Insight Diaspora
Disillusionment is Our Super Power
“Disillusionment has a bad reputation, but being disillusioned means being free from illusions, to see reality, to know the truth. As painful as it may be your disillusionment is a super power. You can see the world as it is and dream of the way it ought to be.” – James Talarico
We were recently watching James Talarico give the commencement speech at Paul Quinn College, a historically Black college in Dallas, Texas. We really resonated with the part of his speech in which he, pointing to the college graduates, noted that Gen Z is disillusioned—and rightly so—by the state of the world and our institutions here in America. He pointed out that we’re too focused on the left-vs-right dynamic, and not focused enough on the top vs bottom dynamic, given the kind of class warfare that’s happening in our politics and behind our algorithms, during the most unequal of times in American since the Gilded Age.
Instead of seeing this simply as a problem, or stopping at anger, which is where a lot of engaged movements end, Talarico went beyond this in his progressive Christian politics to describe the upside of disillusionment. The upside, he said, is that you see through all of the bullshit and can see a blank canvas of what can be built in a new world.
This manifesto that we wrote for the Insight Diaspora is meant to describe, in clear and unadulterated terms, the problem-space that we face as a Buddhist wisdom tradition operating in America today. We both see the ruptures and splits that we felt in our response to our own lineage, particularly when it comes to the silent complicity on Gaza that is so widespread in the American Insight tradition.
The Existing Reality
The Western Insight Tradition, in its current form, is constrained by limitations that prevent it from fully addressing the needs of our time. We must move beyond:
Hyper-Individualism: A central reliance on individual growth and development, often neglecting collective and systemic liberation, especially if it’s not popular, or makes others uncomfortable.
Transcendent Purity: An overemphasis on transcendence and purity as primary, often bypassing the messy realities of human life & social injustice.
Performative Pluralism: A willingness to be pluralistic & progressive in some areas, which are popular, while abandoning these same initiatives when the cultural winds change, or despotic leaders gain power. In other words, the unique problems associated with Neoliberal Buddhism and Technofeudalism.
Insufficient Trauma Work: Being trauma-sensitive or trauma-informed, but stopping short of group practices that work to actually integrate trauma. Hyper-sensitivity and avoidance aren’t the same as doing the work.
Sacrificing Contemplative Depth: The pursuit of a diverse teaching community that sacrifices contemplative depth for tokenist-based diversity, swinging from one extreme (individualism) to the other extreme (communalism), without holding both together at once.
Conflict Evasion as Equanimity: Avoiding difficult topics and calling this equanimity. This leads to silencing or shaming people who express legitimate moral outrage, because it isn’t “nice.”
The Developmental Blindspot: A persistent blindspot around incorporating the wisdom of adult developmental psychology, which is focused on growing up, alongside the work of waking up (traditional awakening) and cleaning up (shadow work).
Centralized Retreat Centers: A centralized retreat center model that invites thousands of people to engage in carbon-heavy air travel each year, while the ecological crisis continues to unfurl.
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
— Buckminster Fuller
A New Model
The Insight Diaspora stands for a holistic & engaged path that integrates the individual, relational, and systemic dimensions of life. We are committed to:
An Integral Awakening: A comprehensive focus on awakening individually, relationally, and systemically.
Sameness & Difference: We find higher ground together by skillfully working with both sameness & difference.
Agency & Communion: We honor both individual agency and communal care, each as non-negotiable core values.
Conservation & Adaptation: We honor what is working, and what has worked, while also being willing to change what clearly isn’t.
Nuance & Paradox: We stand for including both nuance–when the conditions are right for it–and paradoxical polarization, when they are not. Both both/and and either/or.
Contemplation & Action: Like the Christian contemplative tradition we aim to center both contemplation & action as equally valid expressions of the path.
Silent & Social: All of our practice spaces include both the opportunity to practice by oneself in silence, as well as practice together aloud. Multiplayer Meditation–a novel peer-2-peer approach that we’ve developed–strengthens peer-relationships, decenters problematic authoritarian teaching patterns, and supports the navigation of relational conflict & trauma-integration.
The Basic Moral Intuition: We aim to bring the greatest depth to the greatest span, which means that we protect and promote the deepest realization for the widest span of life–not just in our own practice, but in the relational and material conditions we help support.
Developmental Literacy: We aim to utilize developmental models that offer natural actualization hierarchies–not artificially-imposed dominator hierarchies–as dynamic paths we can grow through together.
Trauma-Integrating Practice: Moving beyond trauma-sensitivity to trauma-integrating practices that fully incorporate, and help heal, both individual & collective wounding.
Inclusive Bridge-building: No one in the Insight Diaspora will be asked to shun the Boomer-based Western Insight Tradition, or any other wisdom tradition (however out-moded), in order to participate here. We are not ideological extremists, we’re practiced bridge-builders.
Open Source Dharma: We are pioneers in the open source dharma movement, and specifically license all content we generate and share publicly with this project, using a by attribution, sharealike, non-commercial creative commons license. This allows for anyone to freely share or remix what happens here so long as they: 1) attribute where it comes from, 2) use it non-commercially, & 3) share any derivative works using the same license. We believe that the entire ecosystem benefits when we create an environment of values-based permissionless innovation.
Bioregional Scale Retreats: We aim to focus initially on virtual learning opportunities, with the long-term vision of helping to develop a distributed network of bioregional retreat facilities that make it possible for people to drive to intimate, localized centers where they can go deep with both teachers & peers. This bioregional retreat network will be able to be utilized by both the Insight Diaspora, as well as other contemplative communities with shared values.
Transparent Generosity: We practice dana–the ancient ethic of generosity–in the open, sharing honestly how resources flow through our community so that trust, accountability, and care can grow together.
The Invitation
The initial invitation of the Insight Diaspora Community, is to join us for a weekly series of community dialogues, in which we will be hosting a number of people who have fresh perspectives to offer on the unique challenges we face today.
Want to attend live?
Go to the Insight Diaspora Community site and register for whichever live gatherings you’d like to attend. We’ll be sharing a recording from each gathering here on the Buddhist Geeks Substack. That said, live participants are invited to ask questions, and interact with, guest speakers, and not everything that happens there will be shared, so we’d love to see you in real-time!
How can I support this project?
This entire project is generosity-powered, run through Buddhist Geeks, an educational 501©3 non-profit. If you feel moved to support this vision of community please become a monthly member of Insight Diaspora.