Conflict, Culture, Change: Engaged Buddhism in a Globalizing World

Sulak Sivaraksa

Apr 2015 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this eBook

From Nobel Peace Prize nominee Sulak Sivaraksa comes this look at Buddhism's innate ability to help change life on the global scale. Conflict, Culture, Change explores the cultural and environmental impacts of consumerism, nonviolence, and compassion, giving special attention to the integration of mindfulness and social activism, the use of Buddhist ethics to confront structural violence, and globalization's threat to traditional identity.

About the author

Sulak Sivaraksa has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and received the Right Livelihood Award and the Gandhi Millennium Award. He is the founder of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists and more than a dozen other international organizations. Born in 1933, the year Thailand emerged from absolute monarchy into democracy, his life has been intimately bound up with Southeast Asia's modern history. He was a Buddhist monk for two years, and then completed his higher education in Great Britain, where he also worked as a writer and commentator for the BBC. He is the intellectual voice of his generation in Asia, best known for his indefatigable efforts to bring people together into community, common work, and a shared vision of a more enlightened world. Sulak is author of Seeds of Peace: A Buddhist Vision for Renewing Society and more than 100 other books and monographs. He lives in Thailand.

Donald K. Swearer is the Charles and Harriet Cox McDowell Emeritus Professor of Religion, Swarthmore College. From 2004 to 2010, he served as director of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. Although he has taught widely in the field of Asian and comparative religions, his research has focused on Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia, especially in Thailand. His recent monographs in that field include: The Buddhist World of Southeast Asia, Becoming the Buddha: The Ritual of Image Consecration in Thailand, The Sacred Mountains of Northern Thailand and Their Legends, and The Legend of Queen Cama: Bodhiramsi's Camadevivamsa, a Translation and Commentary. He currently lives in Claremont, California.