Reading the newspaper this morning I learnt of yet another wicked and divisive thing Donald Trump has initiated. It seems that he is now ordering staff within the Veterans Affairs Office to report any instances of ‘anti-Christian bias’ among their colleagues. He has demanded names, dates, and locations.
A part of me immediately wants to send this up for the nonsense it is. Remember Monty Python’s ‘You never know when to expect the Spanish Inquisition,’ – whereupon a group of men in skirts and funny hats rush in? However, this is also a slide into something much darker, something that panders to the worst parts of our nature and will, as with everything Trump touches, increase human suffering.
So where is Buddhism in the midst of all this? Initially I felt rather superior on the topic. And then I remembered a Tibetan teacher called Geshe Pabongkha who was active during the early part of the last century. While stating that those involved in the Dharma should disavow politics, he nonetheless forged an alliance with a Chinese war lord in his attempt to make his own school of Tibetan Buddhism dominant in the eastern province of Kham. He also declared that the other schools, Kagyu and Nyingma in particular, whom he saw as rivals, were bound for hell. And he actively attacked their more liberal and inclusive understanding of Buddhist teaching.
Sound familiar?
Pabongkha was finally recalled to central Tibet where he was censored by the Abbot of his own monastery and by the thirteenth Dalai Lama. He duly accepted this admonishment and apologised. Too late; he had let the devil out of the bag, and the sectarian hatred he had unleashed continues in some circles even to this day.
What’s interesting about Geshe Pabongkha is that he was something of a paradox. While being a bigot and capable of cruelty, he was also a great Buddhist scholar – famous, interestingly, for his teachings on the bodhisattva’s compassion and wisdom. How are we to understand this? My only explanation is that, like all of us, his personality was compartmentalised so that the different parts of him were not fully connected and integrated. While he claimed to eschew politics he was deeply political; while he taught kindness he also employed ugly forces to prosecute his will. The Self that Buddhism goes to such lengths to challenge is not only illusory; it is also complex and multifaceted.
What then is going to happen in the Veterans Affairs Office? Plainly a lot of score-settling. This could be a field-day for envy, malice and spite. My own understanding of the Dharma is that we should not be surprised when we find these dark things alive in ourselves. But neither should we be ashamed of them. This could all too easily lead to being in conflict with a part of ourself that we then try to kill or destroy – so more of the same.
Better than this is to take responsibility for our emotions and know that we have choices. So: What do I encourage and what do I let go? Can I move towards having an open heart and being less driven by fear?
And if this leaves us feeling better than Trump – possibly even a tiny bit smug – then we can also feel it (and let it go) in a Buddhisty sort of way.