Community, Movement, Support

Any movement, be it religious, political, spiritual or commercial needs a support network.

A movement, consisting of one person, is not a movement, it is likely to be seen as a psychological disorder, ostracising the individual because of their ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking, (reference to Galileo Galilei later in this article).

However, if that one person is able to convince another of the value of their ‘movement’ then you have the beginnings of a real movement. As the two share their vision and more and more people join so the movement grows in strength and validity.

If this new movement, gathering momentum all the time, is seen as being in any way opposed to the current, already significant movements, then the propaganda machine will be set in motion, condemning what it sees as opposition.

This is the ‘story’ of so-called civilisations throughout history of this planet. If history is to be believed!

Admittedly many ‘new’ movements are often guided by less than tolerant motives and followed by a fearful, desperate population. People react in many ways to what they view as oppression and will grasp at any straw that they feel will take them out of their current situation.

It seems, again if history is to be believed, that ‘new’ movements simply replace the old with another system. The real problem being the system which gives rise to the movements.

Nothing really changes, a new leader, possibly, a new doctrine, likely. But each new movement still leaves the old movement disenfranchised, creating ongoing unrest. Which inevitably leads to the formation of another movement, and on it goes.

The community, always needed if you are to follow a ‘different’ way is very important. The Buddha recognised this and created the order of monks, a society within a society that supported a different way of thinking, a different way of being for those following that path.

We all need the support of a community, whatever movement it is that we follow. Often there appears to be safety within community, a group of like-minded people, all feeling safe within the world of fellow believers. Yet this ‘safety’ is merely an illusion because while you may feel safe in your community there will inevitably be other communities (who also feel safe) but will be in opposition to your community.

Opposition leads to conflict, so all the time any group holds onto the beliefs as being in any way real, or right, or better conflict is going to happen sooner or later.

We have slowly developed our own community, a group of like-minded people practicing acceptance, practicing non judgement and non blame. It can hardly be said of this community that it is a new movement as it generally follows an already established movement, that of the Sangha, or followers of the Buddhist teachings. This community does not call itself Buddhist, though some may align with this more than others.

Whatever we call this community of fellow travellers on a path of acceptance, it is not a movement that creates opposition, It does not hold to a dogma, a strict sense of right and wrong. Acceptance, when practiced and understood cannot lead to “I am right” “they are not” points of view.

In fact, when properly understood this path elevates the practitioner to a place beyond good, bad, right and wrong. A place where these opposites do not appear on the path of the practitioner. (The Buddhist ‘Middle Way’?)

Hard to grasp for one lost in judgement, but then Galileo Galilei’s views, now proven(?) to be correct, were in opposition to the then accepted views of the Church and he was forced to recant and was placed under house arrest in 1633 for the rest of his life.

Simply because different ways of thinking and seeing the world we live in are not commonly accepted does not invalidate them. It just means a movement is in its infancy. Though that can hardly be said to the Buddhist tradition, which dates back to the 6th and 5th C. BC.

Any movement, should take the past as a reference point and then move beyond it, building upon teachings, thoughts, ways of being without getting attached to any specific point of view that may create conflict.

Any community that collapses conflict before it can arise will go unnoticed because of this simple fact. It does not in any way, support conflict. So it does not challenge the status quo. The louder your community is, the more polarised it is, the more conflict will arise on its path.

Seen, and understood like this, then acceptance of all phenomena is the path to individual liberation which may, or may not impact upon the general population.