Dealing with Despair in a Troubled World, Part 1: Staying Present and Making a Difference

 

 

 

            The state of the present world in which we live can bring us to the brink of despair.  There is a pandemic raging and there will likely be new ones in the future. People seem to be split politically into warring camps.  We are faced with climate change, racism, and threats to democracy.  We need solutions and actions on a large scale and yet we seem mired in political gridlock.  Sometimes it feels like we are all in a bus speeding straight for the edge of a cliff and no one is willing or able to turn the wheel.  We feel afraid and defeated, and it seems that there is nothing we can do about any of these calamities.   When this happens we fall into despair and we suffer, and we are likely to give up any effort to change things.

            Even revered Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh said that not falling into despair was his biggest challenge in today’s world.  Is there a way the Buddha’s teachings can help us to find peace, happiness, and the energy to work for positive change during frightening times?

            We can begin by noting that despair is closely linked to a sense of hopelessness, and all of us have felt this at least sometimes. Mindfulness can help us here with the realization that hope is always in the future:  we hope that what we want will happen, and we hope that what we don’t want will not happen. The realization that hope is in the future is important because the future is not something we know with any confidence.  It’s also important because we do not have much if any control over what happens in the future, particularly in regard to national and world events.  So the first thing the Buddha would tell us to do is to accept these two facts about the world and then to look for what control and what power we actually do have.  And when we do this, we find that the one thing we do have real control over is our personal response to the events life presents us with in each moment.     

Reside and Act In the Present Moment

            We must learn to stay in the present moment since the present moment is the only moment in which we can act. There is always something that we can do about problems, no matter how global in scale.  In order to see this, we need to stop believing that doing something about a problem means that we have to do something really big that produces immediate visible results on a large scale. Instead, we can start by turning our attention to the pieces of the problem that are right in front of us—this is where we can actually take meaningful action.

            Here is an example of doing the work that is right in front of you, in this case it is in regard to the widespread problem of racism. The summer after I graduated from high school, my older brother was going to be married. Plans had been made for a large wedding—two hundred guests—and my brother invited his Black friend Ira to be one of the four ushers.  I was also an usher.  Trouble arose when the bride’s father, who was paying for the wedding and was racially prejudiced, said he wouldn’t be pay for the wedding if Ira was in it. When my brother told Ira that he couldn’t be in the wedding, it bothered me greatly and I said so.  But, my being bothered didn’t change anybody’s mind, and as an eighteen year old boy right out of high school it seemed there was nothing I could do. 

            Looking back on it, I can see now that there were things I could have done.  I could have told all the members of my family, the bride’s family, the ushers, and friends of my family, what was happening and that it was wrong.  I could have phoned or written to Ira and told him how I felt.  As an even stronger response, I could have said to my family, “If Ira is not in the wedding, then I won’t go to the wedding, either.”  It’s entirely possible that none of this would have gotten Ira reinstated in the wedding, but it would have had an impact on people’s psyches none-the-less.  And what was the risk for me?  Would I have been jailed or beaten?  Of course not.  My risk was tiny—maybe some disapproval from a few people, or my parents “grounding” me for a period of time.  But even if it did not change the world in any presently detectable way, it would have mattered to Ira, and it would have sent a strong message to a fairly large number of people.  This is a good example of doing the work that is right in front of you.

            So, yes, racism is a very big problem but there are things that almost anyone can do about it to increase the energy behind needed changes. I can join marches to bring attention to the problems, and if I don’t want to march I might be able to help prepare bag lunches to help the marchers keep going.  When I hear a racist comment or joke, I can speak up.  It doesn’t have to be long or well thought out, I could simply say “I’m not ok with what just happened,” which then gives permission for others to say they feel same way or to walk away.  Another action addressing racism could be organizing and/or participating in creating conversations on racism. And I certainly can read and watch videos to educate myself about the problems and possible solutions.

            Climate change is an even bigger problem that threatens all life on this planet.  What can I do? I can use climate-related changes in my personal life (low impact diet, transportation, home heating, etc.) as conversation starters.  I can write letters to newspapers and elected officials, join an organization (Citizens Climate Lobby, 350.org, or search out organizations on the internet).  I can go to a town hall meeting and speak up so my elected representative and members of my community know how I feel.  I can choose to show a climate change video to friends, family, or co-workers and talk about it with them. The list is really very long!

            But someone may say, “The impact of those acts just mentioned is tiny and won’t really change anything.”  Well yes, on the surface, it may look that way.  But the fact that we don’t see immediate change does not mean that nothing is actually happening.  The idea that nothing is happening is false for two reasons.  First, taking action for change, even if the acts are small, changes me.  It feels much better emotionally to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.  Living in a state of fear and anxiety is painful.  Actually doing something, even small, feels good and it connects us with others who are also acting.   

            The following metaphor from Tolstoy is useful here. Imagine a small row boat in the middle of a wide river.  Imagine yourself  lying in the bottom of the boat and simply drifting.  The path of the boat is totally determined by outside forces:  water currents, wind, and rocks and logs jutting out of the water.  Now imagine yourself getting up and taking a seat in the boat, picking up the oars, and rowing the boat in a direction consciously chosen by you.  This is the experience of what the Buddha called an intentional and assertive life.  Even if you never reach some specific destination, your entire experience of being in the boat has been totally transformed—it feels radically different from the experience of doing nothing.  And it feels even better to be rowing the boat in tandem with others.   

            And second, when we look deeply we will see that the good work we do always matters, not just for us personally, but for the world at large. Here is a good tool for helping us to look beneath the surface and see this clearly: imagine a large teeter totter at a playground with a very large boulder on the board at one end.  People start putting small and medium sized rocks on the opposite end but the large boulder doesn’t budge even the tiniest bit. I put my small rock down and I don’t see any results.  The same may be true of thousands of people.  But at some point, someone puts a rock—perhaps a small pebble—on the board and the huge boulder is suddenly lifted into the air!  Our tendency is to view the person who added the last rock as the hero, but really the boulder was moved as a result of the efforts of thousands or even millions of people.  Yet for a long time, it looked as though none of our efforts were making any difference whatsoever.  What are called “tipping points” often occur unexpectedly and the change is quite rapid.  History bears this out, and it happens both with changes in the natural world and with social changes as well.  Your actions do matter:  Put your rock on the board and know absolutely that you are building energy for change.

            It’s always important to stay present and focus your attention not on the hundred things you may need to do in the future but rather on the one thing that you actually can do now. And there is always something you can do now.  And you can know that, even if you can’t see any results, your effort does matter. 

            The truth is that what we do always makes a difference.  The only question is what kind of a difference am I going to make? If I meet my transportation needs by driving a large gas-powered vehicle that gets 5 miles per gallon, my choice to do so does make a difference for climate change—I am contributing to making the problem worse. This is essentially adding another rock to the large boulder on the teeter totter that we are trying to lift.  On the other hand, if I meet my transportation needs by driving an electric vehicle, or walking, or using a bicycle, or taking public transportation, I am also making a difference.  But in this case I have chosen to become part of the solution rather than part of the problem. I have added weight to the positive forces behind lifting the huge boulder of climate change.

            Our actions have effects that we will never see—like a kind word that changes a stranger’s day for the better, and maybe even changes their entire life.  We can just do good acts because they are good.  We can stay in the present moment, which means keeping our full attention on the doing of the good work.

                Our actions influence people in ways we may never know about.  A student named Josh came up to me after a philosophy class in which we had just spent two weeks questioning our cultural assumptions about killing and eating animals.  He told me of a recent experience in which he was going through the line in the college cafeteria and was intending to order the chicken stir fry.  Before he placed his order, the student right in front of him in line ordered the tempeh stir fry.  He said to himself “I’ve been questioning how we treat animals and have been thinking about trying the tempeh stir fry—this guy’s having tempeh, I’m finally going to try it, too!”  And he discovered that he liked it and that he really could eat vegetarian and be fine with it.  The student in front of Josh in line had a profound impact on Josh, and yet that student will never know it.  Josh never saw his face, doesn’t know   his name—but his behavior changed Josh’s life.   It also changed the world, making it just a little bit less violent. 

To be continued in the next post…

 

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