Evil triumphs when good people do nothing, it's true. However, by staying detached from world events and politics are we doing nothing? No. We're dealing with the war and politics that are right here and in our realm. Rosemary and I do not get involved in politics, I don't write my congressman back in America. Yet what am I doing for 5000 people? Some of them, what are they doing? The ripples are spreading, spreading. We have a student in San Francisco who years ago set up an illegal food truck, sending food into Burma for the refugees.
It's illegal, but it's a super good thing to do, right? He had been inspired from what we taught. He used to be a stockbroker. So did he change to do something very different? Yes. Did he basically get involved in war and politics? Yes. Rosemary and I are not, but we've got a role in teaching each one of you how to work with your own war and politics, and as that spreads out, it's going to influence more and more of the world.
There is another part of Buddhism, and history does teach, that you can't fix the world - it is by nature unsatisfactory. Human greed, hatred and ignorance doesn't want it fixed. This is why the U.S. was so slow in getting involved in World War II, they believed they'd already fixed it in World War I and thought that was it, and the Europeans were not at all interested in having it fixed, so off they went again.
We are definitely very active, directing our efforts to trying to get to the roots of ignorance within all of you. Now my role is very different to some of yours, some of you can get involved with the politics of your particular environment back home.
But are you sitting by and allowing evil to triumph? Are you doing nothing or very little within yourself and in society? Could you do more? That is a question that you do want to ask yourself, as a lot of people do get very complacent with their practice and with being active to help others.
I'll give an example of what I hope we'll never hear again. Very early in our years of teaching, one student was very much attached to indifference yet believed it to be equanimity. During an interview in their second retreat this student told me how equanimous they were and related this story. While at home one night, they heard screaming, looked out the window and saw someone beating someone up. They said that they were perfectly equanimous and went back to their meditation. No, I don't want to hear that sort of story again. I tried hard to explain to them the fallacy in this attitude, but I don't think I succeeded.
This is how evil does triumph if good people do nothing. So if there is something more you can do in your normal life, yes, do it. Don't let evil triumph.