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.  

Sulak Sivaraksa at the Garrison Institute's Satyagraha Event

Sivaraksa as one representative articulating one approach to "Engaged Buddhism."  He has had an interesting life filled with jail time and activism.  In this video, he calls says strongly that, "The West has been thinking too much."  This goes along with what Tsoknyi Rinpoche speaks about in many of his teachings regarding the subtle body problem that seems to be manifest in the western experience - too much thinking creates blocks, cultural blocks, in the body.

This is a good video to show in a discussion about the definition of Engaged Buddhism - what is it?  who is engaged or not engaged and how to we figure that out?  But, best to give some context about Sivaraksa's life and where his motivation arises to do the work he is doing. 

RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

Anil showed this in class the other day to highlight the concept of proper motivation in the workplace and to pose the question, "is there a proper motivation in the workplace?" The model presented here which is replicated in many places is -
1. Autonomy
2. Mastery of Skill
3. Purpose

He compared things to the Buddha's life in terms of the 8fold path.

Secret Powers of Time

Past Oriented - 1. past positive - focus on the 'good old times' 2. past negative - focus on regret/failure
Present Oriented - 1. Hedonistic - live for pleasure avoid pain.  2. My life is fated (by religion, poverty) Fatalism
Future Oriented - 1. We've learned to work rather than play, and avoid temptation.  2. Life begins after the death of the mortal body.

shared time perspectives characterize nations ---  culture too?

The Geography of Time - Robert Levine
Pace of Life - Time Perspective - How people divide their experiences into partitions
Time Duration - are you bored?  are you excited?

Different cultures have a different pace of life.

Education? Purpose of school is to make present-oriented beasts into future oriented adults (some cultures make them past-oriented).


Kids need to be in a situation where they feel like they are controling something (video games...)
all of our educational systems are designed toward future-oriented kids, yet, they already know the cultural time perspectives - future-oriented kids succeed in school as we have it set up.  How to teach present-oriented kids?

Kids are totally different than we were - revolution of time.

"Many of life's puzzles can be solved simply by understanding our own time perspective, and the time perspective of others.  Conflict we have with other people is simply conflict we have with each other's time perspectives.  Once we're aware of that, we stop making negative attributions like 'you're dumb' or 'you're childish' or 'you're pig-headed' or 'you're authoritarian'.  It's really the most simple idea in the world."

RSA Animate - The Secret Powers of Time

Malaria In Nepal

One teacher of mine often gives an "Intro to Nepal" talk that includes statements about pre-WWII malaria barrier that prevented the British from crossing the jungly Terai belt of southern Nepal and conquering the Rana regime in control of the Kathmandu Valley for the last 300 years. 

It is common knowledge that one of the first USAID projects in Nepal was the planned eradication of malaria in 1951.  The intended aim of which was to reduce mortality rates in this southernmost region.  Opportunity for hill tribes to move south to more arable, malaria-free land was an unforeseen consequence which leaves more than imprints of hostility on the Madeshi (native peoples) of this Terai area, complicating the constitution-writing process in various ways.

However, it seems that USAID was not successful - while malaria is not considered a risk in the higher-altitude areas of Nepal, including the Kathmandu Valley, there still remains risk in the terai belt. 

Democracy Is...