Multi-Religious Perspectives on a Global Ethic

In Search of a Common Morality

Myriam Renaud, William Schweiker, Myriam Renaud, William Schweiker

• Verlag: Routledge
• Jahr: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000261394
• Auflage: 1
• Thema: Theology & Religion
• Thema: Comparative Religion

Ratified by the Parliament of the World's Religions in 1993 and expanded in 2018, "Towards a Global Ethic (An Initial Declaration), " or the Global Ethic, expresses the minimal set of principles shared by people—religious or not. Though it is a secular document, the Global Ethic emerged after months of collaborative, interreligious dialogue dedicated to identifying a common ethical framework. This volume tests and contests the claim that the Global Ethic's ethical directives can be found in the world's religious, spiritual, and cultural traditions.

The book features essays by scholars of religion who grapple with the practical implications of the Global Ethic's directives when applied to issues like women's rights, displaced peoples, income and wealth inequality, India's caste system, and more. The scholars explore their respective religious traditions' ethical response to one or more of these issues and compares them to the ethical response elaborated by the Global Ethic. The traditions included are Hinduism, Engaged Buddhism, Shi'i Islam, Sunni Islam, Confucianism, Protestantism, Catholicism, Judaism, Indigenous African Religions, and Human Rights. To highlight the complexities within traditions, most essays are followed by a brief response by an expert in the same tradition.

Multi-Religious Perspectives on a Global Ethic is of special interest to advanced students and scholars whose work focuses on the religious traditions listed above, on comparative religion, religious ethics, comparative ethics, and common morality.

1Networking as equals?

Engaged Buddhists’ egalitarian ideals and hierarchical habits

Hsiao-Lan Hu

Introduction

Engaged Buddhist movements around the globe are gradually formulating a Buddhist global ethic:

Engaged Buddhism is a contemporary form of Buddhism that engages actively yet nonviolently with the social, economic, political, and ecological problems of society… . It is also by definition an effort to express the ideals of Buddhism—including loving-kindness or universal goodwill toward all—in practical action.¹

The foundation of Buddhist ethics is the basic Five Precepts, which have been expounded by leaders and scholars of Engaged Buddhism, such as Thích Nhất Hạnh, Sulak Sivaraksa, and Sallie King.² These Engaged Buddhist ethical principles are well in accord with the spirit of “Towards a Global Ethic (An Initial Declaration),”³ or the Global Ethic. Peter Nosco notes that “what is perhaps most striking about Buddhism’s core truth-claims is how they are in most ways compatible with the precepts and creeds of other major religions.”⁴ In my own work, This-Worldly Nibbāna: A Buddhist-Feminist Social Ethic for Peacemaking in the Global Community, I drew from the most basic Buddhist teachings to lay out the theoretical framework for the construction of a non-sectarian Buddhist social ethic that considers both local contexts and global implications.

Just as the Global Ethic is intended as a statement of what all religious traditions “already hold in common”⁵ rather than an imposition of a “global ideology,”⁶ my approach in this chapter is to start with what Engaged Buddhists are already doing or advocating and show that these activities are consonant with the Global Ethic. That is, I am interested in the ethical principles that Engaged Buddhists express, embrace, and/or carry out in their real-life cross-cultural encounters that pertain to the Global Ethic and give flesh to the “minimal fundamental consensus”⁷ of its five irrevocable directives. Sallie King notes that egalitarianism is a very important component in Engaged Buddhist movements,⁸ and so specifically I am interested in the ways in which this egalitarian ideal among Engaged Buddhists affirms the First and Fourth Directives in the Global Ethic, i.e. “commitment to a culture of non-violence and respect for life” and “commitment to a culture of equal rights and partnership between men and women.”

International conferences where practitioners of Engaged Buddhism from around the globe meet for an extended period of time are optimal occasions to see which parts of Buddhist teachings are truly the cornerstones of Buddhist ethics and have the potential to become parts of a global ethic, as well as to see in which ways Buddhists are falling short of their ideals. Specifically, I will draw on my substantial involvement with the international conferences of Sākyadhitā: International Association of Buddhist Women, which has nearly 2,000 members from 45 countries,⁹ as well as my previous research on the Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM; Fagushan法鼓山),¹⁰ a Taiwan-based international organization of “Humanistic Buddhism” (the Taiwanese version of Engaged Buddhism) that has Dharma centers in 15 countries throughout Southeast Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America.¹¹ I will also reference my experience with the conferences of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB), which has members from 25 countries.¹² I will show that, during these international encounters, the ethical principles of engaged Buddhists coincide with the directives in the Global Ethic even though the execution, from time to time, falls short of their proclaimed ideals.

Networking among the four assemblies

One of the cornerstones of the Global Ethic as practiced by these international Buddhist organizations is networking. In writing about international Buddhist organizations such as Sākyadhitā and INEB, Brooke Schedneck notes the importance of networking “as the hope is to bring enough Buddhists and Buddhist sympathizers together to work toward both individual transformation and social change.”¹³ Indeed, the first objective listed on the INEB’s website explicitly states that they are to promote “cooperation, and networking among inter-Buddhist and inter-religious social action groups.” Likewise, the first objective listed on the Sākyadhitā website is to “establish an international alliance of Buddhist women,” and another one of the objectives is to promote “dialogue among the Buddhist traditions and other religions.” Networking is an important value in the operation of DDM as well. Bhikṣu Sheng Yen 釋聖嚴 founded DDM in 1989 and announced the establishment of the Dharma Drum Lineage of Chinese Ch’an 中華禪法鼓宗 in 2005. Sheng Yen said, “In the 21st century, our world should be based on openness and diversity. It should be an environment in which all parts interact, one in which people respect one another and learn from one another.”¹⁴

Some may object and say that networking is not really an ethical principle, but for Engaged Buddhists it is, or at least it is an ethical response to the Buddha’s teaching of Interdependent Co-Arising (Pāli: paṭiccasamuppāda; Sanskrit: pratītyasamutpāda; also translated as dependent origination, interconditionality, or simply co-arising). Joanna Macy observes that Interdependent Co-Arising is not only as an explanation of human existence, but also the ground for Buddhist morality and the means for liberation.¹⁵

Interdependent Co-Arising is often understood to mean a fuzzy sense of interdependence, but anyone in the field of Buddhist Studies knows that Co-Arising has countless implications. One of these implications is dynamic interconditionality. Because of Co-Arising, a person is conditioned by his or her surroundings and experiences, and so each of us is different since each of us co-arises with different experiences. At the same time, because of Co-Arising, our physical, verbal, and mental actions condition each other’s, positively or negatively. That is, because of Co-Arising, suffering travels in the interconnected web of life, and happiness and liberation travel as well. As the First Directive of the Global Ethic states, “We are all intertwined together in this cosmos and we are all dependent on each other. Each one of us depends on the welfare of all.”¹⁶ Macy points out that liberation in the early Buddhist texts was not presented as an escape from Co-Arising,¹⁷ but was reached “by employing causation, by using the leverage of conditionality.”¹⁸ Living with “multiplicities of contacts and currents” can be a source of power;¹⁹ the more interconnections there are, the sooner and wider the change travels. Therefore, for Engaged Buddhists, alleviating suffering and working for the well-being of all involves networking.

Judging from the programs and the ways in which participants interact with each other at Sākyadhitā and INEB conferences, participants take networking quite seriously. At the 2009 INEB conference, every afternoon there was a time for regional or national or thematic discussions in which participants shared experiences in their respective activist projects. They also exchanged ideas and planned future collaborations. At the 2018 INEB special meeting on empowering women, female activists, scholars, and religious leaders from Thailand, Myanmar, and Taiwan huddled together for four whole days, from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., seeking to understand each other’s situations and identify resources to offer to each other. At the Sākyadhitā conferences, every afternoon people use workshops to share strategies and techniques for consciousness-raising and empowerment.

Likewise DDM founder Sheng Yen encouraged his followers to get in contact with others “with the ideas and spirit of the Dharma Drum Mountain,” saying that it would be a more effective way to transform society than the talks he gave (以法鼓山的觀念﹑精神去和他人接觸，這種效果比我一個人去演講來得更好).²⁰ Another reason for networking is to learn from others: Sheng Yen instructed his followers to

take in the strengths of all schools and all sects, including Theravādin, Tibetan, and the eight major schools of Chinese traditions, and to syncretize them so as to redress the corrupt practices within the Chinese tradition and make up for the deficiencies of the Chinese tradition (接納各派各系所長，我們講的南傳、藏傳，以及漢傳佛教八大宗，當中每一派、每一宗的長處，都要將之匯歸到漢傳佛教，藉以改革漢傳佛教的弊端，補強漢傳佛教的不足).²¹

Long before he appointed the twelve “task-based Dharma heirs” (任務型法子) from within the DDM monastic order—appointed to shoulder the administrative responsibilities within the DDM organization—Sheng Yen had recognized seven Dharma heirs, five of whom are laypersons.²² Recognizing dharma heirs from among lay followers is rather unusual in the Chinese Buddhist tradition. Traditional transmission in Chinese Buddhism bears a strong resemblance to the patrilineal inheritance system in the larger society. An attempt to legitimize Chinese Buddhist monastics as the “children of Śākyamuni” (shih-tzu 釋子),²³ the monastic master-disciple relationship has been likened to the father-son relationship, and the Dharma is passed patrilineally from one generation of monastics to the next, from Dharma “patriarchs” to Dharma “heirs.” Moreover, modeled after primogeniture in the larger patrilineal society, only the senior “Dharma heir” inherits abbotship from the “patriarch,” in the same way that the eldest son alone inherited the house even though all sons are biological “heirs” of the father and carry the father’s surname. Drawing from Ouyi Zhixu (蕅益智旭, 1599–1655) of the Ming Dynasty, Sheng Yen criticized such exclusivist mode of Dharma transmission as well as the traditional usage of the term “Dharma heir,” saying that this primogeniture-like practice has the effect of privatizing the Dharma because what is emphasized is a certain patriarch’s teaching and property, not the Buddha-Dharma that should benefit “all sentient beings.”²⁴

According to Bhikṣunī Changyan 常延,²⁵ who studied under Sheng Yen for over 30 years and, when she was a layperson, was handpicked by him since 1992 to teach “The Five Talks on Learning to Be a Buddha” (學佛五講) on his behalf, one central component of Sheng Yen’s vision of Pure Land in the human realm is his inclusion of all “four assemblies” of monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen. Part of this inclusion is reflected in the recitation of The Common View of Dharma Drum Mountain (法鼓山的共識), in which Sheng Yen said, “As an organization, Dharma Drum Mountain is a family of the four assemblies of monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen (法鼓山這個團體，是屬於僧俗四眾共同擁有的大家庭).”²⁶

In societies where veneration for monastics is not a given and where many may look at shaved and celibate monastics with suspicion, laypeople can probably have greater influence, exchange and share more with each other, and garner more support.²⁷ Even in a society where 90% of the population self-identify as Buddhists, such as Thailand, monastics still constitute a tiny minority. The overwhelming majority in Buddhist cultures is actually Buddhist laywomen. In all three of the largest international “humanistic Buddhist” organizations based in Taiwan women outnumber men by four to one. Hence, if the goal of these organizations is to transform society so as to alleviate suffering and increase well-being for all, the networking capability and talents of laywomen must be valued and tapped. Laywomen must be empowered to be the change in addition to the monastic males to whom authority is who are traditionally given the authority.

Differences as resources

The ground for genuine networking is inter-cultural, inter-traditional, and inter-personal respect, manifested as valuing each other regardless of the person’s gender, age, ethnicity, nationality, or religious or cultural backg...

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Preliminaries: ground rules for grappling with the Global Ethic
• 1 Networking as equals? engaged Buddhists’ egalitarian ideals and hierarchical habits
• 2 Women’s religious authority in Shi‘i tradition: a quest for justice
• 3 Gu Hongming and the religion of good citizenship: a Confucian vision beyond moral universalism and relativism
• 4 Avadim hayinu: an intersectional Jewish perspective on the Global Ethic of solidarity
• 5 Are there principles in the Hindu tradition consonant with “freedom, dignity, and equality”?
• 6 Globalization, global ethics, and the common good: economic justice and Protestant prophetic proclamation
• 7 Sunni Islam and the estranged ideal: the displaced, the racially disenfranchised, and the Islamic prophetic
• 8 Decolonizing religion(s)—a new, Catholic direction for the Global Ethic
• 9 Tapping the moral wisdom of Africa’s Triple Plus heritage of religion and culture
• 10 Reflections on the relationship between human rights and global ethics
• Postscript: the Global Ethic’s Directive to care for the Earth
• Appendix Towards a Global Ethic (An Initial Declaration)
• Index