What is the Role of Zen Practice in the Midst of Violent Social Crisis?
“...if we were to simply walk past the fires of racism, sexism, and so on because illusions of separation exist within them, we may well be walking past one of the widest gateways to enlightenment. It is a misinterpretation to suppose that attending to the fires of our existence cannot lead us to experience the waters of peace. Profundity in fact resides in what we see in the world. Spiritual awakening arrives from our ordinary lives, our everyday struggles with each other. It may even erupt from the fear and rage that we tiptoe around. The challenges of race, sexuality, and gender are the very things that the spiritual path to awakening requires us to tend to as aspirants to peace.”
― Zenju Earthlyn Manuel
One of the primary tenets of all the Buddhisms is truthtelling; a compassionate, no-nonsense stripping away of delusion in order to witness and experience the bald truth of this small life, and the wide truth of existence.
The truth is that here in MN, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is engaging in the largest immigration enforcement action in history. People have been killed, including Renee Nicole Good in South Minneapolis, Keith Porter in LA, and at least 36 in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody since the beginning of 2025.
People are being violently taken from home, from work, from gas stations, restaurants, grocery stores and school bus stops. Racial profiling is being permitted. There are check points and document checks. Children cannot attend school, small businesses are closing. Deportation flights are happening, Native Americans are being kidnapped, constitutional observers and protesters are being brutalized. In addition to this, our social safety nets, the rule of law and the solidity of the US Constitution are being eroded rapidly. The consolidation of authoritarian power is accelerating, environmental protections are being stripped, international genocide experts have sounded the alarm that the US is engaging in genocide against Trans, Nonbinary and Intersex people, and genocides in Palestine, Sudan, Congo–and more–continue. These are violently tumultuous days.
And, the truth is also that the people of Minnesota are coming together in profound ways to care for one another. Neighborhood rapid response and mutual aid networks are proliferating. Hundreds of thousands are engaging in peaceful protest, resistance and witness. There is energy, love, and even joy in mobilization and organization, demonstrating once more that nonviolent direct action is not just a proven tactic for defeating fascism and authoritarianism, but also a moral guidepost, a lived theology of collective liberation.
What does Buddhist practice have to do with any of this?
In this moment of fear, anger, grief and unspeakable violence, it’s more important than ever to understand that there is no distance between justice and liberation. In Zen Buddhism, our Bodhisattva Vow is to alleviate the suffering of all beings, to liberate all beings (including ourselves). Countless beings are suffering in this moment. Racism, xenophobia, transphobia and fascism are Dharma Gates, fires that we must tend to as aspirants to peace.
Buddhist practice has a place within the storm of this moment, not outside it. There is no “outside” to be in. Our practice together, nourished by and embodying the teachings, allows us to be the open and awake eye of the storm, an eye of stillness and compassionate truthtelling–of commitment to the alleviation of suffering for all people.
We sit to connect to ourselves and each other, to lean into something larger than ourselves. To refill our gas tanks. We sit, not to escape, but to become steady, tenderized, undefended, and ready. In the Zen tradition, we sit with our eyes open, literally, because we are becoming HERE. We are becoming NOW. We sit so that we may be present, responsive and responsible. We practice so that we may meet this moment with curiosity, compassion and wisdom.
In the koan collection the Blue Cliff Record, Case 14, a monk asked Zen Master Yun Men, “What are the teachings of a whole lifetime?” Yun Men said, “An appropriate response.”
Zen practice is not passive. It’s responsive. It can be quiet, and it can be still. It can be inward-turned, and it can branch in all directions throughout space and time. But the goal isn’t to take care of ourselves so that we can then take care of others. The goal is to take care of ourselves and others simultaneously, because there is no separation.
What this looks like for you is completely personal. It might mean slowing down, eating some good food, and getting some good sleep so that you’re more present for your coworkers and family members in their fear and tension. It might mean supporting mutual aid efforts, helping feed and house your neighbors. It might mean taking extra care of your families, pets and neighbors, making sure to really check on how folks are doing. It might look like sitting more, watching and tending to the flame of your rage so that it is fuel for action, and doesn’t burn others. It might look like joining ICE watch in your neighborhood, or joining protective patrols for Friday prayers at local mosques, when invited. It might look like making and sharing art, hosting song circles, offering meditation or yoga. It might look like leaning on Zen practice to help others meet the liminality and “not-knowing” of this moment, finding possibility and imagination there, dreaming new futures and meeting emergent possibilities.
Whatever your “lane” is, please enter it. Please engage. Please know that Zen Buddhist practice is never apart from you, wherever you are and whatever you’re doing. It is a well of peace, ease and endless joy to drink from, even as it compels you to show up for this moment, and your community. You can always come home to it within yourself, within the teachings, within practice and within sangha.
Bodhisattva Vow:
Beings are numberless, I vow to liberate them
Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them
Dharma gates are boundless, I vow to enter them
The Buddha way is unsurpassable, I vow to become it
by Rev. Jinzu Minna Jain, priest and teacher at Clouds
