Insight, Karma, Compassion — A Formula
for Social Justice

President Bush continues to make Iraq the centerpiece of the war on terrorism. As I considered the invasion and occupation, I came up with these possible results, that the war and occupation: makes the above statement into a self-fulfilling prophecy; creates a new Vietnam for the US, a Vietnam which also helps to spread global terrorism; creates a renewable source of national suffering and impoverishment for the US, and serves as a source of selective corporate enrichment. However, such an essay was becoming too political, particularly given the fact that the intended focus was not politics, but to develop a Buddhist approach to the situation.

1. Impermanence and some Western Philosophies

Let us, then, shift gears, and approach the 2003 US-Iraq war and occupation in terms of awareness (or insight), and suffering, two key Buddhist concepts. There is awareness and suffering, by Iraqis, Americans and people from all areas of the world, of many different political persuasions. What about social justice? The unexamined concept of social justice is not without presuppositions, and is subject to cultural relativism, i.e. victims of terrorists, and terrorists, in general, all may believe they are acting for social justice.

Could we, then, speak in strictly philosophical terms, and pull together three Buddhist concepts; impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukha) and compassion (karuna), to come up with a general strategy to help alleviate the suffering caused by the 2003 American invasion and occupation of Iraq, and suffering in general?

2. The concept of Impermanence (Anicca)

Impermanence is a key Buddhist concept. Impermanence is the fact that everything in the universe has a rise and fall, a beginning and an end. But, a person's awareness of impermanence as a single principle of existence, does not necessarily lead one to right understanding, or right action. For instance, one might use impermanence to justify a "grab all you can, while you can" attitude toward life. A life of "live for the moment" could, in other words, become predatory, rather than being filled with compassionate thoughts and deeds for other living beings.

Let's consider the theory of impermanence for a few moments, as it has developed in recent Western philosophy. Buddhist thinking, which was becoming popular in Europe, influenced the 19th century philosopher, Schopenhauer. From it, he develops his own philosophy of the winding down of the "will to live" through human life, which is sometimes described as Schopenhauer's "pessimism." The philosopher Nietzsche transforms Schopenhauer's concept of the will to live, and its winding down, into the "will to power." Nietzsche's concept of the Superman is not a "grab all you can'" theory of power. Rather, the Superman, as in his work, as, "Thus Spake Zarathrustra, is one who is "Caesar with Christ's soul." One could then try to philosophically combine this "will to power" with Darwin's concept of the "will to survival" of beings in nature, and wind up with Herbert Spencer's Social Darwinist concept of the "survival of the fittest." Thus, one philosophical path depicts the movement from one's awareness of impermanence, to indulgence of the senses, to, conquering your enemy by force, which is quite a path. (Yet, are there not elements of this in nationalistic aggression of any kind, or in tribal warfare, even by the Samurai, for instance, who were Buddhist to at least some degree after Buddhism became popular in Japan?)

Let's take with the concept of impermanence in another direction, philosophically speaking. Impermanence could result in an existentialist ethos of defining one's essence through their actions, using free will. Hence, Sartre's famous phrase, "existence precedes essence." By this Sartre means that there is no preconceived notion of how we could choose to act in any given situation. The famous example he uses involves the French resistance during W.W.II. If he has to choose between staying at home and caring for his aged mother, or fighting for liberation from the German conquerors, he writes that no person or moral code could tell him, what to do; he has to make that decision himself, in existential freedom. That freedom is part of his existence and defines it.

There is another variation to the existentialist ethos: If one is powerless to resist a situation, one could still rise above it mentally. Albert Camus, in a famous re-telling of the Greek myth of Sisyphus, makes Sisyphus an existential hero. Sisyphus is condemned by the gods to forever roll a huge bolder up a hill only to have it perpetually roll down again. In the moment that he turns to walk down the hill, Sisyphus, who is almost one with the stone by now, as Camus writes, looks at the stone and himself, and realizes his separateness from it, i.e. the stone, or his fate. He realizes that he is a free being who knows himself as a free, superior to his fate, presumably free in his mind, as opposed to the slavery of his body to the task. A famous phrase, associated with Camus, is that there is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.

A person could become truly aware that phenomenally and culturally, all we have is the moment, to fill as we chose. That awareness is like the sword of insight (praja-insight), which cuts thought the bonds of karma. As Alexander the Great, Aristotle's student, used his sword to cut through the Gordian knot, rather than laboriously unravel it, so would discriminating wisdom would cut through karma. Indeed , insight or prajna, is described in Buddhist works as a sword of discriminating wisdom that cuts through ignorance and karmic bonds, in one's understanding and action.

Thus, philosophically, in Buddhism, awareness of impermanence would lead to the insight of discriminating wisdom, which one could use to cut through bonds of karma, which is the cycle of action and reaction, action and retribution, that we see between the Israelis and Palestinians, and also between world terrorism and the rest of the world, and between ourselves and the world as our other. The Buddhist concept of impermanence has more profound moral significance than the concepts described above, of Scopenhauer's will to live, Nietzsche's will to power, Spencer's survival of the fittest, and existentialist freedom and choice.

3. Compassion (Karuna)

But is there not something, which needs to be added to our philosophical, understanding of human suffering and its alleviation? To discriminating wisdom and insight we need to add equanimity and compassion. Without equanimity, people might feel like "angry young men (or women)" who rail against the human fate of impermanence and death, rather than go with this flow. The concept of compassion provides us with a tool to apply out insights on impermanence to our own lives and to the life of society. This would give us a theory of social justice, the quest for which opened this paper.

We've examined some philosophical aspects of discriminating wisdom or insight. And the philosophical foundation of compassion? David Hume, the famous British 18th century philosopher of empiricism describes "fellow feeling" or "creatureliness" as the foundation of morality. This is a form of utilitarianism, which views human good in terms of maximizing happiness. Immanuel Kant, the famous German philosopher who wrote after Hume, gives an alternative foundation of morality. Kant views "the good will" as the basis of morality. By good will he means reason, as practical reason in human activity, reason as moral legislator. Kant regards the good will or practical reason rather than fellow feeling, or happiness as the basis of morality.

It's interesting to note that the Buddha examines the metaphysical and epistemological dimensions of impermanence. It comes from the rise and fall of events, as moments in time, that have a beginning and end. One becomes aware, through intellectual awareness, and meditation, of the rise and fall of thoughts, of the breath and of feelings. Impermanence is a metaphysical and epistemological fact for people, and the Buddha breaks the concept into its component parts. But the concept of impermanence is fixed and irreducible, and expresses the underlying change in all phenomena.

Compassion, in Buddhism, like awareness, seems to be irreducible to anything further. It is instructive to compare the concepts of impermanence and compassion. Whereas the process of perception and awareness is individual, i.e. it takes place within an individual's mind, compassion by its nature has a public aspect; one is compassionate toward other beings in the world. Compassion is inherently integrative and restorative, not divisive . It is true that one might expresses compassion for oneself; but this usage still expresses an impulse toward integration of parts of oneself and the world, rather than a separation of mind from body or mind from situations. (An inherent co-operation is seem as the basis of morality for all these thinkers, Hume, Kant, and the Buddha---rather than a Social Darwinist "survival of the fittest." Even the latter exists in relation to the survival of the tribe as the larger trans-individual entity.

4. Insight, Karma, Compassion, and Social Justice

If we combine discriminating wisdom, (one's awareness of impermanence through insight), with compassion, and appropriate social practice, we have a theory of social justice that would not be subject to relativism. Neither terrorists nor those who seek to fight against terrorism with force could claim to wear the mantle of social justice. This is because the sword of insight, of discriminating wisdom, would cut through the strands of destructive karma. Compassion towards oneself and other living beings would be the norm. Terrorists would no longer literally self-destruct nor would they be sought as terrorists, for the fuses of hatred and war would be extinguished.

It should be noted here, that this year, 9/11 is the anniversary not only of the WTC bombing, but is the 30th anniversary of the Chilean coup of 9/11/73. Led by Pinochet, this coup toppled a freely elected government, with substantial pre-coup help supplied by the CIA, according to documents that were declassified during the Clinton administration. In Chile now, there is a public outcry, and the Chilean people are striving for national reconciliation, even as the perpetrators of mass murder against Allende supporters are being brought to justice through the court system. There too, insight, karma and compassion need to always strive to walk arm in arm.

— Paul Dolinsky