Individuals primarily seek out secular mindfulness programs to acquire techniques that can alleviate the fear, anxiety, and stress stemming from actual or potential losses in their lives. These losses can encompass various forms, including declining health, financial instability, strained relationships, or the loss of loved ones. Many participants are grappling with career- related challenges, feeling unfulfilled, overworked, and burdened by the pressure to excel in demanding work environments. While the specific motivations for enrolling in mindfulness courses are diverse, they often converge around self-centered desires: to enhance physical, mental, and emotional well-being, discover inner peace, and ultimately, feel better.
While mindfulness can effectively alleviate personal stress and enhance our well-being, it's crucial to acknowledge that true inner peace remains elusive in a world grappling with significant challenges. None of us can feel completely well if the world around us is falling apart. 'The Three Poisons,' taught in Buddhism as the causes of all our predicaments–Greed, Hatred, and Delusion–fuel oppression, exploitation, inequality, injustice, division, animosity, war, misinformation, and the escalating climate crisis. These external factors, though often perceived as distant from our immediate concerns, profoundly impact our sense of security, fostering fear and anxiety. Neglecting these global stressors, while focusing solely on individual well-being, can hinder our ability to fully address the root causes of our suffering.
The world faces a multitude of crises: climate change intensifies extreme weather events causing widespread disruption, displacement, and suffering; war-torn regions witness the tragic loss of innocent lives; refugee camps overflow with those fleeing conflict and persecution; and despair drives individuals to addiction and self-harm. This global disarray leaves many searching for escape routes. These harsh realities are overwhelming and lead some to seek solace in unhealthy coping mechanisms such as excessive consumption of alcohol, drugs, entertainment, and even overwork.
Unfortunately, meditation, while offering valuable tools for stress reduction and inner peace, can inadvertently become another form of escape from reality, allowing us to shield ourselves from the urgent challenges facing our world.
Spiritual bypassing is that tendency to use spiritual practices to avoid dealing with unresolved issues. Essentially, it involves using spirituality to sidestep facing difficult realities. Rather than taking action and doing something to solve problems, we use meditation to bring us temporary comfort.
Marshall B. Rosenberg, who developed the Nonviolent Communication method, said,
If I use empathy to liberate people to be less depressed, to get along better with their family, and at the same time not inspire them to use their energy to rapidly transform systems in the world, then I am part of the problem. I am essentially calming people down, making them happier to live in the systems as they are, and I am using empathy as a narcotic.
“Art should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable” is a quote that motivates me to be a more comprehensive mindfulness teacher. I want to bring comfort to the afflicted individuals that come to me, but I strongly feel that it is my duty, also, to nudge all of them, especially those who are too comfortable.
Mindfulness practice creates conditions for those who are not yet able to see–or refuse to face the urgent situations that are unfolding in the world–to wake up and stop sleepwalking through life. Mindfulness creates conditions for people to look deeply, see clearly and, if they so choose, get active to change the ways we have been living on Earth.
Our world faces immense challenges on multiple fronts. Climate change continues to escalate, threatening our planet and future generations. We're also seeing a rise in racist and authoritarian regimes that actively undermine democratic principles and institutions and imperil human rights. Furthermore, capitalist economies are exacerbating global inequality, concentrating immense wealth in the hands of a few while leaving millions trapped in poverty.
During the Vietnam War, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh taught his followers that simply seeking inner peace wasn't enough. Instead, he urged them to take mindful action to alleviate the pain and injustice around them.
When I was in Vietnam, so many of our villages were being bombed. Along with my monastic brothers and sisters, I had to decide what to do. Should we continue to practice in our monasteries, or should we leave the meditation halls in order to help the people who were suffering under the bombs? After careful reflection, we decided to do both – to go out and help people and to do so in mindfulness. We call it engaged Buddhism. Mindfulness must be engaged. Once there is seeing, there must be acting. Otherwise what is the use of seeing?
In the preface of ‘Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet,’ a book that compiled several of Thich Nhat Hanh’s talks and texts on the ecological crises, Sister True Dedication wrote:
In this very moment, we face a potent intersection of crises: ecological destruction, climate breakdown, rising inequality, exploitation, racial injustice, and the lasting impacts of a devastating pandemic. The situation is beyond urgent. In order to face these challenges with the best we've got, we need to find ways to strengthen our clarity, compassion, and courage. Cultivating a strong training in meditation and mindfulness is not an opiate to escape what's going on, but a way for us to truly still the mind and look deeply, in order to see ourselves and the world clearly. From this foundation of clarity and insight we'll be able to take the most appropriate, effective action to transform the situation and create a regenerative culture in which all life is respected.
As a mindfulness teacher, I am convinced that I have a dual role: to provide comfort and challenge complacency. I am convinced that mindfulness is a powerful tool not only for personal, but also for collective transformation. Therefore, I emphasize the importance of social awareness and responsibility within the context of mindfulness practice.
I facilitate reflections on environmental issues and social inequalities and encourage individuals to engage in acts of service and compassion. When properly taught, mindfulness guides us to a deeper understanding of our interbeingness with the world and empowers us to become active agents of change who engage in activism informed by an inner wisdom found in a peaceful place in the center of ourselves. I feel that, in a certain way, what I do is to introduce meditation to activists and activism to meditators.
Andrew Harvey wrote,
A spirituality that is only private and self-absorbed, one devoid of an authentic political and social consciousness, does little to halt the suicidal juggernaut of history.
On the other hand, an activism that is not purified by profound spiritual and psychological self-awareness and rooted in divine truth, wisdom, and compassion will only perpetuate the problem it is trying to solve, however righteous its intentions.
When, however, the deepest and most grounded spiritual vision is married to a practical and pragmatic drive to transform all existing political, economic, and social institutions, a holy force – the power of wisdom and love in action – is born.
This force I define as Sacred Activism.
My hope is that through the practice of mindfulness meditation individuals may decide to roll up their sleeves and do what is theirs to do to make our world a better place. I hope they will move beyond comfort, denial, and apathy, get serious about identifying what truly matters to them, and take action aligned with their values.
By recognizing the causes most important to them, I hope they will either initiate positive change or support existing efforts to create a better world for all. My hope is that they may be able to remember the antidotes to greed, hatred, and delusion, and engage in the work of healing the world moved by generosity, love, kindness, truth, wisdom, and joy.
By becoming actively involved in bringing about solutions for our world’s problems, they will no longer feel as powerless victims, and the empowering feeling that “I can do something. I can affect change,” is what, ultimately, will pacify their fear, anxiety, and stress, and make them feel truly better.
Action tames anxiety.
Practicing mindfulness meditation and living mindfully is, in itself, a powerful form of activism. We should wholeheartedly dedicate ourselves to the practice, because as we practice, we change, we improve, and as we change, so does the world. But we can do more. Engaging in activism, no matter the scale, not only benefits others but also profoundly nourishes our own well-being.
We need to deconstruct the stereotype and let go of our ideas of what an activist looks like. Anybody can be an activist. Anybody can take an active role. Each one of us needs to make a meticulous assessment of our strengths and answer the following questions: What are my strengths and how can I use them to promote positive change? What does it mean to be a changemaker? Where do I fit in? What is my form of activism? How can I, in my chosen activism, show up with authenticity, being who I truly am?”
We all have the capacity to contribute to a better world by doing what we can to correct injustices. We may feel that we cannot do anything, or that what we may do will not have a significant impact, but every effort, however small, has the potential to make a difference.
Perhaps we don’t feel comfortable explicitly engaging in overt public displays of activism, but we all can, for instance, do some stealth activism, taking quieter actions to promote a cause or effect change. We can operate under the radar and use subtle or indirect methods to influence decision-making, shift public opinion, and achieve specific goals.
We need to participate and speak up whenever we see injustices being perpetrated. Let’s follow the advice of John Lewis and “find a way to get in trouble, good trouble, necessary trouble.” Here’s what he said to the graduates of Emory in 2014:
It was many, many years ago, when we would visit the little town of Troy, visit Montgomery, visit Tuskegee, visit Birmingham... I saw those signs that said 'white men, colored men', 'white women, colored women,' 'white waiting, colored waiting.'
I would come home and ask my mother, my father, my grandparents, my great- grandparents, 'Why?' And they would say, “That's the way it is. Don't get in the way, don't get in trouble!"
But one day in 1955, I was 15 years old in the 10th grade, I heard about Rosa Parks. I heard the words of Martin Luther King Jr. on our radio. In 1957, I met Rosa Parks at the age of 17. In 1958, at the age of 18, I met Martin Luther King Jr. And these two individuals inspired me to get in the way, to get in trouble.
So I come here to say to you this morning, on this beautiful campus, with your great education, you must find a way to get in the way. You must find a way to get in trouble, good trouble, necessary trouble."
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Let us seize the opportunities that arise to be helpful and contribute to a more just and compassionate world.
The following short quote by Archbishop Desmond Tutu is truly inspiring: “Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” This quote serves as a beautiful reminder that even small acts can engender significant changes, and that those changes, collectively, can have a big, positive impact on the world. Our seemingly insignificant goodness has a cumulative effect, ultimately leading to a less violent and more compassionate world.
So, let’s not focus on the power that we don’t have. Let’s instead focus on the power that we do have. Let’s not worry about and wallow in our feelings of powerlessness. Let’s put our faith in the power that we already have and do whatever little bit of good that we can do, and that it is ours to do. And let’s not hesitate and wait: let’s do it now.
It's natural to feel guilty, depressed, hopeless, or desperate when solutions seem out of reach. These feelings are valid, but we can't let them paralyze us. The key is to address what's broken, try to fix it, and, importantly, to smile, have fun, and find joy in the process.
Piero Falci is a social and environmental justice nonviolent changemaker who has written a series of books called A Better Life in a Better World. He teaches mindfulness meditation and mindful living. His website is at www.pierofalci.com.
