QUESTION
Dearest Venerable Robina,
I have been following your teachings and those of Lama Yeshe for many years.
I am writing to you because I am struggling to reconcile my Dharma practice with the reality of living in a country where my tax dollars are funding immense suffering. This has led me to question my duty and responsibility as an aspiring Dharma practitioner in this context.
I find it hard to find teachings that address these specific challenges that we face individually and as a society in the United States, and this resonates deeply with my heart and mind.
This is why I wanted to reach out and ask if you offer any teachings beyond what is posted on your website that might address these concerns.
Any guidance you could offer on this matter would be greatly appreciated.
With gratitude,
J
ANSWER
J: happy to hear from you.
You make such a good point. It’s awful, isn’t it?
But what can we do? This is the thing: if we can change something, do so – but if we can’t?
Withholding our tax dollars will likely get us into trouble.
The only way I try to deal with it is consciously decide that any taxes I pay are used only for ethical things: at least mentally we create no negative karma and even create virtuous karma.
Otherwise, what?
What do you think?
All the best,
Robina
QUESTION
Dear Venerable Robina,
I deeply appreciate your response.
What’s happening in Gaza is now according to human rights groups, even the ones within Israel, a genocide. Although there may be many other horrific things happening in the world, this one is enabled and to a great extent supported by our senators, congressmen, and president.
That’s why I feel compelled as an aspiring student of Dharma to contemplate, inquire, understand, and take appropriate action. Continuing to practice in the comfort of my home without raising a finger or standing up against this injustice feels a betrayal of the vows I have taken.
Here are my thoughts:
We’re often told that regular people can’t change the world. But history reminds us that voices, especially when raised together, have untold power.
History has also shown us that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the end of apartheid in South Africa, for example, happened largely due to people taking non-violent and peaceful action.
Since you have the background in activism, and are also a highly respected and venerable Dharma teacher, could you please share what would be the right view and right action, rooted in compassion in the midst of what’s going on?
With gratitude
J
ANSWER
Dear J:
Happy to hear from you again.
Yes, the world is in a sorry state. So much suffering, for sure!
If we have the Buddhist view of the world, we know it’s due to countless past lives of karma between each other that things happen, good and bad. It’s just the way it is. It isn’t good luck or bad luck. Everything is due to causes within the minds of sentient beings – whether we’re helping or harming others and being helped or being harmed.
With that understanding and based on compassion – for everyone! – then do what we can to help. We must!
Martin Luther King said that it’s good to see problems, to see injustice, then say, “What can I do to help?”
But don’t have any fantasy expectations that things will change overnight. Things change when people change their minds.
Meanwhile, do what you can: help others. And this also helps oneself: it gives us courage.
What do you think?
Love,
Robina
QUESTION
Dear Venerable,
Thank you for your reply, I took your words to heart and to my meditations.
I feel quite unsure about the answers that arise in my mind and heart, when I ask myself, “What can I do to help?” because I know I’m a samsaric being, under the influence of ignorance and poisons of the mind…
I sometimes wish I could forget about all the happenings we discussed in the last emails, but it’s clearly not an option for me at this point.
Could you share some insights that would align our thoughts, aspirations, words, and actions in these dark times?
With gratitude
J
ANSWER
Dear J:
If we’re on the bodhisattva path, the best approach to the suffering in the world, knowing it’s the result of everyone’s karma – therefore having such compassion because no one realizes that they are the cause of their own suffering and happiness – we first think: what can I do to help? If there is something, then do it.
If not – and this is the way it is in most cases – then use that suffering to strengthen your bodhichitta, your determination to never give up working on yourself and becoming qualified to actually help in the future.
This is what drives the bodhisattvas. This is what gives them the courage and the confidence to never give up.
It’s a long-term view. The suffering won’t just go away, so we have to see it, face it: that is the basis of compassion.
But in the short term, right now, there’s plenty we can do. People are suffering next door to us, the dog is suffering, the people down the road. So with compassion, do what we can to help, even a fly. One step at a time!
And this also gives us courage and confidence to keep going, just like the bodhisattvas. There’s always something we can do. They think in terms of eons, as His Holiness the Dalai Lama says.
And the more we understand attachment, the more we’ll understand why we suffer when we see the suffering of others. This is a major point to think about. Attachment, you see, only wants everything to be lovely, and when it’s not, we just can’t cope. We get angry, or depression and fear take over. Then we’re useless!
That’s why we need to have courage to see the suffering, to have an understanding of why it’s happening, and then courage and perseverance to do what we can, both to continue to work on ourselves and to help others.
Love,
Robina
QUESTION
Dear Venerable,
I am grateful for your reflections and teachings. I take them to heart, carry them into my meditations, and give them time to settle before responding – that’s why it sometimes takes me several days to reply.
Your teachings shed invaluable light on approaching suffering with the bodhisattva perspective.
They’ve prompted deep reflection, and I offer these thoughts with sincere aspiration to deepen my practice: Gandhi taught us that “silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly,” and Mandela reminded us that “if we are neutral in situations of injustice, we have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
This leads me to examine my own practice: When bombs continue falling on helpless civilians, where does my practice and understanding truly deliver me? Is my silence genuinely rooted in understanding karma and compassion, or might it sometimes be convenient and safe?
I sense that if my practice cannot hold the weight of such immense suffering – what many scholars, historians, Holocaust survivors, and humanitarian organizations are calling genocide – then perhaps it’s not truly a middle path, but rather a means of escape.
We are seeing an increasing number of international voices – Jewish and non-Jewish, Israeli and non-Israeli scholars, historians, and humanitarians – courageously speaking out against these atrocities, despite risking defamation, losing positions, and facing attacks, while the far right claims there’s no famine in Gaza and denies the horrors taking place there.
I share this not to encourage taking sides, but to honor what feels like the sincere cry of our collective human consciousness to stop the slaughter of innocent civilians. However, I don’t see a similar courage in most spiritual circles nor the collective Dharma communities.
This brings me to wonder: How might we practice compassion that isn’t afraid to name harm when we witness it?
I want to emphasize that these questions arise from my sincere aspiration as a Dharma student – not from doubt on the path or the teachings, but from a deep wish to understand how to embody it authentically in these challenging times.
With gratitude and respect,
J
ANSWER
Dear J:
Thank you for your thoughts.
I can’t say what “Dharma communities” think – that’s a big statement. Best to look at the teachings ourselves and at our own minds.
The essence of it is this: the world is full of suffering, everywhere we turn.
First, have compassion based on understanding karma – this is crucial. Meaning: every one of us is experiencing, moment by moment, the results of our own past actions, our past programming: happiness is the fruit of our virtuous actions, suffering is the fruit of the opposite. Knowing this is the basis of such compassion, for not just the victims but for the harmers, especially for the harmers. Why? Because the victims have just finished that karma and the harmers have just begun a process of their own future suffering.
The bodhisattvas have such compassion for all of us because we do not understand this process of cause and effect: that we’re the creator of our own happiness and suffering, minute by minute.
The next level of compassion is action: what can I do to help? If there is something, then do it. If there is not, then we must continue working on ourselves and doing what we can to be of benefit to others.
And that includes political activity, or whatever method we think is appropriate. Based on compassion.
Look at the Tibetans! Look at their suffering! And look at how they deal with it, in particular His Holiness the Dalai Lama: with clarity, determination, and the long-term view.
Understanding that it’s due to karma doesn’t make him hopeless or passive. It explains it! And then what does he do?
Well, look at the last seventy-five years: he has not stopped for one second trying to change the situation: politically, socially, diplomatically, religiously. He never gives up!
We have to have courage, perseverance, optimism, just like him.
For a Buddhist, the view of karma explains why the suffering is happening, and therefore explains the only option for a solution: peaceful methods, based on compassion – and determination and enthusiasm, as I said.
And that can include political activity. Look at the Tibetans as a people! They’re amazing political activists! And they never give up!
Much love,
Robina