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Buddhist Principles of Civic Responsibility - Gil Fronsdal

The following talk was given by Gil Fronsdal at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on November 03, 2024. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Buddhist Principles of Civic Responsibility

I would like to mention the obvious: we are coming into a historical moment in this country that we are all participating in with the election on Tuesday. I wanted to say some words relevant to these times.

I thought I would start where I have never started a Dharma talk before: with a prayer. But then I thought I should introduce the prayer with another prayer, or at least a poem.

The reason for this is that coming out of the meditation now, it was so clear to me how meditation can provide us with a radically different orientation for how to be in the world than if we are only being pushed or led by the world of our thinking. If we are only swimming in the labyrinth of thoughts, the maze of thoughts, ideas, and concepts, there is a way in which there is no way out. It is kind of an endless figure eight; imagine the on-ramps and off-ramps of a freeway where as soon as you get off, you are on again, and it takes you back around and around. There is no exit, there is rush hour traffic, and you are slowly making your way around.

There is something about getting caught in the world of thoughts, ideas, and concepts which leaves us in a very difficult world—a world of the projections we have about the future, the memories of the past, and what we think our needs are. It is a world in which we are focusing on objects of attention: objects of our hostility, objects of our desires, objects of our fears.

To have that thinking mind become stiller and quieter so that something deeper can arise from the wellsprings within is profound. We are amazingly wondrous beings—beings of emotions, of feelings, of heart, of sources of wisdom and creativity. To be able to meet the world with the wondrous parts of who we are rather than the scared parts of who we are, or the parts of us that are consumed with preoccupations, is vital.

To be oriented to this historical moment from this deeper place rather than the maze of thoughts, ideas, projections, and fears is significant. The media, the news, and the way so many people connect to the whole world through a screen often puts people up in the maze of thoughts and reactions. That is the place where we get caught, and we are maybe even working on the habits of mind that keep us caught. So, to step out of this screen world, out of the maze world, into this deep, wondrous world that we are is the shift of orientation that gives us a very different understanding of what it means to be alive and participating in our society.

In preparation for the prayer, I want to read a poem by Joy Harjo, one of the great Native American poets in this country. It is called "Eagle Poem," and it says something about prayer.

To pray you open your whole self To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon To one whole voice that is you. And know there is more That you can't see, can't hear; Can't know except in moments steadily growing, And in languages that aren't always sound but other Circles of motion. Like eagle that Sunday morning Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky In wind, swept our hearts clean With sacred wings. We see you, see ourselves and know That we must take the utmost care And kindness in all things. Breathe in, knowing we are made of All this, and breathe, knowing We are truly blessed because we Were born, and die soon within a True circle of motion, Like eagle rounding out the morning Inside us. We pray that it will be done In beauty. In beauty.

This is a very different understanding of what it means to pray. "In beauty."

This is a prayer now for civic involvement.

As we participate in our democracy, may we be guided by the ten virtues of civic life:

1. May we be generous, so everyone is supported.
2. May we have integrity, so everyone can trust us.
3. May we renounce selfish interest, so everyone benefits.
4. May we be honest, so everyone hears what is true.
5. May we be kind, so everyone can relax.
6. May we have self-control, so everyone may be safe.
7. May we be free of ill will, so everyone can speak freely.
8. May we be nonviolent, so everyone feels valued.
9. May we be patient, so everyone can participate in their own way.
10. May we not obstruct, so that we can learn how to work together.

These are ten qualities that in the classic Buddhist tradition are called the ten qualities of a ruler, or a monarch¹. In the United States, we are all meant to be participants in a democracy as equals. In a way, that makes us all monarchs; it makes us all participants in this life here.

So in civic responsibility and engagement, what are the principles that guide that kind of involvement? Principles that are not simply the pursuit of power, or the pursuit of being right and conquering others. Is there another way? Is there a way of cooperation? Is there a way of having differences and finding a third way that works for everyone?

I have staked my life as a Buddhist on the idea that if we spend enough time in conflict and difficulties, you can find a way that supports everyone. It is not a win-lose situation, but it is a challenge to find that. I have been in situations where I have been in conflict with people, having a somewhat intense conversation, and the other person says, "Well, have it your way." And I said, "No, we can't do that."

I think if we stay in the intensity of it without being hostile long enough to see if we can find a way that is a third way—something that we haven't thought about yet, not your way, not my way, but maybe a way that fits us both—we can succeed. I have seen that happen repeatedly if you are willing to stay in the difficulty. Sometimes it takes a long time. But this idea of a third way that has everyone's well-being in account—is it naive? I have seen it work in small ways. These things are possible. It is not one where power and being right and winning is the first and foremost effort, but rather to be cooperative, to have conversations, and find a way.

Some people come to Buddhism hoping that it has important things to say about everything in life. The Buddha didn't have much to say about civic life that is relevant for our world today, unless you take some of the core ethical principles and apply them. The Buddha was alive at a time that was radically different than our life; it was the Bronze Age. There were no democracies in India at that time. There were kings who ruled back then who were like dictators. To stand up and protest to a king back in the time of the Buddha—well, the ancient texts give graphic depictions of what the king would do to you with no hesitation.

There was no democracy, no courts per se like we have today, no laws in the same way that you can rely on. It was all on the whims of a ruler. There were no social services, no social security, no retirement money. People weren't provided for by the government. There were no nonprofits there to set up soup kitchens. It was radically different.

Also, the way people communicated and affected each other was, to a large extent, visible human-to-human interactions. So when the Buddha talked about how to live together, he talked about the visible world—the behavior and conduct that everyone could see. They could see if people killed each other, and he said, "Don't do that." You could see if they were stealing from each other. Unless it was done too secretly, you could see sexual misconduct. There was lying—people could hear it. And there were problems that came from intoxication, which generally you could see. That is the world they were swimming in back then.

But now, we have a society where we affect each other by how we vote, and it can have a huge impact. We affect each other by how we participate in social media—what we add there, what we say—and the effect that we have on people in the world around us is often invisible. We affect others by what we consume, and by what happens after we flush it down the toilet or put it in the trash. Most people don't think about it; once it's gone, it's gone. But how we live our lives has an effect that is not visible to us. It gets more and more complicated.

This comes into play with civic responsibility, where the effects spill out in all kinds of different ways. So to be careful is not just to avoid killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and intoxication. It involves some deeper principles, some deeper care. From a Buddhist point of view, it is all guided by the wish to not cause harm. How do we not cause harm in unseen ways? That is the primary motivation around ethics in Buddhism: to live a life of non-harming.

I adapted these ten principles from the ancient ones originally designed for encouraging kings to rule well. I did this in the 2000s for a presidential candidate, Dennis Kucinich. He was a proponent of peace work and wanted to create a Department of Peace. A friend invited me to dinner with him and asked me to offer a prayer. I ended up reading this adaptation for his sake.

Let's look at them again. "To not harm, but instead to be generous." Why be generous? So everyone feels supported. One of the primary messages the Buddha seemed to want to give to monarchs in his time was to take care of the poor. He gave teachings describing that if you don't support the poor and take them out of poverty, it will be deleterious for the whole society; the whole society will start unraveling. So, take care of the poor so that everyone is supported. Don't have it be a win-lose situation, but rather prosperity so everyone prospers.

I think it is a fair assessment of our world that there is enough abundance for everyone to live well, but most people don't live well because it is not shared equally. Even in the United States, there is enough here. The wealth of certain ten people could probably reduce poverty in this country dramatically. The concentration of wealth into a very few hands is unprecedented. Is it healthy for us? I think there is a plenitude that can make everyone feel supported—a certain prosperity for everyone, except for those people who have to lose maybe a few tens of billions of dollars. We will feel sorry for them, I guess, but they will still be left with a lot. But there is a way of support where everyone is in it together—this way of "we." How do we support everyone so everyone thrives? That is what is behind this principle of being generous so everyone is supported.

"May we have integrity so everyone can trust us." Trust is probably the biggest wealth that we have. What if we call trust a form of wealth as opposed to money and bank accounts? I think the most wonderful things in our society, with our closest friends and family, if it is healthy and well, are based on the foundation of trusting each other. Trust goes a long way. If we have integrity and people trust our integrity, perhaps integrity then becomes contagious.

"Renouncing selfish interest so everyone benefits." Again, this idea of not hoarding, not just concern for ourselves, but concern for others. There is a way in which benefiting others will come back and benefit ourselves. Maybe there are no economic models to show this directly, but in some cultures, like the Native American Potlatch² cultures, anthropologists have pointed out that the economics work in a healthy way because the gift keeps being given and goods are kept in circulation. Potlatch culture was one where people would come together periodically and do huge gift-giving festivals. But as soon as someone stopped giving, it got "constipated." It has to keep going. How do we keep a gift economy? How do we keep generosity and benefiting the world flowing so it doesn't get bottlenecked or stuck in us? We benefit tremendously from keeping the gift of how we benefit from our society in circulation.

"May we be honest so everyone hears what is true." Truth is considered relative nowadays, but in Buddhism, to say the truth is to be true yourself—to be a "true person." A true person doesn't lie, doesn't manipulate, doesn't try to get their own way at any cost. A true person is someone who has integrity and is able to speak from that place.

"May we be kind so everyone can relax." Imagine a society where no one was kind. Would you want to live in that society? Imagine what you would be like today as a person if no one had ever been kind to you growing up. Was anybody kind to you? Did it make a difference for you that occasionally your parents, teachers, or friends were kind? Imagine if you received nothing of it; what would it be like? I suspect that a lot of what is good about you was partly shaped by the kindness you received from others, maybe even from strangers. It is inconceivable to have a society that isn't based on kindness. And there is also the gift of kindness—can we keep it in circulation? Can we keep doing it and offering it back?

"May we have self-control so everyone may be safe." One of the ideas in Buddhism is that restraint is a fundamentally important practice because we can't necessarily control the impulses of the mind. The mind is a tricky thing. But we can have control about how the mind gets expressed in action. The actions are actions of the body—the things we do physically—and what we say, and now what we type. We have more control over that than our capacity to control the mind, and it counts a lot to have that degree of self-control so that you don't cause harm. Whatever is difficult in your mind doesn't spill out.

One of the reasons to not have the difficulty in your mind spill out and affect others in harmful ways is that what goes out comes back, or what goes out becomes a habit, gets reinforced, and creates more discomfort and problems inside. So to have enough self-control so that our behavior and words don't cause harm is one of the really important principles in Buddhism. We are not meant to repress ourselves, but rather, meditation is a way of really knowing ourselves well enough so that we can understand how to be with what is challenging inside of us in a skillful way.

One of the things I have learned to do when I have difficulty in my inner life is not to act impulsively from it, but to tell people, "You know, I'm challenged right now. This is really difficult for me. You should probably know that I'm grumpy, so let's be careful now. I'll be careful, maybe you can be careful with me until this mood changes." The ability to just be honest in a way that doesn't harm people but actually protects people is self-control so everyone may be safe.

"May we be free of ill will." The word translated here as ill will is probably a stronger word in the ancient language; it is actually hostility³. To not have hostility, not act from hostility, is one of the cardinal principles in Buddhist ethics. Never act on hostility. If you have hostility, restrain yourself. Bite your tongue, whatever it takes. Don't speak it. Wait. If you need to work something out with someone, go and process your hostility on your own or with a friend until it is settled enough so you can come back and have a good conversation.

I was once doing a program here at IMC with a colleague, and I got really angry, or we had a difficulty between us. We went into the conference room to have a chat about what was going on. It was a hard conversation. At some point, I said to my friend, "Can we pause? I think I need to calm down a little bit so I can come back in a more useful way in this conversation." She was fine with that. As opposed to just feeling I had to keep fighting back and going and going, which probably would have been harmful for both of us, I recognized the ill will I had. I said, "This is not good. Let me find a way to settle down." It worked out fine in the end.

"May we be nonviolent so everyone feels valued." How many people in our society don't feel valued? It is epidemic, I think. There are people who chronically do not feel valued or respected anywhere they go; their dignity is not allowed. I talked to a hospital chaplain recently who met a homeless person who had come into the hospital. It seemed like that person had never been respected and never had a friend in his whole life, and that is what he most wanted: to have a friend.

"May we be patient so everyone can participate in their own way." Everyone can participate in their own way—that is dangerous, isn't it? But this is the ninth of the ten principles, so you are building on all the others. Mutual respect so everyone can find their own way.

"And may we not obstruct, may we not hinder, so that we can learn how to work together." If we offer obstruction to people, if we hinder them, stop them, and try to silence them, then there is no cooperation. How do we have conversations so it feels like we are in it together? How do we learn to respect people and find a way?

I would like to propose that in my reading of what is happening in this country right now, there is way too much emphasis on who is going to become the president, as if that is the crucial issue that is going to make or break the country. I would like to propose something different. I think we are coming to a crisis, maybe for each of you. What are you going to do? How are you going to participate in civic life? Are you expecting civic life to be solved by someone else out there who is going to do it all for us, make everything fine, so you can continue on your life merrily as it is? I don't think that is the right way to live in a democracy. To live in a democracy is to be a participant in some way.

So how you are is very important. These ten principles of civic participation don't mean you have to join a political party or get involved in so-called politics. But these are the ways that we can make a better society. Start there. And then, if that is understood, you can run for president, and I will come and do a prayer for you.

Those are my thoughts for today as we go. No matter what happens on Tuesday, remember these ten principles. In the different scenarios that people are predicting, they all need this. They all need individuals and people who rely on this. Maybe this will give you some strength, inspiration, and encouragement on how to go forward and contribute to a better world.

Q&A and Reflections

Participant: Gil, thank you so much. Can you post that prayer or pass it out? I want to be able to reread it.

Gil: It is already posted on the homepage of IMC's website. On the bottom right, there is a section called "What's New," and then "Reflections from Gil." You will see it there.

Participant: What was the poem?

Gil: The poem is by Joy Harjo. It is called "Eagle Poem." She is Cherokee, a wonderful woman and poet. You can find her reading her poem online.

Participant: I am aware that American Friends or Quakers make all their decisions by consensus. But how they do it, I have no idea.

Gil: Well, sometimes it takes them a very long time. I don't know if I have the time exactly right, but I have been told that it took them 200 years to decide to be against slavery. It is kind of heartbreaking to hear that, but at least they came around.

Consensus is really good. We try to do things on consensus here at IMC. There have been times on the IMC board where we have taken a vote for something and one person just chooses not to vote. I have said, "No, look, let's not make a decision today then. Let's give time for this. We want everyone to feel like they participate." So at least let's make the effort. We maybe reach out to that person before the next board meeting to find out what is going on and see if there is some way we can make it work so everyone feels they can support it. We can't expect that always, but at least we can make the effort for it. That is respectful.

Participant: Thank you. What came up for me when I was listening to your remarks was the fact that I think we live in a time when there is an exceptional amount of fear. I think a lot of what we are seeing behind it is fear, which is usually a very unhelpful emotion when it comes to doing all the wholesome things you describe. I wonder if you could comment on that, especially the tension between wanting to engage positively and at the same time maybe being a little afraid for ourselves of what could happen.

Gil: Thank you for the question. There are many ways that the fears in our society can be and maybe should be addressed. A small Buddhist organization or a practitioner by themselves cannot address all the different ways. But one of the specialties that Buddhism offers is the ability to come to terms with our own fear—to really be able to look at it deeply, settle it, and come to some place where our fear no longer blocks us or gets in our way. There still might be fear, but we find or learn how to be free so we can be wise with whatever fear we carry. Or our fear is settled, and we can live without any anxiety. That is a radical thing. So the idea of really knowing ourselves and learning how to become free of our own fear is a part of the gift of this practice.

The other side of that is to become a person who others don't have to fear. To be someone who can walk through the world safe, a friend of everyone. Sometimes people are afraid for us even though we are a safe person; they don't know that. They might see you as belonging to a group of people that historically has been harmful to them, so it is hard for them to distinguish between who is safe and who is not. But to really work on not taking for granted that people would think you are automatically a safe person. How can you be a safe person? How could you show up in a friendly way so we give people the gift of fearlessness?

I think it is a great gift to our society. Again, to expect that other people are going to make everyone safe—you can expect it if you want, that someone else is going to do the work, but you have to do it too. So how do you come to terms with your fear? How do you develop yourself in such a way that you can walk through the world and be safe for people? You have the confidence to be able to show up and feel safe even if people are angry with you. It is not easy, but that is why this practice can help tremendously. To go deep into this practice is part of the answer for you.

Participant: What bothers me sometimes when I talk to people about this sort of thing is an overwhelming sense of "I'm one person, I can't do anything and can't make an impact." I just want to say that when I sit on the cushion, I have a ritual where I set my intention. I say to myself, "May this meditation make me stronger so I am a force for good in the world and better the life of everyone I come in contact with, and everyone they come in contact with," and it just goes on from there. I just like what you said: we can make a difference even though we are only one person.

Gil: Yeah, every individual can make a difference. There is a lovely Sufi story of a man who is offered two wishes by a spirit. He says, "Well, wherever I go, I want to benefit the people around me." That is the first wish. The second wish is, "But I don't want to know that I'm doing it."

So he is given a bag that he carries over his shoulder filled with seeds, and there is a little hole in the bag. It is always being replenished by the spirits, but wherever he walks, those seeds fall out and germinate and grow into flowers or fruit trees. It takes a long time for that to happen; he is long gone. Symbolically, we can always make a difference, but we don't necessarily see the actual results of making a difference.

I have been changed by total strangers who spent five minutes with me, and their kindness and support was inspiring. I felt like, "Wow, that's possible, it can be done this way." They never knew that they had such a big impact on me. We don't know when we are going to have an impact. We don't know when we are kind to a local kid who is having a lot of challenges—maybe no one has ever been kind to the kid—and there is a glimmer of hope for that person that they never had before. So we don't know what seeds we are planting, but let's plant seeds anyway and who knows what will happen.

We have more influence than we realize if we are kind, supportive, friendly, and safe for others. So many people in our society are afraid. Probably the people who are saying "I'm just me, how can I do anything?"—I suspect that behind that is fear, or some kind of feeling of being unworthy. Everyone is worthy.

I wish you well. I have the idea that we don't know what is going to happen this week, of course, but hopefully, it is all smooth and harmonious, and everyone realizes in the last minute how good it is to cooperate and support each other, and we will live happily ever after. But I also have some thought that if there are enough challenges going on, maybe we should have some kind of meeting or be available for some discussion. So check the "What's New" section on the website if it looks like we have the need for something.

Thank you very much, and may you all be civically responsible in these ten ways.