A Delicate Balancing Act

As comforting as it may be to imagine Gotama as a man far removed from the chaos of the world, wandering along the dusty roads of the Gangetic basin accompanied by his saffron-robed mendicants, stopping regularly to deliver inspiring talks on the dharma, and passing much of his time meditating quietly in forests, the story that we can pierce together from the canon presents a far more complex picture. Here we have a man who was intimately involved with the most powerful political figures of his time, many of them brutal, unreliable, and unpredictable, who had to be kept sweet so that Gotama could realize his project of "establishing the dharma and the community" in this world. That he succeeded in this delicate balancing act for more than forty years is a tribute to his political instincts and social skills as much as his "enlightenment."

---Stephen Batchelor, in after buddhism---