Following the Buddha's advice: coming from the right place: Linda Burney & Andrew Bolt demonstrate how to disagree with kindness

The Watercooler
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Continuing the discussion from Politics and buddhism - am I missing something?:

Check out this article in the Sydney Morning Herald about Linda Burney, Aborignal Australian Member of Parliament and Andrew Bolt, recognisable, conservative commentator. These two should give talks about respectful dialogue…they nail it. They would probably see the ultimate goals of their opposing views to be peace and harmony…yet it is not by getting angry with each other and changing each other’s minds that they achieve this between themselves.

The Buddha advises we come from Truth/Wisdom, Love and Peace and Courage when interacting with each other, when making decisions; not from fear, stupidity/ignorance/delusion, not from hate/negativity, violence or distractedness.

From personal experience, I (and I’m sure most of us can say this) know the devasting impact anger and other negative states have on my own body and mind. How it saps my energy and clouds my perspective and sinks me to depression eventually. It’s not a tool that’s going to be effective for the long term. It’s seductive, but inefficient.

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Sure, it’s easier said than done. But isn’t it worth finding out more about the whys and hows and whats of this matter and setting some regular time aside for the deliberate cultivation of wholesome states. Other wise what’s the point of calling ourselves followers of the Buddha? Surely we have to engage with this sometimes, and often initially, very difficult task. We’re far more likely to effect postive social change, if we work on our internal “society” first.

I’m not suggesting we stop all our efforts to improve the world whilst we ‘work on ourselves’…Why can’t we do both simultaneously? And one will surely positively and efficiently (we do want to actually make a difference, don’t we?) impact the other.

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I couldn’t agree with you more on this Kay.

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I decided to change the title a bit and include the relevant Proper Nouns! Without them, this post doesn’t work so well! :slight_smile: