Authors: Melvin McLeod
ISBN-13: 9780861712984, ISBN-10: 0861712986
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Wisdom Publications MA
Date Published: July 2006
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Just in time for the crucial 2006 Congressional elections, Mindful Politics goes beyond right and left to get to the heart of what matters, and how everyone can participate in real political change. Mindful Politics is not a typical political book. It's not written at fever pitch, it doesn’t employ the usual good vs. bad binary, it doesn't get hung up on specific issues or policies, and it's not even specifically "American." Instead, this timely book addresses the less-discussed but more important aspects of politics, such as whether religion — any religion, including Buddhism — has something to offer politics. It also discusses how dealing with emotional issues can help the activist move beyond the particulars of legislation and policy, so that personal growth and effective advocacy can occur together. Noted editor Melvin McLeod offers a brief, contextualizing introduction for each of these essays.
This collection of essays on a Buddhist approach to politics is far-ranging. We see contributions from Buddhists engaged in politics, whether religious figures like the Dalai Lama and Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh or Zen student and political leader Jerry Brown, as well as a wide variety of Buddhist teachers and practitioners. McLeod, who edits two Buddhist periodicals and an annual anthology of Buddhist writing, skillfully organizes the diverse writings by using the categories that describe Buddhism's noble eightfold path. Contributions vary in quality. Nhat Hanh is clear as a Zen sitting-room bell; the precepts of his Order of Interbeing community are specific, and he can draw on decades of peace work to illustrate that what he says is not merely possible but has already been done. Scholar Rita Gross offers fresh insight about the anger of righteousness that often motivates political involvement. Other contributions are woolly or left over from the 1960s; bell hooks's use of leftisms ("imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy") draws on stale ideology. Margaret Wheatley does important work in community and leadership development, but should avoid writing bad poetry to express her views. Despite unevenness, this anthology usefully disputes Buddhism's reputation as apolitical. Buddhism is quiet but not quietistic. (Aug.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
A new approach to global problems | 17 | |
Be peace embodied | 29 | |
Call me by my true names | 39 | |
Wego | 45 | |
Buddhism and the politics of domination | 57 | |
The Buddha's politics | 65 | |
Joining heaven and earth | 77 | |
Creating enlightened society | 89 | |
The discovery of basic goodness | 99 | |
Nowhere to spit | 105 | |
Three means to peace | 121 | |
We have the compassion and understanding necessary to heal the world | 129 | |
The power of patience | 141 | |
Giving and taking | 149 | |
The political precepts : the fourteen mindfulnesses of the order of interbeing | 159 | |
Beyond us and them | 165 | |
The path to forgiveness | 171 | |
The Buddha's advice on healing the community | 181 | |
Four freedoms | 189 | |
Agent in Indra's net | 201 | |
Gross national happiness | 213 | |
The wisdom in the anger | 225 | |
Taking whole : the art of less war | 239 | |
Letter to a dictator | 251 | |
No color, all colors | 261 | |
Compassion is our best protection | 273 | |
A Buddhist response to globalization | 285 | |
Killing the Buddha | 293 | |
Four truths & ten laws | 301 |