Buddhism 334: Right Views are not Political…

Politics are not a suitable focus for meditation, and in fact are a great disruption. Which should go without saying, it seems, but for the fact that much meditation is of the ‘guided’ sort. So, caution should be a watchword for practice. After all, silence is the foundation of all traditional meditation practices, so any narrative is going against that stream of consciousness, which at its best is a thoughtless stream.

But politics is particularly onerous, it being often combative, such as it is, and with no remedy to that in sight. It seems that natural selection does not select for gentleness and conciliation, but for the ability to put freshly fertilized genes into the next generation, without which there may be no next generation. Every breeding couple of every species must produce slightly more than two offspring per couple, or we will all gradually go extinct, as the elevated rates for such a situation amply prove in the present climate.

Still, some people claim that the Buddha had a political side, but I can’t find much proof of that. His Buddhism of renunciation never advocated total renunciation, though, and that’s the important thing. Partial renunciation is another name for daily meditation, and from there one’s daily life can quickly and vastly improve. The same thing can be said for political activism, as long as it’s peaceful, mindful, and respectful. There are conservative and more liberal sides to all politics, and that’s fine. Just leave the hatred and anger outside. And that will help keep your daily meditation healthy.