Socially Engaged Buddhism

Chapter 2 Philosophy and Ethics

CHAPTER 2 Philosophy and Ethics As we have seen, Engaged Buddhism is a noncentralized movement that emerged in response to multiple crises in modern Asia. The leaders and groups that make up the movement all draw upon traditional Buddhist concepts, values, and principles as they develop their various responses to the crises and challenges of their particular situations. It is this shared grounding in traditional Buddhism that ties together the various Engaged Buddhist groups. Let us examine some of these foundational teachings and the ways in which they shape Engaged Buddhism. Key Concepts karma, causality, dependent origination, and interdependence “Karma” means “action.” More broadly, it refers to the law of cause and effect, a natural law of the cosmos, as it applies to human actions in the forms of thoughts, words, and deeds. People who engage in negatively motivated acts, thoughts, or speech—that is, deeds motivated by greed, hatred, or delusion—reap negative results in this life or a future life; similarly, positively motivated acts, such as those motivated by generosity, loving-kindness, or moral self-discipline, bring positive results. Metaphorically one’s actions “sow” karmic “seeds,” which gestate for a short or a long time, eventuating in karmic results or “fruit.” Karma is part of the foundational Buddhist teaching of causality or conditionality, expressed in Buddhist thought as dependent origination . According to this teaching, all things come into being as a result of other things—that is, all things are interdependent. As the Buddha 14 SOCIALLY ENGAGED BUDDHISM put it, “When this exists, that comes to be; with the arising of this, that arises. When this does not exist, that does not come to be; with the cessation of this, that ceases.” This pattern applies to all things—human and natural, individual and social, psychological and physical. This may seem to be a bit of rather abstract philosophy, but the teachings of the Buddha are very practical. There is a tremendous liberating potential , a power, that derives from the understanding that everything in the world operates in terms of cause and effect. Dependent origination is a key teaching for spirituality because it means that if there is something unwholesome from which one wants to be free (such as craving, aversion, or delusion—the “three poisons” that make samsaric experience what it is), then one should look to the causes and conditions that bring that reality into being and see what action can be brought to bear to eliminate or alter those causes or conditions. The Engaged Buddhists often emphasize this practicality of the Buddha’s teachings. While the usefulness of the teaching of dependent origination has traditionally been applied to personal spiritual transformation , the Engaged Buddhists see no reason not to apply it to societal transformation as well. Thus if there is something unwholesome from which one wants to free the world (for example, war, poverty, racism), then one should look to the causes and conditions that bring that reality into being and see what action can be brought to bear to eliminate or alter those causes or conditions. The Engaged Buddhists often take this approach in their work. the four noble truths Thinking in terms of causality and karma is one of the keys to all Buddhist efforts, whether spiritual or socially engaged. Another key is the Four Noble Truths. The Four Noble Truths are the basic framework of the Buddha’s spiritual teachings, which point the way to liberation by way of the radical transformation of the manner of human being, the way in which humans “are.” Like the teachings on dependent origination , the Four Noble Truths are preeminently practical teachings, meant to be used for the liberation of humankind. The First Noble Truth is duµkha (Pali, dukkha). The standard English translation of duµkha is “suffering”; however, this translation Philosophy and Ethics 15 is misleading in some respects. Fundamentally duµkha is the nonfit between what humans want (unending pleasure and security) and what conditioned existence gives us (a mix of pleasure and pain, plus constant change where we look for some unchanging certainties upon which to base our security). Certainly duµkha includes all mundane suffering (illness, hunger, fear, and physical and mental pain), but it also goes beyond it to include the fundamental human dis-ease: our inability to be satisfied with life, our constant craving for more and better. All of this was pointed out as a simple fact...