Engaged Buddhism: A Buddhist Approach to Personal and Social Transformation
Open Access
- Author:
- Falcone, Raymond
- Area of Honors:
- Religious Studies
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- On-Cho Ng, Thesis Supervisor
Daniel Keith Falk, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Buddhism
Engaged Buddhism
Personal Transformation
Social Transformation
Vietnam
Four Noble Truths
Meditation
Mindfulness of the Body
Mindfulness of Emotions
Shamatha
Loving Kindness meditation
Trauma
Vajrayana Buddhism
Zen/Chan Buddhism
Siddhartha Gautama - Abstract:
- Engaged Buddhism is a term coined by Thich Nhat Hanh in the 1960s at the height of a series of wars that Vietnam experienced. At the time, the term was meant to ignite a Buddhist movement in Vietnam aimed at creating a sense of responsibility to engage and mitigate suffering caused by the injustices of war. The Vietnamese engaged Buddhist movement expanded the modern scope of Buddhism across the globe to include all greed, aggression, and indifference that cause suffering on a global scale through social, political, military, and religious institutions. An engaged Buddhist perspective acknowledges that suffering is embedded in our societal systems, and as members of planet earth and the human family we have an obligation to engage in the systems and transform the systems to ease the suffering of all beings. Throughout this paper I will make a case for the following; that 1) although personal enlightenment and transformation is a fundamental and core aspect of the Buddhist path, it should not be the end of the path, and it should not overshadow the equally important elements of social engagement that have been a part of Buddhism since its inception, 2) understanding and embodying the Four Noble Truths uncovers the causes and conditions of our suffering and offers us the skillful means to transform it, creating a path towards liberation, and 3) Buddhist meditation practices such as shamatha, mindfulness of the body and emotions, and loving kindness practice grow the four divine abodes–compassion, loving kindness, sympathetic joy, and equanimity–inside us so that we can share and co-create a society founded on those four virtues.