A Lotus For You, Erik Curren

Many joke that Barack Obama is 'the first Buddhist president' due to his calm demeanor and insightful ways of viewing problems but are there any prominent Buddhists in modern American politics? One interesting case is that of Erik Curren, an "openly Buddhist" candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates. Some controversy arose when his Buddhist beliefs surfaced (although he is also a practicing Methodist). A recent article by journalist Emily Breder looked into some of the controversy. The article eventually led to a very interesting interview between Breder and Curren, one where he discusses numerous topics, from reincarnation rituals in Tibetan Buddhism to trying to reconcile Buddhist ideas of detachment with his political aspirations. Here's an excerpt:

Breder: It definitely would be a new kind of politics from what we’ve been experiencing the last fifty years or so. Well… it’s also true that we can’t be extricated from our experiences. It’s those… it’s our experiences which gives us our set of personal ethics, and… one reader described you as an “unknown quantity”. They need a yardstick by which to measure your probable reactions, and… actions and re-actions. Can you describe how Buddhism has shaped your ethical values?

Curren: Sure! I follow the Bodhisattva ideal. I believe that the life that’s worth living is a life of service to the community, and that’s really what motivated me to run for political office. I have been trying to serve the community in various ways, I volunteer with different Boards and… service organizations and I felt like I could be more effective if I stepped up to the plate… to work on a state-wide level.

Breder: A reader also asked whether Buddhism conflicts or expands your Christian faith, in regards to the existence of a Creator/God.

Curren: You know, there’s a lot of terminology I think that people can get caught up on, and particularly religious faiths, and I think if you speak to some wise religious teachers from different traditions, what I’ve heard them say… people like Thich Nhat Hanh… or even the Pope… that various religious traditions are not all that different in concept. And so, for example, when you talk about… Creator/God in Christianity… in Buddhism, of course, you have the... you may have God, depending on your tradition, but that’s not really what Christians are talking about when they talk about God. I think when Christians talk about God, at least in my humble opinion, they’re talking about something that’s like Ultimate Truth and Ultimate Goodness, and to me that sounds an awful lot like Buddha Nature, and like Ultimate Reality. So, I think that if we can get over the differences in the terminology and some of the cultural things that are not really central to these faiths, we can get to the heart of the faiths, which do have an awful lot of things in common.