Jon Hughes shares about how acting from interbeing helps find hope in difficult moments.

By Jon Hughes on September 18, 2025

This is a blog post about hope. To get to hope I have to travel through hate and fear and violence. But I do get there. You might even say that without those difficulties, we couldn’t have the hope at all.

I watched the violent disorder that erupted after the murder of three young girls in Southport, UK on 29 July 2024 with increasing dismay. I felt despair and fear as I saw the violence and hatred perpetrated on refugees, who are some of the most vulnerable and traumatised people, people who have come to this country—many from war zones—for safe haven. I noticed how willing people were to blame those perceived as ‘other’ and then to use the most extreme and violent language and actions to attack them.

How can the practice of Engaged Buddhism help me here? The practice has to be able to help me deal with this, or what use is it? These were some of the thoughts that came into my mind in response to what I saw. So, I waited and tried to stay present in my body, present with my breath, and to avoid being carried away by strong emotions.

There was a real possibility that there would be violence in Liverpool on 2 August 2024. The previous evening, rioters had attacked police, looted shops, and burned a library to the ground. Adam Kelwick, the Imam at Abdullah Quilliam Mosque in Liverpool, had opened the door of the mosque and walked toward a group of people who were planning to protest Islam. He had prepared food and drinks for the protesters, deciding to reach out to those who may mean him harm, to offer them food, ask what their problems were, and try to resolve them through dialogue. As he approached them, some of the group ignored him completely. There was a strong chance that the mosque and those inside would be attacked. But other protesters took drinks and food, and Adam was able to begin conversations with them. This led to him inviting some of them to meet in the mosque to discuss how they might work together to address some of the concerns that people had. A photograph posted that night showed Adam hugging a protester in a black hooded top, smiling with an expression of pure joy.

The image made me cry with relief and with something that felt like hope. I looked again to the practice for insight.

My understanding is that our practice is based on the Buddha’s first teaching of The Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path: there is suffering and a path that leads to suffering; there is wellbeing and a path that leads to wellbeing. The Eightfold Path is the path that leads to wellbeing.

The first step on that path is the insight of Interbeing, which recognizes that we are not separate from each other or from the Earth. I looked at Adam Kelwick’s actions and I saw a deep awareness of interbeing. How else could he have taken that first step from inside the Mosque to speak to people who possibly meant him harm? If he didn’t see that there was  commonality and truly believed that reconciliation was possible, I don’t think that he could have found the courage to do that. I then saw how the next steps on the Noble Eightfold Path follow naturally from the first insight. Right Thought, Right Speech, and Right Action are alive in Adam’s choice to take food and try to speak to the group with compassion and peace in his heart. And he succeeded.

I saw that there are bodhisattvas amongst us. But even the word “bodhisattva” is just a sign that points to something that can’t really be described.

In Zen it is often said that all the Sutras are just a finger pointing to the moon. We should not mistake the finger for the moon. We should not mistake the map for the territory it describes. For perhaps the first time, it became very clear for me what that actually means.

A few days later, in response to more planned Far Right protests across the country, thousands of bodhisattvas in towns and cities across the country responded. Streets filled with peaceful people in cities like Brighton and Bristol, people who came to place their own bodies in the way of the ones who planned acts of violence. And again, I could see that the insight of Interbeing led to this. The peaceful ones were inspired by solidarity and inclusivity. They carried banners that read “Refugees are welcome here.” They acted on the belief that we have more in common with each other than divides us. I cried again to see this.

I used the practice to look deeply at what was happening, and it helped me to see through a lens of Buddhism and to understand on a conceptual level. But how do I really know something is right? I feel my heart opening.

And I see clearly now: there is hope.There is hope because, with the insight of Interbeing, I know I am not separate from those around me.

I am not separate from the entire universe. The universe is in me and I am in the universe. Because of that, everything I do changes the universe a little bit. Every time I act from the standpoint of Interbeing, with compassion, I change the universe a little bit in that direction.

It all matters. Everything I do matters. From smiling to someone on the bus to resolving difficulties with my partner to walking with love in my heart towards people who may mean me harm, it all matters.

With this insight, I stopped feeling powerless, and my despair subsided. This practice allows me to see my interconnection, which reminds me that I do have agency.

The following weekend I attended a rally for peace in Manchester called Stand Up To Racism. The crowd filled Piccadilly Gardens as we gathered to listen to speakers and show our solidarity and commitment to peace. I brought my own practice to the event and did my best to follow my breathing and my steps as the crowd began to move off around the city centre and we walked together peacefully.

There is more to do. The conditions that led to the violence are still present. But I know I have the courage and the compassion to act from a place of understanding. I offer this message of hope and peace with compassion in my heart.