From an interesting article in Newsweek:
In recent years, massive groups of fervent believers have taken to the streets of Asia with angry political demands. They've railed against government corruption, condemned the onslaught of Western values and decried the erosion of traditional morals. Having built an extensive network of grass-roots aid groups, their numbers are exploding. Some have even picked up arms to defend their beliefs. Sound familiar? It should—only the faithful in question aren't Islamic fundamentalists or conservative Christians. They're Buddhists: members of what used to be Asia's quietest religion, one usually associated with pacifism and contemplation.
I really wish people would try to keep Buddhism out of politics, but it looks like that won't happen any more than it does with anything else.
3 comments:
I really wish that Buddhism would stay out of politics as well, especially the monks. Ajahn Jayasaro has a great talk where he touches on the reasons why monastics shouldn't get involved in politics. if you want to listen to it it is on the abayagiri website. It's accessible from forestsangha.org. The talk is called "Inside and Out".
I heard of monks taking up arms in southern Thailand because of the Muslim insurgency down there. I can't imagine Theravada monks with weapons but some in the sasana are not taking the Vinaya seriously at all.
Yea, things are getting kind of crazy. If people are going to fight, the least they could do is keep Buddhism out of it.
I think we can draw a valid distinction between non-violent civil disobedience and violent actions. It is true that there are uasi-fundamentalist Buddhists who are militant and interpret Buddhism in a culturally conservative manner in order to maintain the political status quoe. That is an inherent problem in any and every nation where the separation of religion and state gets blurred. WWI and WWII Japan were examples of this, as was Tibet when the monks picked up guns against the Chinese.
As I see it, Buddhists do need to establish a political action framework consistent with the Eight-fold Path and the Six (or Ten) Paramitas, but that is different from establishing a Buddhist National Government which would be going too far for my tastes.
Post a Comment