Publisher's Synopsis
A contemporary world issues from a Buddhist perspective is providing a fascinating response of the Western scholars to the questions about the life span of nations. The world is experiencing numerous global challenges, including climate change, resource depletion, financial crises, insufficient education, widespread poverty, food insecurity; and most importantly, the war on terror. Faced with the ever-present threat and the reality of war, there is a growing consensus that we do not have the vision needed for providing a solution. How will all these complex, mutually dependent changes affect us as we struggles ourselves with the rising pressures? What is the role of Buddhism in the world today? How can Buddhists accomplish all of this? The interaction between a contemporary word issues and the rising role of Buddhism is one main feature of the book. Peter Harvey, Maso Abe, Trinh Xuan Thuan, Matthieu Ricard, Rita M. Cross and Amartya Sen have filled a major lacuna by providing a powerful, brilliant and well informed analysis of the contributing role of Buddhism. They present an alternative approach to mainstream theories and come to argue that Buddhism values world peace both intrinsically and instrumentally. It identifies the human nature and the structural cause of violence. It has the cultural power to motivate and to hold people morally responsible for achieving peaceful ideals: common basis of values, virtues, rights and responsibilities, culture of non-violence, solidarity and tolerance. Their scholarship are great, their eloquence powerful and their argument convincing. This innovative and thoughtful volume is helpful to formulate policy implication on these issues. This book is an essential reference for policy makers, scholars, students and anyone else who believes the reform in the light of Buddhism is useful to the proper functioning of state governments, civil societies, businesses, religions, families and individuals. By accompanying with the Buddhists, people around the world may feel powerful enough to deal with the contemporary world issues.
