(Matthew Streib is traveling across the country on his bicycle exploring religious sites that are inspiring and uniquely American. You can read more about his travels at www.americanpilgrimage.com.)
BARNET, Vt. _ Buddhism, which often focuses on the inward journey towards enlightenment and favors the middle path, isn’t known for taking a prominent place in politics. But one man is on a mission to change that. At Karme Choling, the birthplace of the Shambhala Buddhist tradition, I met Ethan Nichtern, who is striving to bring Buddhist teachings into the sphere of activism in New York City.
He transformed his meditation community in the East Village into a non-profit activist organization called the Interdependence Project, which advocates the connectedness of the world, but doesn’t take hard stances. They’re mostly anti-war and pro-environmentalism, but the issues they take on are fluid and mutable.
“The idea of interdependence is that nothing happens in a vacuum, and we have to understand every event as a complex system that arises from a lot of subjective viewpoints and causes coming together,” he says.” “It gets very hard to take sides, because you realize the complexity of reality and how much any pair of opposites rely on each other for their viewpoints.”
Activists often think that if they fight hard enough, they’ll get their way, and even if they’re successful, they create negativity, Nichtern says. Those who follow Buddhist teachings are generally more tacit in their approach, he adds, but getting them involved can be tricky.
First, even among lay people, he says that there is a tendency for seclusion. Second, he says many people don’t realize that Buddhist teachings include many political statements. Third, because his organization doesn’t take a hard-line stance on any specific issue, it’s hard to get people to agree on anything, much less become politically involved together.
They’re currently trying to eliminate the use of plastic bags in the city, but Nichtern admits that the issue is trendy, and other issues might not get the same turnout.
Much of these tensions arise because Nichtern says that Buddhism has spread to democratic societies and until recently. “Buddhism has a lot of teachings from a societal structure that doesn’t include political awareness,” he says. “We’re still trying to apply an ethics system that didn’t have a democratic worldview in a world of democracy. It’s going to need to be updated.”
“One of the reasons that it was even possible to create monastic communities is because in traditional Asian society and the ancient world it was actually possible to leave society. With globalized culture, I don’t think the monastic tradition is going to be very doable anymore.”
