Engaged Buddhism and social activism

Overview

Recall questions on the origins and aims of Engaged Buddhism, Thich Nhat Hanh, interbeing and the fourteen precepts of the Order of Interbeing, arguments for and against activism, Buddhist action on the environment, injustice and war, and whether Buddhism is always peaceful.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is Engaged Buddhism?

   Model answer

   Engaged Buddhism is the movement that treats active involvement in social, political, economic and environmental problems as part of Buddhist practice rather than a distraction from it. Its practitioners argue that if suffering is the concern of Buddhism, then suffering caused by war, poverty, injustice and environmental damage is Buddhist business. It combines traditional practices such as meditation and precepts with campaigning, relief work and non-violent protest.

2. 2

   Where did the term and the movement originate?

   Model answer

   The term is associated with the Vietnamese Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who used it during the Vietnam War when monastics had to decide whether to stay in their monasteries or go out to help those being bombed and displaced. He and others chose to do both, organising relief and rebuilding work through a school of social service while continuing monastic practice. Similar developments occurred elsewhere, including village self-help movements in Sri Lanka and the Buddhist movement among Dalit communities in India, so the movement has several roots rather than one founder.

3. 3

   What are the aims of Engaged Buddhism?

   Model answer

   To relieve suffering at its social as well as its personal level; to identify and address structural causes of suffering such as war, inequality, discrimination and environmental destruction; to keep activism itself grounded in mindfulness and non-hatred, so that campaigners do not reproduce the anger they oppose; and to reconnect Buddhist practice with daily life, especially for lay people. Its advocates also aim to correct what they see as a distortion in which Buddhism became purely inward and left the world alone.

4. 4

   Who is Thich Nhat Hanh?

   Model answer

   Thich Nhat Hanh was a Vietnamese Zen monk, teacher and writer, active in peace work during the Vietnam War, who was exiled from Vietnam for decades and established a practice community at Plum Village in France. He founded a community whose members, monastic and lay, undertake a set of training precepts, and he became widely known for teaching mindfulness in ordinary activities such as walking, eating and washing dishes. He is a central figure for Engaged Buddhism because he combined contemplative practice with sustained public advocacy for peace and reconciliation.

5. 5

   What is interbeing, and how does it support Buddhist social action?

   Model answer

   Interbeing is Thich Nhat Hanh's term for dependent origination expressed as mutual containment: nothing exists separately, so a sheet of paper contains the cloud, the forest and the logger, and a person contains everyone who made their life possible. Applied socially, it means the suffering of others is not external to oneself and the categories of victim and oppressor are not cleanly separate. This supports action without hatred, since the opponent is also part of the web, and it undercuts the idea that one can be liberated privately while the surrounding world burns.

6. 6

   What kind of guidance do the fourteen precepts of the Order of Interbeing give?

   Model answer

   They extend the traditional precepts into social and mental territory. Several concern attitudes to belief, warning against treating any doctrine, including Buddhist teaching, as absolute truth, against forcing views on others, and against fanaticism. Others concern conduct in the world: not accumulating wealth while others go without, avoiding livelihoods that harm beings, using speech to reconcile rather than divide, not avoiding contact with suffering, and dealing with anger through mindfulness rather than suppression or expression. Together they read as a code for practitioners living and acting in society rather than withdrawing from it.

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