February Newsbyte

Diary (long one instead of Tip)

A quiet time here at Satipanya, made more silent by the two-week retreat in January which had in mind people who work outside and for whom winter can be their rest period. 

Yet out there, beyond the Shropshire Hills, growing turmoil. The election of Mr Trump to the presidency of the still most powerful country in the world; the  weaponisation of X by Mr Musk to peddle racist, anti-Islamic tropes and to undermine democracy; what may be the shameful betrayal of Ukraine; the growing far and extreme Right in Europe fuelled by the white fear of 'replacement' by non-European whites with a special aversion towards Muslims; the growing economic crisis; the political paralysis around climate crisis and so on and so on. 
This is the  polycrisis , a combination of crises, that is engulfing the world. I am not one to believe there is a fix. Just as Communism had to run its course, so the whole project of Enlightenment of the 18th Century must also bring about its own demise. All idealisms have the seed of their own destruction. Civilisations arise and fall.
Immoderate Greatness: Why Civilizations Fail by William Ophuls
All this presents many challenges to those committed to the Buddhadhamma. How we respond is important not just for our own hearts, but for all hearts.

Of special concern to me is the way the Far Right is now setting the political agenda .  The Far Right will want to move towards Dictatorship. The road is well practised. This is now the zeitgeist, the spirit of the age. I doubt we can stop it, but hopefully people who see the danger can soften it, so we don’t end up with a Franco, a Mussolini, a Hitler, a Stalin, a Putin …!

How to Lose a Country. The Seven Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship by Ece Temekuran tells how Erdogan became an 'elected' dictator, much as Putin and Orban in Hungary.

The one area that is fuelling the anger is immigration. There is fear and apprehension in the minds of many people that immigration has gone too far and maybe out of control. It is easy to put all the blame on immigrants, but they are the victims of political oppression and economic inequality . And the vast majority are taking up job offers. There is no easy answer. And my concern is that the situation as it is now beginning to be treated, will turn very ugly.

Musk's comments on the Asian child grooming gangs and the call for an enquiry has been eagerly taken up by the Right, not just the Far Right. Very few people know that a National Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was exactly around those issues. The last Government called for this Enquiry, but did not enact any of its 20 Recommendations. Labour has enacted all of them. There was a time when the Conservative Party held right of centre in the political field, but Kemi Badenoch has moved it towards the Far Right.

Her rival in the contest for the leadership of the Conservatives, Robert Jenrick, says in an article published in the Telegraph that calls for yet another enquiry into the child rape scandal by Asian men. He goes on to say : ‘The scandal started with the onset of mass migration. Importing hundreds of thousands of people from alien cultures, who possess medieval attitudes towards women brought us here.’(this present situation) From the Asian men who committed these crimes, all of a sudden this includes ‘hundreds of thousands of people from alien cultures’ The full article. These sorts of sentiments are now openly espoused across the West .

This is incendiary language. The same you will find in early Nazism against the Jews. The Hutus began putting out vicious propaganda against the Tutsi in Rwanda and then incited people to kill them. Bosnia was meant to be a peaceful separation of Muslims from Christians and then 8000 Bosnian Muslims were massacred at Srebrenica. In Myanmar, during the quasi-democratic government of Aung San Suu Kyi, a monk, Shin Wirathu, began an anti-Muslim campaign no doubt supported by the junta. Eventually over 700,000c Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh and countless others were killed, raped, or displaced. There are many more examples of how what was once rejected over a series of steps – unthinkable, radical, acceptable, sensible, popular – leads to lethal policy.

Whereas the extreme Left looks to a glorious future, the extreme Right looks to the glorious past when all was white and wonderful! If I were Kemi Badenoch and Priti Patel, I would heed the words of Pastor Martin Niemoller who was often imprisoned in Concentration Camps.

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

For those who follow the Buddhadhamma, this is a time to reflect on our own views and come to positions which we feel inwardly empowered to defend. Are we ready to stand up against those who are driven by fear and hatred, even when they are family, close friends and colleagues? 

The philosopher John Stuart Mill delivered an 1867 inaugural address at the University of St. Andrews and stated: “Let not anyone pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject.”

I've no doubt the Buddha would have said, as he did many times upon hearing what his monks had taught, that if he had been asked he would have made a similar statement. The Buddha made his understanding clear against antagonists, but always with equanimity and whatever he said was truthful, beneficial, kind, useful and timely. He always allowed those who disagreed to speak without interruption. And then to answer calmly. It is not always possible to have a conversation with someone who is angry. Unfortunately, if you retire from the conversation, they presume they have ‘won’. It may demand courage on our part, especially with family, friends and workmates.

We can also join groups or organisations that support refugees and uphold our civil rights. Or we may donate to their cause. e.g. Praxis : Refugee Council : Equality and Human Rights Commission : Equality Now : British Institute of Human Rights : Liberty : Equality Advisory and Support Service : 
 
And there is always Metta. Holding people we disagree with gently in our hearts. Inwardly talking to them in a kindly way and sending them appropriate good wishes. We do not have to like them. This is, of course, good for our own hearts!
 
It is important to remind ourselves that everyone is coming from a position of love – of my self, my family, my religion, my nation and so on. But it is a constricted love that must necessarily produce the ‘unloved’ other. That is why to end conflict we must strive to encompass everyone in our good will.

The Buddha gave advice to kings. We cannot separate Dhamma from what is happening in the world for the world is Samsara and our duty is to guide it along the principles set by our Teacher.

It is as well to remind ourselves of Dhammapada No 5:

Hatred is never appeased by hatred.
By goodwill alone is hatred appeased.
This is an eternal law.

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