Hi Malcolm, thank you for this essay. I think I may be one of the Substack writers you’re referring to, along with many of my colleagues and friends. I’d be very open to a longer conversation if you are, but here are some initial reflections.
As you note, IMS has effectively silenced opposition to Israel’s war within its community. "But does that mean IMS and Spirit Rock are pro-Zionist?" I think it’s important to recognize that this silencing is not neutral. It reinforces a status quo in which Zionism goes largely unchallenged and is therefore tolerated and normalized. How are Palestinian members of these sanghas supposed to feel when their families are being starved and killed by the hundreds of thousands, yet they cannot speak openly or advocate for their basic human rights? Or even do something as simple as wear a keffiyeh in the dharma hall while they meditate? This is a choice that privileges one person’s sense of safety and comfort over the lives of people undergoing genocide.
These centers have, in the past, allowed individuals to wear or speak freely about Pride, Black Lives Matter, or other politically oriented issues that others might perceive as polarizing or harmful. Palestine and Gaza, however, are treated differently because of the cultural power of Zionism within our communities.
If non-Buddhists who approach insight meditation or mindfulness primarily as part of a wellness practice are turned off by a center speaking clearly about Palestine, that itself says something about what that center’s culture is preserving. More than that, if dharma centers are catering primarily to apolitical mindfulness practitioners, isn’t that also a form of harm or disservice to the dharma? What, exactly, is being privileged?
While it’s true that there have been statements over the past 2.5 years, as Shalini Bahl has documented, for those of us who have been paying close attention to responses since October 7th, the response has been remarkably small and slow—especially in comparison to how other faith communities have mobilized. My observation is that the broader fragility and confusion within convert Buddhist communities about how to respond is connected to a lack of awareness of how Zionism functions within our institutions and culture, as well as how deeply entrenched anti-Palestinian racism is.
For example, even Joseph Loizzo’s response frames this as a conflict that began on October 7th—a Zionist narrative that is historically inaccurate. Moreover, mainstream Buddhist publications like Tricycle and Lion’s Roar declined to publish the Bhikkhu Bodhi essay you referenced; he ultimately found a home for it at Common Dreams instead.
For those of us writing about Palestine online, we are not doing so for clickbait. We are trying to put words to what we wish we had heard from our teachers and communities 2.5 years ago. We are writing for our Palestinian dharma siblings who feel forgotten. We are writing not to reinforce binaries or assign blame, but to speak clearly about the reality of what is unfolding.
Western convert Buddhism has a pro-Zionism problem insofar critical speech about Israel has been discouraged, and the response to horrific cruelty—funded by our tax dollars—has for the most part lacked any organized or collective response. There are many specific examples I could point to of conversations about Palestine being shut down in sanghas, including in communities that have issued public statements. Statements and conversations are, of course, the bare minimum, and they also often serve as the foundation for whether meaningful organized action can follow.
I was asked what the Buddha would have us do. It is very simple. The Buddha recommended that when different parties in one Sangha come to irreconcilable differences, they should get a divorce.
If you are unhappy with some Dharma centers' silence over Gaza, etc., you can leave and found your own community, based on your own vision of what the Dharma means to you and your compatriots.
Our tax dollars don't actually pay for anything at the Federal Level (state level is different). Taxes are used primarily to control the supply of money, thus, controlling inflation. When you send your check to the IRS, that money is removed from the economy, destroyed. The money used sell weapons to Israel, etc., is paid for out of an appropriation bill. The bill is passed, then an order for the money to pay for the bill is sent to the treasury, which then creates the money by fiat on a computer keyboard.
“These centers have, in the past, allowed individuals to wear or speak freely about Pride, Black Lives Matter, or other politically oriented issues that others might perceive as polarizing or harmful. Palestine and Gaza, however, are treated differently because of the cultural power of Zionism within our communities.”
I generally consider Dharma centers places good to avoid as much as possible. They are toxic places in general, filled with politics and grasping. Why? Because they are all run by ordinary people.
You were not one of the people I had in mind. In fact, there was a one line comment reposted by someone else. But it was not you.
In fact Loizzo writes:
"I didn’t have to look far. In 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour sent a declaration to the newly formed Zionist community of England and Ireland promising to establish “…a national home for the Jews in Palestine,” in exchange for their military help fighting the Ottoman Empire’s centuries-old Muslim rule in the region. The declaration advanced a foreign policy inaugurated by Lord Palmerston in the 1840’s: to encourage the emigration of British Jews to Palestine to create an imperial footprint in the Middle East. It involved arbitrarily carving up the Ottoman Empire with France and Russia, claiming a “mandate” to occupy Palestine, and allowing the sale of land within it to non-resident Jewish individuals and groups."
Perhaps you did not read his response with enough care.
"Denial of a problem" does not mean that there is a divide between pro and anti-zionist Buddhists, as if there is a political movement afoot. I don't see one. I see shock, trauma, and numbness in response to a situation that is actually outside many Buddhists domain of experience. I see people creating divisions in the Western Buddhist community where in fact none actually exists. I think at this point everyone is suitably horrified, regardless of how long it has taken them to absorb the horror of Gaza.
As for Trike and Lion's Roar, what to you expect? They are Buddhist Lite (tm) Magazines, and never offer anything of real substance since they do not wish to offend the Barnes and Nobles crowd and people in the checkout line at Whole Foods.
Silence sometimes is just silence. It is not always consent.
In bearing witness to this chain, I’m amazed at Malcom’s seemingly unconscious embodiment of the factors we have been writing about for the last two years. Gaslighting and attempting to silence through bogus claims of imaginary substance. I often wait for that moment in the argument of those making excuses for or defending Zionists to retreat back into the Absolute, “Nothing to do, No one to do it, All is the unfolding of Karma” schtick. In all of those we have encountered so far on Substack, almost none have been as vulgar to say that this Genocide is the Karma of the Palestinians and that the only Dharmic response is to smile with compassion and pray that sometime in the future that these homicidal maniacs (Israeli) awaken into the reality of the interconnectedness of all of life. I’m physically ill by reading it. I have sat in chat groups of people from different sanghas around the country (and in Europe) of people in pain from being silenced and marginalized in their sanghas. I have spoken to teachers who have told me that both Zionist students and funders have threatened financial withdrawal if they allowed conversations to continue. I have talked to writers at Buddhist magazines that told me the editors and Board members demanded ‘nothing polarizing or controversial’ be written about. I have witnessed and kept a running list of how the Dharma has been weaponized to suppress and shut down any moral outcry from those sangha members who still maintained an open heart in the hell of seeing innocent people ripped apart everyday for over 800 days without pause. I must say, Malcom, that I am disgusted by your response. And your defense of silent teachers, that after 2 years of this carnage, they can’t simply find it in themselves to openly plead for this one-sided slaughter to stop is beyond belief. Truly. And as for ‘anger’ I have read the eloquent essays from Alexandra and Thanissara with no detection of anger whatsoever, as if there would be something wrong with Principled Moral Outrage in the face of this ongoing slaughter. In my own articles, you do have permission to feel my heat, but do not project that onto these two other sophisticated and articulate authors. I support and agree with everything Alexandra and Adriana have written in their replies to you.
Thank you for your perspective on this important issue — and for citing my post on Buddhist responses. I want to acknowledge Christopher Titmuss for many of the sources I shared. I especially appreciate your point that silence doesn't equal Zionism. That conflation is harmful.
The original piece I had written about this issue explores what dharma teachers can uniquely offer beyond political statements — teaching people to hold complexity, listen deeply to those we might dismiss, and recognize that Palestinian liberation and Israeli security are interdependent conditions for peace. Not both-sidesism. Interbeing.
Hi Shalini, you are welcome. It’s important that you mention in your article the extent to which this issue has captured some people’s attention to the exclusion of other equally pressing issues. Pretty much all suffering inflicted upon each other arises out of overriding concern for our own happiness as a priority. The reality is that all happiness, including our own, arises out of our impartial concern for others, and that must be an overriding concern. This is why it is so strange to see Buddhists creating divisions over things like Zionist conspiracy theories. It’s frankly bizarre.
I am going to address the elephant in the room, otherwise we will never gain an insight into this phenomenon, and that elephant is the influence of JewBu in Amerika. Hear me out: I know that all Jews are not Zionists, and neither are all Zionists Jews (I have seen statistics being thrown around that 87% of Zionists are Christian Nationalists). What I am talking about is something that Zionism takes advantage of, and that is the acute sense of community among Jewish people (especially after the Holocaust), the idea that an attack on one... You see the same phenomenon among the Roma too (also victims of the Holocaust). It believe that it is also one of the reasons why so many key leftists were Jewish. I would actually go as far as to say that it is exactly this trait of Judaism that non-Jews are jealous of, leading to their hatred of Jewish people. I don't know how many western Buddhist groups are pro-Zionist, but I am sure there will be many that are pro-Jewish. Like I said before: ZIONISM TAKES ADVANTAGE OF THIS. Personally, I think that Zionism is the most anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish political philosophy out there right now.
I have yet to see a Menorah burning on a Buddhist shrine. I am sure there is one somewhere, but I have not seen it. As far as I know, no Western Buddhist group is "pro-Jewish." All will be opposed to antisemitism, and are also antiracist Tibetans can be pretty biased against Muslims, and that does affect some western Tibetan Buddhists. But that is a very small population.
I know avowed Buddhists who identify as Pro-Zionist. I can’t wrap my head around the cognitive dissonance, but Zionism, whether Pro- or Anti-, is ultimately just another attachment, isn’t it? More Samsara…..
I once met a Buddhist fascist. A Greek sangha member who was an avid supporter of the neo-Nazi organisation Golden Dawn. One of my German Dharma brothers (we have taken empowerments together) is an AfD supporter (and a frothing racist). A Polish Sangha member, an organiser for our teacher, no less, is an Ayn Rand supporter. Etc...
Yes, and I’ve met Buddhists who were enamored of communism, anarchism, capitalism, libertarianism, psychedelics, the Grateful Dead, etc, and everything in between. Delusion comes in many forms.
I think that this statement overlooks the fact that there is relative truth. For example: A liberal democratic socialism based on concepts of equality, where all basic needs are met (food, clothing, shelter, education) is infinitely better than an ethno-state that hunts down perceived non-members of the master race, kills them, and steals everything they own. It also overlooks our Mahayana/Bodhisattva vows to relieve ALL the suffering, of all sentient beings. Sangya Menla's vows come to mind, where he basically tells us to feed the hungry, house the homeless, free the prisoners, befirend the friendless, etc... Another problem with this statement, is that if one pairs it with most western Buddhist misconceptions of karma, well... In closing: leveling all the differences between views by reducing them to mere delusion, is a classic liberal political position. This trope, for example, that fascists and antifa are the same thing, is just horse shit. In Mahayana Buddhism we consider motivation to be a crucial factor, just analysing these two political positions based on this fact alone, is more than enough for us to see that they are not the same thing.
To recap the definition of conventional existence: if an appearance produces a function towards a goal (arthakriya), it can be said to conventionally exist (vyavahārasat). None of these mundane theories can in fact satisfy the definition of conventional existence. Why? They are all imputations about appearances. The reality they purport describe does not exist as such. They are the blind men describing an elephant. Now, from a practical point of view, we agree that, as Nāgārjuna points, out, that states (to the extent that we believe we need one) should be responsible for meeting basic needs. We can agree that there are better and worse ways of accomplishing these needs. But in our lifetime, we live in a word, where for the first time in history, most of humanity earns its living by selling labor to mostly private capital in return for a wage, as Milanovic points out in Capitalism Alone:
"The fact that the entire globe now operates according to the same economic principles—production organized for profit using legally free wage labor and mostly privately owned capital, with decentralized coordination—is without historical precedent."
Milanovic, Branko. Capitalism, Alone: The Future of the System That Rules the World (p. 2). (Function). Kindle Edition.
You refuse to read his book, but you ought to, because he has a very solid and sympathetic understanding of Marx. I read Capitalist Realism, and it is naive.
With respect to Mahāyāna, my whole point here is that we need to consider all suffering, and not just choose a side because we observe for now that some people are being more injured than other people. We know quite well that those who inflict harm now are only ensuring their own future misery. Can we stop the Israelis from bombing children. No, we are not that powerful. We can disapprove of this and at the same time hold everyone with compassion.
The main complaint I observe is that some people are upset that there are Dharma centers out there unwilling to deal with the Gaza genocide, when they were all perfectly happy to chime in on trans rights, George Floyd, and so on. They feel stifled. The Buddha has a solution for that. When there are differences in a Buddhist Sangha, the two groups can part ways over these differences. This is how we wound up with different schools of Buddhism to begin with. These folks just need to start their own Dharma communities which express their vision of the Dharma. Simple.
With respect to the leveling of views—all views of self and other are wrong views, all views of existence and nonexistence are wrong views. However, we don’t need views or theories to run communities. We certainly do not need political ideologies of any kind infecting the Dharma and hijacking it for partisan or nationalist purposes, as we have seen in Myanmar, Shri Lanka, Japan, China and so on.
The classical liberal position is not that all views are delusion. The classical liberal position is that one must have tolerance for views with which one does not agree. This tolerance was primarily religious in nature, in so far as most of the wars in Europe up the 18th century were largely over religious differences. It was extended with the doctrine of freedom of speech.
This principle of tolerance works until the tolerance of intolerance causes problems, then of course it is perfectly fine to exercise intolerance of intolerance, and more forcefully shut down radical extremist rhetoric. Until that point, one must debate and dialogue. Of course the idea that fascists and antifa are the same is absurd, One, antifa is not a real organization. Fascists like their groups and uniforms. However, Fascists and Communists both seem to be quite successful in creating police states that resemble each other more than they are different, once they come into power.
But we are not talking here about this subject. We are talking about the assertion that there is some hidden division between Buddhists in the West who support genocide and those who don’t.
"They are all imputations about appearances." My dude, EVERYTHING is an imputation about appearances for us deluded beings. "The classical liberal position is not that all views are delusion." That was not my point, but it doesn't really matter, because it seems you got my point anyway. "We certainly do not need political ideologies of any kind infecting the Dharma and hijacking it for partisan or nationalist purposes..." Political ideologies infect Buddhism, not the Dharma. Buddhism is an enunciation of relative truth, based on ultimate truth. Once Dharma is expressed through language, ideas, and practice...
Hi Malcolm, thank you for this essay. I think I may be one of the Substack writers you’re referring to, along with many of my colleagues and friends. I’d be very open to a longer conversation if you are, but here are some initial reflections.
As you note, IMS has effectively silenced opposition to Israel’s war within its community. "But does that mean IMS and Spirit Rock are pro-Zionist?" I think it’s important to recognize that this silencing is not neutral. It reinforces a status quo in which Zionism goes largely unchallenged and is therefore tolerated and normalized. How are Palestinian members of these sanghas supposed to feel when their families are being starved and killed by the hundreds of thousands, yet they cannot speak openly or advocate for their basic human rights? Or even do something as simple as wear a keffiyeh in the dharma hall while they meditate? This is a choice that privileges one person’s sense of safety and comfort over the lives of people undergoing genocide.
These centers have, in the past, allowed individuals to wear or speak freely about Pride, Black Lives Matter, or other politically oriented issues that others might perceive as polarizing or harmful. Palestine and Gaza, however, are treated differently because of the cultural power of Zionism within our communities.
If non-Buddhists who approach insight meditation or mindfulness primarily as part of a wellness practice are turned off by a center speaking clearly about Palestine, that itself says something about what that center’s culture is preserving. More than that, if dharma centers are catering primarily to apolitical mindfulness practitioners, isn’t that also a form of harm or disservice to the dharma? What, exactly, is being privileged?
While it’s true that there have been statements over the past 2.5 years, as Shalini Bahl has documented, for those of us who have been paying close attention to responses since October 7th, the response has been remarkably small and slow—especially in comparison to how other faith communities have mobilized. My observation is that the broader fragility and confusion within convert Buddhist communities about how to respond is connected to a lack of awareness of how Zionism functions within our institutions and culture, as well as how deeply entrenched anti-Palestinian racism is.
For example, even Joseph Loizzo’s response frames this as a conflict that began on October 7th—a Zionist narrative that is historically inaccurate. Moreover, mainstream Buddhist publications like Tricycle and Lion’s Roar declined to publish the Bhikkhu Bodhi essay you referenced; he ultimately found a home for it at Common Dreams instead.
For those of us writing about Palestine online, we are not doing so for clickbait. We are trying to put words to what we wish we had heard from our teachers and communities 2.5 years ago. We are writing for our Palestinian dharma siblings who feel forgotten. We are writing not to reinforce binaries or assign blame, but to speak clearly about the reality of what is unfolding.
Western convert Buddhism has a pro-Zionism problem insofar critical speech about Israel has been discouraged, and the response to horrific cruelty—funded by our tax dollars—has for the most part lacked any organized or collective response. There are many specific examples I could point to of conversations about Palestine being shut down in sanghas, including in communities that have issued public statements. Statements and conversations are, of course, the bare minimum, and they also often serve as the foundation for whether meaningful organized action can follow.
Hi Adriana:
I was asked what the Buddha would have us do. It is very simple. The Buddha recommended that when different parties in one Sangha come to irreconcilable differences, they should get a divorce.
If you are unhappy with some Dharma centers' silence over Gaza, etc., you can leave and found your own community, based on your own vision of what the Dharma means to you and your compatriots.
Our tax dollars don't actually pay for anything at the Federal Level (state level is different). Taxes are used primarily to control the supply of money, thus, controlling inflation. When you send your check to the IRS, that money is removed from the economy, destroyed. The money used sell weapons to Israel, etc., is paid for out of an appropriation bill. The bill is passed, then an order for the money to pay for the bill is sent to the treasury, which then creates the money by fiat on a computer keyboard.
Oh for fukksakes, I’m done with this conversation.
“These centers have, in the past, allowed individuals to wear or speak freely about Pride, Black Lives Matter, or other politically oriented issues that others might perceive as polarizing or harmful. Palestine and Gaza, however, are treated differently because of the cultural power of Zionism within our communities.”
I generally consider Dharma centers places good to avoid as much as possible. They are toxic places in general, filled with politics and grasping. Why? Because they are all run by ordinary people.
Hi Adriana:
You were not one of the people I had in mind. In fact, there was a one line comment reposted by someone else. But it was not you.
In fact Loizzo writes:
"I didn’t have to look far. In 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour sent a declaration to the newly formed Zionist community of England and Ireland promising to establish “…a national home for the Jews in Palestine,” in exchange for their military help fighting the Ottoman Empire’s centuries-old Muslim rule in the region. The declaration advanced a foreign policy inaugurated by Lord Palmerston in the 1840’s: to encourage the emigration of British Jews to Palestine to create an imperial footprint in the Middle East. It involved arbitrarily carving up the Ottoman Empire with France and Russia, claiming a “mandate” to occupy Palestine, and allowing the sale of land within it to non-resident Jewish individuals and groups."
Perhaps you did not read his response with enough care.
"Denial of a problem" does not mean that there is a divide between pro and anti-zionist Buddhists, as if there is a political movement afoot. I don't see one. I see shock, trauma, and numbness in response to a situation that is actually outside many Buddhists domain of experience. I see people creating divisions in the Western Buddhist community where in fact none actually exists. I think at this point everyone is suitably horrified, regardless of how long it has taken them to absorb the horror of Gaza.
As for Trike and Lion's Roar, what to you expect? They are Buddhist Lite (tm) Magazines, and never offer anything of real substance since they do not wish to offend the Barnes and Nobles crowd and people in the checkout line at Whole Foods.
Silence sometimes is just silence. It is not always consent.
In bearing witness to this chain, I’m amazed at Malcom’s seemingly unconscious embodiment of the factors we have been writing about for the last two years. Gaslighting and attempting to silence through bogus claims of imaginary substance. I often wait for that moment in the argument of those making excuses for or defending Zionists to retreat back into the Absolute, “Nothing to do, No one to do it, All is the unfolding of Karma” schtick. In all of those we have encountered so far on Substack, almost none have been as vulgar to say that this Genocide is the Karma of the Palestinians and that the only Dharmic response is to smile with compassion and pray that sometime in the future that these homicidal maniacs (Israeli) awaken into the reality of the interconnectedness of all of life. I’m physically ill by reading it. I have sat in chat groups of people from different sanghas around the country (and in Europe) of people in pain from being silenced and marginalized in their sanghas. I have spoken to teachers who have told me that both Zionist students and funders have threatened financial withdrawal if they allowed conversations to continue. I have talked to writers at Buddhist magazines that told me the editors and Board members demanded ‘nothing polarizing or controversial’ be written about. I have witnessed and kept a running list of how the Dharma has been weaponized to suppress and shut down any moral outcry from those sangha members who still maintained an open heart in the hell of seeing innocent people ripped apart everyday for over 800 days without pause. I must say, Malcom, that I am disgusted by your response. And your defense of silent teachers, that after 2 years of this carnage, they can’t simply find it in themselves to openly plead for this one-sided slaughter to stop is beyond belief. Truly. And as for ‘anger’ I have read the eloquent essays from Alexandra and Thanissara with no detection of anger whatsoever, as if there would be something wrong with Principled Moral Outrage in the face of this ongoing slaughter. In my own articles, you do have permission to feel my heat, but do not project that onto these two other sophisticated and articulate authors. I support and agree with everything Alexandra and Adriana have written in their replies to you.
Also useful: https://www.christophertitmussblog.org/buddhist-statements-and-responses-worldwide-to-the-death-suffering-and-decimation-of-gaza
Zionism is the currently the most anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish political programs around.
Excellent!
Thank you for your perspective on this important issue — and for citing my post on Buddhist responses. I want to acknowledge Christopher Titmuss for many of the sources I shared. I especially appreciate your point that silence doesn't equal Zionism. That conflation is harmful.
The original piece I had written about this issue explores what dharma teachers can uniquely offer beyond political statements — teaching people to hold complexity, listen deeply to those we might dismiss, and recognize that Palestinian liberation and Israeli security are interdependent conditions for peace. Not both-sidesism. Interbeing.
Here's that article if it's useful: https://samalife.substack.com/p/when-suffering-is-everywhere-what
Hi Shalini, you are welcome. It’s important that you mention in your article the extent to which this issue has captured some people’s attention to the exclusion of other equally pressing issues. Pretty much all suffering inflicted upon each other arises out of overriding concern for our own happiness as a priority. The reality is that all happiness, including our own, arises out of our impartial concern for others, and that must be an overriding concern. This is why it is so strange to see Buddhists creating divisions over things like Zionist conspiracy theories. It’s frankly bizarre.
I am going to address the elephant in the room, otherwise we will never gain an insight into this phenomenon, and that elephant is the influence of JewBu in Amerika. Hear me out: I know that all Jews are not Zionists, and neither are all Zionists Jews (I have seen statistics being thrown around that 87% of Zionists are Christian Nationalists). What I am talking about is something that Zionism takes advantage of, and that is the acute sense of community among Jewish people (especially after the Holocaust), the idea that an attack on one... You see the same phenomenon among the Roma too (also victims of the Holocaust). It believe that it is also one of the reasons why so many key leftists were Jewish. I would actually go as far as to say that it is exactly this trait of Judaism that non-Jews are jealous of, leading to their hatred of Jewish people. I don't know how many western Buddhist groups are pro-Zionist, but I am sure there will be many that are pro-Jewish. Like I said before: ZIONISM TAKES ADVANTAGE OF THIS. Personally, I think that Zionism is the most anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish political philosophy out there right now.
I have yet to see a Menorah burning on a Buddhist shrine. I am sure there is one somewhere, but I have not seen it. As far as I know, no Western Buddhist group is "pro-Jewish." All will be opposed to antisemitism, and are also antiracist Tibetans can be pretty biased against Muslims, and that does affect some western Tibetan Buddhists. But that is a very small population.
I said pro-Jewish, not pro-Judaism.
I know avowed Buddhists who identify as Pro-Zionist. I can’t wrap my head around the cognitive dissonance, but Zionism, whether Pro- or Anti-, is ultimately just another attachment, isn’t it? More Samsara…..
I don't think there are hardened divisions over this.
I would hope….there are not.
I once met a Buddhist fascist. A Greek sangha member who was an avid supporter of the neo-Nazi organisation Golden Dawn. One of my German Dharma brothers (we have taken empowerments together) is an AfD supporter (and a frothing racist). A Polish Sangha member, an organiser for our teacher, no less, is an Ayn Rand supporter. Etc...
Yes, and I’ve met Buddhists who were enamored of communism, anarchism, capitalism, libertarianism, psychedelics, the Grateful Dead, etc, and everything in between. Delusion comes in many forms.
I think that this statement overlooks the fact that there is relative truth. For example: A liberal democratic socialism based on concepts of equality, where all basic needs are met (food, clothing, shelter, education) is infinitely better than an ethno-state that hunts down perceived non-members of the master race, kills them, and steals everything they own. It also overlooks our Mahayana/Bodhisattva vows to relieve ALL the suffering, of all sentient beings. Sangya Menla's vows come to mind, where he basically tells us to feed the hungry, house the homeless, free the prisoners, befirend the friendless, etc... Another problem with this statement, is that if one pairs it with most western Buddhist misconceptions of karma, well... In closing: leveling all the differences between views by reducing them to mere delusion, is a classic liberal political position. This trope, for example, that fascists and antifa are the same thing, is just horse shit. In Mahayana Buddhism we consider motivation to be a crucial factor, just analysing these two political positions based on this fact alone, is more than enough for us to see that they are not the same thing.
To recap the definition of conventional existence: if an appearance produces a function towards a goal (arthakriya), it can be said to conventionally exist (vyavahārasat). None of these mundane theories can in fact satisfy the definition of conventional existence. Why? They are all imputations about appearances. The reality they purport describe does not exist as such. They are the blind men describing an elephant. Now, from a practical point of view, we agree that, as Nāgārjuna points, out, that states (to the extent that we believe we need one) should be responsible for meeting basic needs. We can agree that there are better and worse ways of accomplishing these needs. But in our lifetime, we live in a word, where for the first time in history, most of humanity earns its living by selling labor to mostly private capital in return for a wage, as Milanovic points out in Capitalism Alone:
"The fact that the entire globe now operates according to the same economic principles—production organized for profit using legally free wage labor and mostly privately owned capital, with decentralized coordination—is without historical precedent."
Milanovic, Branko. Capitalism, Alone: The Future of the System That Rules the World (p. 2). (Function). Kindle Edition.
You refuse to read his book, but you ought to, because he has a very solid and sympathetic understanding of Marx. I read Capitalist Realism, and it is naive.
With respect to Mahāyāna, my whole point here is that we need to consider all suffering, and not just choose a side because we observe for now that some people are being more injured than other people. We know quite well that those who inflict harm now are only ensuring their own future misery. Can we stop the Israelis from bombing children. No, we are not that powerful. We can disapprove of this and at the same time hold everyone with compassion.
The main complaint I observe is that some people are upset that there are Dharma centers out there unwilling to deal with the Gaza genocide, when they were all perfectly happy to chime in on trans rights, George Floyd, and so on. They feel stifled. The Buddha has a solution for that. When there are differences in a Buddhist Sangha, the two groups can part ways over these differences. This is how we wound up with different schools of Buddhism to begin with. These folks just need to start their own Dharma communities which express their vision of the Dharma. Simple.
With respect to the leveling of views—all views of self and other are wrong views, all views of existence and nonexistence are wrong views. However, we don’t need views or theories to run communities. We certainly do not need political ideologies of any kind infecting the Dharma and hijacking it for partisan or nationalist purposes, as we have seen in Myanmar, Shri Lanka, Japan, China and so on.
The classical liberal position is not that all views are delusion. The classical liberal position is that one must have tolerance for views with which one does not agree. This tolerance was primarily religious in nature, in so far as most of the wars in Europe up the 18th century were largely over religious differences. It was extended with the doctrine of freedom of speech.
This principle of tolerance works until the tolerance of intolerance causes problems, then of course it is perfectly fine to exercise intolerance of intolerance, and more forcefully shut down radical extremist rhetoric. Until that point, one must debate and dialogue. Of course the idea that fascists and antifa are the same is absurd, One, antifa is not a real organization. Fascists like their groups and uniforms. However, Fascists and Communists both seem to be quite successful in creating police states that resemble each other more than they are different, once they come into power.
But we are not talking here about this subject. We are talking about the assertion that there is some hidden division between Buddhists in the West who support genocide and those who don’t.
"They are all imputations about appearances." My dude, EVERYTHING is an imputation about appearances for us deluded beings. "The classical liberal position is not that all views are delusion." That was not my point, but it doesn't really matter, because it seems you got my point anyway. "We certainly do not need political ideologies of any kind infecting the Dharma and hijacking it for partisan or nationalist purposes..." Political ideologies infect Buddhism, not the Dharma. Buddhism is an enunciation of relative truth, based on ultimate truth. Once Dharma is expressed through language, ideas, and practice...