Buddhism and Revolution

Incorporating mindfulness: questioning capitalism

“…Generally, the Buddhist notions of interdependency and no-self lead to renunciation of personal possessions with entry into the Buddhist monastic orders; in modernist terms, this can be radicalised to mean 'no possessions': proprietorship presupposes someone who possesses but since there is no self that can possess, there cannot be any possession (Puligandla and Puhakka, 1970). Thus, Buddhist traditions clearly oppose capitalism's privileging of property accumulation, which it sees as ignorance: collecting things and attaching the self to them loses freedom.…”

“…He justifies his scepticism and critique of liberal democracy and capitalism by reasoning that the Buddha himself had the principle or ideal of socialism but his method of working was dictatorial (quoted in Jackson, 2003, p.240). In this reading, Buddhism opposes capitalism, with its notions of property, ownership and possessions as ends in themselves, because those material ends are non-conducive to freedom and liberation but instead reinforce and perpetuate the ignorance that Buddhism tries to eliminate (Puligandla & Puhakka, 1970). However, leading Engaged Buddhist Social theorist David Loy warns that both socialism and capitalism offer us naturalistic salvation in the future, when we (or at least some of us) will become happy because our desires are satisfied (Loy, 2003, p.28).…”

What can International Law Learn from Indian Mythology, Hinduism and History?

“…The Buddhist idea of revolution is a direct import from Hinduism. 97 However, since it came much later, the major Buddhist wisdom was manuscripted in Pali and Prakrit, a language derived from Sanskrit and developed at the time when Buddhism was the state religion of the Magadha Empire under Asoka. Panchsheel is a Sanskrit word that literally translates into five disciplines or principles.…”