The Modern Klesha of Isolation and Division
One of the most damaging mental poisons of today’s modern world
I wish I could claim credit for the phrase “modern klesha of isolation and division,” but I do my best to live by Fourth Precept of Buddhism, the one where I promised to abstain from false speech. Credit for the phrase goes to contemplative scientist, translator, and meditation teacher Cortland Dahl, who used it in his video introducing Tergar International’s Born to Flourish series of free webinars.
I’ll return to the klesha of isolation and division, but first let me highlight the webinars, which I consider a rare opportunity. In two-hour sessions over six Saturdays starting March 8, my primary teacher, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche; Richard Davidson, neuroscientist and professor of psychology and psychiatry; and Dahl, who is co-founder and executive director of Tergar International, will discuss and offer advice on “how to thrive in a challenging world.” You’ll find more information and the opportunity to register here (not to mention the video from which I “borrowed” Cortland’s phrase).
About that phrase, you probably know that klesha is the Sanskrit word for a mental state that clouds the mind and prevents us from seeing the world as it is—from enlightenment. It’s sometimes called a poison. The kleshas most often cited are attraction, aversion, and ignorance. I find those terms too broad and prefer ones like anger, fear, jealousy, clinging, bias, anxiety, and unbridled desire.
One of the most damaging mental poisons of today’s modern world is the shift toward isolation and alienation and away from community, especially in the West. A classic book in this area is Robert D. Putnam’s Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. He followed up with The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again. Vivek Murthy, former surgeon general of the United States, made a similar case in Together: Loneliness, Health and What Happens When We Find Connection.
The Buddha considered spiritual friendship and community—the sangha—primary on the route to enlightenment, but the shift toward “going it alone” is acute in religious communities today. One measure of the collapse of membership in religious organizations is that roughly 40 million people—16 percent of the adult population of the United States—have left Christianity in two and a half decades. Overall, membership in churches, synagogues, and mosques dropped from around 70% of the U.S. public in 2000 to less than 50% in 2020.
According to the Pew Research Center, seven in ten Americans consider themselves spiritual, but only two-thirds of that group also consider themselves religious. Figures specifically on Eastern religions are hard to pin down, but they remain a tiny percentage of the U.S. population even though they may be growing slightly.
I addressed the trend away from community in a July post in which I quoted from a New York Times Magazine interview with Putnam. This is from that post:
Putnam, at 83, feels what he wrote 25 years ago is even more relevant today:
We’ve become more socially isolated, and we can see it in every facet in our lives. We can see it in the surgeon general’s talk about loneliness. He’s been talking recently about the psychological state of being lonely. Social isolation leads to lots of bad things. It’s bad for your health, but it’s really bad for the country, because people who are isolated, and especially young men who are isolated, are vulnerable to the appeals of some false community.
We’ve seen countless examples in the news of lonely young men performing acts of violence in the cause of a false community.
The growing isolation and alienation fuel political polarization. It’s easy to blame social media, but the trend began before the invention of the “like” button, which added pixelated wood to the fire.
What can we do about isolation and polarization? We can practice our faith, strengthen our sanghas, and reach out to others—manifest our bodhicitta, our strong desire to liberate others. For inspiration, I’d suggest reading the 14-minute sermon that has drawn more immediate attention than any other I can remember. I’m talking, of course, about the one Bishop Mariann Budde delivered Tuesday at the National Cathedral with Donald Trump in a first-row pew.
My fellow Substack blogger Jim Palmer—who is becoming a good friend although we’ve never met—reprinted the entire sermon in his post Did we miss what Mariann Budde was saying? That moment you realize that an inaugural sermon was meant for you.
Although Jim generally uses Christian terminology and I talk Buddhist, our messages are similar. In addition to reading Bishop Budde’s full sermon, check out what Jim says about it. You’ll find both here:
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