to Burn Out continued

How many of us who have taken the bodhisattva vow are on a similar path toward burnout? Is it possible
for us, as disciples of the Buddha, to engage with systemic change, grow and deepen our spiritual practice,
and, if were laypeople, also care for our families? How can we do all of this without collapsing? In my world,
there always seems to be way too much to do, along with too much suffering and societal corruption and
not enough spaces of deep rest and regeneration.
When I get desperate, which is pretty often, I ask myself how to not be overwhelmed by despair or cyni-
cism. For my own sake, for my family, and for my sangha, I need to vow to not burn out. And I ask others
to vow similarly so theyll be around when I need them for support. In fact, Ive formulated a Great Vow
for Mindful Activists:

Aware of suffering and injustice, I, _________,

am working to create a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world. I promise, for the benefit of all, to
practice self-care, mindfulness, healing, and joy.
I vow to not burn out.
Its the first thing I give to students in my yearlong program of secular mindfulness for social justice activ-
ists. I ask them to sign and date it, because each of them, through their work as community leaders and
agents of change, is a precious resource.
The cosmic bodhisattvas like Sadaparibhuta and Avalokitesvara and the rest of the gang dont burn out.
Maybe they have big muscles from continuously rowing suffering beings to the farther shore. They are
willing to take abuse while demonstrating unfailing respect and love toward sentient beings. When some-
thing bad happens, they immediately absorb the blame. They vow to return, lifetime after lifetime, until
the great work is fully accomplished, and until that probably distant time they remain upbeat, serene, and
self-sacrificing.
I love this section from the poem Bodhisattva Vows by Albert Saijo:

...YOURE SPENDING ALL

YOUR TIME & ENERGY GETTING
OTHER PEOPLE
OFF THE SINKING SHIP INTO LIFEBOATS BOUND
GAILY FOR NIRVANA WHILE
THERE YOU ARE
SINKING& OF COURSE YOU HAD TO GO & GIVE
YOUR LIFEJACKET AWAYSO NOW LET US BE
CHEERFUL AS WE SINKOUR SPIRIT EVER
BUOYANT AS WE SINK

This poem never fails to give me a refreshing laugh; the archetype of bodhisattva activity it presents reso-
nates with my early Buddhist training. But I have changed. In the social justice activist circles I travel in,
giving your lifejacket away and going down with the sinking ship is now understood as a well-intentioned
but mistaken old-school gestureright now, the sinking ship is our entire planet, and there are no lifeboats.
As the people with disabilities in my sangha have said, in order to practice universal access there needs to be
a radical shift toward an embodied practice of All of us or none of us. In other words, no one can be left
behind on the sinking ship, not even those who want to self-martyr. Why? Because self-martyrdom is bad
role modeling. Burnout and self-sacrifice, the paradigm of the lone hero who takes nothing for herself and
gives everything to others, injure all of us who are trying to bring the dharma into everyday lay life through
communities of transformative well-being, where the exchange of self for other is re-envisioned as the care
of self in service to the community. The longer we live, the healthier we are; the happier we feel, the more we
can gain the experience and wisdom needed to contribute toward a collective reimagining of relationships,
education, work, and play.

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 I Vow Not to Burn Out continued

(Above) Infographic by Mushim Patricia Ikeda from a class titled

Right Mindfulness, Concentration, Effort, and Social Justice

Here in Oakland, I dont think its melodramatic or inaccurate to say that we now live in the midst of
multiple ongoing crises. Thich Nhat Hanh has said that the future Buddha, Maitreya, may be a community,
not an individual. Perhaps your community, like mine, is in need of inventive ways to carve out spaces for
what some are now calling radical rest.
I advocate for more forgiving and spacious schedules of spiritual practice that value being well-rested and
that move toward honoring the bodyminds need for enough sleep and downtime. Social justice activist
Angela Davis, in an interview in YES! Magazine, says:
I think our notions of what counts as radical have changed over time. Self-care and healing and atten-
tion to the body and the spiritual dimensionall of this is now a part of radical social justice struggles.
That wasnt the case before. And I think that now were thinking deeply about the connection between
interior life and what happens in the social world. Even those who are fighting against state violence
often incorporate impulses that are based on state violence in their relations with other people.

Healing. Rest. Self-care. Restorative justice. Restorative yoga. Trauma-informed dynamic mindfulness.
Compassion. Love. Community healing. These are words I hear every day within spiritual activist forums,
from scholartivists and from people embodying the bodhisattva vow to save all beings.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his fellow organizers sometimes planned protests to occur at around
eleven in the morning, because then the people who were arrested would get lunch in jail and wouldnt have
to wait many hours to eat. For those of you who may feel that social-change work isnt your thing, or that its
too big to take on, it may help you, as it helped me, to know that it often comes down to these little details.
Every movement is made of real people, and every action is broken down into separate tasks. This is work
we need to do and can do together.

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 I Vow Not to Burn Out continued

How can you make your life sustainablephysically, emotionally, financially, intellectually, spiritually?
Are you helping create communities rooted in values of sustainability, including environmental and cultural
sustainability? Do you feel that you have enough time and space to take in thoughts and images and experi-
ences of things that are joyful and nourishing? What are your resources when you feel isolated or powerless?
Samsara is burning down all of our houses. We need a path of radical transformation, and theres no
question in my mind that the bodhisattva path is it. Speaking as a mother and a woman of color, I think
were all going to need to be braver than some of us have been prepared to be. But brave in a sustainable
wayremaining with our children, our families, and our communities. We need to build this new woke
way of living togetherhow it functions, handles conflict, makes decisions, eats and loves, grieves and plays.
And we cant do that by burning out.

M U S H I M PAT R I C I A I K E D A is a social activist and teacher at East Bay

Meditation Center in Oakland, California. She also works as a diversity and
inclusion consultant.

Photo By Pamela Ybaez

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 Creating an Enlightened Society

Creating an
Enlightened Society

Now more than ever, says THICH NHAT HANH, we

need a global ethic of compassion, understanding,
and peace. Heres how Buddhism can help.
Calligraphies by Thich Nhat Hanh

T H E WO R L D I N W H I C H W E L I V E is globalized. Economies halfway around the world affect our

own. Our politics, education, and cultural consumption happen on a global scale. Our ethics and morality
also need to be globalized. A new global order calls for a new global ethic. A global ethic is the key to address-
ing the true difficulties of our time.
Around the world, we are facing climate change, terrorism, and wars between people of different reli-
gions. Fanaticism, discrimination, division, violence, economic crises, and the destruction of the environ-
ment affect us all. We have to look deeply into these sufferings so we can make good decisions and conduct
ourselves wisely. We have to sit down together, as people of many traditions, to find the causes of global
suffering. If we look deeply with clarity, calm, and peace, we can see the causes of our suffering, uproot and
transform them, and find a way out.

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 Creating an Enlightened Society continued

A Global Offering
We are many different cultures and nations, each
with its own values, ways of behaving, and criteria
for ethical conduct. Every country and every culture
can offer something beautiful. It will take all of our
collective wisdom to make a global code of ethics.
With insight from all the worlds people and tradi-
tions, we can create a global ethic that is based on
mutual respect.
Some people base their ethics on their religion. If
you believe there is a deity that decides what is right
and wrong regardless of what you observe, then you
only need to follow the rules laid out by that reli-
gion to engage in right action. Others follow a sci-
entific or utilitarian approach, looking only at what
is a logical consequence of their actions. A Buddhist
contribution to global ethics is different from both
of these. It is based on observing and understand-
ing the world with mindfulness, concentration, and
insight. It begins with an awareness of the nonduality
of subject and object and of the interconnectedness
of all things. It is a practice that can be accepted by
everyone, regardless of whether or not you believe in
a god. When you train yourself in this practice, you
will see that you have more freedom.

Applying Buddhist Ethics in Daily Life

We created the term engaged Buddhism during the Vietnam War. As monks, nuns, and laypeople dur-
ing the war, many of us practiced sitting and walking meditation. But we would hear the bombs falling
around us and the cries of the children and adults who were wounded. To meditate is to be aware of what
is going on. What was going on around us was the suffering of many people and the destruction of life.
So we were motivated by the desire to do something to relieve the suffering within us and around us. We
wanted to serve others and we wanted to practice sitting and walking meditation to give us the stability
and peace we needed to go out of the temple and help relieve this suffering. We walked mindfully right
alongside suffering, in the places where people were still running under the bombs. We practiced mindful
breathing as we cared for children wounded by guns or bombs. If we hadnt practiced while we served, we
would have lost ourselves, become burnt out, and not have been able to help anyone.
Engaged Buddhism was born from this difficult situation; we wanted to maintain our practice while
responding to the suffering around us. Engaged Buddhism isnt just Buddhism thats involved in social
problems. Engaged Buddhism means we practice mindfulness wherever we are, whatever we are doing, at
any time. When we are alone, walking, sitting, drinking our tea, or making our breakfast, that can also be
engaged Buddhism. We practice this way not only for ourselves but also to preserve ourselves so that we are
able to help others and be connected with all life. Engaged Buddhism is not just self-help. It helps us feel
stronger and more stable and also more connected to others and committed to the happiness of all beings.
Engaged Buddhism is Buddhism that penetrates into life. If Buddhism is not engaged, its not real Bud-
dhism. This is the attitude of the bodhisattvas, beings whose whole intention and actions are to relieve suf-
fering. We practice meditation and mindfulness not only for ourselves; we practice to relieve the suffering of
all beings and of the Earth itself. With the insight of interbeingthat we are inherently interconnected with

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 Creating an Enlightened Society continued

all other beingswe know that when other

people suffer less, we suffer less. And when we
suffer less, other people suffer less.
Now, as well as engaged Buddhism, we are
using the term applied Buddhism. Applied
is a word that is often used in science, and we
deliberately use it here as a way of saying that
our understanding of reality can be used to
help clarify and find a way to transform every
situation. In Buddhism, there is something
that can be used in every circumstance to
shed light on the situation and help solve the
problem. There is a way to handle every situ-
ation with compassion and understanding
so that suffering can be lessened. That is the
essence of applied Buddhism.

The Starting Point

Mindfulness is the basis of a Buddhist ethic.
What does being mindful mean? It means,
first of all, that we stop and observe deeply
what is happening in the present moment.
If we do this, we can see the suffering that
is inside us and around us. We can practice
looking deeply with concentration in order to see the causes of this suffering. We need to understand suf-
fering in order to know what kind of action we can take to relieve it. We can use the insight of others, the
mindfulness of our sanghaour larger community of practitionersto share our insight and understand
what kind of action can lead to the transformation of that suffering. When we have collective insight, it will
help us see the mutually beneficial path that will lead to the cessation of suffering, not only for one person
but for all of us.

The Virtuous Path

In Vietnamese, we translate ethics as dao duc, the virtuous path. Duc means virtue in the sense of honesty,
integrity, and understanding. The word is small but it implies a lotforgiveness, compassion, tolerance, and
a sense of common humanityall the good things that everyone needs. The path should be able to provide
the kind of virtuous conduct that will help us transform ourselves and bring a happy life to everyone. When
we have the characteristics of someone who is virtuous, we dont make people suffer. This kind of virtue
offers us a guideline, a way of behaving that doesnt cause suffering to others or to ourselves.
Another way to translate ethics is luong li, which means the behavior of humans to each other. Luong
means the morality of humans and li means the basic principles that lead to correct behavior and correct
action. When you put the two phrases together, you get dao li luong thuong, which means moral behavior
that everyone agrees to. Thuong means common, ordinary, something everybody can accept, about which
theres a consensus. Ethics are something consistent; they dont change from day to day. So this means
a kind of permanent ethics, basic principles we can agree upon that lead to more understanding and
acceptance.

Mindfulness, Concentration, and Insight

From the time of his first teaching delivered to his first disciples, the Buddha was very clear and practical

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 Creating an Enlightened Society continued

about how we can transform our difficulties, both individually and collectively. He focused on how we put
the teachings into practice in our everyday lives. That is ethics. Practice is key because practice generates
mindfulness, concentration, and insight. These three energies are the foundation of all Buddhist practice
and Buddhist ethics.
We cannot speak about Buddhist ethics without speaking of these three energies. Mindfulness, concen-
tration, and insight help us build a path that will lead to peace and happiness, transformation and healing. It
is so important that we dont focus on ethics in the abstract. Our basic practice is the practice of generating
the energy of mindfulness, concentration, and insight. We rely on our insight to guide us and help us bring
compassion, understanding, harmony, and peace to ourselves and to the world.
Recently, a Christian theologian asked me how to bring about a global spirituality. The person who inter-
viewed me seemed to distinguish between the spiritual and the ethical, but there is always a relationship between
the two. Anything can be spiritual. When I pick up my tea in mindfulness, when I look at my tea mindfully, and
begin to drink my tea in mindfulness, tea drinking becomes very spiritual. When I brush my teeth in mindful-
ness, aware that its wonderful to have the time to enjoy brushing my teeth, aware that Im alive, aware that the
wonders of life are all around me, and aware that I can brush with love and joy, then tooth-brushing becomes
spiritual. When you go to the toilet, defecating or urinating, if you are mindful, this can also be very spiritual.
So theres a deep link between the ethical and the spiritual. If you cant see the spiritual in the ethical, your
ethics may be empty. You may live by this ethical code but you dont know why, and so you cant enjoy it. If your
ethical and spiritual practices are connected, you will be able to follow your ethical path and be nourished by it.

The Buddhas First Teaching

Hundreds of years ago, under a sacred fig tree in Bodhgaya, India, the Buddha woke up; he realized deep
awakening. His first thought upon awakening was the realization that every living being has this capacity to
wake up. He wanted to create a path that would help others realize insight and enlightenment. The Buddha
did not want to create a religion. To follow a path, you dont have to believe in a creator.
After the Buddha was enlightened, he enjoyed sitting under the Bodhi tree, doing walking meditation
along the banks of the Neranjara River and visiting a nearby lotus pond. The children from nearby Uruvela
village would come to visit him. He sat and ate fruit with them and gave them teachings in the form of
stories. He wanted to share his experience of practice and awakening with his closest five friends and old
partners in practice. He heard they were now living in the Deer Park near Benares. It took him about two
weeks to walk from Bodhgaya to the Deer Park. I imagine that he enjoyed every step.
In his very first teaching to his five friends, the Buddha talked about the path of ethics. He said that the
path to insight and enlightenment was the noble eightfold path, also called the eight ways of correct practice.
The eightfold path is the fourth of the Buddhas four noble truths. If we understand the four noble truths
and use their insight to inform our actions in our daily lives, then we are on the path to peace and happiness.

A Path to Action
The four noble truths are the foundation of Buddhisms contribution to a global ethic. These truths are:
ill-being exists; there are causes of ill-being; ill-being can be overcome; there is a path to the cessation of
ill-being.
The four noble truths, including the noble eightfold path contained in the fourth noble truth, are the Buddhas
strategy for handling and relieving suffering. The truths are called noble, arya in Sanskrit, because they lead to
the end of suffering. The four noble truths are about suffering, but they are also about happiness. Suffering exists,
and we can do something to relieve the suffering within us and around us. Happiness, transformation, and heal-
ing are possible. These truths encourage us to act in order to create the happiness we want. They offer an ethical
path to our own transformation.

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 Creating an Enlightened Society continued

Nonduality
If happiness is possible, why does the Buddha talk first about suffering and ill-being? Why doesnt he just speak
about happiness and the path leading to happiness? The Buddha starts with suffering because he knew that hap-
piness and suffering are linked to each other. They inter-are. Suffering contains happiness. Happiness contains
suffering. Suffering can be useful. It can teach us the compassion and understanding that are necessary for insight
and happiness.
Happiness and suffering are not opposites. This kind of nondualistic thinking is one of the key elements of
a Buddhist contribution to a global ethic. The good is not possible without the bad. Good exists because bad
exists. The Buddha taught that good and bad are products of our minds, not objective realities. There are many
pairs of opposites like this, such as being and nonbeing. We tend to think that being is the opposite of nonbe-
ing. We cant have the notion of being unless we have the notion of nonbeing. We cant have the notion of left
without the notion of right. But in fact, reality transcends both being and nonbeing. Being and nonbeing are
simply notions; they are two sides of the same reality.
Consider the left and the right. You cannot eliminate the right and keep only the left. Imagine you have a
pencil and you are determined to eliminate the right side of the pencil by cutting it in half. As soon as you have
thrown one half away, the cut end of the piece that remains becomes the new right. Wherever there is left, there
is right. The same is true with good and evil. The notion of goodness and the notion of evil are born from each
other. Reality transcends the notions of good and evil.
Subject and object are another pair of opposites. We tend to think of our consciousness as something inside
us and the world as something outside. We assume that subject and object exist independently of each other.
But subject and object are not separate. They give rise to each other. Reality transcends both. If we observe real-
ity over time and truly taste the teaching of nonduality, we have right understanding.
Once we have this view, the first aspect of the noble eightfold path, then the other aspects of the path easily
follow. Right thinking, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right diligence, right mindfulness, and right
concentration all arise when we have right view. The Buddhist contribution to a global ethic contains no dogmas.
It doesnt say that it is right and everything else is wrong. This understanding is what the Buddha discovered from
deep practice and deep observation. We each need to practice mindfulness and deep observation so that we can
know the truth for ourselves and not just follow someone elses teaching.

Each Truth Contains the Others

The nondual nature of reality is also part of the four noble truths. Although there are four truths, each truth
contains the others; they cant be considered completely separately from each other. If you fully understand

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 Creating an Enlightened Society continued

one noble truth, you understand all four. If you really begin to understand suffering, you are already beginning
to understand the path to its cessation. The four truths inter-are. Each one contains the others.
The first noble truth is ill-being. The second noble truth is the causes of ill-being, the thoughts and actions
that put us on the path leading to ill-being. The third noble truth is well-being, the cessation of ill-being. The
fourth noble truth is the path leading to well-being, the noble eightfold path.
The second noble truth is the action that leads to suffering, and the fourth noble truth is the action that
leads to well-being, so in a sense they are two pairs of cause and effect. The second noble truth (the path of ill-
being) leads us to the first (ill-being), and the fourth noble truth (the noble eightfold path) leads us to the third
(well-being, the cessation of ill-being). Either we are walking the noble path or we are on the ignoble path that
brings suffering to ourselves and others. We are always on one path or the other.

Mindful Breathing
The four noble truths cant simply be understood intellectually. They contain key ideas, such as nonduality,
emptiness, no-self, interbeing, and signlessness, that can only be understood through practice. The founda-
tional practice of the Buddha is mindful breathing. Before we can commit to or practice any ethical action,
we need to begin with our breath. Awareness of our breath is the first practical ethical action available to
us. This is the only way we can begin to truly understand the basic suffering of human beings and how we
might transform it.
When we look at all the suffering around us, at poverty, violence, or climate change, we may want to solve
these things immediately. We want to do something. But to do something effectively and ethically, we need
to be our best selves in order to be able to handle the suffering.
Being able to stop, to breathe, and to walk or move in mindfulness are the keys to the practice. They can
be done anywhere, at any time. We can say:

Breathing in, I know this is my in-breath.

Breathing out, I know this is my out-breath.

Its very simple but very effective. When we bring our attention to our in-breath and our out-breath, we stop
thinking of the past, we stop thinking of the future, and we begin to come home to ourselves. Coming home to
ourselves is the first thing we need to do, even for politicians, scientists, or economists. Dont think this practice
doesnt apply to you. If we dont go home to ourselves, we cant be at our best and serve the world in the best way.
We have to be ourselves to be our best. Our quality of being is the foundation for the quality of our actions.

Breathing in, Im aware of my whole body.

Breathing out, Im aware of my whole body.

Breathing mindfully brings us back to our bodies. We have to acknowledge our bodies first because ten-
sion and suffering accumulate in the body. Breathing in this way, we create a kind of family reunion between
mind and body. The mind becomes an embodied mind.
If we are truly aware, we know there is tension and pain in our bodies. We cant do our best if we dont know
how to release the tension and the pain in ourselves.
Breathing in, Im aware of tension in
my body.
Breathing out, I release all the tension
in my body.
We can do something right away to improve ourselves and release our tension and suffering so we can see and
act more clearly. With our mindful breathing, body and mind come together, established in the here and now, and
we can more easily handle the difficult situations in our lives. Mindful breathing brings more well-being into our
bodies. In one breath we can recognize and release the tension within us.

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 Creating an Enlightened Society continued

We can use our in-breath and out-breath to help us notice the painful feelings inside us. With our in-
breath we can acknowledge these feelings and with our out-breath we can let them go.
Breathing in, I am aware of a painful
feeling arising.
Breathing out, I release the painful feeling.
This is a nonviolent and gentle way to help our bodies release tension and pain.
It is possible to practice mindful breathing in order to produce a feeling of joy, a feeling of happiness. When
we are well-nourished and know how to create joy, then we are strong enough to handle the deep pain within
ourselves and the world.
With one in-breath and out-breath, we can practice all the four noble truths: we acknowledge our tension
or pain and call it by its true name; we release it and let well-being arise.

From Good Citizens: Creating Enlightened Society by Thich Nhat Hanh (2012), with permission of Parallax Press, Berkeley, California.
Photos and calligraphies courtesy of Plum Village

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