Socially Engaged Buddhism

Liberation as a Journey into Life

The Vietnamese poet, activist, and Zen-master, Thich Nhat Hanh, coined the phrase ‘Engaged Buddhism’ in Vietnam during the 1960s to refer to the work that he and his colleagues were doing to find non-violent solutions to the war in southeast Asia.

He has also remarked that there is really be no such thing as ‘Engaged Buddhism’. Buddhism is, by its very nature, ‘engaged’ (socially, politically, economically, inter-personally, environmentally).

He coined the term as a reminder of the central humanizing interest within Buddhist teachings and tradition.

There can be such thing as disengaged Buddhism, or Buddhism divorced from a life of responsibility and connection. There is no such things as a purely transcendentalist Buddhism. It is by it’s nature concerned with interconnection, responsibility, causes and results.

A core assumption, and one that makes Buddhist teaching revolutionary to this day, is that all things are interconnected, and that everything you do has significance and impact.

Paulo Freire

“While both humanization and dehumanization are real alternatives, only the first is the people’s vocation. This vocation is constantly neglected, yet it is affirmed by the very negation. It is thwarted by injustice, exploitation, oppression, and the violence of the oppressor, it is affirmed by the yearning of the oppressed for freedom and justice, and by our struggle to recover our lost humanity.” Paulo Freire