Buddhist meditators and progressive political activists rarely interact. Activists may dismiss Buddhism as irrelevant in the face of struggles for urgent political change, while many Buddhist meditators believe activists fail to recognize that human suffering arises not simply from unjust social institutions but also from our tendency toward greed, anger, and delusion.
In
Mindful Solidarity
, Mike Slott encourages political activists and Buddhist practitioners to connect with and learn from each other. A secular form of Buddhism and democratic socialist politics complement each other, he argues. We need to pursue both individual and social transformation.
Political activists with a meditation practice and imbued with an ethic of care can play a vital role as we work to create fundamental social change. At the same time, the Buddhist path of individual transformation is enriched by making it more ethically and socially focused.