Characteristics of engaged Buddhism

Author: Bhikkhuni Dr. Thich Nu Hue Lien

The engaged characteristic of the Buddhist teachings lies in its practicability. The priority for living beings is the problem of suffering, the concrete one. The Buddha taught the main points of the truth concerning humanity with its fetters and its liberation. He did not explain the problem not connected with the goal of happiness.

The nature of pragmatism is clearly summed up in the simile of the man wounded by a poisoned arrow, and in the parable of the raft serving to reach the other shore. The Buddha never took an interest in the metaphysical and non-profitable problems such as those of a Creator, or an Only Cause, or other questions to be avoided because according to him, the questions themselves were meaningless and unanswerable, for answers to them do not in any way help solve the problem of human suffering. The Buddha was concerned only with the urgent problem directed at the happiness of living beings.

In parallel with the practical nature, the teaching of the Buddha is characterized as being the middle path, which avoids the extremely biased theories both from the notion of knowledge as well as that of cultivation. The Buddha taught that the two extremes of life: self-indulgence and self-mortification should not be followed. The former delays spiritual progress, the latter weakens wisdom. After realizing by personal experience the fruitlessness of both, the Buddha refused both views and declares the most practicable, rational and beneficial path, which constitutes a pure life for the cessation of suffering. So, it is easy for every one who expects to cultivate the Buddhist teachings to obtain real happiness.

It is noteworthy that the notion of self-mortification of the Buddha is that all evil and sinful conditions, misconduct in deed, word and thought should be mortified, and whosoever has abandoned evil and sinful conditions, he is given to mortification.

The Buddha's teachings specially emphasize the importance of individual effort for knowing, seeing, purification and freedom from suffering of life. The Buddha taught his disciples to take a refuge to themselves and to hold the Truth as their lamp. The truth which "well proclaimed by the Exalted One is the Norm, [a gospel] for the things we see, not a matter of time, [bidding man] come and see, guiding him on, to be understood by the intelligent, each for himself." In this regard, the Buddha is not a 'Savior,' but rather the way-pointer showing the tranquility and insight meditation, which should be observed by the liberation seeker:

The process of causes and effects makes the characteristic of the personal effort of the Buddhist teachings clearer. The Buddha taught about this nature, "By oneself alone is evil done, by oneself alone is one defiled. By oneself is evil avoided, by oneself above is one purified. Purity and impurity depend on oneself. No one can purify another." Accordingly, responsibility falls on the shoulders of the doer.

Improvement or degeneration, happiness or suffering is all the results of one's own good or evil deeds. A man has the power to transform the course of actions (kamma) in terms of causal relationships. Thus, the whole teaching of the Buddha is the ethical principles of human beings. "Lead a righteous life, but not one that is corrupt. The righteous lives happily both in this world and in the next."

Especially, the caste distinction is not recognized in the Buddhist teachings. The Buddha preaches the truth to human beings with his large compassion. Everyone has the power to cultivate the path conducive to the destruction of suffering and the attainment of enlightenment and real happiness {nibbana). The door of deathless is wide open to all without any distinction. One cannot become respected or looked down upon by birth, but by his action. The Buddha taught that a person who has wholly destroyed all the cankers and has reached enlightenment through knowledge is considered to be higher than any of the castes.

The altruistic emphasis is one of the most important characteristics of Buddhism. The Buddha advised his followers to cultivate for their own welfare and the welfare of others. They themselves are perfect in the five things: virtue, concentration, wisdom, freedom, and vision into the knowledge of freedom and encourage others to perform these five things. The teachings of the Buddha should be spread vastly in order that it may last long to be for the good and the happiness of the great multitudes, out of compassion for the world, to the benefit and peace of gods and men. About the help of oneself and another, the Buddha said that in helping oneself in cultivating oneself, one helps another; and in helping another having compassion on others one helps oneself.

The virtue of loving-kindness also occupies a prominent place in the Buddha's teachings and it is one of the factors, which are the most beneficial to both the spiritual development and the development of non-violence. To establish the happy and peaceful life, the Buddha advised his disciples to cultivate four virtues of loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity towards others. The Buddha taught that one should deliver kind speech to a person with a mind of loving-kindness, void of hatred, and that by starting from one person he should extend it to the whole world with a mind of loving-kindness that is far-reaching, wide-spread, immeasurable, without enmity and malevolence.

In short, the Buddha was a new founder of living philosophy, which is engaged Buddhism, positive assertions of a rational-psychological moralism, which is acceptable socially.