On Engaged Buddhism 

As someone who has been seeing his local zen temple lean more and more towards this "engaged" approach to the practice, I feel a strong affinity to your views on the subject. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Balanced View: thanks for coming back to that. It's a good reminder. Staying balanced is challenge. My teacher used to say that the middle way depends on the borders.

Digging these posts! Glad you're using this forum to reach out; I'd been waiting for you to do something like this for a while. Thank you.

"We have similarities that go much deeper than any of our differences" Wow, that is so true! If everyone on this planet could realize that... Great Video!

That is your most inspired video, to me.

Hi Brad, I just discovered your videos and know this was 3 years ago so you may not see this. But if you do, for what it's worth, I really appreciated your candor in beginning to explain your lack of "engagement" without appealing to authoritative scriptures to justify it, but simply by saying, basically, "I am not fond of confrontation" etc. - and noting your temperament. I think a lot of people feel guilty if they are not oriented towards action, protest, etc. And they are shamed for not being more action oriented by those who are temperamentally more inclined. Lastly, the line about being humbled by the confusion of not knowing what is really going on, and saying not to say, 'I have the answer, follow me" was worth the video. That not knowing is so important, negative capability (ability to be at ease with contradiction).

Late to the party here. I agree. The Sutras / Suttas are full of requests for the Dharma to be taught. If it’s not requested you’re not supposed to teach it. Perhaps the closest saying is ‘not to through your pearls to swine.’ Not give your time and energy to those that don’t care but focus on those that can accept it. The individual approach is the best way for permanent change. Once a critical mass is enlightened or on the way there to, you will have a significant shift. Personally I think this ‘engage’ is just political theater. Yeah, be engaged with your cultivation. Be engaged with your life and those you interact with. We are not protestors. Forcing others is a type of violence. As you stated before, in regards to other people, they have ‘the right to be incorrect’. You can plant seeds so to speak, but for a real shift to happen the individual needs to make the realization. The Buddha said you are responsible for your own salvation. You have to save yourself.

Thanks for all your talks.

Be careful. Apolitcalness in Zen can easily tip into collaboration with a Fascist government. It did in WW 2.

we have more similarities than differences....that"s very engaged.

if one is not careful, the practice of zen can become an ego trip. It's self oriented and solipsistic.The distinction between zen and nihilism gets blurred.

"Politicised" is usually to mean that you're not leaning mainstream. But if you advocate stripping the poor and making the rich fatter, that's not politics...

wow this is a very great video! Thanks for your Work again (i already said it over Facebook to you). Keep working on your projects - because it is worth it. You have a big impact in your small! Greetings from Germany ET (not the Alien)

Best book collection ever

flower of here and now.. cool. thank you for the sane words

Please revisit this topic with another video. Your message here helps deepen the public conversation regarding engaged Buddhism. I’d like to hear you address the teachings and example of someone such as Bernie Glassman, who teaches social engagement as Zen practice. Rather than putting emphasis on the particular, temporary results of social action, Glassman seems to be describing a different aspect of Zen practice. Zazen is not only sitting. It is also bowing before the mat, and even cleaning the Zendo. Therefore, according to this position (as I understand it), we might also approach the world with a sense of ‘not knowing,’ acceptance of self and world as experienced. In bearing witness to the moment, acts of loving kindness naturally arise. This appears to be a blueprint for how we might live Zen after rising from the mat. Contemporary chopping wood and carrying water.

So the whole point of the Buddhist path as it was founded thousands of years ago was to 'dis-engage'. Not just to dis-engage from social conventions, but to dis-engage from samsara altogether...including the heavenly realms where the weather is always a nice day in California. Later on, this principle was dialed back a bit to mean 'non-engage'. Still later, interpretations got really subtle to embody an 'integral' compromise. Dr. David R. Hawkins wrote several books that agree with Brad's point of view here...that nobody is ever fundamentally disengaged whether they like it or not, and no matter how far they retreat to the ends of the earth.

pretty good talk Brad. the loudmouthed engaged buddhists think the rest of us must follow them, but they demonstrate that they should not be followed at all. engaged buddhists are a pestilence best ignorned, except now and again accidentally step on their toes.

Dunno, conflict averse? Didn’t Takuan Soho tie Miyamoto Musashi to a tree?

Thank You!

If we see...we become aware, if we listen...we become aware. The question is, 'Our we compassionate creatures without action...where we just see and listen, or are we compassionate creatures because we also 'Do' through action. In other words, Compassion is good, but Compassion is better with 'Action'. One, can do this without being political and not get caught up in the extremes of beliefs, ideologies, religiosties, etc. During those times, 'Silence or very few Words' is the Buddha way.

Agree , but is'nt that conformation biast even if it's a fact ; how do you separate conformation biast from fact ?????????? . Everything is burning and wanting

This is something that has been bugging me about Thich Nhat Hanh and, increasingly, Shamnbhala. If social action grows out of your practice, wonderful, but its not integral to practice. The Bodhisattva vows are not a call to social action, but somehow it has become that. Social action is wonderful and beneficial if you feel called to it, but saying its integral to Buddhism is to miss the focus and goal of the practice.

Great video

Don’t think I’ll be taking advice from ken McLeod anytime soon...

So, where is the line drawn between confirmation bias and trying to find a concrete answer to a complex concept? For example, when I was younger and less mature, I had a hard time understanding rebirth. I would try and think and read up whatever I could to get, well, confirmation on something about it. So I could accept it and put the issue to rest, but whatever conclusions I made would quickly disappear with doubt. Nowadays, I have a better understanding on it, but is what i would do an attempt at confirmation bias? Or is it just some other form of obsession?

I think I'll start practicing non-engaging meditation

pay-tree-on

With all the problems the world has right now, how could one person who has a shred of compassion choose disengagement?

@14m40s: a million years project? Is this still pertinent when considering the probable extinction of humanity? What are we building? What are we contributing to? (as a Buddhist teacher and/or practitioner) PS: bonjour du Québec! Je viens juste de découvrir votre blog/vlog etc...

We must contemplate the shared ground of our common biological being before emphasizing the differences.--Gary Snyder. Let us include all other sentient beings as well as humans. Dogen certainly did. Reality is the teacher of us all, and that includes the historical conditions of our time. Master the 24/7. Do it well,without self-pity.

Well, I think it is a million year plan...and more. Also think that this plan is 3 dimensional in the fabric of time. The beloved Buddha who gave up everything, and at times tortured his body through fasting so that I can in this present state hear his teaching is the past affecting the future. Yet, I at times say a prayer for this beloved Buddha to not give up in his quest for what he considers enlightenment. So now we have the present affecting the past. Add to this, my meditation and your teaching and that single flap of a butterfly wing half way around the world that creates a Ripple and invites our future Buddha...Mayatreya to come. Everything is interconnected and is more than a million year plan...I think at a higher cosmic or spiritual level it has already happened, but what might be transpiring is our Reflection on it [us in the so called future] and thus the past, present, and future flow into one another. So what are we? From what I can reflect up to this point...our true essence is a manifestation of the cosmic Buddha's light and sound. Our true essence is light and sound. Not quite sure yet if it's the light that creates the sound or the sound that creates that cosmic eternal melody. You my friend, through your word affected some latent aspect in me, and I intern will affect some latent aspect in someone else. It's all interconnected, Indras Web...I think that's what its called.

I feel like this is spiritual bypass .

Don't think you will have much luck saying it should be this way and not that, it is what it is. LOL, you would have had more luck using reverse psychology and saying I am expecting you to be uptight, non apathetic, stressed out social justice warriors - power to the people.

Buddhism is about to know when, how and if to engage at all. In my experience the answer is mostly very benevolent approach.....on par with Libertarian or Minarchist political stance....without the entrepreneur worship by the Obejctivists and without the naivety of Lolberts.

Thank you, Brad. I was going to say although you and I disagree on many political and social issues, I believe (through reading and listening to most of your stuff) that I would be welcome to practice with you, because we share a practice. All too many places of practice and retreats seem to alienate those who do not share certain Leftist expectations that have nothing to do, or run contrary to, the Dharma. We should leave our agendas at the door with our shoes! Then your comment on our president's "orange head" being the flaw in this video where you fell into the same trap. Everything else was great. Wish Americans who voted for Trump didn't feel pushed out of Buddhism.

i'm so sick of this stupid dogma. if you had an affinity to everything in the universe, simply because you existed, then you would not just know everything about the universe, you'd know everything there is to know. it's idiotic. how could you know this? through emptiness. why? because it's full of wisdom; such as how to not confuse people and jerk them around.