Buddhist Roles in Peacemaking : How Buddhism Can Contribute to Sustainable Peace Ronald S Green, Coastal Carolina University Chanju Mun
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Coastal Carolina University From the SelectedWorks of Ronald Green 2009 Buddhist roles in peacemaking : how Buddhism can contribute to sustainable peace Ronald S Green, Coastal Carolina University Chanju Mun Available at: https://works.bepress.com/ronald-green/29/ Buddhist Roles in Peacemaking: How Buddhism Can Contribute to Sustainable Peace Edited by Chanju Mun and Ronald S. Green Blue Pine Honolulu, Hawaii Copyright © 2009 by Jung Bup Sa Buddhist Temple of Hawaii 1303 Rycroft Street Honolulu, Hawaii 96814 Blue Pine Books (213) 675-0336 Fax: (808) 593-0478 Visit us at www.bluepinebooks.com All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Control Number: 2008943155 ISBN: 0977755347 ISBN: 9780977755349 CONTENTS NOTES iii PREFACE: v YUN GOAM (1899-1988), THE FIRST SPIRITUAL LEADER OF DAE WON SA BUDDHIST TEMPLE: A BIOGRAPHY OF HIS PEACEMAKING ACTIVITIES Chanju Mun INTRODUCTION lix Chanju Mun and Ronald S. Green BUDDHISM AND PEACE: AN OVERVIEW 1 Chanju Mun UPROOTING SPROUTS OF VIOLENCE, 51 CULTIVATING SEEDS OF PEACE: BUDDHISM AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF PERSONAL CONFLICT Christiaan Zandt HOW FAITH INSPIRED THE SAVE THE BELL 85 MOVEMENT Compiled by the Shōgyōji Archives Committee PEACE IN SHIN BUDDHISM AND PROCESS 125 THEOLOGY Steve Odin REFLECTIONS ON THE ETHICAL MEANING OF 155 SHINRAN’S TRUE ENTRUSTING Victor Forte RE-IMAGINING SOCIALLY ENGAGED BUDDHISM 169 James Kenneth Powell II ii Contents BUDDHIST PROTEST IN MYANMAR: BASIC 177 QUESTIONS Ronald S. Green VIRTUE AND VIOLENCE IN THERAVĀDA AND SRI 199 LANKAN BUDDHISM Eric Sean Nelson A DIALECTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CONCEPTION 235 OF “SELF INTEREST MAXIMIZATION” AND ECONOMIC FREEDOM Mathew Varghese PEACE THROUGH MORAL LIFE: AN ANALYSIS 247 BASED ON EARLY BUDDHIST DISCOURSES Y. Karunadasa A BUDDHIST ORIENTED RELATIONAL VIEW OF 271 TRANSFORMATION IN MEDIATION Ran Kuttner PARADIGMS OF BUDDHIST ETHICS: JUDGMENT 293 AND CHARACTER IN THE MODERN WORLD David Putney THE TEACHINGS OF THE BUDDHA AND JESUS AS 313 RESOURCES FOR A DOCTRINE OF PEACE J. Bruce Long APPENDIX: CHRISTIANITY AND WAR 339 Kenneth A. Locke INDEX 359 EDITORS 367 NOTES 1. The Pinyin system is used for Chinese terms, the Korean Government Romanization System revised in 2000 for Korean ones, and the Hepburn system for Japanese ones. 2. Diacritics are used on most of Sanskrit and Pāli terms. 3. Foreign terms, those not included in the Webster English Dictionary, appear in italics. 4. If authors have Romanized their names in ways contrary to East Asian Standard Romanization Systems, I have adapted their spellings. 5. If names have not previously been Romanized, I have done so using East Asian Standard Romanization Systems. 6. Standard PTS abbreviations are used for Pāli texts. 7. This book is edited based on the 15th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003). PREFACE Yun Goam (1899-1988), the First Spiritual Leader of Dae Won Sa Buddhist Temple: A Biography of His Peacemaking Activities Chanju Mun Yun Goam is the master of Daewon Ki, also known as Gi Daewon, who initiated the International Seminars on Buddhism and Leadership for Peace, biannually held seven times from 1983 to 1995. He religiously ordained, nurtured and educated his disciple Daewon Ki. Daewon Ki came to and established Dae Won Sa Buddhist Temple in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1975. He eventually made the temple the largest Korean Buddhist temple in North America. I wrote about him and his peace activities in detail in a paper entitled “Venerable Daewon Ki and Peacemaking” in my edited Mediators and Meditators: Buddhism and Peacemaking (Honolulu: Blue Pine, 2007), pp. v-xxv. Daewon Ki concentrated his peace activities in two areas. First, he focused on making peace in the world by holding seven international seminars and disseminating Buddhist teachings on peace and justice. Second, as a Korean Buddhist monk, he dedicated his peace activities to bringing peace between North and South Korea. He visited North Korea eight times between July 1988 and December 1996. Between these visits, he hosted numerous meetings with many of the high-ranking administrators vi Chanju Mun and politicians of the North Korean government and had thirteen official meetings with the Federation of North Korean Buddhists. In 1978, Yun Goam visited the Dae Won Sa Buddhist Temple and earnestly encouraged his disciple Daewon Ki, founder of the temple, to propagate Buddhism in the West. In 1980, Yun Goam visited and became a resident monk at the Dae Won Sa Buddhist Temple in Honolulu and spiritually and religiously guided his disciple Daewon Ki. In 1982, Daewon Ki along with his followers instated his master Yun Goam as the temple’s spiritual leader. Yun Goam served as the spiritual leader for Dae Won Sa Buddhist Temple from 1982 until he passes away in 1988. In 2005, Daewon Ki assigned to me the task of revitalizing the discussions on Buddhism and peace. Accordingly, I edited and published four serial books on Buddhism and peace since then and along with my close colleague Ronald S. Green, am editing and publishing this current and fifth serial volume on the subject. I selected papers from the fifth seminar, held in Seoul, South Korea during November 18-21, 1991 on the theme of “Exploration of Ways to Put Buddhist Thought into Social Practice for Peace and Justice” and published them in my co-edited Buddhist Exploration of Peace and Justice (Honolulu: Blue Pine, 2006). The seminar was held under the joint sponsorship of Dae Won Sa Buddhist Temple and the Korean Buddhist Research Institute of Dongguk University. More than 60 participants came from Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand, Vietnam, and the United States. I selected articles from the seventh seminar, held in Honolulu during June 3-8, 1995 on the theme of “Buddhism and Peace: Theory and Practice” and edited and published them in my edited Buddhism and Peace: Theory and Practice (Honolulu: Blue Pine, 2006). The seminar was held under the joint auspices of the Dae Won Sa Buddhist Temple and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Hawaii – Manoa. More than 40 scholars and religious leaders from Asia, Europe and the United States participated in the seminar. I chose articles from the first and second seminars held in Honolulu during October 22-28, 1983 and in Tokyo Japan during Preface vii December 2-7, 1985 and published them in my edited The World is One Flower: Buddhist Leadership for Peace (Honolulu: Blue Pine, 2006). The first seminar proceeded under the auspices of the Dae Won Sa Buddhist Temple and the Department of Political Science, University of Hawaii – Manoa on the theme of “Buddhism and Leadership for Peace.” The theme of “Buddhism in the Context of Various Countries” was examined in the second seminar under the joint sponsorship of the Dae Won Sa Buddhist Temple and the Peace Research Institute of Sōka University. Participants came from China, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Soviet Union, Thailand, and the United States in the first seminar. Individuals from these six nations well as from Bali, India and Mongolia participated in the second seminar. I selected papers from the third seminar, held in Honolulu during May 23-28, 1987 on the theme of “Peacemaking in Buddhist Contexts” and edited and included them in my edited Mediators and Meditators: Buddhism and Peacemaking (Honolulu: Blue Pine, 2007). The seminar was cosponsored by the Dae Won Sa Buddhist Temple and the Peace Institute of the University of Hawaii – Manoa. Participants included those from China, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, the Soviet Union, Thailand, and the United States. I also selected excellent papers among the numerous submitted to the editorial board of Blue Pine Books in 2006-7, editing and publishing them. I was fortunate to have received so many excellent papers in 2007-8 and along with co-editor Ronald S. Green chose among them to fit the current volume, the fifth serial book on Buddhism and peace by Blue Pine Books. Because of their lasting importance, I also included in this volume two articles presented at the sixth seminar held in Honolulu November 24-28, 1993 on the theme of “A Buddhist Worldview and Concept of Peace,” those by Y. Karunadasa and David Putney. The seminar was held under the joint auspices of the Dae Won Sa Buddhist Temple and the Department of Philosophy, University of Hawaii – Manoa. Participants included individuals from Korea, Sri Lanka, and the United States. viii Chanju Mun Because of the tremendous debt owed to his master Yun Goam by Daewon Ki and his peacemaking activities, the following biography is important. Even though both masters dedicated themselves to peace building, there are some basic differences in approach. For example, while Yun Goam tried to create peace at the individual and spiritual levels, his disciple Daewon Ki dedicated himself to making peace at the social and international levels. While Yun Goam prioritized individual and spiritual peace to social and structural peace, Daewon Ki prioritized social and structural peace to individual and spiritual peace. Both shared Korean Buddhism’s ecumenical view, that is, they inherited the tradition of promoting unity among religious groups.1 They did not exclude other Buddhist doctrines and practices and did not place any specific philosophy or practice over others. They harmonized various Buddhist practices such as the meditation of Seon (Chn., Chan: Jpn., Zen), the chanting of Tantric spells, the recitations of the names of Buddhas and bodhisattvas, the recollection of Buddhist images, and other forms of practice, and did not arrange them hierarchically. They did not treat doctrines and practices as opposing each other, but as mutually complementing each other. Peacemaking Activities: A Biographical Explanation Yun Goam was born on October 5, 1899 at 425 Sikhyeon Village, Jeokseong Town, Paju County, Gyeonggi Province.