Engaged Buddhism, and My Principles

Content Warning

Hi! As a heads-up on your display, I'll be engaging in a brief discussion of Buddhism and a few other faiths in this post.
Surprise, it's not all bad, but out of respect, I like to tell folks ahead of time.
Thanks for your screen time, and have a pleasant local time of day. :)

Some weeks ago, during my tiny prison sangha's Buddhist Study time on a Friday, I brought up a thought that had been making my mind itch. It was one of those frustrating points that, I admitted to the sangha, my perception would be colored by years or even decades of exposure and experience with Christianity, Catholicism, Judaism, and even Islamic viewpoints. I led with some questions to ground my thoughts:

Our goal, at least in some Buddhist traditions, is to alleviate the suffering of all sentient beings, correct?

The general response was yes, suffering is meant to be extinguished.

Being unhoused, having nowhere safe to lay one's head, especially in these violent weather extremes can be viewed as a form of suffering?

This, too, was also agreeable to the sangha, especially after two of us shared a viewpoint of what it was like to not have a home -- you don't have a safe place to keep yourself or a change of clothing, something to eat, your precious documents that prove you have the right to live and work in the country; you're out in subfreezing temperatures, or in triple digit heat, with lack of access to water, to something to regulate your body temperature.
You live outside the boundaries of your contemporaries, effectively.

Since we all agreed that being without a place to stay can be a form of suffering for many, I then brought up this:

Why is it, then, that I never seem to see a Buddhist group of people [in the USA] come together to help people? I see Christian churches, Catholics, Jewish temples, Islamic groups, but never have I heard a Buddhist group of any kind run a soup kitchen, build houses, offer a food pantry, run a shelter... What, exactly, is up with that??

The answer I got was unsatisfactory, with fingers pointed at how Buddhist groups are often poor and unable to afford to do any of these things.

It was unsatisfactory to me, because in the back of my head, I'm chugging at these thoughts: as people, we can find ways to pull together as a community, as a sangha, to help people up out of less fortunate circumstances. We cannot do this from the zafu. We cannot do this from the zabuton. We cannot do this by solely chanting the Daimoku or inviting the bell to sound.
It made me laugh, because I used to point and laugh at another faith, deriding them for their "thoughts and prayers" responses, but silly me, I was also missing the other part that I was complaining about: deeds and actions.
While I am reasonably new to Buddhist practices, I noticed how I would catalog who was offering help in places in the past.

When I was homeless, it was a Catholic church that made sure I had breakfast and a warm jacket to wear on Sunday mornings before Mass. They even told the city Mayor to stuff it when they complained about us homeless folks gathered before their morning service, explaining that it is their duty to help people. It was a Christian proto-megachurch, with all of its fancy camera equipment and such, that made sure I had clean clothes and a meal so I could present a clean face at a job interview (I landed the job, by the way). It was a trio of Missionary Baptist Churches that organized street feeds, making sure that we without houses could have a hot plate of food that wasn't gas station fare or another Big Mac.
Nowhere did I hear a Tibetan Singing Bowl, or Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammasambuddhassa or Tayata Om Bekendze Bekendze Maha Bekendze Radza Samudgate So Ha.

The time to reflect on it showed me this, and it upset me immensely.

I don't want to sit on a squishy cushion and meditate the world's problems away. I was given the opportunity in this lifetime to practice the Dharma, not stare into space and go 'Om'!

Enter Engaged Buddhism

On the 21st of August, 2026, Alan Peto posted a new episode of his podcast, Learn Buddhism with Alan Peto, which spoke directly to the heart of my worries. It's entitled Engaged Buddhism, which you should be able to read about at the link in this sentence.
The episode tells me, essentially, I am absolutely not alone in my desire to help other sentient beings, to be of benefit to others. There is a form of Buddhism that does the very things I want to do: protect others from harm, from suffering, and to be of benefit to those around me. They engage with the world that we live in, with the scope that we are all in it together, so ACT LIKE IT and help out, yeah? Engaged Buddhism steps off the zafu and into the world, meeting the modern society where it is at.

In short, it's practice that meets a parent who is struggling to make ends meet, that addicted person looking to leave the demons behind, the family wondering how to take the first step when their world was blown apart by foul weather. Whether it's a food pantry, a Buddhism inspired recovery program, an emergency shelter, or the manyfold other things one can come up with that are there to alleviate the suffering of our fellow human beings, it is practice that I absolutely want to be a part of because it matches my heart, my principles.

These are the kinds of practitioners I wish to meet, to converse with, to learn from, and to share what I've learned with others!

Ultimately: We are meant to help each other. We can't survive without each other, as each of us brings a selection of skills to the table. I like the idea of belonging to a cohort of skillful beings who help others.

Can we, perhaps, act like this for a little while? Y'know, until the heat death of this impermanent universe might be a good time.

:)