This post is a blessing. My heart burns with pain, anger, and heartache. Responding with outrage is so…right there! So natural. Obvious! And the outrage burns through any capacity for love and care, at least for me. I’m so down with reaching out to Guru Rinpoche each day and practicing Vajrasattva to keep clearing out my rage. It’s the same rage in my heart that is in “their” hearts. This rage is a slow pitch right down the middle and sometimes it seems I can’t help but swing for the fences. Opening this heart and gathering virtue is the way forward. It’s hard to be present, witnessing horror. My samsaric mind keeps directing me to do stuff. That won’t help. I have to keep surrendering and transforming this rage-filled heart. Thank you.
Thank you for your call to compassion, Acharya Malcolm. Your writing reminds me of a story when the Dalai Lama was caught crying upon learning that Mao had died. When asked for a reason, the Dalai Lama said that Mao earned himself a very bad karma and he felt sorry for him.
Thank you for the insightful post, Acarya Malcolm. America has certainly lost its la, and I think this process has been in motion since the first generations of settlers arrived here and killed millions of Native people, along with their knowledge of and connection to the "spirits" of this land. Many, many Native people would agree that the cause for the immense suffering in North America is due to the physical and spiritual genocides perpetuated by the US government.
My point was mainly about the tremendous harm the United States caused the Dharma in these four nations as the part of the immediate cause of the present decline. Even though the European settlement of the Americans caused a great hardship to Native Americans, the Native population was in possession of most of the North American continent until the Confederate Diaspora. I don’t want to downplay the the Indian Removal Act and so on. That was the 1830’s version of ICE, since Native People were denied status as citizens under the US Constitution.
However, the present circumstances of our decline I personally attributed to our involvement in the destruction of Buddhism in these four countries. It is an opinion I have held for several decades.
I agree with you entirely. My point is that we also destroyed the Dharma here (even if “Dharma” wasn’t the very word being used). Eduardo Duran writes about this very beautifully.
I wish I could respond with your eloquence, grace and wisdom. Our anger does weaken us. Compassion like charity starts at home. Begin with self. Do not weaken yourself by feeding that which you oppose. Develop the strength to hold your emotions, not because you do not care, but because it strengthens you. Build Merrit within. Create a safe space that la would not leave from. Be that example in the world. Discover what your anger has to teach you....then Love that.
Thank you Acarya Malcolm for sharing this. I was feeling pretty down today, but spending a good chunk of my morning learning the yoga of the natural state ngöndro was uplifting. Thanks for all you do.
Thanks so much for this. It was the medicine I needed. The visceral response to seeing so much injustice can get one stuck in anger and righteous indignation. For me, that state becomes a feedback loop that is not healthy.
Mamdani is just as much a capitalist, or if you prefer, captured by capitalism, as everyone else in the world.
However, I nowhere suggest that people merely sit in the comfort of their own homes trying to vibe the fascism away. Instead I am suggesting that Buddhist people develop the merit to throw off the malaise that has captured the US, and that concerted Vajrayāna practices are part of the solution, not the entire solution.
America has a merit problem. And right now, it's la—or spirit if you will—has taken hit after hit since the Vietnam War.
I don't know you or how old you are, but the self-immolation of Thích Quảng Đức on June 10th, 1963 happened two days before my first birthday. My observation of the gradual decline of the post-war prosperity of the US is 6 decades old. I mark the modern decline of America by our involvement in the Vietnam War, which beings in earnest the same year.
And as I point out, anger and frustration, as understandable as they are, only weaken oneself. Giving into them dissipates compassion. This is a fundamental insight one can derive from vipaśyanā if one has as clear understanding how one's mental factors work.
I agree with you about the Democrats. I am not a Democrat, never have been. I have also never voted for a Republican in my life. On the other hand, I think all this anger at liberals is a bit misplaced. It is precisely liberalism of FDR that created the economy that created social and political stability in the US for 50 years, until Nixon. It’s been going downhill since Reagan lowered the marginal tax rate 1981 from 75% to 50%, and in1986 from 50% to 28%. This resulted in the greatest wealth transfer upwards in human history. But the reason we have such terrible leaders is because of our own lack of merit.
We are not going to avoid a collective crash. The institutions and customs that supposedly preserved the Republic have been severely compromised. I don’t know what is coming next. But I know why what is coming is a result of a lack of merit—our leaders are unvirtuous, and from a Buddhist point of view this is the main cause of social disaster.
You may be tired of hearing individual solutions, but in reality, all solutions are individual, just like all problems. You, individually, may collaborate with others to try and solve your problems. But frankly, no one ever has been very good at solving other people’s problems—this is always the promise of the hard left and the hard right. It does not work, never has, and always has so far resulted in left and right authoritarianism. The people on the hard left and the people on the hard right don’t mind violence—they relish it. They think it is necessary, and they drag everything down with them.
You might do well to listen to Won’t get Fooled Again by the Who:
I'll tip my hat to the new Constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
A change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fold, that's all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war
We can work with people to solved shared problems together, however, as long as that is based on respect and compassion.
I have known many thousands of Buddhists over the years. Most of them are poor, have always been poor, and continue to be poor. The idea that most American Tibetan Buddhists in the US are trustafarians is an unkind myth, since it is not true. And if they are retirees, chances are they living on SSI, which they earned.
As far as practice goes, I don't think it is as hard to practice under present conditions in the US as it is in present day Tibet, where I been, or even India, where I have also been. People in these countries do a lot more with a lot less.
Another point of agreement is that we indeed live under a gerontocracy. I won’t vote for anyone older than me. No chance.
Good fortune in society cannot arise from anger and frustration—it never has, not even in the American Revolution. Good fortune depends on the merit of every person in that society. Anger in particular just causes division and pain. Mahāyāna Buddhists need to take this seriously. Thus, the inference to draw from your observation is not that we have generated enough merit and it isn’t working, but that we have not generated enough merit and need to continue to generate more. That will only happen if we maintain the Buddhist stance of nonviolence, compassion, and take the generation of merit seriously.
Buddhists are different. We cannot succumb to the anger of the present climate. Therefore, we must practice gathering merit, observing our mental factors, and developing our wisdom. We should not imagine any mundane political solution is actually going to solve anything for anyone permanently. The world simply does not work that way, and peoples’ karma does not work that way. Politics is not a refuge, nor are governments.
Developing merit, punya, means developing positive qualities in one’s mind. I see a lot of people these days allowing their positive qualities to be undermined by their anger and frustration. As Buddhists, we must understand that material conditions are never a cause of happiness and contentment. This is a classical Marxist myth that is demonstrably false in every way.
If we allow anger and resentment to hijack us, we are just reflecting the anger and resentment of those people we now view as “enemies.” Those people were once our mothers. Jonathan Ross killed Renee Good. She was once his mother. He was once her mother. But non-Buddhist people are ignorant of karma and rebirth and only see things in terms of one lifetime.
Real world help means helping others in the real world. For example, joining the World Kitchen as a cook, working for Core International relief organization, etc. It could mean supporting someone who is vulnerable to ICE and helping them leave the US so they do not wind up in the detention system. All this generates merit to. So, if you are looking for real world help, help someone in the real world.
This post is a blessing. My heart burns with pain, anger, and heartache. Responding with outrage is so…right there! So natural. Obvious! And the outrage burns through any capacity for love and care, at least for me. I’m so down with reaching out to Guru Rinpoche each day and practicing Vajrasattva to keep clearing out my rage. It’s the same rage in my heart that is in “their” hearts. This rage is a slow pitch right down the middle and sometimes it seems I can’t help but swing for the fences. Opening this heart and gathering virtue is the way forward. It’s hard to be present, witnessing horror. My samsaric mind keeps directing me to do stuff. That won’t help. I have to keep surrendering and transforming this rage-filled heart. Thank you.
Thank you for your call to compassion, Acharya Malcolm. Your writing reminds me of a story when the Dalai Lama was caught crying upon learning that Mao had died. When asked for a reason, the Dalai Lama said that Mao earned himself a very bad karma and he felt sorry for him.
Thank you for the insightful post, Acarya Malcolm. America has certainly lost its la, and I think this process has been in motion since the first generations of settlers arrived here and killed millions of Native people, along with their knowledge of and connection to the "spirits" of this land. Many, many Native people would agree that the cause for the immense suffering in North America is due to the physical and spiritual genocides perpetuated by the US government.
Hello Kendall,
I certainly agree with you about this.
My point was mainly about the tremendous harm the United States caused the Dharma in these four nations as the part of the immediate cause of the present decline. Even though the European settlement of the Americans caused a great hardship to Native Americans, the Native population was in possession of most of the North American continent until the Confederate Diaspora. I don’t want to downplay the the Indian Removal Act and so on. That was the 1830’s version of ICE, since Native People were denied status as citizens under the US Constitution.
However, the present circumstances of our decline I personally attributed to our involvement in the destruction of Buddhism in these four countries. It is an opinion I have held for several decades.
I agree with you entirely. My point is that we also destroyed the Dharma here (even if “Dharma” wasn’t the very word being used). Eduardo Duran writes about this very beautifully.
Thanks for pointing out this author to me. I was unaware of him before.
I wish I could respond with your eloquence, grace and wisdom. Our anger does weaken us. Compassion like charity starts at home. Begin with self. Do not weaken yourself by feeding that which you oppose. Develop the strength to hold your emotions, not because you do not care, but because it strengthens you. Build Merrit within. Create a safe space that la would not leave from. Be that example in the world. Discover what your anger has to teach you....then Love that.
Thank you Acarya Malcolm for sharing this. I was feeling pretty down today, but spending a good chunk of my morning learning the yoga of the natural state ngöndro was uplifting. Thanks for all you do.
I found this very moving.
Thanks so much for this. It was the medicine I needed. The visceral response to seeing so much injustice can get one stuck in anger and righteous indignation. For me, that state becomes a feedback loop that is not healthy.
Again, thank you for this wisdom.
Thank you Acarya. I will do my best to apply your advice.
Thank you, Acharya
I forgot, did you draw that Drollo, or is that KDL’s drawing?
A picture I bought in 1990 or so, blessed by ChNN
Did you read Zizeks new piece on buddhism? Would love to hear your thoughts about it.
Link?
https://substack.com/@slavojzizek/note/p-184018390?r=26xgy4&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
I saw, he has no idea what he is talking about.
"the extrajudicial murder of Renee Nicole Good." There are "judicial murders"?
Yes, death penalty executions. They are judicial, state-sanctioned murders.
Thank you for this post, Ācārya Malcolm.
Brilliant essay.
Where can someone obtain a bla stone?
You have to make it.
The post was directed primarily at fellow Vajrayānīs, hence the trigger warning.
Hard-nose leftism does not have good track record of success, unfortunately. Capitalism is now ubiquitous, it is the only form of economic life in the world. If you have not read Milanovic's Capitalism Alone, or his Sub (https://open.substack.com/pub/branko2f7/p/was-the-world-of-the-1990s-better?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web), you should.
Mamdani is just as much a capitalist, or if you prefer, captured by capitalism, as everyone else in the world.
However, I nowhere suggest that people merely sit in the comfort of their own homes trying to vibe the fascism away. Instead I am suggesting that Buddhist people develop the merit to throw off the malaise that has captured the US, and that concerted Vajrayāna practices are part of the solution, not the entire solution.
America has a merit problem. And right now, it's la—or spirit if you will—has taken hit after hit since the Vietnam War.
I don't know you or how old you are, but the self-immolation of Thích Quảng Đức on June 10th, 1963 happened two days before my first birthday. My observation of the gradual decline of the post-war prosperity of the US is 6 decades old. I mark the modern decline of America by our involvement in the Vietnam War, which beings in earnest the same year.
And as I point out, anger and frustration, as understandable as they are, only weaken oneself. Giving into them dissipates compassion. This is a fundamental insight one can derive from vipaśyanā if one has as clear understanding how one's mental factors work.
I agree with you about the Democrats. I am not a Democrat, never have been. I have also never voted for a Republican in my life. On the other hand, I think all this anger at liberals is a bit misplaced. It is precisely liberalism of FDR that created the economy that created social and political stability in the US for 50 years, until Nixon. It’s been going downhill since Reagan lowered the marginal tax rate 1981 from 75% to 50%, and in1986 from 50% to 28%. This resulted in the greatest wealth transfer upwards in human history. But the reason we have such terrible leaders is because of our own lack of merit.
We are not going to avoid a collective crash. The institutions and customs that supposedly preserved the Republic have been severely compromised. I don’t know what is coming next. But I know why what is coming is a result of a lack of merit—our leaders are unvirtuous, and from a Buddhist point of view this is the main cause of social disaster.
You may be tired of hearing individual solutions, but in reality, all solutions are individual, just like all problems. You, individually, may collaborate with others to try and solve your problems. But frankly, no one ever has been very good at solving other people’s problems—this is always the promise of the hard left and the hard right. It does not work, never has, and always has so far resulted in left and right authoritarianism. The people on the hard left and the people on the hard right don’t mind violence—they relish it. They think it is necessary, and they drag everything down with them.
You might do well to listen to Won’t get Fooled Again by the Who:
I'll tip my hat to the new Constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
A change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fold, that's all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war
We can work with people to solved shared problems together, however, as long as that is based on respect and compassion.
I have known many thousands of Buddhists over the years. Most of them are poor, have always been poor, and continue to be poor. The idea that most American Tibetan Buddhists in the US are trustafarians is an unkind myth, since it is not true. And if they are retirees, chances are they living on SSI, which they earned.
As far as practice goes, I don't think it is as hard to practice under present conditions in the US as it is in present day Tibet, where I been, or even India, where I have also been. People in these countries do a lot more with a lot less.
Another point of agreement is that we indeed live under a gerontocracy. I won’t vote for anyone older than me. No chance.
Good fortune in society cannot arise from anger and frustration—it never has, not even in the American Revolution. Good fortune depends on the merit of every person in that society. Anger in particular just causes division and pain. Mahāyāna Buddhists need to take this seriously. Thus, the inference to draw from your observation is not that we have generated enough merit and it isn’t working, but that we have not generated enough merit and need to continue to generate more. That will only happen if we maintain the Buddhist stance of nonviolence, compassion, and take the generation of merit seriously.
Buddhists are different. We cannot succumb to the anger of the present climate. Therefore, we must practice gathering merit, observing our mental factors, and developing our wisdom. We should not imagine any mundane political solution is actually going to solve anything for anyone permanently. The world simply does not work that way, and peoples’ karma does not work that way. Politics is not a refuge, nor are governments.
Developing merit, punya, means developing positive qualities in one’s mind. I see a lot of people these days allowing their positive qualities to be undermined by their anger and frustration. As Buddhists, we must understand that material conditions are never a cause of happiness and contentment. This is a classical Marxist myth that is demonstrably false in every way.
If we allow anger and resentment to hijack us, we are just reflecting the anger and resentment of those people we now view as “enemies.” Those people were once our mothers. Jonathan Ross killed Renee Good. She was once his mother. He was once her mother. But non-Buddhist people are ignorant of karma and rebirth and only see things in terms of one lifetime.
Real world help means helping others in the real world. For example, joining the World Kitchen as a cook, working for Core International relief organization, etc. It could mean supporting someone who is vulnerable to ICE and helping them leave the US so they do not wind up in the detention system. All this generates merit to. So, if you are looking for real world help, help someone in the real world.