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Wisdom and compassion : two paradigms of humanistic Buddhist movements

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Author

Date

2000

Volume

1

Pages

139-168

Abstract

As we approach the end of both this century and this millenium, it seems appropriate to ask about the meaning of Buddhism. What are Buddhists seeking and finding from their religion at this point? Or to put it another way, how do Buddhists construct the meaning and intention/direction of Buddhism at the end of the century? For Sri Lanka – from which the two paradigms are selected, the end of the century marks fifty years since their nation gained its independence and almost fifty years since the Buddha Jayanti, the highpoint of the Theravada Buddhist Revival. So we can say that in asking about the meaning of Buddhism in Sri Lanka today, we are also attempting to discover what has been the legacy of the Buddhist Revival.

This paper contends that the legacy of the Buddhist Revival and the true meaning and intention of Buddhism today can be seen not in the twin movements that are usually said to be the dominant forces in Sri Lankan Buddhism, Sinhala Buddhist Fundamentalism and Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism (hereafter, SBF and SBN). Rather, the ferment in Sri Lankan Buddhism today can be seen more clearly in two other movements that express a more humanistic Buddhism: the lay meditation movement and the socially engaged Buddhist movement exemplified particularly by the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement. It is in these latter two movements that we can see what Buddhists in Sri Lanka are seeking from Buddhism today and what discourses they are using to set the contemporary direction for this ancient spiritual tradition. In the following, I will show how the lay meditation movement and the socially engaged Buddhism movement have emerged to provide alternatives to SBF and SBN that redefine Buddhism in a more humanistic light.