"IS NOT POLITICS A PART OF DHARMA TOO?"

Gandhi's response to a common question

When people asked Mahatma Gandhi how he could be involved in something as crude as politics, he responded, “Is not politics a part of dharma too?” Having had a career in something as relatively sublime as the field of spirituality, and then experienced something as toxic as the inner workings of the American political system, I understand the question.

I also understand Gandhi’s answer.

We’re not sent to earth to heal only some of the world. If we’re here to be lights unto the world, then are we allowed to be selective about which corners of darkness we seek to illumine? There is no religious or spiritual tradition that gives anyone a pass on addressing the suffering of other sentient beings.

In my interview with Booboo Garcia on his podcast Broader Lens, we discussed the relationship between spiritual and social change.

There is a lot of confusion these days about the separation of Church and State. Establishing in the First Amendment that no religious authorities are allowed to limit our ability to worship if or how we choose, our Founders were not seeking to drive spirituality out of the public square. They were seeking to protect it! And its protection serves not only the individual but the whole society. A nation should ask questions such as. “Is what we’re doing the right thing? The good thing? ” no differently than we should ask such questions of ourselves.

And while in our own lives we alone must answer, as citizens of a society we often feel that the answer in our hearts is at odds with the will of other forces in society. History is divided between those who gave up in such cases and said “There’s just nothing we can do,” versus those who have risen up to say, “Not on my watch” in the face of societal wrongs.

Among white Americans, the Abolitionist movement emerged in large part from early evangelical churches in New Hampshire. Many of the main leaders of the Women Suffragist movement were religious Quakers. And Dr. King was a Baptist preacher. Throughout our history - particularly the history of social justice movements - religious and spiritual ideals have fueled our progress. Ethical questioning is the basis of moral persuasion; it is that which changes human hearts, and ultimately changes the world.

It’s ethical questioning - whether such questioning is contextualized as spiritual, religious or secular - that leads us to care if corporate greed dooms people to die if they can’t afford life-saving operations, or allows carcinogens in our food supply not allowed in other advanced nations, or ravages the earth that should be promised to our children, or influences government in the direction of unnecessary foreign wars that rain havoc and destruction on innocent lives.

So yes, politics can be toxic. And crude. And corrupt. It is all those things. But an ethical spirit cannot ignore it. There is an old rabbinical saying, “You are not expected to complete the task, but neither are you permitted to abandon it.” Whether or not we succeed at an effort is not as important as whether or not we try. A line I heard years ago has stayed with me: “Be totally invested in an effort, yet unattached to it results.”

There is a better way to live on this planet, for us as individuals and for us as a society. Politics is simply our collective behavior, and Gandhi said it “should be sacred.” Politics should be a collective effort made from the heart, from our deepest thinking, from our most soulful considerations. I have seen it be both. I have experienced both. My bet is on the better way.