New Book Provides Forum for Buddhist Peacemakers

Wisdom Publications in association with the Boston Research Center for the 21st Century introduces seminal text on creating cultures of peace

Buddhist Peacework: Creating Cultures of Peace is a book that, as educator Joan Halifax Roshi suggests in her prefatory remarks, “explores the lives and actions, insights and guidelines of some of the world's most beloved Buddhist practitioners, teachers, and social activists who are currently working to end suffering in the life of the world.” It is a book that has a singular appropriateness as a millennial publication—its appearance coincides with the advent of the year 2000, designated by the United Nations as the International Year for the Culture of Peace—and as a celebration of the fundamental truth which the book's editor David Chappell summarizes this way: “Violence and peace begin and end with the human heart.”

This project, according to Virginia Straus, BRC executive director, reflects “our modest effort to support UNESCO's Barcelona Declaration on the Role of Religion in the Promotion of a Culture of Peace.” It is a book intended to help “deepen public understanding, and particularly religious understanding, of what peace in its fullest sense actually entails.” Buddhist Peacework probes the link between inner peace and global harmony and examines the shift from isolated monasticism to an engaged activism for peace.

The 18 chapters of the BRC's newest peace-focused publication move from development of the theme of building inclusive communities to rebuilding moral cultures to a treatment of the correlation between inner peace and outer kindness. The text also includes an enumeration and elaboration of the Buddhist peace principles discussed within the book, the text of the Barcelona Declaration on the Role of Religion, and reflections on the Declaration by Janusz Symonides, director of UNESCO's Department of Peace, Human Rights, Democracy, and Tolerance.

As Donald K. Swearer, Charles and Harriet Cox McDowell Professor of Religion at Swarthmore, observed at the BRC's book launch at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion in November: “This book is sure to have an academic use but, more important, its impact will move far beyond the classroom to have an impact on government. It will do this if we use it as a call to action.” Dr. Swearer noted that one of the main contributions made by the authors of this book is the practical way that they retrieve the Buddhist tradition and apply it to global and common concerns.

“The many conditions necessary for peace are better understood than they have ever been,” editor David W. Chappell, a scholar of Chinese Buddhism and graduate chair of the Department of Religion at the University of Hawaii, observed in the concluding chapter of Peacework. “Buddhists have always emphasized inner mindfulness work, but social mindfulness is increasingly important in Buddhist peacework... The essays in this volume contribute greatly to clarifying social guidelines for Buddhists.” Among the points of emphasis are the importance not only of mindfulness training but also of dialogue and social action. In addition, time and again the authors place emphasis on the Buddhist principle of interdependence with its implicit corollary of social responsibility.

In his chapter, “The SGI's Peace Movement,” founder of the BRC Daisaku Ikeda envisions a global approach to peacebuilding. He articulates his conviction that “mutual understanding is always possible when we conduct dialogue from the common ground of our shared humanity.” Convinced of the importance of nurturing global citizens, the prolific author suggests that “it is vital to the human future that we learn to respect each other's differences and peculiarities, feel empathy for, and learn from each other. I am confident that this will open the way for a new global culture for all humanity.”

Buddhist Peacework: Creating Cultures of Peace is dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi, symbol of Buddhist peacework, compassion, and courage. “Several of the authors,” David Chappell observes, “are in political exile, others have endured civil war, and others are struggling to create social equality and justice under the threat of terrorism and arrest.” For these reasons, the editor insists, “This is not a theoretical book.”

One of the major successes and key inroads of Peacework is the non-judgmental manner in which the book reflects the diversity of traditions within Buddhism. The views of both monastics and laity are presented and the three different streams of practice commonly called the “three turnings of the wheel” of Buddhist teaching are represented—Theravada Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, and Esoteric or Vajrayana Buddhism. Authors include: Dhammachari Lokamitra; Sulak Sivaraksa; Shih Cheng-Yen; Karma Lekshe Tsomo; Lama Bataa Mishigish; A.T. Ariyaratne; Stephanie Kaza; Robert Aitken; Jeon Chong-yoon; Judith Simmer-Brown; Kosan Sunim; Daisaku Ikeda; Maha Ghosananda; Thich Nhat Hanh; Bhante Henepola Gunaratana; Shih Sheng-yen; José Ignacio Cabezón; and the Dalai Lama.

The authors of Buddhist Peacework are simultaneously religious spokes-persons and world leaders. Their efforts for global peace, with all that that entails, are neither partisan nor nationalistic. They are motivated by spiritual conviction and profound compassion.

Buddhist Peacework: Creating Cultures of Peace builds on a growing library of peace-centered works the BRC has already created: Subverting Hatred: The Challenge of Nonviolence in Religious Traditions; Abolishing War; and the Earth Charter Studies Kit. All of these books are appropriate for classroom use and as catalysts for community discussions.

See excerpts from Buddhist Peacework

Buddhist Peacework can be ordered from Wisdom Publications on their website at www.wisdompubs.org or with a credit card at 800-272-4050.

—Helen Marie Casey