I SIT WITH A LOT of questions about the future of Buddhism, and as I do, it occurs to me that all the future is already right here, in what we’re doing right now. Questions about social engagement, joy, our perceived enemies, poverty and wealth—I hold these as interesting places for inquiry and experimentation.
In the , there’s a chapter about a bodhisattva who, disparaging no one, gives up a life of thinking and studying, instead taking up a practice of bowing to people—over and over—for millennia. Eventually, after eons of just bowing, people begin to recognize themselves as buddhas. I think this is at the heart of social engagement: how do we keep bowing, offering the deep bow under changing conditions and circumstances with people who may be incapable—for whatever
