Tricycle | Awake in the World

But these judgments are subtle, and all swords are double-edged. The bodhisattva always tries to teach in language that is easy to understand and absorb—another way of saying useable and useful. When the real bodhisattva settles in the beautiful landscapes of California, Colorado, or New York, how is he or she going to communicate with the world except by projecting a voice through the mass media? The real bodhisattva will naturally co-opt the instruments of market manipulation to propound the pure Buddha-dharma, by skill of means turning the energy of the desire-driven market back on itself, transmitting a message that ultimately will cut desire at its root.

Or is it the other way around? Do the compromises themselves, the quest for air time, for column inches, for book contracts, for a bigger media footprint, a grander name, more students, more centers, more better bigness, subtly subvert the true message of the Buddha?