This last week, I have happened upon a few relevant concepts/ideas/people that may provide you with some answers. I can’t say I’ve applied them myself, but friends and family have enthusiastically. Beyond the following is my own feeling that this whole ball of wax is in large part about remembering who and what you are. There’s a bit of the Wizard of Oz in all this. You’re already wearing the ruby slippers, you just have to remember they are there and know what they are for.
Regarding understanding the role of the media it is useful to understand the work of Edward Bernays. The oft-ignored question to remember is “who” the negative messages are from. Remembering this helps discard a lot of fluff and junk. Look up “The Century of Self” on Google Video. It’ll drive this idea home in fine enough detail.
So I have sort of “white Buddhist” friends who recently introduced me to the work of Joanna Macy. She’s an 80 year-old philosopher/guru and activist who’s most significant narrative in recent times is the idea of The Great Turning. This is the idea that people around the world are waking up to the destructive path we have been on and who are working toward and desiring a shift away from industrial capitalism and consumerism as it exists today. Joanna Macy’s books, I believe, have fairly specific and prescriptive steps for being more joyful and creating change on different levels (including change within systems). From what I have gleaned, the process always begins with a moment to express or cultivate gratitude for one’s opportunity to experience life in this time.
Secondly, my “Asian Buddhist” relatives have introduced me to the world of Nichirin Buddhism and its ancillary organization called “Soka Gakkai” (meaning something like “value creating society”). Nichirin was a 13th century lower-class Buddhist who basically rebelled against the fat cat elites of his day (rulers and priests/monks). He believed leaders should serve the people and also sought far and wide for Buddhism’s highest teachings to raise the consciousness of the lower classes and bring more equality into the world. He was persecuted and jailed in his lifetime by the Japanese elite of his time, but managed to record thought and understanding of the Lotus Sutra, which he believed to be the highest or most important of the Buddhist Sutras.
Nichirin Buddhism was resurrected in the early 20th century by Japanese educators who saw it as a way to rebel against the imperialism and nationalism that permeated Japanese education and society (including state-sponsored Shintoism). From that came education, outreach, and political pushback via Soka Gakkai.
That all is just to say that Nichirin Buddhism is the “religion” or practice and that Soka Gakkai is an org that centers around Nichirin’s teachings.
Among Nichirin’s tenets is the idea of “turning poison into medicine.” I can’t get too prescriptive beyond the name of the idea, but the organization’s followers (including members of my family) embrace a three -prong practice of chant, education/study, and I don’t remember the third thing. But this excerpt from Wikipedia explains the relevance of the chant used:
Nichiren taught that by chanting “Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo”, which means, “Devotion to the mystic law of cause and effect through sound and vibration.” to the Gohonzon (御本尊), a mandala he inscribed with Chinese and Sanskrit characters representing the enlightened life of the True Buddha, anyone can bring forth their inherent Buddha nature and become enlightened.
My cousin, in particular, who is not a nutcase, believes this chant has helped him change his life significantly for the better.
I suppose this is all just to say that we are enticed in so many ways to give up our “Buddha nature,” however it is characterized, through the erosion of “true” spiritual practice and by ceding our spiritual power to those who deceive us with fear and chaos. Whether they are deluded or not is another story, but I have seen firsthand how both my white and Asian Buddhist friends have retained their sanity and personal power through rituals that keep their personal power and positivity top of mind. Certainly, tar much is preferable to trading it in for ritualized and habitualized worship of every ugly and evil news story.
Oh—also, Google “totalitarian agriculture.” Understanding this will help you understand that a root of the problems we are facing today were seeded (almost literally) thousands of years ago when agriculture rose to dominance. It’s just good perspective to realize this problem reaches further into the past than most of us try to imagine.
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