Democracy and Dharma
What do democracy and the teachings of Buddha have in common? By understanding their link, it can make a committed follower of Buddha a more attentive citizen of their democracy. It can also make the admirer of democracy understand how their civic responsibilities contain a natively embedded spiritual component; a responsibility to cultivate our own hearts and minds.
The U.S. Constitution begins by affirming the motivation, or purpose, that the Founders had in creating it. It lists six reasons, but let’s focus on the last two. The Preamble starts off, “We the People of the United States, in Order to… promote the general Welfare and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity… establish this Constitution of the United States of America.”
Promoting the general Welfare is the main motivation for engaging in the study and practice of mind transformation through Buddha’s teachings. The Bodhisattva Tokemay Zangpo advised: “…Whatever you are doing, ask yourself, “What’s the state of my mind?” With constant mindfulness and meta-awareness, accomplish others’ welfare.”
For those committed to the goal of awakening, we affirm our motivation, or purpose, for living our lives every day when we wake up. We think, “May I become enlightened for the welfare of all sentient beings.” That is the motivation we strive to reinforce. We use a wide variety of methods to make it mature. There are many contemplative practices that are designed to produce that motivation, so we study them. This is the motivation with which we do everything.
Accomplishing others’ welfare was also one of the motivations with which the Founders established the Constitution. The scope of the welfare that we have in mind in the goal of Bodhicitta differs from the Founders, because we’re thinking of an infinite future and permanent welfare – in other words, liberation from even the potential to ever suffer again for all lifeforms.
Yet, on a careful reading, the Constitution leaves the scope of its promises open. It seeks to “secure the Blessings of Liberty for ourselves and our posterity.” There is no boundary to the posterity of the Founders – it will go on until humanity ceases. Likewise there is no limit to the “general Welfare.”
The U.S. Constitution thus maps onto the Buddhist path in profound ways. In an individual’s spiritual growth over time, the scope of their motivation broadens with deepening practice and learning. Likewise, the promises of the Constitution broaden in scope as the American populace matures in recognition of fundamental equality and human rights.
This is the beauty and profundity of the U.S. Constitution – it is a living document whose meaning evolves alongside the changes in its readers and upholders; it broadens its scope with the progressive expansion of mind of the American populace. From its inception, it has been lying in wait to expand its promise of the Blessings of Liberty to more and more people. We the People can deepen our understanding of compassion and brotherhood, widening it to more and more people, while the Constitution is always right there, holding up our altruistic aims as the stable rock of the political will of our nation. It is always ready for a nation of Bodhisattvas. In some sense, it insists on it.
Dharma practice is similar. From the first moment you hear about the magical practice of metta, or loving-kindness, you already have the full scope of this beautiful consciousness – it’s there in the words. But you won’t yet have the capacity to actualize the full emotional and cognitive state where your mind is truly focused on all sentient beings and absorbed in the caring desire for them to have happiness, permeated with a blissful love.
Even though we recite “may all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness” from the very beginning of our entry into this practice, the true power of this statement unfolds over time. This is like our democracy and the promise of the Constitution. The Framers could just barely imagine the full depths of what they were setting out to accomplish.
As we grow internally, the depths of our love expand beyond what we could have imagined earlier. As we grow as a society, the sense of who is covered by our Constitution’s guarantee of liberty morphs into a vision of oneness of humanity without divisions that was unthinkable before. It is thinkable now and so we can actualize it now.
The worldview that we learn to adopt through study and practice of Buddhist philosophy is a holistic one. It includes you as an individual, with all of your components, good and bad. It also includes the world in which you live.
As Americans – or citizens of any modern democracy – we have a dual blessing: the Blessings of Liberty secured by the Constitution, and the blessing that we bring into the world through our own training in altruism. We have the blessing of knowing the nature of reality through contemplating emptiness, selflessness and impermanence. This is the true Blessing of Liberty, which liberates us from all undesirable conditions – from all confusion, ignorance, maladaptive cognitions, and suffering.
Through the combination of the Blessings of political freedom and the Blessings of the Dharma, we can truly make this world an environment for all people to have a peaceful, happy, and free life. Inspired by the Dharma and the profound state of inner peace and love that it creates, some will be moved to direct action – socially engaged generosity, giving your time, energy, and other resources to helping people.
Others will focus more wholly on engaging with training the mind itself – but this also transforms the world. It helps to expand what’s possible for the whole society. When your commitment to the “general Welfare” expands to include more and more people, with more and more profound awareness of different types of well-being, the scope of that original sentence penned in 1787 will also expand to include more people, greater rights, and truer Liberty. Your actions – your mind – can usher in the promises of the Constitution and the promise of the Bodhisattva’s path simultaneously. It’s as if the Constitution was designed for a nation of altruistic warriors for peace.
