Applying Buddha's Teachings in Modern Society - Paperback

by Thich Nu Tinh Quang (Author)

Today society is facing with its ethical problems. Religious function of Religion play more have more roles than at any time for contributing to build a society of order, stability and peace on the earth. This time, the actually Buddha's teachings are not the application of the Buddhist community only, but to existence of human kind in general. Those are ecological risks, such as pollution, finiteness of natural resources, progressing diseases, risk of the mass murder using nuclear weapon, all kinds of dependencies, from drugs to Internet, consumerism, terrorism, the problem of the Third World, and so on. Due to the acceleration of the technological progress, the risk is growing every year in a geometrical progression, and because of that, now it is extremely important to look for solutions in the ancient wisdom that proved to be immortal and true. The Buddha's teaching is one of those heritages of humankind that can serve as a cure of a new society.
In Buddhist worldview, human beings live in the illusion of separateness while their true nature is single with the whole universe. We are all a single living organism with interrelated and integrated physically, spiritually and locally. But majority of mankind is still ignorant of that fact, and acts egoistically so as we all were separated. Most people act egoistically, following their delusional vain passions from suffering, in which they live, and deepening their suffering even more in their fussy races for the desires. The problem is their actions (along with our words and thoughts) not only do harm to themselves but to every part of the being at the same time. For that reason, many people in the world are suffering, animals and plants are suffering, and the planet Earth itself is suffering.
The Buddha was the one who intended to stop all that suffering and suggested a teaching where he instructed how to do it. In this research, I will examine the Buddha's teaching and teachings of his followers concerning in which way those teachings can be a cure for a new world's society, and how could it solve our global problems and ease the suffering of people who live in the digital world of the twenty-first century.
The topics I will consider in this paper are following. I will briefly consider the major problems of nowadays society and the basic principles of Buddhist philosophy concerning the existence of human beings. Then we will research the Buddhist perspective on the problem of violence and the methods of preventing it suggested by the Buddha himself and his followers. After that, I will discuss the five moral precepts of the Buddha and the Buddhist moral principles in general. The next stage of the research will be the analysis of the Eightfold Path suggested by Buddhists and how this path may lead to a salvation of every living being. The final part of the paper will be dedicated to the application of Buddhist philosophy and ethics to the global world issues specifically for every sphere of life. In the end, I will sum up gathered information and make a conclusion on my topic.
The methodology I will use is analyzing the original texts, academic critique, and the words of Buddhist key figures on the topics that I included in my research. After that on every stage of the working process I will apply the information I gathered to the problems of modern society and define the ways in which this application is possible and useful. For that part, I will use both our critical thinking and external literature.