It’s easy to hate the man and be frustrated or disgusted with his supporters. Yet hatred is a hot coal, and we have to pick it up with our bare hands before throwing it at someone else. The only thing it achieves is mutual disfigurement.
By Johnathon Lee
“I have the best Buddha-Nature; even Buddha said I have more Buddha-Nature than he did,” I imagine Former President Trump allegedly saying in an alternate reality.
34 felonies, an alleged plot to overturn an election, two impeachments, S.A. allegations, potential ties to Russia and proudly talking about grabbing women’s privates are strewn across Trump’s deranged path through life.
According to the Washington Post, Trump made over 30,000 false claims while in Office. He also has a sketchy relationship with Project 2025, which basically lays out legislation that would end Democracy in the States and turn us toward a real life enactment of A Handmaid’s Tale.
I am not a Democrat, but I believe in Democracy. I’m not a Republican, but I believe in self-determination.
Trump is the antithesis of everything that makes America great, and his followers are one step away from placing busts of him on altars. He’s a cult of personality spitting out venomous nationalist rhetoric like a mini Mussolini.
It’s easy to hate the man and be frustrated or disgusted with his supporters. Yet hatred is a hot coal, and we have to pick it up with our bare hands before throwing it at someone else. The only thing it achieves is mutual disfigurement.
Hatred blinds us to what we all have in common. As Fayan Wenyi said: “You have it too.” The mind is Buddha, so anything with a mind is a Buddha. That includes Trump.
The challenge is to approach this global disaster like Buddhists.
In the earliest Zen teachings, Buddha-Nature is compared to the Sun behind the clouds. It’s there, but we just can’t see it. It’s been overcast since before we born, with the layers thinning at times but never clearing away. We’ve all had moments where we swear that bits of blue have come shining through.
When clouds are all we’ve known, it’s easy to think that that’s all there is. Even though the light is dim and gray, it’s still there. The clouds are illuminated. So, there’s something enlightening them.
The clouds symbolize our beliefs and all of the narratives and afflictions that come from them. All of it smothered under our struggle for something more, something that’s already present: Nirvana.
Trump—like all of us—is ignorant of this. Yet Trump—like all of us—is silently shining by the very fact that he’s conscious. His consciousness is co-occurring with yours, mine, and the dog’s. Through these interbeing consciousnesses we wind up with the whole world, the flow of experiences and all of the stories we tell about them.
Trump—like all of us—believes his stories. They tell him that he’s the hero and that he’s going on the Hero’s Journey. We’re all like that, so caught up in our parts that we miss the whole show.
I don’t believe that Trump will ever drop his masks and get in touch with his luminous mind, but we can. We can work at clearing away the clouds, cleaning our glasses over and over until we see that even the smudges are clear. This isn’t easy. It takes a deep trust in your basic presence, deep doubt in your conclusions, and constant practice. It starts with having an ideal, and ends with seeing that we never had it.
“What is Buddha? What is the Buddhaful version of me?”
Once you’ve got that in mind, then be that. Work at it each day, mindful that it’s a helpful illusion that you’ll fine tune as you go.
“Would the Buddha Me tell a Trump supporter to fuck off? Would the Buddha Me look for fights on social media? Would the Buddha Me punch a Nazi?” The answer to that one is, “Yes,” for me. My Buddha has boundaries.
The amazing part is that this works. You’ll start to see the effects. That’s when it’s actualized. You start to trust your Buddha-Nature and doubt your one-sided interpretations of everyday events. When trust and doubt both peak, then you see for yourself that even Trump’s a Buddha.
That doesn’t mean that he gets a free pass to be a racist demigod. It means that there’s always a Buddhaful way to take a stand. I don’t think that that Way can be summed up in a universal list. It’s up to you to get in touch with your own Buddha. As Lennon sang, “There ain’t no guru who can see through your eyes.” Enlightenment is a universal nature that’s expressed in unique and countless ways. We can only offer virtual templates, the actual is up to you.
Buddha-Nature also means that all beings are Dharma teachers. Each frenzied rally Trump puts on is a Dharma talk. What is he teaching?
He teaches me that attachment to views causes suffering. Wanting to control others causes suffering. Ignorance of emptiness causes suffering. I can see all of that in myself when he speaks. Then I see it in the crowd, the mass of flailing limbs and wailing voices. He teaches me that I need to be patient and compassionate, yet also a servant of reason and justice.
Every mind is a Buddha, and all Buddhas teach the Dharma with each thought, word and action. The Sun’s shining; it’s all visible. We just have to stop and see.
Photo: AI Generated
Editor: Dana Gornall
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