Change the world or make peace?

betaboy

You wish to change the world or make your peace with it?

Honest answers only, lol.

Some might contend that a humble person will never try to change the world - he knows he's too small to do that. He is not arrogant enough to believe he can change the world. He knows his limitations. He simply makes his peace with the world - this world isn't that important to him anyway.

What would you do?

hermitwin

Nobody can change the world. Not even Buddha and jesus.

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours.

BhikkhuJayasara

"The Buddha didn't change the world, he made peace with the conditions in it"

Dakini

The trick is in knowing the difference between what you can change, and what you can't. A lot of humble people working together ended the Apartheid regime in South Africa. In unity there is strength. I don't think we should ever turn our backs on suffering. But we need to wisely know our limitations, too.

If Gandhi had assumed he was too small to bring down the British Empire in India, in a way he would have been capitulating to oppressive forces. If compassion moves us to try to contribute toward moving humanity forward and ending suffering in some corner of the world (or of our neighborhood, or our family), and we have the skills to do so, it would be wrong to hold back. The key is to have the wisdom to know where you can be effective.

Remember, Buddhism is about compassion, and that isn't a passive pursuit. This is why in Buddhism compassion and skillful means/wisdom go together, they balance each other like yin and yang, male and female, night and day.

vinlyn

Very nicely written @Dakini!

lobster

Everybody changes the world by the ripples they make. Some ripples are stronger. Sometimes because the wind blows or other ripples resonate and amplify . . .

Here is a wave . . .
:wave:

poptart

The only thing you can change is yourself. But that is all you need to do. Changing yourself is changing the world.

federica

"People who have ideas of changing the world should start off with a small garden......"

Tosh

lobster said:

Everybody changes the world by the ripples they make. Some ripples are stronger. Sometimes because the wind blows or other ripples resonate and amplify . . .

Here is a wave . . .
:wave:

Good post. It reminds me of the ripples left by a bloke called Bill W, who was an alcoholic desperate to stay sober. Itching for a drink one afternoon, he sought out the company of another alcoholic who wanted to stay sober; not to help this other alcoholic, but because he had found that trying to help other alcoholics get sober helped HIM stay sober (whether they drank or not).

The drunk he found was called Bob Smith and the effects of that first meeting in 1935 created A.A. and the waves are still rippling outwards today and have certainly changed my world, and my families world.

I think there's 10 million alkies in A.A. today and when you take into consideration their families too, that's a heck of a lot of worlds they've changed since 1935.

As to the original question, it's extreme:

"You wish to change the world or make your peace with it?"

Can't we try to change the world to at least improve it whilst at the same time making peace with it? A middle path approach maybe?

Tosh

Dakini said:

The trick is in knowing the difference between what you can change, and what you can't.

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Said at the close of every A.A. meeting (in the UK at least).

Cinorjer

The way this question is put assumes an "either-or" answer and Buddhists know it's not that simple, of course. As @Poptart says, changing the tiny part of the world that is your life is changing the world. That won't stop people everywhere from killing each other and stealing from each other or going hungry while others feast, but we can feed the hungry person in front of us. So I guess I'd have to say the answer for me is "do both".

"Sentient beings are beyond numbering; I vow to save them all."

federica

"Oh Lord, Change the world.
begin I pray thee, with me."

(Attrib, Oliver Cromwell.)

rohit

If oneself could become better then it's an one step towards world of better world..

Dandelion

How on Earth are you going to change the karmic fruits of all beings? Because you can't begin to change the world if you can't do that.

wangchuey

What's killing the world right now is greed, hatred, and delusion. So where do we start? We should start with our own.

Zero

betaboy said:

You wish to change the world or make your peace with it?
Some might contend that a humble person will never try to change the world - he knows he's too small to do that.
He is not arrogant enough to believe he can change the world. He knows his limitations. He simply makes his peace with the world - this world isn't that important to him anyway.

For an equation to be just so, each constituent part is just so.
Wishes aside, we are all engaged in change with the world.

how

Everything changes. We are all part of that change. Trying to make your part of that change, ceasing from evil, doing only good and purifying your heart/ mind, doesn't limit one to an either/ or limitation.