It's very prominent here in the United States right now.
Bhante, do you recommend lay Buddhists or people who are trying to move towards a more meditative lifestyle not to become involved and too concerned with politics?
Well, I don't think there's a difficult answer.
Of course.
Don't get involved with anything.
I mean, do you think politics has some benefit for your meditation?
I mean, I guess... I would say outside of their meditative sessions, I guess he's talking probably life in general during the rest of your day.
Yeah.
Is it going to get in the way with your meditation?
I mean, in some sense, reading the news and knowing what's going on is useful.
If you think of it as a functional or a duty that you have to keep informed so that you're able to respond and interact and know what people are talking about when they talk about the president or so on.
They can actually be useful.
The point is useful on a functional level for someone who's dwelling in society.
If you're trying to move towards a more meditativism lifestyle, then of course.
But maybe the question could be how important is it to move away from it?
Because obviously giving up more and more things is of great benefit, focusing more and more on meditation.
Where is it on the scale of giving up politics?
Giving up interest in politics?
I think that depends how involved you are in politics.
If you're running someone's campaign or out campaigning for someone, then yeah, probably it's something that you should make a decision on.
If it's just, you know, watching the polls and looking and seeing who's winning and so on,
then it's it's just an obsession which a lot of people seem to have that you know among many obsessions you have to see is it the last one that I have where I'm giving up everything but politics well then maybe it's next to go but
I wouldn't worry too much about it.
No, I guess there's more to the question and a better answer is talking about how important is politics and what place does politics play because it really doesn't play that big of a part.
It doesn't affect your happiness to any great degree.
I don't know.
I mean, if your country elects a government that is corrupt and so on, that's a really, really bad thing.
But kind of sly as a Buddhist how we can get around this, and I think it's totally valid, is you have to ask yourself, why do countries elect corrupt leaders?
Because there's a very simple answer.
It's because the people are corrupt.
Because the people are corrupted.
The people are easily influenced by liars.
I mean, people are not stupid.
And most of the politicians seem to think that they are.
Because they put out these ads and arguments that are really... You know, I mean, we watch Hollywood.
People watch Hollywood movies.
uh they know what a good actor is with someone who really feels what they're saying and politicians don't you know they're they're totally um rehashing you know old lines and so on and so
What I mean to say is if people, if the people of a country are meditative, let's just go straight to the point, but are pure, are clear in their minds and so on, then there's no way that they would elect the wrong guy, so to speak.
They would elect someone who is kind and who has a clear mind and who is intelligent and who's helping people and so on.
In a democracy,
That's what would happen.
The problem is that people are selfish and bigoted and full of views and opinions and have these horrible ideas about what is proper.
So where do we have to start?
It's not getting involved in politics.
It's about changing these people's minds, waking them up.
And that's totally Buddhism.
So if the question is, should I be concerned and involved in politics for the reason that if I'm not, it might lead me to have to live in a country with a dictator or someone who is...
totally wreaking havoc on the country's social structure, then no, you don't have to.
You have to help to change people.
Because the more people you change, the more people you're going to have who vote for the right guy, or at least don't vote for the wrong guy.
Don't vote for someone who is going to, you know, who is whatever, who is corrupt and evil and so on.
So if you can change people, oh, you change so much in a society.
You change the entertainment.
When you change people's attitudes, suddenly the entertainment starts to reflect that, as an example.
And it's a good example, because entertainment affects everyone.
It affects politicians.
They mirror themselves.
They want to be like the movie stars.
I don't know that entertainment would be the perfect category, but I'm thinking of America now.
If you can change the entertainment in America, and maybe it's just because America is so fixated on entertainment, then you can change everything.
You can change politics, you can change society, you can change people's... You can change the whole... That's the scary thing, I suppose.
Because everyone wants to be like the movie stars.
Anyway, maybe that's going over the top, but the point is sound, I think, that you help the people, change the people, change people's thoughts, change the direction, give them new ideas, good ideas, and you'll change the political system much, much better than you could by voting or even campaigning for someone who...
In general, there's no such thing as a pure politician, I don't think, or it's very hard to find.
Everyone gets corrupted by it and has to compromise themselves by the nature of the system, by the nature of the fact that corruption is built into it.
in general.
And the only way to change that is to change people's minds, change the people around you, change, you know, start making YouTube videos where you tell people good things, teach people good stuff.
Yeah, self-congratulatory.