Protestant vs. Socially Engaged Buddhism
Protestant vs. Socially Engaged Buddhism Somewhere in the sixth century BCE Buddhism was born, born from a single man Siddhartha Guatama, the Buddha. After gaining his enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, the Buddha didn't think that the rest of the world could handle all that he had learned. He did not want to teach others, nor did he want to spread his wisdom. Until at last his great compassion came over him and he started to gain the respect of few by going to his old peers first. By starting with other intellectuals he secured that they at least had the capacity to learn what he had to teach. From this point on he spread his philosophy on the middle path with everyone who would listen. He preached pacifism and that it was wrong to take any life be it a man's or any lesser being's. He taught that the noble eightfold path was the route to end all suffering, and that the individual was the most important factor in achieving enlightenment. The Buddha taught about the five aggregates, the notion that the human being is made up of matter, sensation, consciousness, perception, and mental formations. In all of his teachings however the Buddha did not do so much as a lay a groundwork for which his followers could build a soci
Therefor, the beliefs of Buddhism were not changed, just adapted to fit the times. " He insightfully wrote about a number of policies that could be adopted by the government, furthermore he wrote extensively on why they should be adopted and how they would help everything from the economic situation of nations, to the ants and dogs within each community. The only way for this goal to be reached is to do something about it in this lifetime. This "Protestant Buddhism" was at the heart of the resistance, without the reforms it allowed for, the Buddhists of Sri Lanka might still be struggling under British rule to this day. When there was a great link between the rulers of their nation and them, the people, a time when temples, stupa, and great pillars were being erected in the name of the Buddha. Buddhism had prospered in Sri Lanka for over sixteen hundred years, until the first colonizers came from Portugal in the 1550's CE. He integrated the beliefs of Buddhism, with the active nature of Christianity. It was there, on their Island, where the Theravadan tradition, the only sect of the Hinayana still around, had been born. With this emergence of community came more and more problems with which the leaders had no frame of reference to combat. This is a bit idealistic, but holds much more truth than any other leading party will admit, in that if given the chance to earn an honest living most people would rather accept it than deal with a life of "necessary" crime. From the start, meditation, and self-knowledge has been at the heart of Buddhism. No longer were they disadvantaged by lack of uniformity drawn out of oral tradition, for they emphasized scripture much like the Christians put their faith in the Bible. The reason for their inability to rule themselves was not because of lack of numbers, for 75% of all people in Sri Lanka ascribe to Buddhism, but because of the non-violent nature of their resistance. Nagarjuna was very specific as to how these principles of his could and should be carried out in the building of shelters and the providing of clean water to drink and so forth. The benefit to this puzzling behavior was finally discovered, and explained in that the g!eneral ability of birds of this kind to successfully mate in their first year away from the nest was very low.
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