Mindfulness is the key to peace

Many readers may not realise how violent it was 20 years ago when the Thai military junta were very bloody with their own young people in Bangkok and elsewhere.

Some of those who experienced the traumatic events may still not be able to forgive the oppressors.

Today, around the world there are still many oppressive regimes and bhavana (mindfulness) is a powerful tool to use against all forms of suffering both within oneself and within the environment.

As Thich Nhat Hanh repeatedly points out, mindful breathing is a tool that can surround the feelings of hatred, greed and delusion that arise within oneself by shining metta (loving kindness) on these feelings until they crack and it is possible to see their roots.

At this point the mind is unable to resist flowering, just as a flower is unable to resist blossoming when the sun shines into its heart.

At the social level, mindfulness can also be used to work against capitalism, consumerism, sexism, militarism and the many other "isms" which undermine the wholesomeness of life.

It is a tool for criticising our own society, nation state, culture and even the Buddhist teachings in a positive and creative way.

With this attitude we do not fall into the traps of hating the oppressors of ourselves and others but instead are able to use understanding to destroy oppressive systems and violent structures.

To develop a peaceful existence every community must be free from direct, structural and cultural violence.

Direct violence are actions such as rape, murder and fighting.

An example of structural violence is when a landowner uses the landless to till the land and in return requires 70 percent of the harvest - a common figure in Southeast Asia.

If you change the examples from the landlord and the landless to the dominating powers like China and Indonesia to the Tibetans and the East Timorese, or the SLORC and the indigenous peoples of Burma, you can see how violence is inherent in the structures of society.

Surely there is something morally wrong with an arrangement like this.

To maintain such an oppressive social structure of this kind, other forces must be at work: for example, isolation of peasants or indigenous people so they cannot organise themselves; giving them an ideology or religion to support the existing structure or the use of force, or all three and more.

Establishment Buddhism, with a capital B, explains this oppression as the working of karma, saying that both oppressors and the oppressed are reaping the results of their actions in former lives, the latter of bad deeds and the former of merit achieved by building temples and images of the Buddha.

Both rich and poor are encouraged to support the establishment religion and the material aggrandisement of the monkhood for their welfare in future lives.

Non-establishment buddhism, with a small b, is against this trend of wrong teaching.

If the landlord understands and practises dana (generosity or charity) he will know it is wrong to take 70 percent of the harvest when workers do not have enough to sustain them.

The late Ven Buddhadasa used to preach Dhammic Socialism, a Buddhist approach staying in accordance with the nature and emphasising not taking more than is needed.

Out of loving kindness and compassion, people will share whatever extra they have and any surplus will be available for society in general.

Cultural violence is defined as any element in the culture, but particularly religion or ideology, that legitimises direct or structural violence.

One can see this in advertising and media.

The Fourth Buddhist Precept concerns lying in the conventional sense but an examination of the practices of the advertising and media industries clearly show a violation of this precept.

Buddhism is a strong ethical system supportive of peace and if violence is prohibited there is a strong impulse towards peace.

However a weakness in Buddhism's facilitation of peace is its strength in its position against personal violence combined with silence in the face of structural and cultural violence.

The larger a structure the more violent as is clearly seen in the corporation, the nation state, the multinational corporation and the international economic order.

The more we become accustomed to these structures the more violent they become and they pose serious questions for Buddhists.

Should a Buddhist fulfil obligations of military service? Should a Buddhist remain silent when the government continues to increase the military budget at the expense of basic health and education? Can Buddhists support the World Bank and IMF structural adjustment policies? Could Buddhists in the world remain silent when the indigenous peoples of Burma, the Tibetans, the East Timorese and the people of the Philippines have been abused of their basic human rights? Some consider this approach more political than religious, hence the World Fellowship of Buddhists take no stand on these issues.

Of course they are both moral and political concerns.

As Gandhi said, politics without morality is very dangerous.

Likewise, religion without political awareness or without moral obligation to political events is worse than useless, as it could serve the oppressors.

The most important question is how the ethical inspiration of Buddhism can enlighten politics by being courageous enough to question social structures themselves and not simply the individual acts of persons, peoples or their government.

All practising Buddhists must develop mindfulness that allows them to deal with these issues at their deepest levels.

Bhavana (mindfulness) and samadhi (concentration) bring liberation from mentally corrupting suffering caused by greed, hatred and delusion that in turn make people commit all forms of evil.

Mindfulness can be cultivated at any moment, within any activity in daily life: breathing, eating, drinking, washing the dishes, gardening or driving the car (this may be especially useful when driving in Bangkok traffic).

Mindfulness and concentration directly cultivate seeds of peace within the mind, developing peace and happiness which can then help one to transform oneself to be less selfish.

Within traditional Theravada Buddhism, the first part of training the mind is to achieve samatha (tranquility) in order to plant seeds of peace.

The second part, vipassana (insight training), is a technique for understanding the true nature of both one's own and the world's psycho-physical constitution.

This can be developed into analytic thinking through an understanding of causal relations and of problem solving.

With the detachment of the ego, it becomes a factor in the development of wisdom or right understanding.

Yonisomnasikra, or critical self-awareness, leads to selflessness, reducing selfish desires and generating energetic efforts.

Calm and the development of yonisomanasikra in turn lead to the development of panna (genuine) understanding.

Panna, which comes from both the head and the heart is very different from purely intellectual knowledge.

It helps one to become aware, humble, and to know one's limits, even as it promotes metta (loving kindness) and karuna (compassion) in sharing the sufferings of others and attempting to eliminate the causes of suffering.

Mindfulness is helpful in tackling the causes of suffering, even within an oppressive social system that uses resistance and retaliation to maintain a status quo.

Through the practice of mindfulness one can learn to understand the dangers of an oppressive social system and how to forgive one's enemies.

If Buddhists understand structural violence and its roots in dosa (hatred) and learn how to eliminate it mindfully and non-violently, Buddhism will not only be relevant to the modern world but a source of its liberation from violence and oppression.