Religious traditions are repositories of values that are passed on, generation to generation. Without the spiritual dimension, we have only the mechanistic, materialistic, utilitarian, functional and individualistic values of the secular world.
Where the spiritual imagination sees a homeland of the ancestors, the materialistic imagination sees only prime real estate, ripe for development. Where those that value justice see a genocide unfolding, the mechanistic mind sees only an indigenous population that needs to be bulldozed away to allow the diggers roll in.
Spiritual values include the values of justice and respect. They act as a bulwark against fascism. Dispense with them and fascism has free rein. And we have arrived at the moment where fascism has free rein.
The precarious nature of the cultural moment that we are at cannot be emphasised enough. This is a time when the richest man in the world wants to close down aid to the poorest on the planet. It’s a time when snipers target Palestinian children and desperate immigrants are pushed back in boats to drown.
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Never has it been clearer that might is right. Tech company Facebook censors our news feeds to silence voices for justice. Google abandons geography for nasty right-wing politics, renaming the Gulf of Mexico on Google Maps. This same company abandons its diversity policy, while white nationalists march freely through the towns of America and Elon Musk offers Nazi salutes.
The global economy that we have in Ireland is poised to adapt its tactics and play by the insane new rules. The Government is in the process of abandoning the ethical reasoning behind the Occupied Territories Bill and media commentators will soon be mouthing the predictable line: “We have to live in the real world.”
Anti-immigration rhetoric is on the rise here, with the Taoiseach kowtowing to Trump and his obscene presidency in the White House as he handed over the traditional bowl of shamrocks. We have lost our moral compass in Ireland. We like to think of ourselves as different, but we are no different. We will follow the dollar, no matter where it leads.
Fascism demands a response of resistance. So, as people of faith and reason, how do we resist? It’s time for the repository of our values to open up and for these values to flow out into the public sphere.
We have no time to spare. The urgency of all that is unfolding demands an immediate response
We have inspiration in this in my own Buddhist tradition, in the life and work of the Vietnamese Zen master, Thich Nhat Hanh. His engaged Buddhism led him to agitate against the Vietnamese War, as well as work to save drowning migrants with nowhere to land their boats, build schools and hospitals in impoverished rural areas, and push back on discrimination against Vietnamese Buddhists in his time.
We have the Baptist minister Martin Luthur King jnr, who campaigned for civil rights and filled the streets with his supporters, marching for peace and justice and speaking out against war. We have Maximilian Kobe, a Catholic friar that gave his life to take the place of another condemned to death in Auschwitz.
And more recently, although in a much more modest way, we have Epioscopal bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, whose sermon delivered to Trump spoke out in defence of the weak and vulnerable that his brutal policies have their sights on.
But as Thich Nhat Hanh taught us, to engage with right action, we have first to find peace within ourselves. Otherwise we will act from a place of anger. And this anger will lead to unskilful action, maybe adding fuel to the raging fire, rather than bringing a balm to cool things down.
And yet we have no time to spare. The urgency of all that is unfolding demands an immediate response. We have various options before us.
To sit down and meditate or kneel down and pray is possibly the most radical option we have. Finding silence and stillness brings us home to the reality of things – an interdependent world where compassion is the only reasonable response. This is not only non-doing and not causing harm, but it is also awakening to the deep reservoir of indefatigable love that wise action can be based on. It is touching again the divine spark.
This fire is different from the fire of anger. It is a benevolent fire that carries us out into the world and into actions that relieve suffering and that offer resistance. Many Buddhists and Christians think we have no business as religious people entering the public square in this way. But what good is my private peace and piety if others are suffering?
The feeling that something urgently needs to be done is inescapable. Our own individual conscience must tell us what that is. We have a moral compass that we seem to have forgotten. Now’s the time to take it out to find our way.
Rev Myozan Ian Kilroy is a Zen Buddhist priest and abbot at Dublin Zen Centre. His new book, Do Not Try to Become a Buddha, is available from Wisdom Publications
