Throwback: When a liberation theologian travels with a Socially Engaged Buddhist
Back in 2016, Dr. Cláudio Carvalhaes, Professor of Worship, and Kosen Greg Snyder, Senior Director of Buddhist Studies traveled to Nagpur in India for The Social Engagement and Liberation Conference, hosted by the International Network of Engaged Buddhists. Both of them published reflections that were shared at the time on the Union Website. Ambedkarite Buddhism being top of mind for many students studying Socially Engaged Buddhism at Union this semester, we dug out these long-forgotten blog posts and with permission of the authors, have re-published them here. To read Rev. Kosen Greg Snyder’s reflections, click here.
by Cláudio Caravalhaes
Nagpur, India, October 12, 2016.
PART 1
It was after our first faculty meeting at Union that Greg told me about a conference on Social Engagement and Liberation in Nagpur, India. This conference was to be centered around Buddhist Dalits and their processes of freedom in India. At that time, I was sitting in on his class “Socially Engaged Buddhism” wanting to know more about Buddhism. I surely accepted it and was bewildered by this gift. To learn how Buddhism deals with liberation and of the possibility to engage liberation from Buddhist and Christian perspectives immensely excited me. I knew a bit about Dalit Christian theology and was very curious to learn about the possibility of a Buddhist Dalit theology.
Before we came to India, we read Engaged Buddhism, by Christopher Queen and B.R. Ambedkar’s spellbinding book “Annihilation of Caste” with Arundhati Roy’s fierce and unforgettable introduction, called “The Doctor and the Saint.” To come to India was a challenge in itself. For me everything was unknown: country, place, conference, Buddhism. Greg was to be my guide and my priest. With much care and a lot of wisdom, Greg showed some of the ways of Buddhism from basic to more complex ideas and ritual practices. Being at Nagaloka College made me see how education, when done with and for the poor, can truly transform people’s lives in deeper ways. What a powerful place this Buddhist school is! After three intense days of adjusting to the new time zone, habits, and schedule, we were ready to plunge into the conference.
From a Christian liberation theology perspective, I can see how much Buddhism can empower people and create profound processes of liberation. In the first day, we saw a ritual of conversion of 120 Dalits to Buddhism. Conversion is a hugely political act, one where people not only affirm the precepts of Buddhism and take refuge in Buddha but issue a strong denial of Hinduism and its systems of caste. This severance with the Hindu system is not a simple one, and I am still struggling to figure that out. As Ambedkar said once, “to the untouchables, Hinduism is a veritable chamber of horrors.” Sixty years ago Dr. Ambedkar converted to Buddhism. It was a powerful event with more than a half million other Hindus converting from Hinduism to Buddhism. Ambedkar, one of the most prominent Dalit leaders of India, who led the writing process of the Constitution of India, decided to free his people from the caste system of oppression sanctioned by Hinduism and told his people that Buddhism was a way out of oppression and into a religious community that would strive for freedom, equality, and solidarity. Ambedkar saw this conversion as a purely religious revolution, but since Buddhism doesn’t hold dualisms, the religious was fundamentally political and could create the conditions of the possibilities for the Dalits in India to free themselves, or to use the language of Christian liberation theology, to become the subjects of their history.
Buddhism has a vast complex compendium of Scriptures that carries in itself equality for all, including genders, and gives instructions to its practitioners to fight oppressors at all levels: personally, economically, socially and politically. Buddhism’s “spirituality” aims at the purification of the mind, searches for personal and collective transformation, strives for non-violent modes of structural changes and avoid hating its enemies as a form of conductive freedom. Moreover, it is a deep way of freeing oneself from the capture of the mind by social and psychological structures of oppression, with rituals that can be done by all, where the clergy serve not to induce one’s thought towards a doctrine but rather, to create patterns of habits that mirror the best possible ways to be human. Moreover, Buddhism engages deeply into the suffering of the person/people, and it is only through suffering that one can find compassion and practice generosity freely. All of this is wrapped up in a community that supports and strengthens the individual to achieve enlightenment. It is not difficult to see how many Dalits can find a home, a community, where identity and caste are not the measures of their human dignity.
Three things that marked me deeply here at the beginning. The first one was to notice that people greet each other here with the words Jai Bhim. Jai means victory and Bhim is the first name of Ambedkar. In other words, jai Bhim is the pronouncing of victory through the one who rose against the oppression of its country to free his people. The second thing is the statue of Buddha at the center of the Nagaloka College. Buddha’s position is not the regular seated statue, but instead, Buddha is walking (statue pictured above). As you walk around the statue, you see Buddha walking, and his walk is so brisk that his clothes are wrapping around his back. Buddha here is active, moving forward into the struggle. Also, Buddha has his eyes open and that comes from Ambedkar. Once when he was asked how he wanted to see Buddha, he said: I want a Buddha with open eyes, eyes that see everything and change the world. The third thing was to go to the site Ambedkar was converted to Buddhism. A huge place with a multitude of devoted people. The joy of seeing the Dalits marching on the streets with the passion and vibrancy of those who truly believe they are empowered was deeply moving! A grassroots movement, young people taking the lead in the chanting and a collectivity that would make anyone who doesn’t believe in the power of the people to reconsider — three, four, or five times.
Hearing socially engaged Buddhist leaders from around the world was powerful. The plight for spirituality was one in the same as the plight for justice. The demands for transformation are not only about social and political issues but also the demand to transform one’s mind. I saw myself back in Chicago when I was part of a street protest at one of the Chicago Moral Monday’s acts. If I had to go back, I would continue to demand no cuts to the budget, no austerity plan. But I would also include the demand for the purification of my own mind and the purification of the mind of the political leaders of Chicago. They are confused, they are grasping to their own loss, and they need to be transformed – just as much as I am in need to be transformed, too. Being here with the Buddhists is clearly messing up my mind, my body, and my theology. Thanks be to God! And the Buddha!
Dr. Cláudio Carvalhaes and Bhante Sugato, Nagpur, India, 2016.
PART 2
The sun in India is beautiful and strong. The days are hot and the evenings cool. The sun and the moon show us the pulse of the country at every corner you turn.
This conference is grounded around three themes: Dharma as empowerment, Breaking down barriers between people and Dharma as governance. These themes relate to Dr. Ambedkar’s main words for the constitution of India, very much influenced by the French Revolution: liberty, equality, and fraternity.
Today the theme was the Dharma as empowerment, and it was very moving. Dharma, the teachings of Buddhism, is often called the Buddha Dharma. It is the source of wisdom from Buddhism to humankind. Different streams of Buddhism have interpreted this in different ways, with the two major streams being: Theravada and Mahayana. Dharma as empowerment means to make one freer or to help one become free. Throughout the day I thought I was in a base community in Latin America, hearing Dalits interpreting the Dharma from their social location and how it had changed their lives as the poor Christians in Latin American would interpret the Bible from their locations and see their lives transformed as well. The genius of this conference has been to have not only scholars speaking, but monks, lay people and Dalits without any formal title, all talking about socially engaged Buddhism.
Bhante Sugato, a Dalit who is now a Buddhist monk, told us all about the horrors he went through as a Dalit in India. It was so difficult to hear and see it all. But, then he told us how Buddhism, the Dharma and the Buddhist sangha (community) have completely changed his life. For him, Dharma as empowerment meant finding the strength to walk away from the caste system, to see in the Dharma that his worth came before his birth and is not attached to his religious Hindu birth, to now be in charge of the view of his own self! Through Buddhism, he saw his own caste suffering going away and empowered him to fight for the freedom of his own people!
This college, Nagaloka College, where he first studied is a place where his identity as an untouchable was never an issue. In the afternoon I heard people explaining how the Dharma created empowerment in social, political, educational, economic and psychological realms of their lives. In fact, conversion to Buddhism offers the possibility of shattering identity as it is related to Hinduism and its notion of worth in birth, offering them a new identity, a different place to find worth, life itself and how this all creates new possibilities. Conversion offers the possibility to build a different sense of identity and of self in society until one can get to Buddha’s sense of no identity, of no self.
Liberation theology starts where Buddhism starts: in suffering. This is what Professor James Cone says. Buddhist nun Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, also teaches that our lives in the world are filled with suffering, dukkha, caused by our unattained mind. It is hard to engage in meta, compassion, and forbearance. We need the practices to help us deal with the issues that arise during the day. When things go smoothly, it is easier to be complacent. To me, this sounds similar to Jesus teaching us to love our enemies. The power of Buddhism is that it demands us to work with our feelings and our sufferings. That would make us inwardly empowered to face any circumstances in life that might threaten us.
Along with Latina liberation theology methodologies, it is the cotidiano, the everyday life, as our place of practice of full humanity, and dealing with our experiences as the manifestations of the sacred. In the cotidiano lies God’s promise of transformation and salvation.
This thought made my Zen priest, Greg Snyder, tell me that Zen Buddhism sees the transformation of the self in washing dishes. Tibetan Buddhist nun Palmo explains that if we attain a form of living in this world that is calmer, we gain tools and a clearer mind to tackle the inequality of our matter. A clear mind and an engaged subjectivity empower one to live a moral life that sustains actions of justice and freedom. Thus, when we work with ourselves deeply, we shift the place of our work. I learned with Prof. Snyder that meditation helps us shift our loyalty from the mind to the body. When we are deeply connected with our own bodies, we are able to stand up for our rights from a place of compassion and strength and not from a place of anger and fear.
It is so interesting that for Buddhists, the search is not for a brilliant intellectual mind, but for the clearness of the spirit when there is nothing between the person and the world. A fascinating element that I need to learn better.
The Dharma says that so much depends on ourselves and that knowledge helps us deal with the troubles of the world. The grasping onto things, and the things that we grasp, are not real things but illusions of a thing that in fact does not exist, but are only in a dream. In a very distinctive way, I could not help but think of how listening to the Holy Spirit can be this clearing of the mind, to detach ourselves from the things of the world and find a pure heart.
Christie Chang–Sakyadhita from Taiwan also spoke about the methodology of the Dharma. “I am here to speak for those who feel they are in the background, those who cannot speak, those who don’t trust themselves. Empowerment is transformation.”
She says Marxism criticizes the social situation but does not know how to deal with the individual and his/her feelings. Empowerment must come from both sides of the individual. We must transform ourselves to be open to feeling the suffering of others. This compassionate feeling is only possible if we do deep listening, allowing ourselves to surface. Dharma is the way things are and is the instruction to empowerment. Throughout the day I could not help but hear the Prophet Amos speaking in Buddha’s words. Or Buddha speaking in Amos’ words: Loving-kindness and compassion.
To finish, the Christian notion “love oneself” is also deeply in Buddhism. As nun Palmo said, making friends with ourselves is to search for compassion, and believe in our own strength to do things. And she finished with two admonitions to us: she criticized the patriarchal ways that the Dharma has been taught, saying that books are mostly written by men, and so there is an unbalance that needs to be addressed. The second admonition was to the nuns and monks: there is a need for the monastic sangha (community) to reach out to society and hear what people are saying. That is the only way we can become better human beings and realize our Buddha potential. And I would say the same to Christian pastors and priests: it is only by getting together with the people that we can discover Jesus potential too! Preach it, sister!