The Elephant in the Meditation Room | Christopher Ford
10% Happier with Dan Harris
10% Media, LLC
4.6 • 12.9K Ratings
🗓️ 21 February 2022
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today's episode is the culmination of a long search to find a countervailing force: a Buddhist Trump supporter. This search was born out of the Buddhist impulse to find the other side. What is talked about as cultivating non-attachment to views and also called "beginner's mind." As you will hear, after a lot of searching, we finally found our person. Christopher Ford is a longtime Republican who worked for Trump (albeit indirectly) at the State Department. Ford wrote a pair of fascinating and provocative articles for the Buddhist magazine Lion's Roar. One was entitled, Zen and the Moral Courage of Moderation. The other was called, The Elephant in the Meditation Room.
Christopher Ford is a lay chaplain in the Soto tradition of Zen Buddhism. His teacher is Roshi Joan Halifax, who has been on this show a couple of times and is herself a longtime progressive. From January 2018 until January 2021,he served at the state dept as Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation. He's also worked at the National Security Council, and as a congressional staffer.
This episode explores:
- Ford's argument for a Buddhist conservatism
- Ford's experience in the Trump administration and his assessment of our current political state
- The personal tools Ford recommends using in day-to-day life, some of which go right to the issue of not being attached to our views
Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/christopher-ford-420
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the 10% happier podcast. |
| 0:05.9 | I'm Dan Harris. |
| 0:07.9 | Hey, hey, today's episode is the culmination of a long search throughout the Trump years |
| 0:17.3 | when pretty much every Buddhist I know was bemoaning either publicly or privately the general |
| 0:23.6 | state of affairs. |
| 0:25.9 | We decided we wanted to find a countervailing force, a Buddhist Trump supporter. |
| 0:31.1 | As a journalist, I've been trained to always find the other side. |
| 0:34.4 | I believe this is a Buddhist impulse as well. |
| 0:37.0 | In Buddhism, they talk a lot about cultivating non-attachment to views and also what's |
| 0:42.2 | called beginner's mind. |
| 0:44.7 | I don't want to claim that I'm perfect at actually taking in opposing views in either |
| 0:50.0 | my professional or personal life, but I definitely aspire. |
| 0:53.8 | Anyways, you're going to hear, after a lot of searching, we finally found our person. |
| 0:58.2 | To be clear, my guest today won't actually say whether he voted for Trump, but he is a long |
| 1:02.1 | time Republican who did work for Trump albeit indirectly at the State Department. |
| 1:07.1 | Although as you'll hear, he quit after the events of January 6th. |
| 1:10.9 | We found this guest because he wrote a pair of fascinating and provocative articles for the |
| 1:15.5 | Buddhist magazine, Lions Roar. |
| 1:17.8 | One was entitled, Does Buddhism Mean You Have to Be a Liberal? |
| 1:20.9 | The other was called, and I love this, The Elephant in the Meditation Room. |
| 1:25.4 | Christopher Ford is a lay chaplain in the Soto tradition of Zen Buddhism. |
| 1:29.9 | His teacher is Rochy Joan Halifax, who's been on this show a couple of times and is herself |
... |
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