Greg Suffanti
The Eight Worldly Dharmas of Trump Derangement Syndrome and How I Overcame Them:
My Personal Quest to Find Hannah Arendt’s Amor Mundi in a World on Fire
This letter was written on the 13th of March 2026, a time in which there are profound geopolitical shifts in the world, as America has replaced Venezuela’s leader, placed an energy embargo on Cuba, tariffs on its trading partners and along with Israel, have started a War with Iran, while Europe is still at war with Russia…Amungst other wars, upheaval and general unhappiness in the world.
There Is No Distance in Our Shared Wish for a Better World
To my dear old friend and colleague Heidi Muijen
Sitting at my desk here in the Connecticut rural countryside, I’m listening to a Pileated Woodpecker claim an old snag just outside my property line. As it harvests the food the rotting snag provides, its tat-tat-tat drumming rhythm reminds me it is spring once again, a time of rebirth and renewal. I chuckle to myself, having literally felt that I’ve been beating my head against a wall these last months, with all the upheaval and uncertainty, thinking that, unlike me, the woodpecker actually achieves something useful by beating its head against a ‘wall’!
I’ve been wanting to contribute to your project on World Citizenship (Wereld Burgerschap) for some time now. This letter addresses your June ‘25 letter about the power of creativity and imagination. Nearly ten months have passed since your last letter, and now I feel ready to respond and to try to contribute to your project by sharing my own experiences with a feeling of lost creativity, and how I’ve been going through a process of recultivation and rediscovery of potential, including the power of imagination.
Happy 10th Anniversary Quest for Wisdom Foundation!
As I’ve searched to address the causes and origins of my own obstacles to creativity, and relate the sort of journey I’ve undertaken, I’ve struggled to try to understand the verbal and visual language needed to define this pivotal moment in our shared history. What are we pivoting to, and how am I to adjust and thrive in a world on fire? I want to be a part of trying to uplift the world, just as you’ve been valiantly doing for the last 10 years with your Quest for Wisdom Foundation! Proficiat! Bravo! Congratulations!
So, Happy Anniversary Heidi! This is my small contribution, a gift to you and your readers, a spoke in the wheel of hope!
New Beginnings
My family’s own immigrant background in America meant I was raised thinking of the American ‘experiment ‘ as the greatest success story in the history and development of the world. Not just an idea, but the shared reality of countless, assimilated millions of immigrants who have always defined, and represented with pride, the very fabric of the country. A melting pot that created and lived the fabled ‘American Dream ‘.
My background as an American Buddhist since the mid-nighties has meant that I’ve tried to direct my thinking towards the ways in which we are all fundamentally connected, and the roles our thoughts and actions (karma) play in the here and now, and in shaping and defining of our destinies in this lifetime and beyond.
Pax Americana Guarantees Have Been Replaced
I’ve been feeling a bit guilty these last months as I wanted to contribute to your Quest for Wisdom project on being a Wereldburger and yet I’ve been unable to move on from the feeling that I’m just treading water, as the world around me feels increasingly like the charred remains of a world order from another time…. Trust, loyalty, security and an inherently stable destiny, once an integral part of Pax Americana guarantees, have been replaced by transactionalism, fealty and Might Makes Right Imperialism.
I grew up in New York city, and have been long familiar with Donald J. Trump, beginning with his escapades in the 1980s to dominate the New York city tabloid headlines. Girlfriends, wives, casinos, flashy buildings, cars and clothes, lovers and even a divorce involving the famed Plaza Hotel. I remember regularly eating at the Oak Bar at the Plaza at this time. I wonder if this reality ever played out in any of my thoughts? I only remember the beautiful views of Central Park. And the rather gaudy and superficially pretentious Trump Tower, which I only visited once.
I Underestimated this Publicity Hound
This was long before his television reality fame as a so-called self-made billionaire maverick. Although I watched with amusement as Mr. Trump descended his golden escalator in his eponymously named Trump Tower in 2015 to announce his candidacy for President of the United States, I never considered that we could end up where we are now. Like so many others, I underestimated this publicity hound and grand showmaster of casinos, hawker of goods from vodka, cologne, a University and steaks, and I honestly didn’t take him seriously, until the world showed me that I was the fool!
Although, he continues to sell watches, bibles, sneakers, cryptocoin and proximity. And pardons.
Here We Are?
I’ve felt overwhelmed at times by the constant barrage of changes and upheaval, and have honestly felt embarrassed that I, an educated person, could only go further with my life, (creatively and spiritually speaking, meaning I don’t feel somehow threatened in my life for what I believe is right), until I addressed the fact that I was suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS). There it is. I never thought I could live in a country where I was afraid to express my opinion. But here we are.
There was a time when I didn’t want to hear Donald J. Trump’s voice or see his image. And that was Trump 1.0! Trump 2.0 overwhelmed me into shock and complacency. I initially felt defeated. And yes, embarrassed. Horribly embarrassed. Anger, shock, confusion and uncertainty permeated my mind. My mental peace lay in ruins.
I Felt Embarrassed by My Inability to Cope
By June of 2025 I felt I was trapped in a dystopian nightmare as I struggled to keep up with the cascade of daily changes and executive orders of the Trump administration, as it employed authoritarian, scorched-earth tactics to alter and redefine the rules-based order of the post WW II era. From pulling America out of the Climate Accord and calling global warming a “hoax”, to limiting immigration to white, “persecuted “ South Africans, gutting funding for research, suing various media and threatening their licenses, a similar tactic used against prominent universities and law firms, gutting the government itself, to armed, masked men snatching people off the streets of American cities with total impunity all in the name of ridding America of ‘criminal illegal aliens ‘, to the “liberation day” tariffs punitively applied to friends and foes alike…. Honestly, my sense of place, community and belonging, my feeling of being American, has been ruptured as I scarcely recognize what my country is becoming.
Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS)
Deciding to admit I had a problem was the first step. Once I got over my embarrassment, I began to feel hope again that I could help myself recover from this pernicious mental affliction. Recognizing that millions of other people are also suffering in this way, I have felt motivated to share my experiences with others in the hope that somehow it could be of benefit to them.
Thus, This Letter to You
Thus, this letter to you Heidi, my old and trusted friend. We are separated by an ocean, but there is no separation or distance in our heartfelt desire to help the world become a better place.
In your last letter to me you wrote, “We need to use the power of imagination because our ‘normal’ ideas no longer match our unknown changing world.” The world may be on fire, however, my own imagination has felt frozen, all the changes lulling me into an apathetic trance. Your comment matches up nicely with something one of my first Buddhist teachers said about universal imagination. Somehow, I think when you’re ready to ask the universe a question, you get an answer.
“Old, outdated concepts are beneath the human symptoms we see, the confusion and dissatisfaction. We have to get rid of peoples’ old concepts and give them a new imagination “
Lama Yeshe
I Am Responsible for My Own Unhappiness
Now that I accepted that TDS played a negative role in my daily (mental) life, I approached my own frozen imagination as something I needed to cultivate and nurture, to free and unlock, no matter what else was going on around me. This, I needed to do in order to feel alive again. You can call it imagination, but I call it hope.
I’m a Buddhist, I reminded myself. What does that mean? In Tibet there’s no word for a Buddhist, it simply refers to someone being an ‘insider’, someone who looks inward to solve their own problems. I am responsible for my own mental unhappiness.
I wish I could tell you I employed some fantastical tantric practices involving magical incantations, however, as a beginner on the Buddhist path, I returned to the teachings I’ve had on the Eight Worldly Dharmas. And, just like I had to admit/confess to myself that I had TDS, I needed to admit/confess to myself that I’d not been thinking about and contemplating the Eight Worldly Dharmas, let alone practicing their remedies.
The Eight Worldly Dharmas
The Eight Worldly Dharmas are four pairs of opposing life conditions:
Gain/Loss
Pleasure/Pain
Praise/Blame
Fame/Disrepute
In Buddhism, the mind is often compared to a garden. A garden needs flat, level ground, without rocks and pebbles, nutrient rich soil and water. Of course, the other important factor is care. If the garden isn’t looked after and attended to, it can easily become overrun with weeds, pests, blights and disease.
Although I have a daily Buddhist practice, I have to admit that I was doing little more than the bare minimum, just making sure there was enough water in the garden of my mind. The weeds and blight of my own unchecked negative emotions and negative mind were in fact taking over the garden of my mind.
The Eight Worldly Dharmas are often taught from the simplified perspective that essentially our daily concerns tend to revolve around food, clothing and reputation. When we look honestly at our day to day lives it’s quite obvious that we seem to instinctively seek out sensory pleasures, from fine food, nice clothes, various media diversions, to wanting a good reputation. I’ve been surprised through the years the extent to which my own mind gravitated to these spheres of thought. Similarly, when I started looking at these Eight Worldly Dharmas from a broader perspective, meaning my sense of self in the world at large, I realized that my mind was thoroughly infected with the Eight Worldly Dharmas.
Gain and Loss
So, how does this first set of opposing life forces, Gain and Loss, relate to my Trump Derangement Syndrome? How does my craving for material success and fear of losing it connect to this particular issue?
My mind connects and equates material success with power. I’ve been overwhelmed by the extraordinary power of one individual, the President of the United States, to seemingly affect virtually every corner of the planet in a way I’d not only never seen before, but never could have even imagined.
The chaos and uncertainty unleashed on the world by this administration has felt very personal to me. In terms of power, I’ve felt powerless. And since the summer, we’ve had threats to both Canada’s and Greenland’s sovereignty, a continued war in Ukraine, the overthrow of Venezuela’s leader, an energy embargo on Cuba, and now a War on Iran waged by Israël and the United States. I’ve been justified in feeling powerless and paralyzed I’ve insisted to myself, not questioning how these reactions are playing out in my mind.
‘Nostalgia is Not a Strategy ‘
One of the remedies taught for the Eight Worldly Dharmas is to think about and contemplate the impermanence of all things. When I took a step back from my automatic reactions when following the news everyday, I could clearly see this very simple truth playing out. All the stories playing out each day all have historical parallels, and although the words and actions of the Trump administration are often offensive, shocking and seemingly unparalleled, none of them are unprecedented. Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada said it best in his Davos speech when he said, “Nostalgia is not a strategy”.
Change is Scary, Impermanence is Reality
Rather than just trying to keep up with daily changes in the world, I’ve also been looking backwards through my own life. As a student of history I know that wars have always played a role in shaping our shared history. We are living in a time of extraordinary change. Change has felt scary to me. In confronting myself about what I’m experiencing, I’ve opened the door to my own freedom as I’m not powerless to think about the state of how reality operates beyond my fantasy mind: Everything is in a constant state of change. Thinking about this has been liberating for me.
What Am I Losing Here, My Ego?
Through re-contemplating the nature of impermanence, I’ve reconnected with one of the essential teachings of Buddhism. Thinking about impermanence helps my mind to focus on real truths, like my own mortality, which resonate and reverberate deep within me, helping me move beyond my ordinary, reactive mind. This ordinary, reactive mind is often compared to the waves on the surface of a deep ocean. Surface noise. The Buddhist path is not a passive one, if one is actually practising Buddhism. Mind is king. You are responsible for your own happiness.
Thank You, President Trump
A reason to be thankful is that the President of America is actually helping me to practice Buddhism. Which is why Lama Zopa Rinpoche always said we should feel incredible gratitude to those people who rub us the wrong way! People who agree or flatter us do nothing other than instill complacency. Still a work in progress, to be honest, but my anger has dissipated into nothingness, and that’s NOT NOTHING! Yes, thanks for that! No one who is angry is happy. That’s a fact.
Doing simple body scans every day, calming my mind by paying attention to my breathing, bodily sensations and the awareness that everything inside and around me is in a constant state of change, while I’m just quietly sitting here, has also helped me create space in my mind.
Doing these simple practices every day has helped me in expanding my awareness and understanding of the principle of impermanence. It’s just about taking a few minutes a day to look after my mind. We’re in the age of a billion dollar self-care industry. Thinking about impermanence has felt like healing therapy for my mind. And it’s free. And it makes me feel like I’m in the driver’s seat again. “I’m the boss over my own mind.” The light of truth then begins to shine in the garden of my mind again as there’s the space of truth creating the opening.
Pleasure Versus Pain
If I’ve felt helpless with gain and loss, the second life condition, Pleasure versus Pain, has been the most difficult for me. The burning down of the old world order, including Pax Americana, has left me feeling the world has come to a very serious and joyless place.
Although I’m very aware that millions of Americans feel the very opposite of what I do, I’ve felt hurt and betrayed as I’ve watched my government offend and threaten our allies. I’ve felt pain as I’ve watched armed, masked men snatch and violently arrest men, women and children and even kill two US citizens. And it pains me that billionaires are getting tax breaks while millions of Americans can’t afford healthcare and struggle weekly to pay the bills.
There’s a saying, ‘Life’s a bitch’, which has a parallel in Buddhism with the expression, ‘Karma’s a bitch’. I became interested in Buddhism in the mid-nineties when I was diagnosed with a serious illness. I was relatively young, so when I started learning about karma, that you don’t experience anything you didn’t create the cause for, Well, it was a bitter pill to swallow. Everything is in the nature of change and everything exists because of causes, including the universe itself. It took years to accept that my illness was not a punishment.
Having recovered from serious illness, I seemed to have forgotten about some of the gifts illness had given me, especially the recognition that life is precious and that I have and always have had many, many beneficial and fortunate circumstances. Reflecting on my years of illness has helped me to reconnect with some of these feelings of gratitude and thankfulness.
Reawakening my own compassion for others has not made me feel weak. I’ve read that in some far-right circles, compassion is regarded as a personal weakness. Caring about others helps me to feel connected to the world, and cultivating compassion for others opens my eyes to their suffering, which in turn helps me appreciate my own life and abilities. I am not helpless and I certainly want to face my own death having tried to be a force for good in the world.
Amor Mundi is Unconditional Love of the World
In Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is someone who cultivates Bodhichitta, the wish to achieve the benefit of all that lives. I saw the daily suffering of others when I worked for 14 years as a caregiver to the sick and dying. On the other hand, I’ve had to face my personal reality, which is the difficulty of finding forgiveness and compassion for those I find most difficult. It’s impossible to achieve Hannah Arendt’s Amor Mundi, unconditional love of the world, without freeing my own mind from its endless biases.
Something that has tempered my thinking, is that no one does something because they think the result will make them unhappy. In the Christian tradition, the Lord’s Prayer ends with a decidedly karmic message: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
You Must Have the Most Compassion for Terrorists
In Buddhism, similarly, the laws of karma assert that, “You reap what you sow.” Lama Zopa Rinpoche spent the last decades of his life (He passed away in 2023) teaching about compassion in regards to wars and their victims.
When I first started hearing these teachings some 25 years ago, I really was shocked by the amount of time he took talking about how necessary it was to have the most compassion for the terrorists and other evil doers in our world. It took a few years of further study to really contemplate the idea that these terrorists and murderers would face uncountable years in various hell realms, the likes of which are extensively described in the Sutras.
In fact, Donald Trump has said quite a few times that he’s not sure he’ll make it to Heaven. I think all of us have these sorts of thoughts, especially as we get older. I’ve had enough teachings on these hell realms to know I wouldn’t wish them on anyone. No one would knowingly do something for a few years of pleasure if they knew the result would be an eternity of unfathomable misery.
If I’m ever going to touch Arendt’s Amor Mundi it certainly must include everyone. If I love all that lives, how is finding fault a path to happiness and salvation? And if my mind is poisoned with hatred, can I really have true love, even for myself?
Forgiveness and acceptance are a bit like taking the mouldy and dead leaves out of the garden so that hatred and dissatisfaction don’t spoil the chances for a healthy, thriving garden. It’s all incremental progress, however, it is progress!
Praise and Blame
They always say, “We’re our own worst enemy”.
I’ve gone through life blaming and chastising myself for everything both real and perceived. I spent the first 10 years of studying Buddhism blaming myself for not achieving anything I considered worthwhile.
When it comes to the third Dharma, Praise and Blame, well, I’ve got a bit of baggage.
Somewhere around 2010 I attended a teaching by Geshe Sherab, a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Although I don’t remember the exact date, I remember being struck, as if by a bolt of lightning, when he said, “You must first identify your biggest problem, work on solving it and then go on from there.”
I realized in that moment that while I tried to have understanding and compassion for everyone, working then as a caregiver, I didn’t have this same compassion and understanding for myself. Why did I feel I didn’t deserve compassion? I’m too old to blame my Catholic, guilt driven upbringing… Or, the common excuse of not being loved enough as a child? Was it the guilt from being sick at a young age? Or, just old habits of thinking? Or, all of the above and none of it? Why did I have guilt anyway? At any rate, all of life’s circumstances paved the way to my burnout.
You Need a New Jacket. Which One?
I was tired of blaming myself and was suddenly unable to work. I sought help with a therapist who truly helped and supported me. She said, “You’ve outgrown an old jacket and don’t know now what jacket fits the new you.”
Although the solution was ultimately quite simple, once again, realizing that I needed to have compassion for myself became a process of removing all the masks I wore to define and protect myself.
When I consider how many masks Trump wears, I can also consider the suffering that mentally takes place. All of the hatred, blame, criticism and cruelty are an outer manifestation of an inner reality. Who amongst us would want that for ourselves? This is deserving of my compassion. Surely I am capable of this?
Fame and Disrepute
The last set of four Worldly pairs of opposing life forces, Fame and Disrepute, craving a good reputation and not wanting shame or insignificance, is the wiley coyote fox in my life.
I recall reading a story about a famous ascetic meditating for years in a cave in Tibet. With no worldly possessions and no home, he still thought, “For sure I am respected as being the greatest meditator in the region.”
My sense of right and wrong have been offended. As a Democrat, I feel like I’m being accused of being wrong for not supporting my own country. I’m patriotic because I love my country and only wish it to thrive. Others would see me as a traitor for not having fealty to the current administration and only finding fault with it.
I’m approaching my 70th year on this planet. I’ve no fantasies of being important, however, I’ve definitely struggled with feeling insignificant and powerless since Trump returned to office. I’ve also struggled to understand the half of the country that voted him into office.
Buddhism eschews labels. We automatically put labels on things and never look any deeper or question our own culpability in the situations we find ourselves in. I’ve been labelled a ‘crazy lib’ by millions of my fellow citizens.The two Americans killed in Minnesota were labelled ‘domestic terrorists’. I don’t mind wearing my Disrepute as a badge of honor as I know I’m on the right side of history. A label will never define who I really am.
The Water of Compassion
I’ve been attending to the garden of my mind with the water of compassion and understanding. The soil is rich in nutrients, fed by my diligence in steering the river of my stream of thoughts towards wholesomeness and basic Buddhist Truths. The sun’s rays shine the light of truth. This is what gives life. And light in darkness.
It is up to me to decide what kind of garden I want. The beautiful flowers and plants in my garden are my teachers about impermanence. Accompanied by the music of nature itself, which sings joyful songs of hope, renewal and the cycle of life.
Footprints
It is said that of all animal footprints, that of the Elephant is the biggest. And that of all meditations, that on death is the most superior. Ultimate impermanence.
Buddhism takes a very different view when it comes to seeing death as an end. Just like in winter, many plants appear lifeless, even dead. With springtime, life reappears again in full glory.
It’s not hopeless at all! Buddhism teaches that we’re never powerless to affect our lives in the here and now and in the future. Practically speaking, taking care of the garden of our mind takes care of both our present and our future.
Everything I think Reactively is an Hallucination
It’s been beneficial to me these last years to see and accept that my thoughts and feelings are hallucinations. Basically, it means I try not to take myself too seriously. This gives me freedom to see my life as a greater whole.
The Woodpecker Brings Life to That Which is Dead
Some woodpeckers specialize in forests ravaged by fire. They play a fundamental role in bringing life back to that which no longer lives.
Buddhism teaches that that which we call the ‘self’ or ‘I’, has no beginning and no end. In that respect, our lives are more like forests than simple gardens, with the vast expanse of time an opportunity to always grow. We are our habits. From the Buddhist perspective it is these habits which travel from life to life.
Having Space, I Can Breathe Again, My Imagination is Freed
My dear Heidi, I’m happy to report that I’ve heard the song and message of the woodpecker. I continue to work daily with my mind and this helps me to feel grounded and in control.
Acceptance, Love for Others, and an Understanding of Impermanence Are the Key to Success
I’ve freed my imagination once again. All of the solutions I’ve needed I’d already found in some form or another…. But, I’d forgotten them. To my own detriment. No shame, just a reminder that the garden of my mind needs constant attention…. Like any relationship.
The prerequisite of calling myself a Buddhist means I address the issues in my own mind. I’ve been a lax Buddhist these last months in that regard.
Both my internal and external world are largely based on my relationship with others. The more inclusive my thinking, the more I personally benefit. Accepting myself and others as wholly as I can is an ever-expanding process. The more inclusive my thinking the freer I feel.
This is a fundamental teaching of Buddhism…. Compassion is at the very heart. In fact, the Dalai Lama reduces the altruistic wish to benefit all living beings to having ‘a good heart’. No matter what happens.
Writing this letter is also a therapy. In reaching out I’m also helping out. We both benefit. We reinforce the Fortress of our own community of Wereldburgers by sharing our values and our solutions to the problems we face both individually and as a group.
In this way I’m thankful for the reasons I try to practice Buddhism…. To resolve the very sources of my problems. I’m like the woodpecker, harvesting food from something dead while simultaneously creating countless new opportunities (and homes for other creatures). I’m like the woodpeckers who specialize and live from the charred remains of forest fires. Like the actions of a Bodhisattva, helping all that lives. Or the Phoenix rising from the ashes.
Doing nothing is now no longer an option.
And my Trump Derangement Syndrome? I watch, read and listen to Trump and his administration everyday. I quite regularly watch Trump’s speeches. Unlike in the past, where I cringed inside, I now turn off the speeches sometimes for another reason than anger: I’m bored. Now that’s progress!
