영성, 몸-마음, 젠더, 생태, 평화 Scapbook

2021/04/09

실천불교 - 위키백과, Engaged Buddhism

실천불교

위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전.

실천불교(實踐佛敎, 영: Engaged Buddhism)는 불교에 근거한 이상적인 사회 만들기를 목표로 하는 불교 관계자에 의한 실천 활동이다.

비판

원래의 입세불교에는 중생의 구제라는 대승의 보살 수행의 일환이지만, 구미의 Engaged Buddhism은 속세의 혁신, 개혁을 목적으로 한 사회 정치 활동에 불교의 이름을 장식으로서 더하고 있는 것에 지나지 않는다는 비판도 있다.

덧붙여서 중국어에서는 원래 틱낫한의 불교 활동을 가리킬 때는 입세불교, 구미의 Engaged Buddhism을 가리킬 때는 좌익불교라고 기재하고 있다.

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Engaged Buddhism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Engaged Buddhism refers to Buddhists who are seeking ways to apply the insights from meditation practice and dharma teachings to situations of social, political, environmental and economic suffering and injustice. Finding its roots in Vietnam through the Zen Buddhist teacher Thích Nhất Hạnh,^[1] Engaged Buddhism has grown in popularity in the West.^[2]

Origins[edit]

The term was coined by the Vietnamese Thiền Buddhist teacher Thích Nhất Hạnh in the 1960s,^[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[edit]

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.

Socially engaged Buddhism in the West[edit]

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: {{quote|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]}

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,^[13] Joanna Macy,^[13] Gary Snyder,^[14] Alan Senauke,^[15] Sulak Sivaraksa,^[16] Daisaku Ikeda, Maha Ghosananda,^[17] Sylvia Wetzel, Joan Halifax,^[18] Tara Brach,^[19] Taigen Dan Leighton,^[20] Ken Jones,^[21] Jan Willis. Bhante Sujato^[22] and Bhikkhu Bodhi.^[23]

References[edit]

^ Jump up to:^a ^b ^c Malkin, John (July 1, 2003). "In Engaged Buddhism, Peace Begins with You". Lion's Roar. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
^ Queen, Chris; King, Sallie (1996). Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia. New York: Albany State University Press. p. 2. ISBN 0-7914-2843-5.
^ Duerr, Maria (March 26, 2010). "An Introduction to Engaged Buddhism". PBS. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
^ Queen, Christopher (2000). Engaged Buddhism in the West. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications. p. 36. ISBN 0-86171-159-9.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b ^c ^d Irons, Edward (2008). Encyclopedia of Buddhism. New York, NY: Checkmark Books. pp. 176–177. ISBN 9780816077441.
^ Hanh, Thich Nhat (April 12, 2017). "The Fourteen Precepts of Engaged Buddhism". Lion's Roar. Retrieved September 7,2019.
^ Rahula, Walpola (1974). The Heritage of the Bhikkhu (1st English ed.). New York: Grove Press. pp. 3–7. ISBN 0-8021-4023-8.
^ Queeen, Christopher. "A Fourth Turning of the Wheel? Ambedkar Buddhism". buddhistinquiry.org. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
^ Queen, Christopher. "The Great Conversion". Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
^ "Ambedkar Buddhism". oxfordbibliographies.com. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Jonas, Robert A. (2006). "Engaged Buddhism". Empty Bell. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
^ Loy, David. "What's Buddhist about Socially Engaged Buddhism". zen-occidental.net. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Winston, Diana. "Justify Your Love: Finding Authority for Socially Engaged Buddhism". Urban Dharma. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
^ Jeschke, Matt (December 23, 1994). "Interview with Gary Snyder". cuke.com. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
^ "About Hozan Alan Senauke". Lion's Roar. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
^ Lewis, Craig (June 6, 2018). "Compassion and Kalyana-mittata: The Engaged Buddhism of Sulak Sivaraksa". Buddhistdoor. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
^ Bloomfeld, Vishvapani (March 28, 2007). "Obituary: Maha Ghosananda". The Guardian. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
^ "About Engaged Buddhism: Roshi Joan Halifax". Upaya Zen Center. August 8, 2013. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
^ "BuddhaFest Teaching: Tara Brach on Love". Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. June 22, 2011. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
^ "Our Guiding Teacher: Taigen Dan Leighton". Ancient Dragon Zen Gate. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
^ "Ken Jones, Welsh Author and Activist, Dies at 85". Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. August 10, 2015. Retrieved September 7,2019.
^ Lam, Raymond (December 9, 2016). "An Afternoon with Ajahn Sujato: Personal Courage and Restoring the Sangha's Moral Purpose". Buddhistdoor Global. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
^ Valdez, Regina (October 4, 2016). "Fusing Contemplative Practice with Social Action". Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Retrieved September 7, 2019.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Engaged Buddhism.

Thanissaro Lecture 2019 "Right View Comes First" 48 min audio

https://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Lectures/IMSB/20191001-Thanissaro_Bhikkhu-IMSB-right_view_comes_first-58982.mp3

Lecture 2019 "Right View Comes First" (a lecture representative of what he teaches)

Conscience in the Thought of Bhikkhu Bodhi | Buddhistdoor

Buddhistdoor View: Conscience in the Thought of Bhikkhu Bodhi | Buddhistdoor

Buddhistdoor View: Conscience in the Thought of Bhikkhu Bodhi

By Buddhistdoor

Buddhistdoor Global | 2015-06-26 |

Bhikkhu Bodhi. From groups.yahoo.com

Bhikkhu Bodhi at a demonstration against the Keystone XL pipeline, 2013. From buddhistglobalrelief.me

Segment of birchbark manuscript from Gandhara, 1st or 2nd century CE. From washington.edu

Segment of birchbark manuscript from Gandhara, 1st or 2nd century CE. From the British Library.

Continental philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer. From ymago.net

Before the late 2000s, Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi was not well known as an environmental activist and leader of humanitarian causes. Practitioners of the 1990s and earlier became acquainted with the American-born Theravada monk mainly through his guided meditation and recorded breathing and sitting courses. He was also renowned for his seminal translations and editorship of several major publications of Theravada texts, along with a slew of academic articles and columns too numerous to mention in great detail. His scholarly credentials influenced a variety of fields, spanning early Buddhism to Vinaya law concerning women’s ordination.

One could also have assumed that he was, as unhelpful as labels might be, a “traditionalist.” As recently as May this year, he dismissed mindfulness as the “pop-tune of the 21st century” in an interview with angel Kyodo williams on Patheos. This is not something that Western Buddhists, many of them identifying with the popular mindfulness movement, would like to hear. In the same interview, he praised cultural critic Slavoj ?i?ek’s criticism of Western Buddhism as rendering people ethically inert.

His engaged Buddhism seems to tell a more complicated story. In 2007, he founded Buddhist Global Relief, a humanitarian organization fighting to alleviate global hunger and malnutrition. In February 2014, he published an article on the website Truthout titled “Clearing Our Heads About Keystone.” His warning against building the Keystone Pipeline System is about as technical as an article on tar sands and oil engineering can be, using environmental terminology more common to activists and engineers. In August the same year, he published an article detailing the part he intended to play at the People’s Climate March that took place on 21 September. From his passionate writing, one can see a Bhikkhu Bodhi that seems quite different to his translator-meditator persona.

His two faces—the professorial scholar-translator with a PhD and the advocate of ecological and social justice—melded together in an interview for the Eastern Religions Society at the University of St Andrews in 2013, in which he suggested that a passage in the Anguttara Nikaya (4:115) provided good counsel on caring for the environment. This marriage between the traditional exegete and social activist makes him a complex thinker, to the point that labels like “traditionalist” or “liberal” no longer seem helpful.

What is one to make of a monk who believes that the Vinaya permits women’s ordination, mindfulness as it is taught is ethically and spiritually deficient, and climate change is the paramount issue facing civilization?

Clues can be found in an essay he penned in February 2013 for the website Parabola: “I feel that sometimes one must give priority to one’s deep intuitions over officially sanctioned norms, even when this causes some degree of internal friction. Looking at Buddhism as part of the spiritual heritage of humanity, I see it as subject to similar evolutionary pressures as other types of contemplative spirituality have felt,” he wrote. “As I see it, our collective future requires that we fashion an integral type of spirituality that can bridge the three domains [transcendent, social, and natural] of human life. This would entail embarking on a new trajectory.”

What seems to characterize Bhikkhu Bodhi’s thought is a union between deeply personal impulses and doctrinal fidelity. This interplay and tension is complex. However, it has helped him to offer very creative input into how a Buddhist should live. He is embracing causes that are never mentioned in the ancient canon, yet these causes do not detract from his practice. Instead, they catapult his faith into the public sphere in the form of forums, protest marches, and meetings with diverse people and interests.

His approach—“Bodhism,” one could informally call it—is not a school of thought or methodology. It is more a temperament that allows space for personal conscience to function as a hermeneutical tool (way of interpretation) for one’s faith. Bodhism suggests that our inner intuitions, as long as they are driven by right intention, can serve as guides for how we can be better Buddhists. By extension, this means that the Buddhist scriptures do not always hold the complete answers in the contemporary world. Indeed, Bodhism proposes that the living texts are beckoning Buddhists to read them in the context of their own circumstances and society.

In philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer’s words, this requires a “fusion of horizons”* (Gadamer 1997, 302). This would mean a meeting between the practitioner and the shadowy, nameless authors that revealed the Buddha’s word in the ancient Pali Canon, the early Perfection of Wisdom sutras, the Pure Land scriptures, and so many other texts. Through this meeting of text and conscience, the texts help the disciple progress in spiritual realization. Meanwhile, the scriptures, through the contemporary eyes of the practitioner, are able to have their relevance in the 21st century unpacked and articulated.

Bodhism therefore entails an imaginative and personal engagement. Bhikkhu Bodhi feels particularly drawn to environmental issues and poverty. Another Buddhist might feel an urge to act on sexism or racism. People are animated by all kinds of issues, be they broad or specific. The possibilities are as diverse as the consciences residing in the world’s seven billion human beings.

Textual authority alone can’t answer all the questions and dilemmas posed by the complex contemporary world. No single ideology or hermeneutic will be sufficient. But new insights are possible if we accept that the Buddhist texts are inviting us to use a bit of imagination. Approaches that let intuition and conscience “talk to” the tradition’s doctrines—hence forging a uniquely personal expression of Buddhism like Bhikkhu Bodhi’s—may well be the way forward.

* The fusion of horizons (Horizontverschmelzung) is a dialectical concept presenting horizons as “everything that can be seen from a particular vantage point” (Gadamer 1997, 302). In this image, our horizons are historically, linguistically, and culturally conditioned and therefore limited. Yet horizons are also by nature open, and in the hermeneutic encounter can be broadened by each other. A new understanding or fusion therefore occurs in the dialectic between a person’s horizon and the horizon of a text or tradition, with neither remaining unaffected.

References

Gadamer, Hans-Georg. (1988) 1997. Truth and Method. New York: Continuum.

See more

Clearing Our Heads About Keystone (Truthout)

Bridging the Spiritual and the Mundane: A Personal Odyssey, by Bhikkhu Bodhi (Parabola)

Bhikkhu Bodhi on mindfulness, ethics, responsibility and justice with angel Kyodo williams (Patheos)

Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, Buddhism, and the Environment (University of St Andrews)