The easy life

I posted something as a comment on another blog that I want to reiterate and expand on here.

I live a pretty easy life. If I wanted to, I could look at the eight-year-old car I drive, the small house in which I live and the blue collar neighborhood surrounding it and say my life is pretty dreary compared to those living in the nicer suburbs and driving BMWs and the like. But none of that rates highly in my book — they're not nearly as important as the freedom to come and go as I please and spend my time as I choose, even if I'm just taking a nap or reading a book.

I would say that my life, while not surrounded by glamour and luxury, is easier than the lives of most Americans and certainly easier than the lives of most people on this planet. And while some of that is due to my own efforts, most of it has just been dumb luck.

So how can I talk about the serenity of non-attachment, don't know mind or whatever when I have greater freedom to practice these beliefs than most people? How can I tell someone who has children to support or an elderly parent for whom to care, 'Oh, just let go of all your worries and troubles?' I can put everything down and the consequences are minimal. For others, the consequences could be disastrous, not only for them but for others as well.

This discussion began on another blog in the context of some statements by the Vietnamese zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Many of his fellow Buddhists — distrusted by both sides in the Vietnam war — died violent deaths. He fled to France to avoid persecution and perhaps murder. There's a man who has been through some serious shit. Most of us will never walk five feet, let alone a mile, in his shoes.

America isn't as tolerant as it once was, but we're still more tolerant than most of the world. Again, it's easy for me — and for us as a nation — to form judgements about how others ought to run their lives when our lives are relatively easy and trauma-free.

It's a lot easier to be a Buddhist or Taoist within the comfortable surroundings of our culture than it is in places like Vietnam and China, or more recently, Burma and Tibet.