Bodhisattvas are going to have to become politicians

[Guest guest]

Hi dear friends. I just stumbled across this quote from Ken Wilber. It leads me

to understand & appreciate the Natural Law Party more. Bringing meditators into

politics is not easy .. that's for sure.

 

Col

 

"You cannot even begin to make sense of the human condition without looking

deeply into philosophical issues. Even those who totally reject the importance

or the validity

of philosophy -- they give philosophical reasons for the rejection! In other

words, whether

you like it or not, to be human is to be a philosopher, and your only choice is

whether to be

a good one or a bad one.

 

And so, once you decide that you want to try to be a good philosopher, then this

tends to happen: if, as a philosopher, you ever allow yourself to decide that

you have some actual conclusions -- about the nature of reality, the nature of

human beings, of spirit, of the good and the true and the beautiful -- than you

very quickly realize that it is absolutely mandatory to try to make society a

place in which the greatest number of people are free to pursue the good and the

true and the beautiful. That becomes a burning categorical imperative, and it

eats into your

soul with its unrelenting moral demand.

 

As Foucault pointed out, one of the many great things about Kant is that he was

the first modern philosopher to ask the crucial question, What does it mean for

a

society to be enlightened (in Kant's essay, "What is Enlightenment?")? In other

words, not just "enlightenment" for you or me, but for society at large! Or Karl

Marx: philosophers in the past have merely tried to understand reality, whereas

the real task is to change it. To be socially committed!And so, as a modern

philosopher, you are suddenly in the broad field of political theory.

 

You realize that Bodhisattvas are going to have to become politicians, as weird

as that might initially sound. "

 

Ken Wilber