Pema Khandro’s essay on Power in Buddhism was featured in Lion’s Roars Top Stories this week. This was based on a transcript of Pema Khandro’s speech at the Women’s March in Washington D.C. in 2017.
“Just because we avoid talking about power doesn’t mean we are unaffected by it. Power and hierarchy still unfold amidst our silence but are left to manifest in unconscious ways that promote suffering. This is the problem with the defensive avoidance of traumatic material: it always returns, resurfacing again and again until we can see our way through it. And we must see our way through it. If we avoid talking about power and social action, Buddhist ideas lose their relevance. We can’t speak of healthy love and compassion without addressing power dynamics. We can’t talk about interdependence without paying attention to the needs of the collective. It’s easy to say we love all sentient beings and to talk about universal compassion and empathy as abstractions. But how do we enact love and compassion on the ground, in real life?”
Click the link below to read the full article.
