Thich Nu Tinh Quang
Political
philosophy begins with the question: What is the relationship of the individual
to society? How life can lead to good for humans? The themes seek to apply the environmental
moral concepts and social environments connecting with the diversity of the
forms of government and social existence that people can live harmonically; and
so that, this also provides a standard to analyze and evaluate the existing
institutions and its relationships. In the political field, the pragmatist will
support the erection of the organization whose purpose is to ensure the
greatest happiness for the greatest numbers.
Ethics is also
strengthened by the metaphysical theory and epistemology, so the political
views also concern the basic theory: the theory of the nature of reality and
how we I know what a reasonable relation to the way we work, and how we
interact with others. The Buddha, as well as Aristotle, was less concerned with
the form of government rather than its consequences - the monarchy, democracy,
aristocracy or any combination of a political regime - he just basically cares kindness
and moral society that it serves.
The Buddha’s political orientation started
with educational methods. Society exists for understanding, sharing; ignorance
is the root of all suffering. According to the Buddha, "human life is
precious with opportunity and freedom." It is also a precious life of Kant's
"dignity", and what Martin Buber called relation "I-Thou". To
Buddha, All life is sacred
beings and inconceivable.
In the paper of
Buddha and politics, Maha Thera said, Gautama Buddha came from the warrior
caste, and naturally had connections among the kings, princes and ministers.
Despite the royal lineage and proximity to those who are in power, he never
used the influence of the political power to promote his teachings and never
allowed to abuse the teachings for gaining this political power. However, many
politicians today are trying to use the Buddha's name for their own purposes,
presenting him as a communist, capitalist or even imperialist. They have
forgotten that modern political philosophy that we know now had actually
appeared in the West after the Buddha's lifetime. Those who try to use the good
name of the Buddha for their own benefit, must remember that the Buddha was
perfectly awakened, standing above all worldly the concerns.[1]
However, the Buddha is a also a practical by his ideas
promoting a social order in which everybody can be equal, and can live together
peacefully. The Buddha encouraged that everyone ought to decrease person’s
desires and has more concerns the benefits for others. Although he didn’t participate
in the government, he has advised many kings, proposed universal health care,
ecological activities and animal rights, and encouraged a development for merchant
class in order to stimulate more advanced markets in personal connections. He is
the first revolutionary class and misogynous prejudice of Hindu by allowing the
low castes and women joined the Sangha.
The Buddha
always encouraged the development of moral and spiritual issues depending on
the material conditions of the society they live. He said that poverty is the
cause of suffering and insecurity, and to contribute to growth for the
instability and negativity of the society; a moral institution will create a
fair society. Therefore, he encouraged the sharing for the poor people and the
provision of economic justice from the leaders is indispensable to social
harmony and political stability.
There is also an
obvious and deep problem of mixing politics and religion. Fundament of a religion
is purity, morality, faith, and wisdom while the fundament of politics is
government. We know from history how often religions have been used in order to
give more legitimacy to those who are in power and to justify their use of this
power. When religion is used as an accomplice to the political caprices, it has
to violate its original moral ideals and degrade under the influence of the
worldly policy needs, which are very often egoistic. Exactly under these
circumstances religion was used to justify wars and the seizures of foreign
territories, and caused arrests, rebellions, violence, destruction of artefacts
of art and culture, and so on.[2]
The Buddha's teaching is not aimed at creating
new political organizations or making political decisions. In fact, Buddhism is
trying to solve the problems of society through reforming those individuals who
belong to it and provide the general principles on which society can be
directed towards a greater humanity, improvement of its members’ well-being and
an equitable distribution of the resources.
There is a certain limit except for any
political system can protect the welfare and happiness of the social members. No
matter how perfect it may seem, this system would not be able to bring
happiness and peace if its inside people still consist hatred, greed and delusion.
According to Buddhism, compassion is the essence of the Buddha’s political
philosophy, and its development when we see the world is characterized by
suffering (dukkha), and impermanence (anicca); and finally, we understand all
of phenomena being equality and the absence of personality (anatman). The
consciousness of selflessness is not denied to all but recognizing of the close
interdependence (pratitya-samutpadha) between everyone and everything - no one can
stand alone. With selfless enlightenment, we are able find themselves in others;
personal happiness couldn’t be separated from happiness of others. As seeing interdependence
truth, we can develop our compassion, and show it actually.
Although a good and fair political system that
guarantees human rights and has functions of control and balance of power is an
important condition for a prosperous society, people do not have to waste their
time seeking for the concept of the ideal system where citizens will be
absolutely free. This is simply because there is no absolute freedom in any
political system; it is only the mind that can be liberated. To be free, you
need to look inside of yourself and manage bondage
from the shackles of ignorance and craving. Freedom in
the true sense is only possible when a person applies the Dharma teaching to
development of him or her individually through righteous speech and actions, along
with improving his or her mind, with an aim to realize its potential and
achieve the ultimate goal, and of course, which is enlightenment.
While the benefits of the separation of religion
from politics, along with the restrictions of politics in its ability to bring happiness
and peace to the people, are quite obvious to Buddhist views. The Buddha is as
the first revolution for political society when he spoke about the equality of
all people before Abraham Lincoln did, and he taught that classes and castes
are artificial barriers that had been created by society. In Aggañña Sutta,
there is a paragraph that indicates that the classification is only based on people’s
morality from the three actions of body, speech and mind, which make
the consequences of good and bad, pain or happiness, and so on: “And, Vasettha, a Khattiya who has led a
bad life in body, speech and thought, and who has wrong view will, in
consequence of such wrong views and deeds, at the breaking-up of the body after
death, be reborn in a state of loss, an ill fate, the downfall, the hell-state,
so this will a Brahmin, a Vaishya or a Shudra too.”[3]
In
other way, the Buddha
maintained a spirit of a mutual support and participation in a society. This
spirit is actively promoted in the political process of modern states. Although
Buddhist monks are not involved in politics, in history, many lay people have
participated in the political mechanism; they are the kings, presidents and
state officials of the government. Thus, the Buddhist’s political attitude
includes of meaning and compassion, as the representation of the practical
benefits for mostly people, and must be led in a
spirit of selflessness and altruism.
Equally, no one has been appointed as the one
who directly heirs the Buddha's tradition; the members of the community had to
be guided only by the Dhamma and Vinaya (Buddhist monastic rules) in order to cultivate
and achieve liberation in living of harmony. In addition to learning and
meditation, they must know how to share Dharma teachings to the lay Budhists.
In a life of purity and contentment, every member of
Sangha owed no more than a bowl and three robes.
Therefore, the Sangha is the ideal representative of the Buddhist’s political
philosophy.
Another aspect that is the Buddha supported
of the exchange of views among everyone as in the traditional democratic
process. According to Vinaya, every member of this
community has a right to contribute his (her) voice in its decision-making process. To
solve any thing of the Sangha community, that based on the vote of more than
half of its members. Thus, this particular element was reminded of of a contemporary parliamentary procedure in the
democratic systems of the world which was in Buddhist monastic
system in more than two thousand five hundred years ago. Today, political
philosophy is pluralistic; on the needs and obligations of the groups the
parties, and everyone has the right to vote for the one who he (she) loves.
Buddhist community is also part of the powerful forces to elect for leaders who
are rich wisdom and compassion, having ability to improve the life of society,
environment, and sharing equal rights of happiness for everyone.
Buddhism ideally
values in politics is morality and responsibility in using public influence and
power. The Buddha did not accept any kinds of violence, and therefore the
concept of war for justice is profoundly wrong. Buddha assured that both winner
and loser are eventually suffering, and only the one who avoided the war is in
peace. Moreover, the Buddha has even prevented a few wars between sixteen countries in his time
(Dhammananda). Importantly, he considered for a governor to be uncorrupted and
just, otherwise, he and his people would be unhappy. His words on this case are
following: “Monks, when the ruler of a country is just and good, the ministers
become just and good. When the ministers are just and good, the higher
officials become just and good. When the higher officials become just and good,
the rank and file become just and good. And, when the rank and file become just
and good, the people become just and good.” (from Jatakamala).
Therefore, the political values have
practical significance in influencing and affecting people, and can change the human’s
problems and society rather than authority. Cakkavatti Sutta also contains the
words of the Buddha about poverty as one of the basic causes of crimes,
immorality, hypocrisy, fierce, hatred, and so on. All the defilements of mind
can be caused by poverty, which is the result of centuries-old karmic history
of humankind that brought those effects with its actions, are not easy at all
to destroy with only the help of the governing power.[4]
The Buddha's progressive
ideas in Kuṭadanta Sutta are the only possible compromise that can keep the
human beings to maintain their lives in a more or less safe state. It is a
suggestion that economic development, which will bring prosperity to all the
classes of peoples, will be more effective in decreasing the crime level than
any measures of punishment. In perspective, every human being must be provided
with facilities of sufficient life, so that it could not only survive, but to
save his or her moral dignity.[5]
In
terms of social and political ethics, throughout
history, moral values in the society are formed through historical and
cultural events; however, each country was established by different principles
and these principles will determine how a state will act in different
situations. Also, to other progress in the field of
international politics, the world organizations have rules they have to follow
a certain direction. There are individual cases in accordance with their own
principles but still have moral values; nevertheless, there are some topics
that the members did not agree, or the principles of the members just got along
to a certain extent, and then leading clashes in some perspective. For example,
freedom of speech and press is preached by most countries, in fact, it changes
from setbacks in other countries; As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
has not been applied yet for entire countries because some
places are still in their conservative beliefs. The issues of moral
reasoning in politics and society with certain principles are sometimes inconsistent;
they vary from one place to another, from one region to other territories,
because of different perceptions for them, and the various mechanisms in the
current situation; for example, the right to freedom of expression may be in
theory, but it change every day for the political features in fact. Ethics can
be a political decision; however, when analyzing the effects of it, we should
carefully consider its brilliant perspective in a
certain situation.
Fundamentally, in Mahahamsa-Jataka there is a Buddha's list of ten
rules of a good government (Dasa Raja Dhamma), which are still up-to-date in
our times. Those rules require of a good ruler to be: “be liberal and avoid
selfishness (1), maintainng a high moral character (2), be prepared to
sacrifice one's own pleasure for the well-being of the subjects (3), be honest
and maintain absolute integrity (4), be kind and gentle (5), leading a simple
life for the subjects to emulate (6), be free from hatred of any one (7), exercising
non-violence (8), practising patience (9), and respecting public opinion to
promote peace and harmony (10).”[6]
Therefore, we can see that those
considerations that Buddha has suggested concerning politics are not distinct
among his other teachings. The fundamental truth is the same for the people
included in political games and for those who is included in any other
activities. Those are basic Buddhist's rules of morality, awareness, and
dhyanas to overcome the hindrances and skillful deeds which make the linked composition
of the Buddhist practical teaching. Obviously, The Buddha was a great reformer;
for
the field of politics, instead of discussing the reform of the politic system,
he only refers to the reform and transformation of personal inside. This is also
a wake-wisdom (prajna) and compassion (karuna), which needed
characteristics, can bring peace and happiness for the world when
everyone know how to govern transforming oneself before he or she want to lead
the outside world in better way. The Dalai Lama said: “We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we
make peace with ourselves.”
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