West Meets the East, the Socially Engaged Buddhist

I've been thinking a bit recently about Zen, or more generally Buddhism, meeting the West.  I am no means the first.  I read a very good essay in  Best Buddhist Writings 2010 by David Loy entitled Why Buddhism Needs the West.
Briefly, the author noted that the main contribution from the west is social change.  This is the idea that people, and the groups that they become, have the ability to change social and political structures.  This seems obvious to me, but that's because I'm a product of the West.  It was not obvious before ancient Greek civilization.  They thought social structures are dictated by the gods or social structures are actually  natural phenomena.  Social change is not obvious in the East where tradition is unquestioned.
Buddhism offers a wonderful path towards self actualization and personal liberation from suffering but it has not been very good at inspiring social justice.  However, this is not inherent to Buddhism.  The historical Buddha was quite active in social change.  The religion that he inspired, however, was a part of Eastern civilization.  And monasteries depended on the status quo for their support - there was a disinsentive to expand the concept of liberation from the personal to social relms.
    The West was likewise handicapped.  There have been many social upheavals, but with the individual mired in greed, hate and delusion, a new social structures was at best only marginally better than the one it replaced.    Parenthetically, FM Alexander was a product of two world wars and deeply skeptical about the possibility of social movement to better our lot.
So David Loy hopes that those who are not overwhelmed with their greed, hate and delusion can effect real beneficial and durable social change.
My question is:  "Where precisely does East meet West?
I will say East meets West in your habits.  In your conditioning.  East meets west after you get up from your meditation seat, go outside and a stimulus to act reaches you.  One moment you were Sitting, laying the ground work of insight which generates the intention to act for the benefit of all beings, and the next minute you are outside getting the stimulus to act.
The actual stimulus does not matter much.
Now I am deeply humbled by my betters who are at the forefront of social change, they devote their lives to make this world a better place.  They are inspiring and I am very grateful for their efforts.  But the practice of the greatest Buddhist activist of our time is no better that the middle class woman who feels the discomfort (a stimulus) of seeing street urchin and, instead of walking by, turns towards the beggar and shows a bit of kindness.
For the socially engaged Zen student, there is only one question:
"What are you doing right now to make the world a better place?" 
Regardless of the stimulus, are you acting out of unconscious habit?  Are you acting out of a life long conditioned response based on greed, hate and delusion?  Or have you been able to create some space between stimulus and response?  Have you used that space to consider what you truly want to do?  In you heart of hearts, how do you really want to respond?  If you have created that space then I think you are a socially engaged Buddhist.
Zazen helps refine your intention regarding how you want to live - how you want to respond to stimuli.  And zazen helps a bit to create a space between stimulus and response.  But, forgive me, it is quite limited.
The Alexander Technique is all about creating space.  The Alexander technique is precisely at the point where East meets West.  It is an incredibly helpful tool if you aspire to be a socially engaged Buddhist.  If you want to help to heal the world you should take some lessons in the Alexander Technique.