Engaged Buddhism

The term was coined by the Vietnamese Thiền Buddhist teacher Thích Nhất Hạnh in the 1960's,[3] inspired by the humanistic Buddhism reform movement in China by Taixu and Yinshun and later propagated in Taiwan by Cheng Yen and Hsing Yun.[4] At first, he used Literary Chinese, the liturgical language of Vietnamese Buddhism, calling it in Chinese: 入世佛教; lit. 'Worldly Buddhism'. During the Vietnam War, he and his sangha (spiritual community) made efforts to respond to the suffering they saw around them, in part by coopting the nonviolence activism of Mahatma Gandhi in India and of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States to oppose the conflict.[1][5] They saw this work as part of their meditation and mindfulness practice, not apart from it.[1] Thich Nhat Hanh outlined fourteen precepts of engaged Buddhism, which explained his philosophy.[6]

As early as 1946, Walpola Rahula identified an explicit social ethos present in the earliest recorded Buddhist teachings, noting that the Buddha encouraged early monks to travel in order to benefit the largest number of people and that his discourses to lay people often included practical instructions on social and economic matters, rather than being purely concerned with philosophical or soteriological concerns.[7]

In India, a form of engaged Buddhism started as a Buddhist revival movement by B.R. Ambedkar, called Dalit Buddhist movement. Buddhist teachings invite us to take responsibility for ourselves, and this is being interpreted in engaged Buddhist circles as taking responsibility for the entire sangha, the larger community, and ultimately, our ecosystem on this planet Earth. Ambedkar’s approach tells us that if we spend too much time in personal meditation practice, and in retreat from the world of social relationship, we will be irresponsible to our community. So we need to get off the cushion, get out of the house, get out there and start to educate, agitate, and organize. This is a collectivist notion of sangha as people working together for a society of justice, wherein our Buddhist practice becomes the engaged activity of social change.[8] According to Christopher Queen : "Ambedkar offered a socially engaged Buddhism that focused on economic justice, political freedom, and moral striving".[9] B.R. Ambedkar converted to Buddhism in 1956 and initiated what is called Ambedkar Buddhism, when on October 1956 in Nagpur, nearly 400 000 Dalits converted from Hinduism.[10] His book The Buddha and His Dhamma was published in 1957, after his death.

In the West, like the East, engaged Buddhism is a way of attempting to link authentic Buddhist practice—particularly mindfulness—with social action.[11][12] It has two main centers from which its approach, spearheaded by Thich Nhat Hanh, is disseminated, namely the Plum Village monastic community in Loubes-Bernac, France and the Community of Mindful Living (CML) in Berkeley, California.[5] Both centers are tied to Hanh's Unified Buddhist Church.[5] Beside Hanh's efforts, the current Dalai Lama has voiced a need for Buddhists to be more involved in the socio-political realm:

In 1998, while on retreat in Bodh Gaya, India, [...] the Dalai Lama told those of us who were participating in a Buddhist-Christian dialogue that sometimes, Buddhists have not acted vigorously to address social and political problems. He told our group, "In this, we have much to learn from the Christians."[11]

Some Christians have rallied in attempts of bringing peace and hope to those distressed in the midst of political and social tragedies. The intention of these evangelizing groups is not to evoke tension or violence among groups or individuals, or to force any solutions onto individuals, however their goal is to provide comfort and demonstrate acts of love and kindness.[13]

Organizations such as the Soka Gakkai International, Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Buddhist Global Relief, the International Network of Engaged Buddhists, the Zen Peacemakers led by Roshi Bernard Glassman and Thich Nhat Hanh's Order of Interbeing[5] are devoted to building the movement of engaged Buddhists. Other engaged Buddhist groups include the Benevolent Organisation for Development, Health and Insight, Gaden Relief Projects, the UK's Network of Buddhist Organisations, Fo Guang Shan and Tzu Chi.

Prominent figures in the movement include Robert Aitken Roshi,[14] Joanna Macy,[14] Gary Snyder,[15] Alan Senauke,[16] Sulak Sivaraksa,[17] Daisaku Ikeda, Maha Ghosananda,[18] Sylvia Wetzel, Joan Halifax,[19] Tara Brach,[20] Taigen Dan Leighton,[21] Ken Jones,[22] Jan Willis. Bhante Sujato[23] and Bhikkhu Bodhi.[24]

• Buddhist Peace Fellowship
• Buddhist socialism
• Engaged spirituality
• Humanistic Buddhism
• Religion and environmentalism in Buddhism
• Religion and peacebuilding

• Uebel, Michael; Shorkey, Clayton; Boone, Matthew S. ed. (2014). "Mindfulness and Engaged Buddhism: Implications for a Generalist Macro Social Work Practice". In Mindfulness and Acceptance in Social Work: Evidence-Based Interventions and Emerging Applications. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications. pp. 215-234.
• Main, Jessica L., and Rongdao Lai. "Introduction: Reformulating "Socially Engaged Buddhism" as an Analytical Category." The Eastern Buddhist, NEW SERIES, 44, no. 2 (2013): 1-34.
• Visalo, Phra Paisal. Buddhists Engaged in Social Development.
• Visalo, Phra Paisal. The Path to Social and Inner Happiness.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Engaged Buddhism.

• Engaged Practice
• Buddhist Peace Fellowship
• Zen Peacemakers
• International Network of Engaged Buddhists
• Engaged Buddhist Revival in India
• Ecodharma Centre
• Network of Buddhist Organisations (UK)
• Amida Trust Home Page
• Sulak Sivaraksa: A Socially Engaged Buddhism
• The Engaged Zen Foundation
• Buddhist Global Relief
• Benevolent Organisation for Development, Health and Insight
• Gaden Relief Projects
• Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women
• Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation