The spiritual failure of political neutrality

What are we even practicing for? On the danger of using the dharma to reinforce the status quo

Hi friends,

The United States has officially bombed Iran, and we’ve entered yet another war in the Middle East. I want to affirm whatever emotions you're feeling—grief, rage, numbness—as valid. Like I wrote last week, we are in the mud, the dark and murky part of the pond. And it’s from this place that we must draw our strength and courage. 

As the world grows more chaotic and violent, I feel compelled to call out the danger of using the dharma to justify political neutrality that reinforces the harms of the status quo. I’m particularly concerned about the spiritual bypassing evident in mainstream Buddhist publications like Tricycle and Lion’s Roar in their responses (or lack thereof) to the genocide in Gaza. This silence is not only symptomatic of the colonialism and racism embedded in Western Buddhism, but also a devastating distortion of the dharma itself, one that enables violence under the guise of neutrality.

In a recent Zen Peacemakers interview titled “Buddhist Journalism in a Time of Polarization,” Tricycle editor James Shaheen was asked about the magazine’s approach to reporting on political issues. He responded, “There were asks for us to take a position on issues that had no explicit connection to Buddhism,” referring to Gaza. However, just minutes later he claimed there was a “clear Buddhist connection” to Mohsen Mahdawi’s kidnapping, because Mahdawi had once been president of the Columbia Buddhist Students Association. He went on to say that Tricycle is not The Atlantic or The New Yorker, and that they lack the capacity to offer deep analysis on such issues and therefore shouldn’t take a position.

This made me want to both laugh and cry maniacally. 

While I don’t expect Tricycle or Lion’s Roar to publish cutting-edge political analysis, I do expect them to apply the dharma to urgent moral and ethical crises like war, starvation, and genocide. I don’t think it’s asking too much of a magazine representing a tradition of non-violence to say something as simple as “we can’t bomb our way to liberation.”

It is also a travesty to frame Mohsen’s kidnapping as the only “clear Buddhist connection” because he identifies as a Buddhist. I’m sorry, what? A Buddhist magazine only views the life of a self-identified Buddhist to be a “clear connection”?!?! The sanctity and dignity of EVERY. SINGLE. BEINGS’. LIFE. is in connection to Buddhism. 

Tricycle and Lion’s Roar also had no qualms taking public stances on Ukraine, Black Lives Matter, or other justice issues in recent years. But the crisis that has created the largest number of child orphans in modern history is somehow a stretch too far. 

What makes all of this more painful is that the conversation took place on a platform hosted by Zen Peacemakers, an organization that has led pilgrimages to sites of historical genocide for 30 years. According to Shaheen’s logic, those events would also lack a “Buddhist connection.” What is the point of bearing witness to past genocides if it does not meaningfully shape the response to a genocide unfolding IN REAL TIME?

When Buddhist journalism abuses the teaching of equanimity to maintain “political neutrality” in the face of preventable death and suffering, we must recognize how deeply confused Western engaged Buddhism has become. 

Engaged Buddhism is not neutral. Engaged Buddhism is a path to end both individual and collective suffering—especially in its most egregious forms like mass killing. I am heartbroken that I even feel the need to say this. 

I know this is not the type of email you’d expect from a meditation teacher. And that is exactly the problem.

Western Buddhist and meditation spaces have become so shaped by colonial and white supremacist norms that they privilege a kind of numbed-out, performative “mindfulness and compassion.” If someone expresses moral clarity in a tone that doesn’t conform to these dominant cultural expectations, they’re often dismissed as extreme or reactive. This is so wildly harmful as it distracts and normalizes the violence that is literally killing people.

I did not plan on sending an email today. But I want to share what feels urgent and necessary, as it arises from within the mud. I invite you to do the same. 

Deep in my bones, I know the dharma has a part in bringing about collective liberation. I truly believe this. But my friends, this is not it—whatever this politically neutral, spiritual bypass stuff is. And it is up to us, all of us, to make that clear and transform it.

In love and outrage,
Adriana

P.S. We will be talking about this more in our upcoming Engaged Buddhist Studies Seminar on Karma, Liberation, and Justice this Wednesday, June 25th 6:00-8:00pm EST. I will break down why there is so much confusion in Western Buddhism regarding equanimity and non-dualism as it relates to social justice issues, and how this is connected to Western culture’s frameworks of what is “just.” We’ll have a discussion as a group as to how we can go about changing this. 

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