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Social Welfare and Buddhist-Inspired Activism For people living in a fast-paced and information-saturated age, it is not surprising that desires for tranquility, emotional control, and spiritual awakening are projected onto the traditions of Buddhism. Buddhist monks and priests are thought to embody these qualities, with the Internet, television, self-help literature , advertising, Hollywood, and self-promotion encouraging the association. Popular trade magazines like Tricycle (60,000 circulation) or Shambala Sun (70,000) focus especially on a privatized spirituality, brought about primarily through the practice of meditation. But are mindfulness, zazen, or visualizing Tibetan deities really characteristic of the many types of Buddhism active throughout history? Readers familiar with Buddhist-inspired self-help literature but without a grounding in Asian histories and societies might ask just what have monks, nuns, priests, and lay practitioners actually been doing if not devoting themselves to liberation and enlightenment? As might be expected for a complex religious tradition spanning vast geographical regions and many distinctive local cultures, a wide variety of approaches to spiritual practice and awakening have developed over the centuries of Buddhist thought and history. One of these methods has been to foster self-cultivation through deeds that benefit others or society at large. Aided in part by new communication technologies and increased mobility, we now see a growing alignment between civil society and the mission of a religion through its social work, disaster relief, and education.1 The following discussion traces some of the histories, expressions, and practices of what I am calling Buddhistinspired social activism, with a final section devoted to the exceptional circumstances of Japan’s March 11, 2011, “triple disaster” that resulted in the deaths and disappearance of nearly 20,000 people. There is no better way to understand the cultural legacy of diverse Buddhisms in Asia (and increasingly, outside Asia) than to trace the ways in which key teachings become manifest through specific actions and policies that are oftentimes innovative and experimental . Social Welfare and Buddhist-Inspired Activism • 71 RETHINKING THE SOCIAL ROLES OF MONKS IN EARLY BUDDHISM Looking at Buddhist institutions and teachings in South and East Asia over a couple millennia, we now know that meditation was only one of many specialized skills essential to monastic life. Not every monk was suited for this rigorous activity , and so some supervised labor, and others kept keys or regulated toilets and baths, while their colleagues administered sharecropping on lands controlled by the monastery or served as liaisons to local rulers.2 In order to enhance training and maintain codes of behavior appropriate for celibate monks, early Buddhist monasteries were located a short distance from the communities and patrons that supported them. For the most part, monks were never completely isolated or disengaged from the people in those communities. The most accurate way to understand Buddhist traditions and institutions throughout Asia is to see them as dependent upon, and often shaping, those societies in which they developed.3 If we shift focus away from Buddhist concepts and teachings and consider instead the reciprocity of temple and society, we gain a more plausible perspective of how Buddhist institutions became established in India and why the religion may have appealed to people in all social classes. Revisiting this history briefly will help to establish some fundamental themes and continuities that continue to be expressed in contemporary Buddhist practice around the world. India in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE was a time of gradual yet significant social transformation. Occupations became increasingly specialized, urban centers grew rapidly as rural villagers found work and new opportunities, and novel technologies like iron and the wheeled cart enabled new forms of trade, transport, and, unfortunately, warfare. Taking refuge in the teachings of the Buddha (or of several other new religious movements, such as Jainism) was also part of the appeal of urban areas, especially for poor, dislocated people (referred to as dalidda in Pali texts) as well as women of all social classes. These individuals were able to leave behind or at least moderate their marginal status.4 Buddhist monks were in circulation among all kinds of people until the rainy season retreat brought them to one location under the sponsorship of a local patron.5 Once settled, many other local elites and merchants offered the sangha support of various kinds. Despite the many temptations for a celibate male, monks spent considerable time in cities and towns raising money for building projects, collecting alms (which, along with fund-raising, were thought to...

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