My teacher, Donald Trump

November 6, 2020

It looks like President Trump will soon be officially vanquished in his bid for a second term. As of this writing it appears that, once all the ballots have been counted, Joe Biden will win the popular vote by about five million votes and will handily win the Electoral College. While I’m pleased with that result, I’m surprised to realize that I continue to learn a lot from Mr. Trump.

That realization dawned on me this morning as I listened to Insight Meditation teacher Gil Fronsdal speak live via YouTube to several hundred meditation students. The subject of his talk was Right Speech, one of the instructions of the Buddha about how to live wisely and compassionately.

According to Fronsdal, Right Speech (or Wise Speech) is wholesome, inspiring, and helpful. He said that we should use words that bring concord (peace and harmony) and words that help to unify people. He added that recognizing and telling the truth are important aspects of Right Speech, and are a big part of mindfulness practice. In fact, he said, mindfulness and truthfulness are synonymous; honesty is mindfulness out loud.

The opposite of Right Speech, he went on, is to speak falsely, divisively, harshly, and hurtfully. Alternatively, Right Speech is a social teaching about how we can live together harmoniously. Smiling, he added that truth is more important than who will be president.

You can probably see where I’m going with this essay. But before I get back to Mr. Trump, allow me to acknowledge my own challenges in the wise speech department.

In private conversations I can be very direct and even blunt, and if I’m angry then my bluntness can be hurtful. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, of course, but I have done so at times. So to avoid offending anyone, I sometimes express my displeasure behind their back, rationalizing my complaining by saying to myself that what they don’t know won’t hurt them. I can think of three individuals with whom I have polite if unsatisfactory relationships, and about whom I have vented to others. But Fronsdal asks, how do you speak about people behind their backs? If they heard you, would they be hurt? He’s holding us to a higher standard of conduct than I sometimes practice, so clearly I have some work to do.

But I don’t believe that I’m being hypocritical by criticizing President Trump, because I’m well aware of my own shortcomings and am actively addressing them. Mr. Trump, on the other hand, is a very public figure who courts controversy and chaos and appears to be disdainful of self reflection as being what he considers to be a sign of weakness. He is a case study in Wrong Speech: constant falsehoods, blame, rage, and divisive and hateful rants. If he were a private citizen I could ignore his relentless negativity, but as President of the United States he is a threat to the peace and security of this nation and the world. Even so, he is teaching us how fragile democracy can be and how much we have taken for granted: the need for civility, respect, honesty, and kindness.

We the people have voted that damaged soul out of office, but that’s only the first step. We need to rebuild our country after the devastation that Mr. Trump and his fanatical followers have inflicted, not by hating them but by becoming better citizens and better human beings ourselves. Elections will not solve our problems. A better economy and a vaccine for Covid 19 will not solve our problems. Confronting China, Russia, and other authoritarian countries may be necessary but still won’t solve our problems.

We all need to heal ourselves. Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, and atheists need to find a spiritual solution to the greed and selfishness that threaten our very survival on this planet. We can’t outsource the solution to politicians. Joe Biden can’t save us. We have to save ourselves.

I don’t know what the future of the human race or Planet Earth will be. But I’m grateful to my many teachers, including Gil Fronsdal and Donald Trump, for reminding me that the best way for me to contribute to a better America and a better world is to heal my own shadow and be kinder to everyone I meet. I can’t fix our political, economic, or environmental problems, but I can wake up to face the truth of my responsibility to live more wisely and compassionately.