Empowerment

The three yanas, according to Tibetan Buddhism are three stages of one's path to enlightenment. 

Thinking about this, in relation to social engagement and activism, seems one can extract three stages there as well.  When thinking about how social action works with the traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, a context needs to be created to frame 'engagement' effectively. 

Reggie Ray writes the following from a Tricycle article considering the concept of Empowerment:


We talk a lot about “empowerment” in the Vajrayana and it is important to understand exactly what that means. To receive empowerment doesn’t mean that someone grants you the power to escape from your life, or to override and control things you don’t like; rather, they help you tap into the power you inherently possess to surrender utterly to your unique life, which is the only gateway in the entire universe through which you can enter eternity.

Reginald Ray, "The Vajrayana Journey is an experience of love, power, and freedom"

The conversation overlaps in the world of development - it is quite popular to talk about women's empowerment, empowering others to take responsibility for their improvement or education, for example.  One can't deny the agency in this word - empowerment implies someone doing the empowering and someone receiving the empowerment.  Is it possible to empower oneself?  In the Vajrayana tradition, no.  In the conversation about the ethics of development, it has become popular to talk about empowerment as the receiver of resources taking responsibility for their own empowerment. 

I am not sure this concept actually works, but maybe is just something to tell ourselves as we attempt to create what we perceive as a better life for people who we perceive are living in poverty. 

Development remains a touchy issue - I don't pose that there are any solutions, actually, only that there needs to be constant questioning as "development" continues to happen in many parts of the world.