Reimagining Zen Towards an Ethics of Interbeing - Week 3/10

Buddhist practice is wonderfully liberating because it empowers you to let go of your suffering regardless of your circumstances. However, we can also get stuck in the fallacy that conditions don't matter, thereby making it seem like helping beings (including ourselves) experience things like safety, health, freedom, justice, prosperity, and love are outside of the realm of Buddhist concern. Are we only interested in "spiritual" well-being, as if that can be separated entirely from conditions? Or do we work for the happiness of beings without worrying about distinctions like "material" or "spiritual?" You might also see this is a tension between "internal" and "external" practice. How do we balance internal work with working to make conditions more supportive and life-affirming for ourselves and others?