Loving enemies and living non-attachment are spiritual practices. As with physical training, we engage a spiritual practice to develop the underdeveloped parts of ourselves. Since the pattern of the Human Being is newly emerging, it needs to be developed. When viewed in this light, the protests at the Capitol are training opportunities in the art of practical compassion. This training will complement the emergence of the deep humanity in each of us.
Karen Armstrong, in her book, The Spiral Staircase, makes this observation about religion (p293):
The one and only test of a valid religious idea, doctrinal statement, spiritual experience, or devotional practice was that it must lead to practical compassion. If your understanding of the divine made you kinder, more empathetic, and impelled you to express this sympathy in concrete acts of loving-kindness, this was good theology....Compassion was the litmus test for the prophets of Israel, for the rabbis of the Talmud, for Jesus, for Paul, and for Muhammad, not to mention Confucius, Lao-tzu, the Buddha, or the sages of the Upanishads.
I can hear you saying,
“Pfeifer you're nuts. Why are you dragging religion into this discussion. What's going on in Wisconsin and in the budget deliberations in our nation's capitol is political not religious. These confrontations are political battles between conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats.”
And of course, you are correct. But the confrontations that we are experiencing in Wisconsin and which nearly shut down our national government, are caused by a profound polarization between two different belief systems. The combatants in these political wars stand by their positions with more zeal than do most members of religious communities. In a real sense, these confrontations bear a striking resemblance to religious wars of the past, except the weapons of this war are economic, political and legal rather than economic, theological and military.
In this context another quote from Karen Armstrong is relevant. She says (Spiral Staircase, p. 271):
The religious quest is not about discovering “the truth” or “the meaning of life” but about living as intensely as possible here and now. The idea is not to latch onto some superhuman personality or to “get to heaven” but to discover how to be fully human—hence the images of the perfect or enlightened man, or the deified human being.....Men and women have a potential for the divine, and are not complete unless they realize it within themselves.
Karen Armstrong's statement applies equally well to our political confrontations if one substitutes, in the quote above, “achieve a political visionary ideal” for “get to heaven” and “charismatic leader” for “deified human being.” The restatement would read something like this:
Political engagement is not about discovering “the truth” or “the meaning of life” but about living as intensely as possible here and now. The idea is not to latch onto some superhuman personality or to “achieve a political visionary ideal” but to discover how to be fully human—hence the images of the enlightened person or the charismatic leader......Men and women have a potential for the divine, and are not complete unless they realize it within themselves.
As with religion, we have missed the boat on politics. We have concentrated too much energy on promoting “the truth” of our political positions and on the assumed future advantages of our chosen political world view. We have neglected to ask if the understanding and practice of our political ideology are making us kinder, more empathetic people. We have neglected to ask if these understandings and practices are impelling us to express this sympathy in concrete acts of loving-kindness. In other words: We have failed to consider whether or not people in the USA and in the world are better off because of our political theories (theologies) and actions. When judged by this standard, neither conservative nor liberal politics are manifesting in their most noble form.
This is where the rubber hits the road. This is where spirituality (or religion) and politics coalesce. Political engagement is a spiritual practice. It is a laboratory where we can experiment with activities that actually enhance the lives of people now, not in some idealized future.
This is why the practices of loving enemies and non-attachment are crucial in the political arena. Each one of us has the opportunity to live into our deeper humanity in the social/political situations in which we find ourselves. If we don't live into this potential, we will be less than complete. In this incompleteness, our politics will also be incomplete. They will continue to produce fear and suffering rather than hope and life.
So like the Magi, talmudic scholars, prophets, contemplatives, and mystics through the ages, we need to engage in practices that deepen our practical compassion, compassion that engages not only our friends and the marginalized, but also our enemies.
