Non-Attachment To Views, Non-Self And Engaged Buddhism

Yeah,

Maybe we can just take a moment to pause this side of the break.

Once again,

Just noticing how the heart-mind are.

And seeing if we can tend with care to whatever's here.

Just offering space to how the heart-mind is in this moment.

And you can check in with yourself how you would like to listen to these reflections.

Eyes open,

Eyes closed.

The reflections are going to be on non-attachment to view and non-self.

And it's in response to a question I received a couple of weeks ago by a young practitioner.

And they asked,

The Buddha shares about non-attachment to view,

But how do we reconcile this with the need to take a position and to act in the world in response to the harm being done?

We can just take a moment to notice how those words impact and land with the heart-mind.

And really to say about this theme,

I'll be offering my perspective on this theme,

But you don't need to agree with it.

And actually,

Maybe this will open a dialogue where I'd be interested to hear your perspective as well.

And I'm just going to share my understanding of the Buddhist teachings around this and how we can practice with this in our daily lives.

So for me,

This teaching of non-attachment to views,

I feel can sometimes be misinterpreted as not taking a stance on certain issues.

But actually,

When we look at the Buddhist commentaries,

The Buddha himself did hold a position.

There's stories of him protecting his hometown when he knew it was about to be invaded.

But for me,

The understanding of this is to really understand the difference between knowing that a view is a perspective and each perspective has nuance and can change,

Actually,

Versus a view that we can hold on to,

Which is I'm right and everyone else is wrong.

So it's kind of discerning between these two.

And understanding this allows us to see how others can hold different perspectives.

I was reflecting on these image cards you can sometimes get.

And if I showed two of you the same image,

One of you would say,

Oh,

Yeah,

Definitely that's a vase.

That's a vase for flowers.

And another one of you would say,

Hmm,

No,

It's really a face.

Actually,

I can see a face.

And then when you look slightly differently at the image,

You can see the other image.

So it kind of reminds me of this.

And when we begin to see how different perspectives are possible,

That understand can really open up compassion for the other person or other people who hold a different view.

And,

Yeah,

This reminds me of a teaching from the Mahayana tradition where they often describe wisdom and compassion as two wings of a bird.

And when we cultivate this understanding,

We can really open up compassion for any person,

Even if their perspective is immoral.

So with this understanding,

We can have compassion for this person,

Even if their perspective is immoral.

You can just notice how that feels as we hear that.

That said,

You know,

That all said,

We do need to know where we stand on the political line as this feeds into either the systems of compassion or the systems of harm that are in place.

And we have influence on those.

And sometimes someone or an institution is acting in a way that's harmful.

So we're not turning off our ability to be judicious,

Which means to be wise and sensible.

But being judicious,

If you can imagine what a good judge would be,

It does mean seeing the wider perspective,

Including the different points of view.

So as an example of this,

You know,

Oil companies,

Mass corporations are really profiting and influencing the destruction of the earth and the earth's resources.

And in just the last election,

A large number of seats held by politicians who have been described as climate change deniers,

They lost their seats and more seats were gained by politicians who actually want to urgently prioritize minimizing climate destruction.

And that,

You know,

What happened there was influenced by our stance,

Our stance.

So we could say,

You know,

Climate denial is another perspective.

It is a view and we can even maybe understand how that view came to manifest.

But I was reminded of the 17th century philosopher,

Blaise Pascal,

Who said,

You know,

Maybe there is a God,

Maybe there isn't a God,

But maybe we should act as if there is a God.

And I thought,

Oh,

You know,

Maybe we should act as if there is climate destruction.

Just in case,

Maybe we should.

So we really act from a place that is morally right.

So we could say righteousness,

But that's very different.

It's a very different energy from self-righteousness.

And we can do this from a place of morality as per the Buddha's teachings on ethics.

And we do this from a place of compassion,

Not othering or hating those who hold immoral views.

I was very touched by a documentary about a black American activist and jazz musician called Daryl Davis.

And he would engage with self-identified white supremacists called the Ku Klux Klan in the U.

S.

And he would go to their marches and he wouldn't antagonize them.

He would simply just be there with them and they got to know him.

And,

Yeah,

He just stayed present with compassion in his heart.

And many of them ended up disrobing from the Ku Klux Klan just from getting to know him and spending time with him.

So maybe a question is,

You know,

Did the Buddha practice non-attachment to view?

And if you read the suttas,

You know,

The Buddha does at times use strong language.

If someone does something silly,

He calls them a fool,

You know,

And these sorts of words.

But he was also very flexible and amenable to his perspective being changed as needed.

And as an example,

There's something called the Vinaya,

Which is the text containing the ethical rules and regulations with regards to conduct of monastics.

And how he would add a rule is typically actually someone would do something unethical and then he would put a rule into the Vinaya.

So at one point,

He found out that there were monastics who were lying about their levels of attainment.

So attainment is the stages of spiritual progress a person has reached on the path to enlightenment.

There are four in total.

And when they were lying to get more food on alms round,

And so when the Buddha found out,

He told them off.

He still allowed that monk to practice as a monk,

But he made a rule,

He added the rule to the Vinaya that monastics could not talk about their level of attainment.

And then later on,

Some monks came to visit him and said,

You know,

But who can we trust if we don't know someone's level of attainment?

Like,

Yeah,

How can we trust that in people?

And the Buddha reflected and decided,

Okay,

I'm going to amend the rule,

I'm going to adjust it.

So he added,

You can't talk about your level of attainment if it's untrue,

And you can share about it in certain circumstances,

If it is true.

Yeah,

So it really shows how the Buddha's perspective changed.

And there's many other situations in the text as to when he does this.

So,

Yeah,

Really to say it's a very human thing for us to attach to a view.

So there's no blame in being human.

But it can be helpful to know deeply that when we're holding tightly to a view,

What's happening is that we're building a sense of self,

This sense of self that we need to protect.

And the degree that we hold on to a view is the degree to which we build the sense of self.

And it's related to the degree of suffering we feel as a consequence.

So the teaching of non-attachment to view is actually a teaching of anatta,

Non-self.

So let's just take a moment to pause before we continue allowing those words to land.

So,

Yeah,

It can be really helpful to understand this on a more intellectual level.

But really,

The practice is how can we use this in the moment,

In our daily lives?

So how do we practice with this in real time?

So firstly,

It's just recognizing in the moment that we're building a sense of self or attaching to a view.

And we'll notice how that manifests.

Typically,

There'll be quite a bit of attachment.

There'll be a lot of thoughts generated of quite a strong nature,

You know,

They're wrong.

I'm going to prove that they're wrong.

I'm right.

You know,

Feelings of anger,

Self-righteousness.

So we really want to pause and notice at that point.

Bring mindfulness to what's here and acknowledge what's happening.

Sometimes I just note to myself,

I'm just noticing.

Building,

Building,

Grasping,

Grasping.

So just really acknowledging that process that's happening.

And the invitation is to drop the story.

So there'll be this temptation to keep fueling,

To keep fueling the holding of the view.

But seeing if we can actually just drop the story and come into the body.

And notice what physical sensations we can feel.

So there might be heat,

There might be contraction,

There might be agitation.

And this is really the feeling of tanha,

Which is attachment that we're sensing in the body.

It might be helpful to offer some space.

So to feel the ground beneath the feet,

Open the eyes,

Just have a wide gaze.

We're still noticing what's happening in the body,

But we're just widening,

Offering space to what's here.

Can just make it more manageable to meet in the moment.

And yeah,

We can hold it within the sphere of loving-kindness.

This kind of kind awareness that we can bring to what's here.

At this point,

You know,

After we've done that,

At this point,

You know,

After really tending to the heart-mind,

I find it helpful to bring in wisdom.

So,

You know,

Recognize this is a view,

This is a perspective.

And the other person has another perspective.

I like to maybe consider some of the conditions that may have arisen for them to hold that perspective.

I like to consider,

You know,

If I was brought up in similar conditions,

Perhaps I would have that perspective too.

And maybe some feelings of compassion will arise.

We don't need to force it,

But if they do,

We really notice and give space for those.

And we might need to spend quite a bit of time in these stages.

But as with everything,

As with impermanence,

Things do come and go.

And we may notice this release of this feeling of attachment in the body.

We can really notice,

Actually,

The freedom in that release.

We can really lean into any cessation of feelings of suffering or contraction.

And then we might want to just drop in the question,

You know,

What is a skillful response here?

You know,

What is a skillful response here?

So I'll just finish by giving an example of how I use this in real time.

Yeah,

So I have a very small social media presence,

Less so these days,

But very small social media presence with regards to my work in meditation.

And at times I share how I've maybe acted politically or in different ways.

And I'd shared something on social media just about writing to my local MP,

Asking him to support a call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

And I'd shared a couple of updates about the ongoing harm.

And actually a past retreatant messaged me and said they didn't agree with me sharing about this on my work page about meditation.

And that they were having difficult emotions,

You know,

Reading this.

And I really noticed this strong reaction in me.

I was actually very primed to,

You know,

Write a long message back.

And,

Yeah,

Really ready to explain myself,

Very defensive.

And I just really noticed,

Oh,

There's a really strong contraction around this sense of self.

So I just acknowledged that,

Came into the body,

Really felt the heat,

Paused,

Tended to those emotions.

And then I really opened,

Oh,

You know,

How is this person feeling?

How is this person and why might they be feeling that way?

Maybe they feel fearful or anxious or overwhelmed.

And,

Yeah,

Really allowed compassion,

That circle of compassion to widen to include this person.

And then,

Yeah,

Things relaxed,

They opened up.

And we were able to offer a more skillful response.

And we were able actually to have very open dialogue around it.

And,

Yeah,

We didn't agree on everything.

And that's not,

You know,

We don't have to agree on everything.

But it was also a helpful conversation for me.

It did allow me to reflect,

Okay,

Well,

I do want to share about this.

But,

Yeah,

How can I do it in a more skillful way?

How can I do it in a way where it helps support people tend to any difficult emotions that may arise?

Or it might support them in turning towards particular issues.

But as with everything,

I do see this as a lifelong practice,

As a lifelong practice.

So maybe we can just take a moment to pause to finish.

And,

Yeah,

Once again,

You can just notice how the heart-mind is in this moment.

And may all of our practices go on to benefit all beings.

Thank you for listening.