I’ll watch the Coronation this weekend, but how can I say ‘God Save the King’ when I don’t believe in God? King Charles philosophy of ‘Harmony’ could make a connection

I think I’ll watch the Coronation this weekend, but I know it will raise some problems. How can I say ‘God Save the King’ when I don’t believe in God? Yes, I’m a Buddhist, and Buddhism is a ‘faith’, but it’s a non-theistic faith. We don’t do God.

At the same time, I don’t call myself an atheist because atheism suggests to me a secular outlook that excludes a spiritual dimension that’s so important for Buddhists. And I wonder if that dimension itself is where I can connect. 

I recently read Harmony, the book King Charles published in 2010. He’s known for supporting causes like environmentalism and organic farming and opposing modernist architecture. The book explains the connections. His philosophy is based on the idea of harmony. Everywhere, from the natural world to mathematical principles, he says, harmony is built into the structure of life. Ancient civilisations understood it and indigenous peoples still live that way. The book argues that appreciating harmony opens up a deeper connection to life; but it says the ‘mechanistic’ modern worldview means we’ve lost that understanding. Problems like the environmental crisis stem from this more fundamental ‘crisis of perception’.

Much in King Charles’ message resonates with me as a Buddhist. This week Buddhists celebrate the moment when, we believe, a human being broke the fetters of craving, aversion and ignorance that normally distort our consciousness. He became a Buddha, an Awakened one, and the image of the seated Buddha represents the capacity of every human being to realise for themselves the deepest sources of meaning. 

God doesn’t enter into this way of thinking, and that’s why Buddhism is non-theistic. But sensing that life is inherently meaningful changes everything. It means that deep within us lie the seeds of wisdom, and discovering them requires us to engage with what King Charles calls ‘a spiritual dimension to our existence.’

Many people will celebrate the coronation as the consecration of the monarch by the Christian God. As a Buddhist I can’t respond in that way, and many people of other faiths and none may well feel the same. Instead, when I watch the coronation I’ll recall the inspiring, universal message of Harmony: ‘To restore balance in the world, we must restore balance in ourselves.’