and the environmentalist Cho ̆ngt’o Society in South
Korea; international peace organizations, such as the
Japan-based, Nichiren-inspired RisshoKosekai, Soka
Gakkai International (SGI), and Nipponzan Myohoji,
known for peace walks and “peace pagodas”; and the
Buddhist Compassionate Relief Tz’u-chi Association
of Taiwan, with its hospitals, rescue teams, and bone-
marrow donation program. The West also has its share
of engaged Buddhists organizations, including the
Buddhist Peace Fellowship and the Zen Peacemaker
Community, based in the United States; the An ̇guli-
mala Prison Ministry in Britain; the Free Tibet move-
ment, based in New York and Washington, D.C.; and
numerous other peace, justice, and service groups in
North America, Europe, Australia, and South Africa.
Practitioners and scholars of engaged Buddhism do
not agree on its origins. Some argue that social service
has appeared in the Buddhist record since the time of
the Buddha and King AS ́OKA, before the common era,
and increasingly since the rise of the BODHISATTVA
ethic of MAHAYANABuddhism in the centuries that
followed. Scattered examples of SAN ̇GHA-based public
service and of tension between san ̇gha and state have
been attested by historians of Asian Buddhism. Oth-
ers hold that Buddhist activism—particularly collec-
tive protest of state corruption, economic injustice,
and human rights violations—is unprecedented in
Buddhism prior to the twentieth century, and reflects
the globalization and hybridization of Asian, Euro-
pean, and American values.
Engaged Buddhism offers new perspectives on tra-
ditional teachings. Among these is the belief that hu-
man beings can overcome DUHKHA(SUFFERING). The
FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS, an ancient formulation, defines
suffering as the psychological discomfort associated
with craving for objects or experiences that are im-
permanent and insubstantial. The cessation of per-
sonal suffering is sought by adopting prescribed views,
aspirations, actions, speech, vocations, effort, mind-
fulness, and concentration. The tradition also attrib-
utes a person’s life circumstances to patterns of
motivation and behavior in previous lives, through the
universal laws of KARMA(ACTION) and REBIRTH.
Most engaged Buddhists accept these ideas, but
stress causes of suffering they believe to be external to
the sufferer and collective in nature. The Dalit Bud-
dhists of India believe that caste-group suffering is
caused by entrenched social interests that restrict their
social mobility, economic opportunity, and political
influence. The Buddhists of Southeast Asia, Tibet, and
Sri Lanka know that invading armies and local insur-
gents cause collective suffering—loss of life, livelihood,
and homeland. Those afflicted by epidemics and nat-
ural disasters recognize the social and natural condi-
tions that cause their sufferings. Thus, for engaged
Buddhism, there are true victims who suffer the effects
of others’ hatred, greed, and delusion, and of imper-
sonal forces beyond their control.
In response to such external causes of suffering, en-
gaged Buddhists typically adopt practices of social ser-
vice and nonviolent struggle as “skillful means” on the
path to liberation. Ambedkar called this Navayana
(New Vehicle) Buddhism, alluding to the traditional
yanas(vehicles) of Buddhist historiography.See also:Ethics; Karuna(Compassion); Modernity and
BuddhismBibliography
Chappell, David W., ed. Buddhist Peacework: Creating Cultures
of Peace.Somerville, MA: Wisdom, 1999.
Kraft, Kenneth, ed. Inner Peace, World Peace: Essays on Bud-
dhism and Nonviolence.Albany: State University of New
York Press, 1992.
Queen, Christopher S., ed. Engaged Buddhism in the West.
Somerville, MA: Wisdom, 2000.
Queen, Christopher S., and King, Sallie B., eds. Engaged Bud-
dhism: Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia.Albany: State
University of New York Press, 1996.
Queen, Christopher; Prebish, Charles; and Keown, Damien; eds.
Action Dharma: New Studies in Engaged Buddhism.London:
RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
Tucker, Mary Evelyn, and Williams, Duncan Ryuken, eds. Bud-
dhism and Ecology: The Interconnection of Dharma and Deeds.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997.CHRISTOPHERS. QUEENENLIGHTENMENT. SeeBodhi (Awakening); Orig-
inal Enlightenment (Hongaku)ENNINEnnin (794–864), posthumously known as Jikaku
Daishi, was a leading monk and abbot in the early years
of the Tendai (Chinese, Tiantai) school, who, as a fa-
vorite disciple of the founder SAICHO (767–822), ledENNIN