Engaged Buddhism

This chapter enters the realm of contemporary moral discourse. It discusses the origins of the 20th- and 21st- century Engaged Buddhist movement, which attempts to construct a new understanding of Buddhism and of Buddhist ethics in a political sphere. The chapter also addresses the degree to which such a modernist movement can be considered Buddhist, the degree of continuity between Engaged Buddhism and earlier Buddhist ethical thought, and the impact of modern Western ethical and political theory on Engaged Buddhism. Special attention is devoted to the work of the 14th Dalai Lama, of Thich Nhat Hanh, and of Sulak Sivaraksa.

Buddhist Missionaries

Buddhists missionize in distinct ways by building on historical models, such as a concern with bringing knowledge and spreading teachings, as opposed to formal conversion and renunciation of previous religious beliefs. Academic scholarship tends to treat Buddhist missionization as a historical phenomenon. Yet it continues to be an important component of the tradition for Buddhists in the 21st century, motivating them to travel to spread the Buddha’s teachings to those who demonstrate curiosity. Because of Buddhists’ interest in conveying the dharma, they have often aligned the teachings with modern discourses, resulting in what scholars have called modern Buddhism. Buddhist missionaries have also argued that the dharma fits within contexts of social justice, which has been labeled engaged Buddhism. Examples of missionaries from East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the West, and world-famous monks such as the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh, demonstrate spreading the teachings is a major motivation. These figures formulate their message in modern or socially engaged frameworks, but the root of their activity is missionizing. The main message of contemporary Buddhist missionaries is that Buddhism is open and welcoming to everyone, one does not have to convert to practice within Buddhism, and the Buddhist teachings apply to everyone.

June 14, 2005—Facing, Accepting and Yielding

Nell greets me at the door tonight. She is thin, fading. Therese Schroeder-Sheker has described cancer patients as “disappearing slowly.” Nell’s humor is reserved tonight and her movements are slow and deliberate. She walks cautiously from the front door to the living room, nasal cannula in place, oxygen tube trailing. She offers me a Coke. I follow her to her room holding the oxygen tube and our drinks. We discuss the works of Thich Nhat Hanh and the concept of mindfulness. Nell refers to After the Ecstasy, the Laundry by Jack Kornfield. She notes that for her, after facing death, there are the tasks of daily living such as “getting this damn TV working!” Nell is a brave woman and grateful for the kind people in her life. She believes that kindness will come to her aid as she moves through to the end. She has expressed gratitude since our very first meeting.

De-Centering the Normative in the Introduction to Buddhism Class

In this article, I present an alternative method for teaching the Intro to Buddhism class. The standard way of teaching this class allows little room for non-normative aspects of Buddhism such as violence, and insofar as it does, it implicitly frames them as “aberrations” from “real Buddhism.” In my syllabus, I began by having students read The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh, which teaches them about Buddhist doctrine with a seductively modernist approach. At the mid-point of the semester, I then reveal to them that Thich Nhat Hanh’s book leaves out a great deal of what is found in actual traditional Buddhist practice, including reincarnation, gods, spirits, miracles, the supernatural, patriarchy, and violence. In the second half of the semester, we then study regional forms of Buddhism, with a special eye towards practice, including the practice of violence.

Rethinking the politics of meditation: Practice, affect and ontology

This article develops an ontological approach to study meditation in practice. Recognizing that social studies of meditation are dominated by critical and humanist standpoints, it suggests that the politics of meditation should not be indexed to hegemonic social forces – capitalism, neoliberalism, medicalization – but to what it can do to bodies, selves and environments through particular performances and engagements with non-humans. In order to develop this argument, the article delves into two popular practices of meditation – Vipassana, in the tradition of S. N. Goenka, and Mindfulness, according to the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh. The empirical data stem from fieldwork carried out between 2010 and 2013 in France, Portugal and the United Kingdom. Twenty-four semi-structured interviews were conducted with meditators, as well as participant observation at meditation retreats and local practice groups. The article explores how these two articulations of Vipassana and Mindfulness allow practitioners to reconfigure how they perform their bodies and selves, leaning towards versions of subjectivity that contrast with paradigmatic versions of the modern self. It suggests that the ontological politics of meditation are multiple, involving a wide range of performances, effects and arrangements, requiring social scientists to take into account how meditation unfolds in practice in order to avoid totalizing generalizations.

Engaged Buddhism

Engaged Buddhism emerged in Asia in the 20th century as Buddhists responded to the challenges of colonialism, modernity, and secularization. It is often dated to Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar’s challenge to caste discrimination in India in the 1950s and the antiwar activism of Vietnamese Buddhist monastic Thich Nhat Hanh, although recent scholarship has pointed to the influence of Chinese Buddhist reforms occurring in the 1930s. Hanh coined the term “engaged Buddhism” to describe social and political activism based in Buddhist principles in the 1960s. The terms “engaged Buddhism” and “socially engaged Buddhism” were taken up by loosely connected Buddhists in Asia and the West who adapted Buddhism to a range of nonviolent social activist projects such as peacemaking, human rights, environmental protection, rural development, combatting ethnic violence, and women’s rights. With globalization and technological advances, engaged Buddhist organizations and efforts have spread across the globe. Reflecting the culture shift from the modern to the postmodern, generational and demographic shifts within these communities are marked by increased attention to intersectionality and postcolonial thought. Engaged Buddhists see their social and political activities as extending Buddhism’s classical focus on individual suffering to the suffering generated by unjust structures and systems, and set collective as well as individual liberation as a soteriological goal. While there is a consensus in academic scholarship that engaged Buddhism is an expression of Buddhist modernism, recent debates have arisen around whether conservative, nationalist, and even ethnocentric modern forms of Buddhism can be considered as forms of engaged Buddhism.

Budismo de Thich Nhat Hanh e a Espiritualidade da Interexistencia

Este artigo objetiva apresentar algumas reflexões acerca do pensamento concebido pelo monge budista Thich Nhat Hanh, na construção de valores que contribuam para a consciência humana da interconexão dos seres. Apresentar alguns aspectos do estado em que se encontra a sociedade contemporânea, sobretudo no que se refere à questão ética e sustentável, analisando-a pela perspectiva do conceito da interexistência. Discorrer ao longo do texto, um dos insights fundamentais que iluminam o Budismo – a originação interdependente, considerando-a como axioma no caminhar dentro da proposta captada por Hanh. Por fim, demonstrará o cuidado como um fator, resultante desta percepção da conexão entre todos os seres e, necessário na promoção de uma sociedade mais dialogal e pacífica, dentro da relação dos seres humanos entre si e com a natureza.

Towards Skillful Global Citizenship Education

This article examines the implications of aspects of Buddhist philosophy for contemporary Global Citizenship Education. With primary reference to the writings of Thich Nhat Hanh, it specifically considers Buddhist understandings of suffering, the doctrine of no-self, the notion of store-consciousness, and the law of karma. The article subsequently introduces a skillful global citizenship education that is built on three pillars; namely, skillful awareness of interdependence, skillful compassion, and skillful awareness of intention.