The Zen of Voting
A Dharma Talk by Tofu Roshi

Before the 2004 election, Tofu Roshi was asked by many for guidance on the whole question of voting. His dharma talk on suffrage follows here.

May all beings be happy.
May all beings be free.

My students at the No Way Zen Center have been asking me for guidance about the election, and so I have put together these thoughts on the Zen of voting.

Most of you here are not Zen practitioners, but you have probably heard of Buddha's Four Noble Truths. Let me remind you of the first one: Life is Suffrage. And "suffrage" comes from a Latin word meaning to cast a vote with a broken tile. Unfortunately we don't have time before this election to get all the electronic voting machines replaced with broken tiles, but after November 2nd we can turn our attention to that cause in preparation for the next election.

And we do still have time before this election to work for full enfranchisement. Enfranchisement comes from the medieval French, and it means: to be liberated from serfdom and become a full French citizen-enfranchissement. May all beings be liberated. May all beings, even the tiny moths, become full French citizens. French fries are truly freedom fries.

There are two ways to vote in California: You can vote by absentee ballot, or you can go to your local polling place. Voting by absentee ballot is an excellent method for anyone wishing to follow Buddha's teachings. In this way, we come to an understanding of true emptiness: we are all deeply absent, we are all empty of self-nature, we are all, in some sense, out of town. This is the Way of the Absent-Minded.

However, if you are unable to leave town on November 2nd, or if you have already fully attained the Absent Mind, you will probably be voting at your local polling place. Polling places are the temples of democracy, and I would like to outline for you here the seven essential points of the ritual of voting.

• Point One: Dress code. When I vote, I always wear my robes. But if you don't have robes, you should still dress modestly. Even though we have the right to bare arms, your shoulders and upper arms should be covered at the polling place.



• Point Two: The practice of generosity. You should take an offering with you to the polling place: a box of a dozen honey-glazed donuts for the people who sit there doing the gritty-nitty work of democracy. I must caution you, however, not to eat while voting. Not only is this disrespectful, it can make the LED screen sticky.



• Point Three: When you have gone through the line and gotten your ballot, take from your monk's bag a scarf or a pretty piece of cloth and spread it like a curtain over the entrance of the booth.



• Point Four: Bring a bowing mat with you, or if you don't have one, a bath towel will do. Spread your towel out on the floor in front of the voting booth and do three full prostrations. Fold the towel neatly and put it back in your monk's bag, lest a fellow citizen trip over it.



• Point Five: Step into the space that you have made sacred, and, chant very quietly to yourself:
  May all beings be full French citizens.
  May all beings be free from the Bush administration.
  Sentient beings are numberless. I vote to save them.

I want to pause here to speak about Bush. My students say to me, how can it be right to vote, when Buddha taught us: no picking and choosing? Shouldn't a good Buddhist be nonpartisan? I explain to them that not picking and choosing means not picking all the chocolate drops out of the trail mix. Nonpartisan means not partying too much.

As Buddhists, we practice the way of non-harming. We are not harming Bush by not voting for him. Do not worry that you will hurt his feelings. Instead, take up the advanced practice of extending your compassion toward him, reminding yourself that all beings have Buddha nature, even Bush. In this regard, I would like to point out an interesting fact that is rarely commented on. It's an indication of Bush's Buddha nature, perhaps the only indication. This is the fact that Bush and Buddha both begin with BU. The same can be said, by the way, of James Buchanan and Martin Van Buren, if you don't count the Van. But we don't have time here to discuss the further implications of these remarkable facts-I leave that to the scholars of spiritual orthography.

Let's get back to our practice in the voting booth.

• Point Six: Take a crib sheet with you, or whatever written materials you require-whether it's a copy of the Bill of Rights, or a French-English dictionary. I'll be bringing my pocket copy of the U.S. Constitution.
  
  I used to think it was cheating to take written information into the booth with me, and I tried to memorize all the candidates ahead of time, or at least to write their names with a ball point pen on my palm. I was afraid I'd get caught cheating, and that I would never get into the electoral college. But when I fully attained the way of the Absent Mind, it became essential to bring little notes with me, folded up in the sleeves of my robe. And I was relieved to learn that this is allowed.
  
  As you all know, the emphasis in this election is on Not Electing Bush. This makes it a very Zen election. This is the Non-election of Bush. As a Zen Master, I am capable of having only one thought in my mind at a time – if that many – and I'm a little worried that all the emphasis on not electing Bush will confuse me, and that when I'm in the voting booth, in the heat of the moment, I'll be thinking so hard about not electing him that I'll push the little button beside his name. This is why I am bringing a note card with me that says: "Don't vote for Bush. Do vote for Kerry." I encourage you to do the same. And I'm bringing my reading glasses so I can read the note.

• Point Seven: After you vote you will get one of those little stickers that says, "I voted today." Wear it proudly on your head chakra as a mark of the Buddha.

These are the Seven Points of Zen Voting Practice.

So let us act in such a way that when the election is over, we can say to ourselves that we've done our best. And let's plan a celebration after the election, to thank each other for our great kindness. Because whoever wins, we will not be satisfied, and our problems will not be solved. We will still have ample opportunity to work together for the alleviation of suffering and for the return of voting by broken tiles. And whoever wins, we will still make music and poetry.

Please repeat after me:

May all beings be free from fear.
May all beings be free French citizens, if they so wish.
May all beings be nourished by music and poetry.
May we all continue to work together for peace.

For more guidance from Tofu Roshi, see The Life and Letters of Tofu Roshi and look for his columns in Turning Wheel magazine.