Commitment #1: Mindfulness or Spiritual Practices at the Core

The BCC network is firmly grounded in the idea of “peace in oneself, peace in the world,” that inner healing and social transformation go hand in hand, and that our social justice work is based in spiritual teachings.  The BCC network has its roots in the  teachings and practices of the Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism of Thich Nhat Hanh, but is not limited to those teachings.  Current BCCs are open to people from other faith communities, and the model can be easily adapted to fit other faith-based groups.  For the purposes of this handbook, we focus on few teachings that stem from Buddhism but resonate with the experience that most of us have.  These practices or others aligned with these are a foundation, the heart and cohesive sinews of our efforts together, and need to be embedded in the culture and agreements of the local BCC. Mindfulness practice applies to the overarching purpose of liberation and to the other two core commitments, namely caring for each other, and engaging in collective action. The teachings and the practices are vast in scope and depth. We are highlighting just a few that we think are especially relevant to a BCC.

• The Four Noble Truths is foundational. Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh often presents them in a different order than the standard. Well-being and freedom exists (3rd Noble Truth). There is a path to well-being and freedom (Eightfold Path, 4th Noble Truth). Alongside well-being, there is also ill-being, or suffering (1st Noble Truth) and understanding the roots of suffering (2nd Noble Truth).  We like this rendering because it puts the emphasis on well-being, freedom, and the capacity to live an awakened life right up front.  This supports our view that environmental well-being, and freedom from racism and social oppression are possible.
  
  

• The Two Truths. There is the “ultimate dimension” of reality where there is no separation, no oppression, no brokenness. This is our true home. In the ultimate dimension, we already live in the Beloved Community, which is simply a name for our essential unbroken connectedness. As we touch this, we are free, relaxed, happy.  At the same time we live in a “historical dimension” of reality which contains suffering, war and oppression, a physical body that ages, gets sick and dies, and along the way experiences ten thousand joys and ten thousand sorrows.  One metaphor for the relationship between the ultimate and the historical dimension is that between the ocean (the ultimate) and the waves (the historical). As the teaching says, when the wave knows it is the ocean, it is free from suffering caused by the notion of a separate existence.
  
  This teaching is helpful to BCCs because it reminds us that while we are engaged in action to heal and protect the Earth, to end racism and all oppression, to stop war and violence, and to help midwife a new era of Earth harmony and sustainability, at the same time, we are already home, whole, unhurt, a radiant manifestation of the great Ultimate dimension.  Therefore, we can work with patience, compassion, and nonviolence, perceiving no “enemies”, only opportunities to love and grow.
  
  

• Impermanence.  Impermanence means everything changes. This is the nature of reality. Nothing lasts – not our bodies, not our lives, not our civilization, not our ecosystems, not our species. Indeed, the vast majority of species that have existed on earth are now extinct. The earth and all its creations are but a moment in the cosmic flow. We are understandably attached to our particular species on our particular planet, and letting go of the idea that we are not the center of the universe is challenging. But when we resist change, we suffer. Wise view asks us to learn to look deeply at the reality of change and not cling to our views or preferences.  This can help us find freedom in the midst of the storm. The clarity and calm from this freedom helps us respond more appropriately to the changes that are occurring.

  
  The fact that everything changes can also give us realistic hope. For example, racism did not always exist. The modern form of white European racism was institutionalized in the late 1600s in the American British colonies to deliberately divide “low-wealth” white people from their natural allies, low-wealth Black and Indigenous people.  And while racism and white supremacy have done immense harm for centuries, it will someday end.  Impermanence rules.  
  
  

• Interbeing means everything is interconnected. Another crucial element of wise view is that nothing exists as a separate entity; that everything is connected to everything else. Interbeing is the awareness that we are not separate from the earth, but rather we are the Earth. When we are open and still, we can know without a doubt that we carry the Earth in every cell of our bodies. This awareness awakens a deep desire to care for the Earth as we want to care for ourselves, and one another and all beings. What we do to Earth we do to ourselves and each other. And how we are with each other is how we are with the Earth.
  
  Another aspect of interbeing is the recognition that each of us shares a basic human nature with every other human being: with the Maldives islanders who are losing their islands to rising sea levels, and also with the oil barons, and climate crisis deniers. We all want to be happy and safe, and we all are highly conditioned to be attached to our points of views. To the extent that we can effectively deal with our judgmental and polarizing minds, we have a better chance to overcome these feelings of separation, and to see all beings with the eyes of compassion, even as we try to stop destructive activity.
  
  

  Still another aspect of interbeing relevant to BCCs is that since all is interconnected, we can begin anywhere in our healing, preserving, and protecting work and know that it reverberates across the fabric of the whole universe.  We don’t need to argue, for example, about whether we should work to dismantle racism first or stop climate change first. They are intimately intertwined.  One caution: understanding interbeing does not mean that we do not need to act. As Thich Nhat Hanh has frequently reminded us, seeing and acting go together. Rather, understanding interbeing means that if we start where we are and with what we love, and look deeply, we will eventually see how our area of focus is related to the whole fabric of the eco-catastrophe.   
  
  

• Liberation from suffering.  No human being escapes suffering. Some experience significantly more than others. Suffering is both individual and collective. When we were born, we didn’t ask to be subject to abuse and trauma, or to be damaged by systems of oppression, or to be conditioned to feel separate, or to endure hunger or violence, or any of the infinite ways that humans suffer.  But here we are. If unhealed, suffering can cloud our thinking, make us reactive, turn us against each other and ourselves, and generate even more suffering at all levels.  Freedom requires us to acknowledge, accept, heal, and transform our suffering. At the individual and collective levels.
  
  How to do this is a complex and exciting journey, even when confusing and painful. Our mindfulness practice offers many paths: concentration, meditation, deep looking, cultivating loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity (the Four Immeasurable Minds), and the precepts for ethical living (e.g., the Five Mindfulness Trainings).
  
  In terms of BCC culture and functioning, our practice encourages us to use kind speech, to take refuge in the sangha, to check one’s ego, to practice patience, to not spread gossip, to “look at all beings with the eyes of love and compassion,” and more. 
  
  

• The practice of ethical behavior.  In our everyday lives is where the mindfulness rubber hits the road.  Walking the talk requires ethical living.  Since “interbeing” is true and not just a concept, then what we do in our thoughts, words, and deeds ripples outward infinitely. How we speak impacts others and vice versa. Knowing this interdependence encourages us to take good care of our actions. It helps us see the necessity of living an ethical life, and the desirability of a collective ethic along the lines of the “Five Mindfulness Trainings” from the Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism, namely: reverence for life, generosity, kind speech and deep listening, sexual responsibility, and mindful consumption. Members of a BCC commit to practice these or similar ethical guidelines ever more faithfully, and to reflect on them as a collective on a regular basis.
  
  

• Regular spiritual practice. First and last, the core personal liberation is to enjoy regular spiritual practices together, that might include sitting and walking, silence, centering prayer, nature walks, breath work, chanting, or other grounding practices shared or learned by your BCC members.