I first encountered
The Miracle of Being Awake (later published as
The Miracle of Mindfulness)
in 1982, when a monk from the Abbey of Gethsemani gave me a mimeograph
of an English translation of a manual for social workers in Vietnam. In
the 30 years since then, Thich Nhat Hanh has applied his simple message
of mindfulness to many key areas of our lives: The environment, healthy
eating, peacemaking, public service, anger, intimate relationships,
among many others.
I read one of Thầy’s most recent books,
Good Citizens: Creating Enlightened Society,
in which he uses Buddhist fundamentals to sketch how we can become
better public selves. Seeking a broad audience, neither religious nor
not necessarily “spiritual” either, he invites people to consider the
Buddhist pragmatism as found in the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold
Path, and the Five Wonderful Mindfulness Trainings. At 144 pages, the
book can be read in a fairly short time; integrating it, however, may
require many years of practice.
In encouraging people to become good citizens, Thầy leaves it to his
readers to apply these teachings in our own contexts. It is there and
then that we may learn a great deal about how good, mindful,
compassionate citizens are characterized, at least when they dare to
question the prerogatives of the powerful.
For example, here in Saint Louis, two of the most powerful
corporations in the country have a comfortable home—Boeing and Monsanto.
Their public relations departments will enthusiastically remind us that
they are true benefactors to the community since they support our
schools, universities, arts, and charities.
Obviously, Boeing is an integral part of the military-industrial
complex, which enables U.S. militarism to be without peer in the world.
Yet the corporation’s operations are linked to the violation of the
first mindfulness training, which calls for reverence for life, and
reads as follows:
“Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I am
committed to cultivating the insight of interbeing and compassion and
learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and
minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not
to support any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, or in my way
of life. Seeing that harmful actions arise from anger, fear, greed, and
intolerance, which in turn come from dualistic and discriminative
thinking, I will cultivate openness, non-discrimination, and
non-attachment to views in order to transform violence, fanaticism, and
dogmatism in myself and in the world.”
Imagine, for a moment, that some local citizens aren’t so impressed
by Boeing’s contribution to the commonweal. Suppose they want to help
their fellow citizens become more aware of the suffering in the world
and so begin a campaign to highlight Boeing’s products, which generates
its profits. One part of such a campaign could be a mobile photo
exhibition around the city to show the bodily effects of Boeing’s
products on expendable peoples in the Middle East and West Asia.
Even assuming that such citizens do the above with some mindfulness,
is it likely that the Boeing executives and employees, their allies in
the university, and their friends in the community at large will look
upon those people as “good citizens”? Or is it more likely that they
would be seen as “anti-American” or “soft on terrorism”?
A “good citizen” in Thầy’s mindful sense may be a “bad citizen” from
the standpoint of a nation’s dominant power interests. I recall first
hearing the expression “a good German” back in the 1980s. Said
ironically, it referred to those German citizens who were “good” in that
they were obedient, quiet, and passive during the Third Reich.
In 1943 in the eyes of the Nazi state, Sophie Scholl and other young
members of the White Rose Movement were considered “bad citizens,” nay,
traitors, for distributing leaflets calling on their fellow German
citizens to oppose Hitler’s tyrannous rule. To many around the world
today, the White Rose members are viewed as among the most exemplary
citizens in Germany from those horrible years.
–––
“The real damage is done by those millions who want to ‘survive.’ The
honest men who just want to be left in peace. Those who don’t want
their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves. Those
with no sides and no causes. Those who won’t take measure of their own
strength, for fear of antagonizing their own weakness. Those who don’t
like to make waves—or enemies. Those for whom freedom, honour, truth,
and principles are only literature. Those who live small, mate small,
die small. It’s the reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small,
you’ll keep it under control. If you don’t make any noise, the bogeyman
won’t find you. But it’s all an illusion, because they die too, those
people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be
safe. Safe?! From what? Life is always on the edge of death; narrow
streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle
burns itself out just like a flaming torch does. I choose my own way to
burn.”
–Sophie Scholl
