Expert: Alex Wilding - 5/1/2008

Question
I am a young adult who has studied Buddhism since High School. I have had a particular reoccurring struggle in my practice: what is the Buddhist perspective on action? I find that as I try to incorporate Buddhist teaching more and more in my life, I seem to always try to accept situations, understand myself and my intentions in them, at the expense of trying to change them. In other words, I find myself reacting to dilemmas by trying to change my inner perception rather than be proactive about the external situation and take action. I understand that Buddhism is a practice and not an orthodoxy, that there is no single "Buddhist" answer to this problem, but with such intense focus on the inner world, what is one strategy the Buddhist might use to "go with the flow" without making oneself a pure victim to circumstance? Thanks in advance!

Answer
Hi Jed,
They say that often a problem is halfway solved as soon as it is properly identified, and I think you have already done that - it is possible to take the patient recognition that most of our troubles stem from our own mind just too far. Like a lot of good ideas, take them too far and they can even turn into opposites of themselves! Buddhism is, after all, often called the "middle way".

So I think the trick is not so much to actually avoid taking action about difficult situations, so much as to avoid fixating on such activity. If we run around trying to fix everything, and then when the result is not perfect we run around even faster trying to fix the holes in the first fix... yes, then it will pay to stop and recognize that we cannot make the world perfect even for ourselves, let alone for anyone else. It will pay to see that most of our satisfaction and dissatisfaction about things depends on our attitudes more than it depends on the things concerned.

But, as you obviously have already seen, having said that, you must be realistic. You sit down, only to discover that there was a thumb-tack on your chair. Of course it is wiser to jump up and pull it out of your backside than to meditate on the fact that the suffering has to be accepted. In that case, action *is* the middle way. Getting into a fury, yelling at people who you want to blame, throwing the chair at the wall - now *those* would be extreme reactions!

So - and this may not seem very helpful - I think that the answer to your question of "how to go with the flow without making yourself a victim of circumstances" is: just do it! Go with the flow, but don't make yourself a victim of circumstances. I feel that at the start of your question you have identified the problem, by the end you've given the answer; you just need the confidence to do it.

I hope this helps at least a bit!
All the best
Alex W