Buddhism And Sarvodaya

*Continues the story of the Sarvodaya Movement begun in Joanna Macy’s Dharma and Development *Up-to-date information stems from ten years of scholarly and field research In one of the world’s most inspirational grassroots-development stories, Buddhism at Work outlines the vision and evolution of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement in Sri Lanka, as its members have sought to engage and awaken society with Buddhist and Gandhian ideals. Now an international movement and NGO, Sarvodaya calls for individuals and groups to achieve non-violent social transformation through cooperative work. Its vision and its voice are poised to contribute to the emerging global dialogue on peace, social justice, and community development. Buddhism at Work embraces a new hope for humanity.

On the achievement of the Sarvodaya, a social welfare organization propounding the sociopolitical philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948, and his followers.

Socially Engaged Buddhism is an introduction to the contemporary movement of Buddhists, East and West, who actively engage with the problems of the world—social, political, economic, and environmental—on the basis of Buddhist ideas, values, and spirituality. Sallie B. King, one of North America’s foremost experts on the subject, identifies in accessible language the philosophical and ethical thinking behind the movement and examines how key principles such as karma, the Four Noble Truths, interdependence, nonharmfulness, and nonjudgmentalism relate to social engagement. Many people believe that Buddhists focus exclusively on spiritual attainment. Professor King examines why Engaged Buddhists involve themselves with the problems of the world and how they reconcile this involvement with the Buddhist teaching of nonattachment from worldly things. Engaged Buddhists, she answers, point out that because the root of human suffering is in the mind, not the world, the pursuit of enlightenment does not require a turning away from the world. Working to reduce suffering in humans, living things, and the planet is integral to spiritual practice and leads to selflessness and compassion. Socially Engaged Buddhism is a sustained reflection on social action as a form of spirituality expressed in acts of compassion, grassroots empowerment, nonjudgmentalism, and nonviolence. It offers an inspiring example of how one might work for solutions to the troubles that threaten the peace and well being of our planet and its people.

This book provides an important case study of how local cultures, religions and spiritualities can enhance development activities, and provide helpful frameworks for contemporary societies facing the pressures of neo-liberalism. It specifically traces how the influential Sri Lankan Sarvodaya Movement has deployed concepts of spirituality-based holistic development to help local communities with post-tsunami reconstruction and redevelopment. Throughout, the author provides a Three-Sphere conceptualisation of holistic sustainable development, focused on Culture, Economics and Power, slightly revising Sarvodaya’s Three-Sphere model comprising Spirituality, Economics and Power. The author contends that the success of holistic development, including risk governance, is largely contingent on an awareness of the interdependency of these three spheres, and establishing equitable partnerships between communities, NGOs, INGOs, States and the private sector. Overall, this book argues that religion, spirituality and non-religious worldviews play an important role among other resources concerned with how to survive the pressures of neo-liberalism and environmental risks and crises. The Sarvodaya Movement, which draws on Buddhist concepts of spirituality, is widely acknowledged as an important example of spirituality and community-driven development, and as such, this book will be of interest to scholars of Development and Humanitarian Studies, Religious Studies and South Asian Studies.

Engaged Buddhism is the contemporary movement of nonviolent social and political activism found throughout the Buddhist world. Its ethical theory sees the world in terms of cause and effect, a view that discourages its practitioners from becoming adversaries, blaming or condemning the other. Its leaders make some of the most important contributions in the Buddhist world to thinking about issues in political theory, human rights, nonviolence, and social justice. Being Benevolence provides for the first time a rich overview of the main ideas and arguments of prominent Engaged Buddhist thinkers and activists on a variety of questions: What kind of political system should modern Asian states have? What are the pros and cons of Western "liberalism"? Can Buddhism support the idea of human rights? Can there ever be a nonviolent nation-state? It identifies the roots of Engaged Buddhist social ethics in such traditional Buddhist concepts and practices as interdependence, compassion, and meditation, and shows how these are applied to particular social and political issues. It illuminates the movement’s metaphysical views on the individual and society and goes on to examine how Engaged Buddhists respond to fundamental questions in political theory concerning the proper balance between the individual and society. The second half of the volume focuses on applied social-political issues: human rights, nonviolence, and social justice.

This is the first comprehensive coverage of socially and politically engaged Buddhism in Asia, presenting the historical development and institutional forms of engaged Buddhism in the light of traditional Buddhist conceptions of morality, interdependence, and liberation.