Two Truths, Three Jewels, and the Buddha as Doctor --
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How this practitioner is trying to cope with the election. . .  
 
 
As students of the dharma many of us feel horrid post-election, because we care.We care about our own suffering, and we care about the pain of others, both now and for what we know is to come. We do not believe in the law of the jungle, or that all the migrants are criminals, or that the last election was stolen, or that the market philosophy of marginal productivity is true or just. We practice bodhicitta.And, as Buddhists, we recognize that if we are suffering it is our responsibility to seek out the causes of our suffering, to work on pulling out those roots.And, we are taught, we will be wise whenever we take advantage of the treasures and remedies available to us from the dharma. . . 
 


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The Two Truths
 

For me, some days after the initial shock and frustration, the teachings started to help. First to come to mind was the Two Truths of Reality — Absolute and Relative.If we can recall the Absolute Truth perspective, we’ll remember those moments when we realize that our troubled perception of reality, samsara, is only relatively real — that it has no permanence, and is as illusory as a dream.This state of awareness is so healing, for in this state it is as if the Pure Lands are suddenly revealed, for however many minutes or hours one is lucky enough to perceive them.All students of mysticism report remarkably similar experiences. William James described these breakthroughs of spirituality as noetic and ineffable. They carry their own truth, and the affirmation of that truth, but we can never describe them in words or concepts. When such an experience of the Absolute happens, we forever after remember that, in an ultimate sense, there is no suffering. Or as The Heart Sutra says, “Samsara is nirvana, and nirvana is samsara.”In Buddhist philosophy and mysticism, one effort to describe experiences of ultimate reality is evoked in the teachings about Samantabhadra, the All Good, the Primordial Buddha. And while Samantabhadra is a meditational archetype, apprehension of the All Good is an experience, not some being ‘out there’ in the cosmos.Again, words cannot describe such a state of consciousness, but once experienced, even for an hour, one never forgets that the universe is all good, is nothing but infinite love, beauty, and perfection. 
One encyclopedia tries to help us comprehend this intellectually, that which can only be really understood through being in it: “Noetic quality refers to a strong sense of gaining a genuine and unmediated insight, or of encountering ultimate reality; the mystical experience, by definition, is felt to be ‘more real than real.’ ”When classical mystics invoke “ineffability,” it is typically to affirm that there is more to what was experienced that can be expressed in any language. . .  
 

The despair of reifying the relative level of reality, that which right now appears so dismal, and believing it is the only level of reality, is harmful to our health. And prevents us from helping sentient beings.And so, if our current political situation feels too oppressive, too real, then maybe the medicine we need is a taste of the Absolute Truth. We can go on retreat, embark on a vision quest, seek out a guided journey, or ask a qualified teacher what we can do. But even if we are fortunate enough to have this seal of experience, we still must return to work and live in the Relative Truth of the relative world. So here is what is helping me meet the impending sense of doom in our fractured society. 
 
 
The Buddha as Doctor
 
 

I start with the Buddhas as the “The Great Physician.” Taking refuge, meditating on the Four Noble Truths, and pursuing the Eightfold Path is the course of healing the blessed doctor recommends.As we recall the responsibility of a practitioner, we ourselves sooner or later become the doctor. We assume the role, along with the help from our teachers and dharma friends, to heal ourselves.And so, like any doctor, we observe the symptoms, make diagnoses, prescribe the remedies, follow-up by checking on the success or failure of the prescription, and finally we practice prevention to avoid future illness.To seek the cure, we plunge to the depths of our psyches, eradicating the kleshas, the karmic poisons of false beliefs that portray the world as a place of desire and fear. 
I am suggesting that we go through the same process with our collective suffering. 
Our society, our civilization, is a collection of many psyches which becomes a body, a social organism, a polity, that is very similar to the lawful processes that the individual goes through.From the macro view, caring for the suffering of ourselves and our friends means we also care for the suffering of society. We are the social body — collectively — we are the environment and community. And they are us.It then follows that, if as practitioners, we see more clearly than others, we must become like doctors-to-society, able to observe, identify and diagnose, prescribe remedies, follow-up, and practice prevention at the macro level.Just as our own false beliefs, cognitive dissonance and biases lead to our suffering, along with our bad habits and selfish desires — all of our psychic poisons — so, too, do we find these phenomena in society-at-large.We can observe these symptoms, identify their causes, and study what sort of treatments our society needs, using the tools of dharma analysis to focus in on the real issues. . . 
One way to see this is that there are three main toxic elements to our political and economic process, (apologies for the condensed and telegraphic nature of this part, it is only an introduction).
 
 
The Three Poisons
 
 

 
 
They are ignorance, greed, and hate. So, let’s diagnose our current society’s illness through this lens. . .

1. The poor quality of our political leadership, manifests the psychic poison of ignorance. Politicians are not required to receive any moral, spiritual, or psychological training or education before holding office. We don’t even think about requiring such standards. Yet, time after time, we are betrayed, disappointed, let down by our leadership, for they simply do not have the ethical fiber, range of conscious awareness, or a true devotion to a cause greater than themselves. 
   
   
2. The second main poison is seen in the extremely poor quality of our political and economic philosophy, that undergirds all political policy made in Washington D.C., regardless of whether Republicans or Democrats initiate it. This lack of an enlightened, visionary, political-economic philosophy reveals the insidious and relentless psychic poison of greed that continues to drive capital to the upper percentiles of the wealthy. 
   
   As numerous authors have pointed out, our government is under the sway of the belief systems that emanate from the neoliberal, free market economic philosophy. This philosophy, embraced by both Democrats and Republicans, has so many false foundational principles that it is utterly discredited by any economist with a heart and a conscience. Want to see the evidence? The Evonomics website is one place to start. 
   
   
3. The third poison so ravaging to our society’s health is the manifestation of the psychic poison of hatred, which splinters community, creating more divisiveness, polarization, and the projection of blame onto others. What some call “othering.” Is there any political group that promotes the practice of loving kindness and compassion, the only real glue that can hold people together? Where is the community of more-enlightened citizens demanding better leadership, wiser economic and political philosophy, and practicing deep compassion for all sentient beings and the environment?

 
 
The Three Jewels

These three toxic elements in our society reflect the urgent need we have for the healing treasures of the Three Jewels — the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. In brief, here are three formulas derived from the treasures of the dharma, all mutually supportive and interactive, to help us understand what to do next. In this context we understand the Three Jewels as catalysts of healing.Medicinal Formula #1: If we apply these three refuges to our understanding of the world, the first Jewel, the Buddha, represents Awareness, as Tara Brach says. We need leaders aware of the traps of the ego-mind, leaders who have established moral and spiritual stability through their own years of practice and education. This is the first medicine we so desperately lack. Why do we not establish graduate or post-grad academies to train young people for more-enlightened political leadership, setting new standards for excellence?Medicinal Formula #2: Tara points out that the Dharma is really the Truth, the discriminating wisdom that leads humans to cure suffering, and help other sentient beings. This Jewel would illuminate a political-economic philosophy with a vision of wellness and care for all sentient beings. The philosophy we need is yet to be written. But it lies latent in the meeting place of science and the universal dharma. Why do we not fund a kind of X Prize to the team which comes up with the best new economic and political philosophy, cross fertilizing the new sciences of human happiness, with the perennial philosophy of the wisdom traditions?Medicinal Formula #3: The role of Sangha, or what Tara calls a community of Love, is the fellowship of bodhicitta-minded practitioners. This community would agree to support a new kind of leader, follow this new political vision, and comes together as a community to support them. Why do we not come together, in small groups at first, in living rooms and community spaces, and educate ourselves? Why do we not become more enlightened citizens, forming a body, an interest group that can effectively lobby the political parties? 
This is only a precis of what we should be thinking about, but there it is. I wanted to share it in a short form so that as many people as possible could see it. May it serve in some way all those struggling to apply the dharma to help our world.
 

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