{"id":20,"date":"2010-10-02T10:38:05","date_gmt":"2010-10-02T10:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/10\/mindful-politics.html"},"modified":"2010-10-02T10:38:05","modified_gmt":"2010-10-02T10:38:05","slug":"mindful-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/10\/mindful-politics.html","title":{"rendered":"Mindful Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><!--StartFragment-->\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:19.0pt\"><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Times\">As the mid-term elections approach, political rhetoric is ramping up and along with it the usual fervor, apathy, distortion, and promulgation of hope (mostly false hope, I&#8217;m afraid). Here is a mindful perspective on politics from renown &nbsp;Buddhist author and editor, Melvin McLeod.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:19.0pt\"><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Times\">Melvin McLeod edits the<br \/>\nvolume<a href=\"http:\/\/wisdompubs.org\/Pages\/display.lasso?-KeyValue=32942&amp;-Token.Action=Search&amp;image=1\"> <i>Mindful Politics<\/i> (Wisdom, 2006<\/a>). &#8220;Politics is really about how we<br \/>\nlive together as human beings, and all spiritual practices point to one simple<br \/>\nbut profound truth about human life&#8211;that only love leads to peace, hatred<br \/>\nnever does. This is as true for nations as it is for individuals.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:19.0pt\"><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Times\">His proposed political<br \/>\nplatform: (if The Buddha was a politician and the Brahma Viharas)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\">\n<div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:19.0pt\">\n<ul>\n<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: 21px\">May all being enjoy<br \/>\nhappiness and the root of happiness<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: 21px\">May they be free from<br \/>\nsuffering and the root of suffering.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: 21px\">May the not be separated<br \/>\nfrom the great happiness devoid of suffering<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-size: 21px\">May they dwell in the<br \/>\ngreat&nbsp;equanimity&nbsp;free of passion, aggression, and ignorance.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div>\n<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"mindfulpolitics.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/96\/import\/mindfulpolitics.jpg\" width=\"288\" height=\"432\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left;margin: 0 20px 20px 0\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:19.0pt\"><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Times\">Universal in application<br \/>\n&#8212; all. Politics is emotions gone awry &#8212; vengeance, war, intolerance of<br \/>\ndifference, and so forth.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:19.0pt\"><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Times\">As Buddhism (particularly through mindfulness)<br \/>\npromotes emotional and social intelligences it might have something to offer<br \/>\nthe world as an antidote to hostility, inequity, and damage. The dualistic and<br \/>\nfalse sense of &#8220;us&#8221; versus &#8220;them&#8221; underlies much of the<br \/>\nconflict.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:19.0pt\"><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Times\">If we are not in this all together than we are divided one against<br \/>\nanother. According to McLeod the keys to change are: forgiveness, awareness,<br \/>\nkindness, and selflessness. Politics is ultimately about relationships and all<br \/>\nrelationships brook in power and conflict.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:19.0pt\"><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Times\">How will these conflicts be<br \/>\nresolved? With mindful awareness or through the perpetuation of the Three<br \/>\nPoisons (which seem to be an apt laundry for the world&#8217;s problems).<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:19.0pt\"><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Times\">Individual transformation<br \/>\nis the prerequisite for societal transformation. The first step is not to save<br \/>\nthe world, but to save your self. If each individual works to limit or even<br \/>\neliminate hatred, greed, and ignorance the world will be a better place through<br \/>\nthe aggregation of this absence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:19.0pt\"><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Times\">From Buddhist Monk and<br \/>\nVietnam veteran, Claude Anshin<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"hellsgate.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/96\/import\/hellsgate.jpg\" width=\"148\" height=\"223\" class=\"mt-image-right\" style=\"float: right;margin: 0 0 20px 20px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:19.0pt\"><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Times\">&nbsp;Thomas in his book <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.shambhala.com\/html\/catalog\/items\/isbn\/978-1-59030-271-2.cfm\">At Hell&#8217;s Gate: A Soldier&#8217;s<br \/>\nJourney from War to Peace.<\/a><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\">\n<div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Times\">Peace is not an idea. Peace is not a political movement, not a theory or<br \/>\na dogma. Peace is a way of life: living mindfully in the present moment &#8230; It<br \/>\nis not a question of politics, but of actions. It is not a matter of improving<br \/>\na political system or even taking care of homeless people alone. These are<br \/>\nvaluable but will not alone end war and suffering. We must simply stop the<br \/>\nendless wars that rage within&#8230; Imagine, if everyone stopped the war in<br \/>\nthemselves &#8211;there would be no seeds from which war could grow.&#8221; (Quoted<br \/>\nin Mindful Politics).<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the mid-term elections approach, political rhetoric is ramping up and along with it the usual fervor, apathy, distortion, and promulgation of hope (mostly false hope, I&#8217;m afraid). Here is a mindful perspective on politics from renown &nbsp;Buddhist author and editor, Melvin McLeod. Melvin McLeod edits the volume Mindful Politics (Wisdom, 2006). &#8220;Politics is really&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12,9,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-shelf","category-buddha-101","category-mindfulnesss","category-spider-mind-world-of-interconnections"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mindful Politics - Mindfulness Matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/10\/mindful-politics.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mindful Politics - Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As the mid-term elections approach, political rhetoric is ramping up and along with it the usual fervor, apathy, distortion, and promulgation of hope (mostly false hope, I&#8217;m afraid). Here is a mindful perspective on politics from renown &nbsp;Buddhist author and editor, Melvin McLeod. Melvin McLeod edits the volume Mindful Politics (Wisdom, 2006). &#8220;Politics is really&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/10\/mindful-politics.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-02T10:38:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/mindfulpolitics.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. Arnie Kozak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mindful Politics - Mindfulness Matters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/10\/mindful-politics.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mindful Politics - Mindfulness Matters","og_description":"As the mid-term elections approach, political rhetoric is ramping up and along with it the usual fervor, apathy, distortion, and promulgation of hope (mostly false hope, I&#8217;m afraid). Here is a mindful perspective on politics from renown &nbsp;Buddhist author and editor, Melvin McLeod. Melvin McLeod edits the volume Mindful Politics (Wisdom, 2006). &#8220;Politics is really&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/10\/mindful-politics.html","og_site_name":"Mindfulness Matters","article_published_time":"2010-10-02T10:38:05+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/mindfulpolitics.jpg"}],"author":"Dr. Arnie Kozak","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/10\/mindful-politics.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/10\/mindful-politics.html","name":"Mindful Politics - Mindfulness Matters","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/10\/mindful-politics.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/10\/mindful-politics.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/mindfulpolitics.jpg","datePublished":"2010-10-02T10:38:05+00:00","dateModified":"2010-10-02T10:38:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#\/schema\/person\/5f92cf2ae15fbe04e74ca47527ac68d8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/10\/mindful-politics.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/10\/mindful-politics.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/10\/mindful-politics.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/mindfulpolitics.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/mindfulpolitics.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/10\/mindful-politics.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mindful Politics"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/","name":"Mindfulness Matters","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Arnie Kozak","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#\/schema\/person\/5f92cf2ae15fbe04e74ca47527ac68d8","name":"Dr. Arnie Kozak","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6ab\/6abd6f3205265768510a13d66ac2aff7x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6ab\/6abd6f3205265768510a13d66ac2aff7x96.jpg","caption":"Dr. Arnie Kozak"},"description":"Recognized as an innovator in the field of mindfulness-based psychology, Dr. Arnie Kozak is northern New England's leading expert in the field. Dr. Kozak's ability to translate ancient healing traditions into pragmatic applications suitable for modern lifestyles through the use of metaphors have made him a strong voice in healthcare and business. Beginning with a journey to India in the 80\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where he took the Bodhisattva vows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Arnie Dr. Kozak began his lifelong practice in mindfulness meditation. Intent on finding a way to bring the practical healing attributes of mindfulness he began incorporating these techniques in his private practice. In 2002 Dr. Kozak created Exquisite Mind in Burlington, Vermont as a vehicle that could expand his wisdom to larger audiences beyond individual psychotherapy to professionals and corporations, health care providers, public groups and, most recently with Exquisite Mind Golf, amateur and professional golfers. His award-winning new book, Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness (Wisdom Publications, 2009) is a thoughtful, funny, and inspiring translation of mindfulness practice through the inventive use of metaphor applicable to our daily lives. In addition to his work with Exquisite Mind, Arnie Kozak, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDoctorate has been a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Vermont and is a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry and Medicine, University of Vermont College of Medicine. He has studied and practiced clinical psychology, meditation, and yoga for more than 25 years. He has studied with several meditation masters, including S. N. Goenka, Larry Rosenberg, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After receiving his bachelors degree with honors from Tufts University, he was awarded a Presidential Fellowship to get his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University at Buffalo. He completed his training as a Psychological Fellow at the Harvard Medical School. Prior to founding the Exquisite Mind in 2002, Arnie worked ten years in the private sector for the PKC Corporation consulting on mental health content for this revolutionary software company.","sameAs":["http:\/\/exquisitemind.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/author\/akozak"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}