What do spirituality and activism have to do with each other?
“If your mind does not run off searching or think falsely or get involved with objects, then this very burning house of passion is itself the place to escape the three worlds.”
–Zen Master Ta Hui
Also, in the Abrahamic traditions there is a similar saying that to enter “Eternal Life” (which some might call the present) you must love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and also love your neighbor as yourself.
I get such a buzz when I come across two sayings from two different traditions that seem to mean the same thing: To completely escape from the world, completely enter the world.
What does it mean to completely enter the world and what does all this have to do with activism? The sages also say that when when we stop wrestling with our opinions and judgments of the world–when we completely enter the world–then a tremendous energy gets released.
That is the energy of completely loving your neighbor as yourself–the activity of spirituality and the spirituality of activism.