A Buddhist Response to the Age of “Globalization”

A Buddhist Response to the Age of “Globalization”

Sometimes I feel that globalization is not really an accurate descriptor of the age we are said to be living in. The word ‘globalization’ is at best too socially neutral, at worse highly misleading and deceptive. Sometimes I prefer catchwords such as “free market fundamentalism” and “extreme modernism” to “globalization.” 

“Free market fundamentalism” is a more accurate descriptor because globalization, which preaches the interdependence of nations, the mutuality of their interests, and the shared benefits of their interactions, has triggered the very opposite consequences; e.g., increasing dependence of ‘developing’ states on ‘developed’ states, increasing inequalities between the North and the South, investors and workers, agro-businesses and peasants, widening income inequalities within and between states, etc. As a result of the free market system, the natural environment in large pockets of the world is also in ruins beyond repair, threatening ecological equilibrium and human survival in general. And despite these obvious consequences, we are told that the free market system is still not free enough; there are still barriers to trade; economies have to be further deregulated or restructured at almost all costs; and so on. All these must be done in the name of progress, prosperity, development. If this faith in the emancipatory power of the free market system is not akin to fundamentalism, then what is?

“Extreme modernism” is also a more accurate descriptor because we are living in a world characterized by the intensification, radicalization, and universal spread of ‘modernity.’ One Thai scholar has called this “the age of extreme modernism,” whereby “modernity now relies simply on its own justification and devours all other forms of actualization of human beings.” Other forms of human aspirations are degraded as inferior—the products of weak and abnormal minds. The implication is clear: there is only one way to be sane and normal. This is understandable, as the development concept of modernization is racially coded. Its intellectual precursor is none other than “Europeanization.” The renowned syndicate columnist Thomas Friedman has even labeled critics of globalization “advocates of a flat earth.” According to Friedman, these critics are locked in the abnormal past, refusing to accept the unilinearity of time.

If my criticism of globalization makes me a flat-earther, so be it. For all of us who are interested in freedom, justice, non-violence, democracy, and environmental sustainability we should intensify our activism, criticisms, and analyses—not seal our lips, refuse to think and disengage ourselves from the sufferings in the world. Luckily, and here I may be overly optimistic, the term ‘globalization’ may be an overstatement, inviting resignation or fatalism. We are in a globalizing world as opposed to a globalized one. As such, we all still have a chance to define its contours and contents before the ‘center’ is occupied without our participation. It is indeed empowering to feel that we all can still make a difference.      

As a Buddhist I turn to the teachings of the Buddha in order to responsibly engage with the sufferings in the world. Throughout the decades of my activism, I am sustained and rejuvenated by a very simple magic the Buddha had to offer. And I shall share it with you all in this speech, and hope that embracing it you will be nurtured and awakened.

            Let me begin with the story of a monk who went to see the Buddha and who told the Awakened One that he had been meditating for many years before he could obtain a magical power to walk on water across the river. The Buddha commented on how silly that monk was to waste so much time to achieve something that is not at all useful. If the monk wished to cross the river, the best way to do was to get a boatman and pay him two annas.

            In Buddhism, magic is not to walk on water or to fly in the air. It is indeed miraculous to walk on earth mindfully and to attribute what mother earth contributes to the welfare of all.

          I am reminded of another Buddhist story. One day a leader of a religious sect came to visit the Buddha and asked Him “If I follow your Way, what will I do day by day?” The Buddha replied, “Walk, stand, lie down, sit eat, drink….” The religious leader the inquired “…what is so special about your Way?” And the Buddha answered, “It is indeed special. The ordinary man, though he walks, stands, lies down, sits, eats, and drinks, does not know he is walking, standing, lying down, sitting, eating and drinking. But when we walk, we know that we are walking. When we stand, we know that we are standing….” Well the whole point of the story is to show the virtue of mindfulness. Once the human consciousness is restructured, the world is perceived non-judgmentally; that is, without division and conflict.     

         If we do not exploit the earth or any aspects of nature, nature will grow holistically, heal itself and help us human beings to grow physically, mentally and spiritually.

            When we look at a flower mindfully, we will realize that it is indeed a very simple magic: the flower also has non-flower elements. Right now it is fresh and beautiful, but soon it will decay and die. Yet it will become compost and will be reborn as a plant, which will again produce flowers for all those who appreciate beauty and goodness.

            Likewise, each of us too will one day die, and our dead bodies will unite with the earth, and rebirth will take place miraculously or magically for those who wish to understand the interconnectedness of all things or the inter-being of all.

            Without you, it could not be me. You and I inter—are, as Thich Nhat Hanh put it. In each of us, there are also non-human elements. We are the sun, the moon, the earth, the river, the ocean, the trees, etc. Without trees, we human beings cannot survive.

            Scientific knowledge conditions humans to be like machines, and we perceive the world and the universe as merely composed of matters. Matters are merely things. Things have no life or feeling. Hence we destroy Mother Earth and cut down trees merely for financial gain or in the name of economic development.

            It all started with the Age of Enlightenment, which argues that ‘I think therefore I am’. Any being which cannot think is regarded as inferior and can therefore be exploited by those who can think. Even among thinking beings, the clever ones who can think better are in a position to exploit the weaker ones—in accordance with the Darwinian notion of survival of the fittest.

            Besides, the more we concentrate on thinking, the more our thought becomes compartmentalized. The deeper we think, the more we bury our thoughts and ourselves. We cannot see the wood for the trees. We are unable to perceive the world holistically. Hence the products of this thinking and our experiments with matter, scientism and technology, are unable to be questioned.

            An even greater problem is that when we reach the age of economism and consumerism which goes by the name of globalization, we change the phrase ‘ I think therefore I am’ into ‘ I buy therefore I am. ’

            Hence human beings on the whole have only two aspects in life, i.e., to earn money in order to consume whatever advertisers brainwash us to purchase. Advertisers are on the whole controlled by transnational corporations, which have become more influential than any nation state, and their main objective is to exploit natural resources and human beings in the relentless pursuit of economic gain.

            If I were to go to the Buddha to ask for a very simple magic from him to rid us of our modern predicaments, he would most likely suggest the following phrase: ‘I breathe therefore I am’.

            Breathing is the most important element in our lives—indeed in any living being, for without breathing we will die. And breathing goes on day and night, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.  It never stops. Yet most of us do not take good care of our breathing. If we did, that would indeed be a simple magic.

            Breathing in, I calm my body.

            Breathing out I smile.

            Dwelling in the present moment,

            I know this is a wonderful moment!

            Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in.

            Breathing out, I know that

            as the in-breath grows deep,

            the out-breath grows slow.

            Breathing in makes me calm.

            Breathing out makes me feel at ease.

            With the in-breath, I smile.

            With the out-breath, I release.

            Breathing in, there is only the present moment.

            Breathing out, it is a wonderful moment.

            The above technique is called samatha bhavana, which helps one to be calm or to set seeds of peace within. Then one would develop insight meditation or vipasana bhavana in order to develop critical awareness of the self, not to take the so-called self seriously. Thus one becomes less and less selfish in order to look for peace and justice in the world—with real understanding of oneself and of the world. Hence one is no longer controlled by biased views of love, hatred, fear or delusion. Our magical formula could be like this:

              Let us pray for world peace, social justice, and environmental balance, which
              begin with our own breathing.

              I breathe in calmly and breathe out mindfully.

              Once I have seeds of peace and happiness within me, I try to reduce my    
              selfish desire and reconstitute my consciousness.

              With less attachment to myself, I try to understand the structural violence in 
              the world.

              Linking my heart with my head, I perceive the world holistically, a sphere
               full of living beings who are all related to me.

              I try to expand my understanding with love to help build a more nonviolent
              world.

              I vow to live simply and offer myself to the oppressed.

              By the grace of the Compassionate Ones and with the help of good friends, 
              may I be a partner in lessening the suffering of the world so that it may be a
              proper habitat for all sentient beings to live in harmony during this
               millennium.

            Indeed the heart of Buddhist teaching has much to do with social ills. The crux of the Buddha’s teachings transcends the notion of individual salvation and is concerned with the whole realm of sentient beings or the whole consciousness. Here the inescapable conclusion is that Buddhism requires an engagement in social, economic, and political affairs. One cannot overcome the limits of the individual self in a selfish and hermetically sealed manner.

         The Four Noble Truths, namely, the suffering, the causes of suffering, and the cessation of suffering and the path to that cessation, can be skillfully applied to social activism. This is indeed a very simple magic. Moreover, through deep breathing one can see the roots of social suffering on a basis of Buddhism’s Three Main Root Causes of Evil, namely lobha (Greed), dosa (Hatred), and moha (Ignorance).

            In narrow terms of interpretation, understanding the three root causes can help us to get rid of pains and disturbance in our personal lives. But in broader terms, or in the social context, they can really help us to envisage the causes and give us hints about the ways the causes can be ceased.

            In my view, consumerism and capitalism can be explained as the most important modern form of greed. With them, our values are geared towards satisfying the gaps in our life by ever-increasing consumption and accumulation. By failing to understand the magic of advertising we are at its mercy. This inevitably leads to conflicts of interests, and more importantly exploitations are justified by the concept of the “invisible hand. ” Militarism embodies hatred as its core basis. The lust for power, which leads to widespread human rights abuses, is a prime example of how hatred can manipulate individual minds and lure them to install unjust social structures in order to uphold their power.

            The last main root cause is ignorance caused mainly by centralized education. Students are taught not to think holistically, but to compartmentalize their thinking, to memorize and to abide by the existing norms. This can help explain much of the weakening in the mobilization of student movements as well as other social movements. Often times, students are trained and equipped just with skills to become employees for multinational companies, to exploit their own fellow nationals and nature. Children also get exposed to detrimental values through television, computer games, etc., which have been replacing more and more the traditional roles played by many snobbish teachers.

            All these sufferings can be, in my Buddhist tradition, reduced or totally extinguished by the right understanding of the nature of things. Buddhism is unique for its approach is not reinforced by faith, but rather by practice. Thus, to attain understanding, one has to really experiment with the truths themselves. Aloofness is never a value praised by us. Buddhism also gives me a sense of inter-belonging. With this view, I feel the inter-relatedness of all beings. It helps to internally affirm a common phrase among Buddhists that we all are “friends in common suffering”.

            Thus, my Buddhist model of development must begin with everyone truly practicing to understand himself or herself. In the Buddhist tradition, we call it citta sikkha or the contemplation on mind. Meditation is important for us to attain the insight, the qualities of which include alertness and criticality. Critical self-awareness is thus important for us, and this will help the practitioners to feel more empowered to criticize themselves. From the critical understanding of one’s self, we can begin to try to critically understand our community, society, nation and eventually our world. From criticizing ourselves, we hold the critical awareness towards society and the government, and all the establishments in order to understand how these mechanisms of greed, hatred and ignorance operate and manipulate at the structural levels. Bearing in mind the solutions, we also feel hopeful to articulately use all non-violent means to achieve a peaceful end.

            Buddhist tenets also help me feel closer to and eventually to be one with the majority. In our tradition, it is believed that every being embodies a Buddha nature, or the potential to attain the highest understanding. Thinking this way, I feel the equality among all of us regardless of rank and status. And I feel that the poor are entitled to the same dignity as us to struggle for what they should be given.

            Buddhist teaching is the core that permeates all my activities. It is indeed a very simple magic starting with proper breathing. Incorporated in that is the voice and wisdom of the people at the lowest level, and of course monks in this country come mostly from the lowest background. I also feel that beauty has to go hand in hand with all activism. I have made all my efforts to preserve ancient artifacts and mural paintings, and I have also used culture and the arts as a tool to achieve social and political goals. And culture in my view is not bounded by national borders; it should reach out to our neighbors, or even farther than that. In this respect, we should have respect for other cultures, traditions, as well as religions precisely because with this tolerance society at large can survive with peace. Diversity and living culture must be at the heart of the struggle against the monoculture of the McWorld syndrome, which is controlled by transnational corporations. For me, my work grows out of a very simple magic offered by the Buddha.