Open AccessUnderstanding the Engaged Buddhist Movement
Author(s) -
Loretta Pyles
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
critical social work
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1543-9372
DOI - 10.22329/csw.v6i1.5721
Subject(s) - buddhism , delusion , materialism , id, ego and super ego , human condition , sociology , environmental ethics , anger , psychology , psychoanalysis , social psychology , aesthetics , epistemology , philosophy , theology , psychiatry
The fundamental Buddhist belief that “life is suffering” is applicable not only at the level of individual human existence but also applicable at the level of family, community and the larger society. For Buddhists, suffering is a result of unnecessary human delusion and ego manifested through such qualities as unrestrained desire and anger. Society’s institutions and policies can be understood as mutable entities that reflect this delusion, particularly in the form of human greed and materialism. Thus, because humans create institutions and policies through their actions, these institutions “like us, can be changed by our actions,” so writes Buddhist environmental scholar and activist, Joanna Macy (1991, p. 191).