Hi Everybody,
We were talking last time about some really interesting research by the sociologist Nicolas Christakis and others at Harvard, that reveals the surprising extent of the social and emotional networks of which we are all a part, and the fact that the way we respect and respond to all the people we encounter in the course of the day, from partners and work colleagues to ticket sellers and travelling companions, clearly has effects well beyond the people we actually encounter, as they in turn carry those effects on into their relationships and their social networks. That's where we pick up the thread today...
'...as people like Jeffrey Sachs, the eminent economist, and Sam Harris, the brilliant psychologist and writer, and Daisaku Ikeda, one of the world's leading writers on Buddhism in today's society, remind us almost in unison, so close are their views, that perhaps the greatest challenge facing us all as individuals, in this 21st Century society is how to learn to lift our gaze so to speak. How to extend this courageous and compassionate value system that the practice helps us to develop, out beyond the circle of familiar friends and colleagues, out to a wider society, indeed out to a global society, this global village that the scientists keep telling us we now live in. When it is put as boldly as that it sounds like little more than wishful thinking. But Buddhism has always taught that the two are indivisibly intertwined, the individual and the social. It argues that a fundamental change in the values and the principles that an individual chooses to adopt, a fundamental shift towards the positive, has this enduring ripple effect, spreading out gradually, slowly perhaps, but nevertheless continuing spread, out through family and friends into the local society and beyond. Indeed Buddhism teaches that a movement towards a better society, based upon the principles of respect for the lives of others, simply cannot be created as a top down process. It has to start with a profound change taking place within the lives of countless individuals, gradually changing the way wider communities function.
So Buddhism places the power of indivdual action at the very heart of its ethical teaching. Thus there is no question for example want world peace, although most unquestionably believe that to be an unattainable goal. And in any case there doesn't seem to be any meaningful path along which it could be achieved. Buddhism however reminds us, every single day, of two powerful truths. That however difficult it may be to achieve, it remains a meaningful and desirable goal, so giving up is not an option. And second, however difficult the path, it starts right at our own feet, and we can begin moving along it whenever we choose. It involves each one of us coming to understand, with our whole life, that we are not powerless, and that we can, through the choices that we personally make, and the actions that we personally take, have a profound and beneficial effect upon our particular society and our environment.
That is to say, that what we choose to do, the values and the principles that we choose to adopt, unquestionably matter. '
That's it for today. Bit shorter than usual but I don't want to break into the discussion of what we mean by morality, which is where we go next, and have to stop half way through. So I'll leap into that next time, and do it in one piece.
Best wishes. Keep well. Keep reading !
I've had lots of really generous comments from all sorts of different kinds of readers. Some groups I'm told are buying the book all together and then using it as a group study tool, which is amazing. I'm not sure by the way whether or not I ever mentioned that I don't make any money out of these books. It all goes back into the kosen rufu fund or to pay for foreign translations, or to enable me to send them off at cost to distant places like New Zealand when freight charges are so costly. I am frankly still amazed at how widely the books have travelled.
See you soon.
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