WHY THIS INITIATIVE?

THE BUDDHIST EXCEPTION

However disguised, the great pre-modern traditions continue to drive society. They may appear to us principally under the category ‘religion’, but they are reflected in a wide range of basic assumptions. For instance, all have extensive socio-political manifestations.

Given its relevance for practical affairs, this fact can attract high-level interest. In the case of some religions, it has long done so. That applies principally to the great monotheistic traditions, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.

There is one glaring exception. That is Buddhism.

ANATOMY OF AN ANOMALY

BUDDHISM IS A KEY FACTOR IN TODAY’S WORLD

The Buddhist tradition is a presence in most of Asia. It has long conditioned society, politics, economics, art and philosophy across South, Southeast, Central and East Asia. For over two millennia, this unifying thread has woven together the largest and most influential block of humanity in world history.

Take any developed society east of Iran today, and analyse the cultural, psychological, social and political discourse in depth. Under the veneer of recent influences — capitalism, communism, Islam — Buddhist patterns emerge.

That is understandable. This tradition has always been a phenomenon of civil society. Individuals travelled and spoke their understanding of it. As they gained local support, the tradition took root. So it grew afresh in each territory it reached. It adapted to each environment. It became deeply embedded.

IT IS DISTINCTIVELY MODERN

Confucians, Muslims, Christians and Max Weber have all claimed that Buddhism is essentially otherworldly. Why?
After all, sources indicate that the Buddha regularly spoke about social life and often addressed overtly political topics. The Buddhist emperor Asoka Maurya provided a paradigm for later traditions of kingship, in Buddhist cultures and more widely. In China, Korea and Japan, the spread of Buddhism reflected and reinforced tendencies towards social mobility and a more egalitarian ethos.

Of course, the basic Buddhist social form is the Sangha, the order of professional practitioners (‘monks’ and ‘nuns’). A Buddhist country is one with a well-established Sangha. This is defined by its separation from the world.

But the ‘otherworldly’ tag misses the subtlety of this tradition. It addresses the social through the personal. It does not so much prescribe a social order as suggest ways to think and behave in forming one. The Sangha is there to reinforce that suggestion. To do so effectively, it must avoid identification with particular worldly interests.

In some countries, where indigenous traditions had not previously produced appropriate forms of state, the result might be an avowedly Buddhist polity; but the very diversity of these forms indicates their contingent nature. Fundamentally, Buddhism fits the pattern of what in the West would be a post-enlightenment value-system — quite post-modern, indeed, concerned less with opposition and authority and more with systems, interconnections, and alternate views. It impinges on the socio-political order more from the bottom up than from the top down. We can see that clearly from contemporary East Asian examples.

So it makes little sense to say that Buddhism is purely private and does not affect society, politics and economics. Would we say that of any other mass movement that engages the majority of a population?

THERE IS GROUND TO MAKE UP HERE

The trouble is that this tradition does not match our assumptions. So we have work to do in studying and understanding it.

There have been some important regionally-based studies, certainly. These have revealed the extent to which Buddhism has interacted with the political order in the classical and modern states of South, Southeast, Central and East Asia. But there has been little scholarly effort to integrate these findings into a wider picture.
Given the global weight of this tradition, that is surprising. Consider for instance the potential importance of Buddhism for developments in China, Korea and Japan, whether internally within each country, across East Asia or between the region and the world at large.

One factor at play here may be the complexity of the material. The social, political, economic, cultural, literary and doctrinal, manifestations of Buddhism are manifold and subtle. No single individual, however learned, can do justice to the practical impact of this great tradition.

THERE IS NEW GROUND TO BREAK

Countries as diverse as Bhutan and Cambodia need modern state structures that can last. Any successful strategy must go with the grain of their existing Buddhist cultures.

How can such a culture recast itself in a mould that is both modern and consistent with its heritage? One important step is to place that heritage within the context of the Buddhist world as a whole. Academic research can have a major, positive, practical impact here.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Surely, the time is ripe to approach this area of study systematically. It is necessary to develop a coherent account of:

• How social phenomena appear within a Buddhist universe of discourse;
• Social and political implications and interpretations of the central Buddhist doctrine of liberation;
• The scope and impact of Buddhist institutions and practices within pre-modern and modern polities;
• In particular, the impact over time of the living vinaya tradition (applying codes of behaviour for professional Buddhist practitioners). For the tradition to thrive, new forms of Buddhist activity and organisation must continually develop, and the vinaya in the broad sense must accommodate them. On the other hand, if the vinaya in the strict sense is lost, the tradition unravels.
• The continuing significance of this traditional context for regions and issues of current concern.

This will require collaboration among anthropologists, sociologists, historians, political scientists, and textual scholars with expertise in specific Buddhist areas of the world. The essential foundation for such collaboration is a thorough knowledge of the relevant languages, through which in turn the history, literature and social forms can be understood.
Without being prescriptive, we can even at this early stage identify some fruitful areas of research:

• Socio-political readings of key Buddhist concepts
• Education and the transmission of knowledge
• Buddhism and law
• Hierarchy, status and slavery
• Kingship and governance
• Buddhism and (non-)violence
• Asceticism, meditation and power
• The impact of “western” political realities
• Buddhist reform movements
• Pan-Buddhist organizations
• Buddhism and development

That, then, is the mission of the proposed Interdisciplinary Working Group on Buddhism, the State and Civil Society.