And how do we respond in a mindful, compassionate way to the social and political crisis we face?
After a wonderful response to the Kickstarter campaign for Tuwhiri’s next book, Mindful Solidarity: A Secular Buddhist Democratic Socialist Dialogue by Mike Slott. the book will be coming out on 9 October. You can buy a copy in our online store now, for delivery early October.
A lifelong US political and labor movement activist, Mike is the editor of the Secular Buddhist Network website. At the suggestion of The Tuwhiri Project’s editorial board, he has written a book which brings together two topics that mean a lot to him:
- a secular approach to the teachings of Gotama, the man we know as the Buddha; and
- democratic socialist politics – both the ideas and how we put them into action.
Buddhist meditators and progressive political activists rarely interact. Activists may dismiss Buddhist practices as irrelevant in the face of struggles for urgent political change, while many Buddhist meditators believe activists fail to recognise that human suffering arises not simply from unjust social institutions, but also from our instinctive greed, anger, and delusion.
In Mindful Solidarity, Mike Slott encourages political activists and Buddhist practitioners to connect with and learn from each other, suggesting that a secular form of Buddhism and democratic socialist politics complement each other well.
Secular Buddhism enables us to recognise the ways in which we harm ourselves and others, as well as how we weaken progressive political movements. Buddhist meditation practice is an essential tool for activists working to transform oppressive social institutions, the source of so much human suffering.
While political activists with a meditation practice, imbued with an ethic of care, he suggests, will be capable of reducing suffering and facilitating human flourishing more effectively. We will be strengthening our political movements by injecting mindfulness and compassion into our campaigns and projects, and when we pursue individual and social transformation at the same time, we are enriching the Buddhist path, making it more ethically and socially focused.
Follow the discussion around the concept of ‘mindful solidarity’ in this Substack newsletter:
We hope you enjoy this book, and find it of use.