During the month of April, we invite you to join us exploring Buddhist activism. This month’s issue of the Bearing Witness Newsletter features peace, environmental and criminal justice activism. In the Bearing Witness Blog, we will highlight one article at a time from the issue of the newsletter, inviting your comments and questions. This issue highlights opportunities to get involved including a multi-state walk for peace, environmental activism in New York City and the Symposium for Socially Engaged Buddhism, where 7 activists featured in this issue will present. Contributors include the following:
As Chris Queen says in the introduction,
Socially engaged Buddhists see justice and activism differently. Deeply aware of the interdependence that we all share as jewels in the fabric of Indra’s Net, we cannot separate our suffering or our liberation from that of others. Injustice in the world results from collective greed, hatred, and delusion, the poisons of the mind writ large. We see how institutions may act impersonally to marginalize or oppress others. And we conclude that to affect the mega-realities in the 21st century, we must practice together, speak out together, and form larger, more powerful networks of caring action.