What is Democracy? The World in Upheaval: A Buddhist Perspective.
Democracy, and especially democracy in America, is a concept we usually take for granted. It means a vast variety of things: freedom, liberty, the right to vote, equal representation, freedom of religion, and so on.
The world is now experiencing a vast upheaval throughout the Mideast and Arab countries; and for us here in the United States, there is natural assumption that where it is all headed is toward the establishment of a system of democracy and representative government in those countries – one which will conform more and more to our own concepts of democracy here in America.
But, actually, what is democracy? It is a good question. And if the turmoil in the world is headed for democracy, what kind of democracy is it? Is it a place where everyone simply obtains the right to vote and to elect representatives who will govern?
There is a strong undercurrent of uncertainty even in our own approach to this question. What if the unrest in the Mideast and Arab world results in voter enfranchisement and representative government and in the end this results in bringing to power a government that is perhaps the exact opposite of what we envision a democratic government to be? What if the people of a country participate in elections that result in an Islamic regime that does not uphold the same vision of rights and privileges that we do? Is that a democracy? The people have voted for it, but is that a democracy?
So the question turns on much more than voting rights. We are looking for other things: liberty, equality, gender equality, freedom of religion, free speech, and many other things, and there is not universal agreement on which of these we should choose.
Even if a government upholds these concepts in theory, often the reality of politics dictates other courses of action. Power corrupts, as the saying goes; and innumerable times throughout history we have examples of revolutions and oppressive governments being overthrown, only to end in the new usurpers of power becoming oppressors themselves. In our own history, the Puritans left England to escape religious oppression, only to set up a new community in the New World that was as intolerant of outsiders and those who did not hold beliefs similar to their own as any community or government they had left.
History is full of change, and of ups and downs. We have had social revolutions, economic revolutions, technical revolutions, revolutions of all sorts; but still we are left yearning for a more perfect world, a more perfect government, a more perfect society.
Even here in the United States, in what we consider the world’s most perfect democracy, political parties are at each other’s throats, people feel that they are not represented, and representation means getting 51% of the vote of anything so that you can control and have your way with the other 49% who are out of power.
And around the world, there is division after division – division of race, ethnicity, religion, nationality – a world poised always on the edge of conflict and war. It is a world destined, many feel, towards a global community, a global identity; and yet the reality is that it is also a world fractured and fracturing into more and more discreet units, smaller self-protected identities. We want to be ourselves, we want democracy and freedom for ourselves, but that same democracy and freedom do not apply for those different from us.
What is needed is a larger identity, a truer identity, an identity that takes us all back to the most fundamental roots of our being and humanity.
This is the realm of religion. But for the most part, current religions do not supply that identity.
Proof is simple and glaring: In the Mideast, the birthplace and root of three great religions, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, there is anger and hatred and division and war and threat of war. This is a region whose religions proclaim freedom and love and love of neighbor and love of enemies and peace and brotherhood – wonderful ideas, but ideas that have never been actualized among the people and nations of the world throughout the millennia. These self same religions in many instances are actually the cause of the continual strife. They divide people into camps, into warring camps, warring with their different gods, their different visions that have no power, beyond catch phrases and words, to unite humanity as one.
Vaclav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic, a person who knew division and strife and oppression first hand, once spoke of democracy in these terms:
“Were I to compare democracy to life-giving radiation, I would say that while from the political point of view it is the only hope for humanity, it can only have a beneficial impact on us if it resonates with our deepest inner nature. “
“Wherein lies that forgotten dimension of democracy that could give it universal resonance?” he asks.
“If democracy is not only to survive but to expand successfully and resolve those conflicts of cultures, then, in my opinion, it must rediscover and renew its own transcendental origins. It must renew its respect for that non-material order which is not only above us but also in us and among us, and which is the only possible and reliable source of man’s respect for himself, for others. The authority of a world democratic order simply cannot be built on anything else but the revitalized authority of the universe.”
In other words, we need to re-connect individual human beings once again, in all their diversity, to the Law of life that is at the core of everyone’s existence, the basic groundwork of being that permeates everything, within and without, and that reveals our original roots in a common humanity.
In other words, what is needed is a new spiritual dimension or religion; but a religion that transcends our smaller identities, and opens our lives to a truer identity at one with the life of the universe itself.
Of course, this is what religion has always tried to do. But in actuality religion has failed thus far to connect human beings to this deeper reality. Witness only the fractured turmoil in the world today.
Words and concepts and ideas are fine, but what is needed is a power and a connection that transforms these words and ideas into a living reality.
We do not yet know who we really are. We are the gods we talk about and worship in our prayers. We are creators of unbounded potential. We shape our world and our destiny, but the world we have shaped thus far is a world of darkness and delusion and division that imprisons us in a sea of suffering.
What is needed is democracy, yes. But the democratic revolution the world is headed for and pining for can never come to fruition without a corresponding spiritual revolution that breaks down the old walls of our limited perception and re-connects all of our lives to the life of all of humanity and to the cosmos itself.
This is a democracy beyond all distinctions. This is a democracy that demolishes poverty and sickness and unhappiness by prioritizing the welfare of the individual human being as the focus of all our endeavors, in economics, politics, and education. This is a democracy that empowers people, and destroys war itself, for every other person in the world is no longer seen as “the other”, but rather as an integral part of our own life.
This new spiritual revolution, of course, is manifesting in the lives of people living right now. It manifests in the lives of Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists, in all of those who are waking to the Truth about humanity and our place in the cosmos and and the interconnectedness of all life.
But the transformative power to bring this new order to fruition in the lives of all of those now living on this planet, and in the lives of countless future generations – this power and movement to actualize a true human democracy upon the face of the Earth is now being spearheaded by Buddhism – more specifically by the Buddhism of the SGI, or Soka Gakkai International.
You may never have heard of the SGI. But already, the SGI has roots worldwide, in 192 countries and territories. Its 13,000,000 members are transforming their own lives, while contributing greatly to society in a multitude of ways and roles.
The SGI’s president, Daisaku Ikeda, is a man whom many consider the greatest leader in the world today. He has received 300 honorary doctorates and degrees from universities around the globe for his efforts in furthering peace, culture and education among the nations and peoples of the world. He has held dialogues with thousands of people – representing all spectrums of religious, economic and political life – in an effort to create alliances of people dedicated to working for peace and a better world, whose vision encompasses a common humanity beyond all borders or nationalities or religion or race.
Buddhism does not exist in another world separate from this Earth. Buddhism exists here and now. This is our world, a heaven or a hell, and this world is anchored in eternity.
What is called for now are not the revolutions we have seen in the past. At this point in time, they will lead nowhere.
What is called for is something totally new, a human revolution – a transformation on the individual human level resonating throughout the entire world. What is this human revolution? It is an opening up of our lives to the greater dimension of life and reality that recognizes the interconnectedness of all people, of all life.
A great worldwide democracy simply cannot come into being without this spiritual revolution as its foundation. And as this revolution is accomplished – waged primarily within the life of each individual – the world around us will be utterly transformed. A true democracy will appear.
This is a long struggle; but it begins ever anew today.
What is democracy? It is the dream of the universe come to fruition.
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Jim Hilgendorf is the author of four books: “The Buddha and the Dream of America“; “The New Superpower“; “The Great New Emerging Civilization“; and “Life and Death: A Buddhist Perspective“. The books are available, either as paperbacks or e-books, through bookstores, or online at the publisher, The Tribute Series, or at Amazon.com.
Jim is also the producer of The Tribute Series, a series of highly-acclaimed travel videos that are in homes, libraries and schools throughout the United States, several of which have appeared on PBS and international television. He is also the producer of “America’s Dialogue“, a series of videos, national dialogues, and interviews on topics of national and international importance.