"He adds sauce in the right proportions." (p. 191, Nanamoli). I put too much BBQ sauce on my potato medley the other day, another reason I know I'm not enlightened. There's a quality of mindfulness, I need to train more.
In other news Vishvapani Blomfield writes about Suella Braverman in Tricycle, here are some interesting quotes, probably better to just read the article yourself, but I like to quote things:
"Braverman’s politics could hardly be further from my own, which are the usual leftish-greenish mix that most people expect Buddhists to hold in Western countries. Her meteoric rise through British politics has made me question my assumptions about how Buddhists should regard politics—the need to tolerate others’ viewpoints and the importance of holding one’s own beliefs lightly. But her enthusiastic engagement in the culture wars has also helped me clarify the limits of that tolerance."
"I found her charming, intelligent, and evidently sincere in her Buddhist practice. Some years before, she had become a mitra (meaning “friend”) at Triratna’s London Buddhist Centre, and at one stage, she asked to join the Triratna Buddhist Order, of which I’m a member. Ordination is a much bigger commitment, and, though she later withdrew her request, doing so showed her seriousness. "
"I knew that she probably found herself out of step, politically, with many of her Buddhist peers in settings like Triratna study groups, and I admired her for sticking around."
"I don’t buy the idea that Buddhists should necessarily skew left. The Buddha wasn’t a Democrat, and he may not even have been a democrat: his teachings just aren’t about that."
"But being tolerant doesn’t mean you stop thinking critically, and Braverman’s politics is hard for someone like me to accommodate. She opposed compromise with the EU to reach a trade agreement after Brexit; she is seeking the toughest ways to deter the refugees who travel to the UK across the Channel in small boats, including the flights to Rwanda; she opposes the agreement that offers a solution to Northern Ireland’s problematic status post-Brexit; she wants the UK to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights; and she demands that teachers don’t “pander” to trans pupils."
"Buddhist teachings are typically expressed in universal terms, and translating them into politics involves a long chain of reasoning, at every point of which we make interpretations. As Buddhist psychology tells us, these interpretations are influenced by our past, preferences, allegiances, and a host of other subjective, emotionally loaded factors."
"He says in the Brahmajala Sutta, his magisterial analysis of ‘views,’ that even the most impressive-sounding beliefs at root are expressions of ‘the agitation and vacillation of those who are immersed in craving.’ Practicing Buddhism should therefore mean questioning our views about things like politics. I notice in myself an impulse to believe that what I think is correct, simply because it’s what I think, and I try to recognize how that feeling shuts down my curiosity and stops me listening."
"The more insecure and defensive we feel, the more tightly we cling to our beliefs and the more estranged we feel from those who disagree with us. The result—in the words of the Buddha in the Madhupindika Sutta, is “taking up rods and bladed weapons, arguments, quarrels, disputes, accusations, divisive tale-bearing and false speech.”"
"the four speech precepts challenge the assumption that our speech is justified if we think it’s true. It also needs to be kind, helpful, and conducive to harmony."
"In politics, when we say that a message “fires up the base,” what we really mean is that it affirms certain emotions and encourages people to identify with a particular view of the world, regardless of whether it’s based in reality. That applies whether the base is on the left or the right, and it’s relevant to left-wing rhetoric that’s fueled by anger, if that overwhelms our capacity to listen to our opponents."
"I’m not questioning the sincerity of her Buddhism, it’s very hard to detect any Buddhist difference in the way she does politics."
"...what I see is someone throwing fuel on the fire when I think we should be dousing the flames."
"...politics may be an impossible field for anyone who wants to live fully in accord with Buddhism. At the same time, for better or worse, it is also the realm in which a certain kind of highly consequential change is made. Can Buddhists afford not to engage?"
I'm not going to lie, I've gotten caught up in politics. The clarity of this article is refreshing.
11/10/23:
There's a Mirror article today that gives information on Suella Braverman (Wikipedia). Her maiden name was Fernandes.
She is interesting because she's a Buddhist in a Triratna community and a right wing political hack.
She has said "being homeless was a lifestyle choice." She is against Transgender people (second source).
Her father is from Kenya and her mother is from Mauritania. She was named after Sue-Ellen from the show Dallas. Her teachers convinced her to change her name to "Suella".
Her husband Rael Braverman is Jewish. He works at Mercedes-Benz. They married in 2018. They have two children together around age 2 and 4. She is 43 years old.
I've read Vishvapani's essay about some of the damage some of her rhetoric would do, and that that is not a Buddhist thing to do. It's a very reasonable essay, and really bends over backwards to give her the benefit of the doubt, and does not assume just because she's right wing that she's necessarily wrong. It seems like a pretty fair article. The upshot is that some of her language seems harmful and therefore hard to see the genuine Buddhist source.
Right wing or left wing, I don't think being right wing disqualifies you from being a Buddhist. In fact quite a lot of Buddhists are right wing. Sangharakshita voted for Thatcher, and I'm pretty sure others are right wing.
About half my friends who were right wing are still my friends even after the Trump years. I seek to understand and appreciate the limits of my perspective. I don't think one human contains all the truths and political leaning is a abstract hedge, and each case can be looked at individually.
I personally feel that government should ameliorate systematic problems that harm people, and modify capitalism, redistribute wealth and do things for the common good like roads and garbage removal.
My left wing bias makes mask refusal and politicizing vaccines seem murderous to me. Perhaps it's a metaphysic and not an obvious truth to everyone. I struggle to keep an open mind about how murderous I see right wing thinking, and how harmful I find their rhetoric. How deceptive their rhetoric is.
I'm very concerned about the swing right in terms of political power. In terms of lying, moneyed interests, gerrymandering and fascist rhetoric.
11/13/23. Braverman is fired from being home secretary for criticizing police. (NY Times) "Ms. Braverman had long been a divisive figure at the heart of the governing Conservative Party, whose provocative rhetoric won her support on the hard right while alienating more moderate colleagues."
11/20. Quite a letter to the editor about Braverman:
"If the use of a tent by a homeless person is as our Home Secretary says ‘a lifestyle choice’, then perhaps being a Tory MP with little or no compassion might be one as well?
The Home Secretary is a member of the Triratna Buddhist Community, and may need a gentle reminder from her fellow Buddhists what the Buddha taught about compassion.
Two quotes spring to mind: “Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little.” And “Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.”
Given what the Buddha said, I am left wondering if perhaps hypocrisy itself is yet another lifestyle choice?"
11/23. Suella Braverman hits out after record migration figures (BBC). I think it's interesting to have a female child of immigrants saying England is getting too many immigrants. Usually women are warm and understanding but she's a hard line right winger who has incendiary rhetoric. I don't think she went to Buddhism for the Jedi path, I think she's a Sith.
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