This link http://www.bpf.org/h… crossed my path and I was struck by this quote:
“The Buddha emphasized the importance of transforming the three unwholesome motivations: greed into generosity, ill will into loving-kindness, delusion into wisdom. Today we also need to address their collective versions: our economic system institutionalizes greed, militarism institutionalizes ill will, and the media institutionalize delusion. The problem is not only that these three poisons now operate collectively but that these institutions have taken on a life of their own, as new types of collective ego. Any personal awakening we might have remains incomplete until it is supplemented by a “social awakening” that motivates us to find ways to challenge these institutionalized causes of widespread suffering.”
As a consultant whose practice (http://www.wheelwrig…) has been to assist organizational leaders to become more effective through increased (non)-self awareness, I find the above to be spot on. The three poisons are, for me, at the center of every ill this world is currently dealing with. In our own mess, we can clearly see hatred (fear), greed (desire), and delusion (ignorance) operating at every level and on each side of the current debate. Not only are these poisonous mind-states pervasive, they have become so enmeshed as to present as an nearly impermeable membrane against which our multi-lateral charges seem to have little effect.
I’m thinking primarily now about how this plays out within the Democratic party as it struggles to come to grips with its lack of spine, purpose, and direction. I wonder how the party would look if it was dedicated to reducing or minimizing the grip of the poisons on our society, relationships, foreign policy, and economic structures. Would it even survive? Sadly, I don’t know if any existing ‘party’ is up to the job of confronting what has become nearly universal obsessions with terror, money and ideology.
