The International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB) held its 20th
Anniversary Conference near Chiang Mai, Thailand, in mid November
2009. Over 300 delegates attended the conference representing most
South, South East and East Asian countries, as well as Australia,
South Africa, the United States, Holland, Belgium and the United Kingdom.
INEB came into being in 1989 on a river boat in the central Thai town
of Uthai Thani when Thai social activist and writer Ajan Sulak Sivaraksa
gathered a small circle of like-minded friends, Buddhist practitioners
and activists from Asia and the West. Ajan Sulak proposed a vision
that a network of individuals and organizations could be formed that
took human relationship as the fulcrum for personal, as well as societal,
transformation. Thus a network of socially engaged Buddhists was born.
It was a time when the Dalai Lama was about to enter the world stage
by winning the Nobel Peace Prize. A few years later, Aung San Suu Kyi,
with her Buddhist background and practice would also be awarded the
Nobel Prize. Still, at that time, socially engaged Buddhism was very
little known or understood.
While the roots of socially engaged Buddhism may be found in the teachings
and actions of the Buddha himself and other great teachers of the past,
socially engaged Buddhism can be understood principally as a movement
that began in the late 19th century as a response to western colonialism
in Asia. It may be most well known through its political movements,
such as the struggles by the Tibetan, Burmese, and Vietnamese Buddhists
for political self-determination, 
democracy, and peace. At the same
time, socially engaged Buddhism has flowered over the last thirty years
to encompass a vast range of issues, including the environment, gender,
development, death and dying, alternative education, among others.
Taking their patrons of the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh as examples,
INEB believes that it is not sufficient to simply state that one is
an engaged Buddhist because one is involved with society and happens
to be a Buddhist as well. Rather, engaged Buddhists critically and
creatively use the Buddha Dharma to transform themselves and the active
role in their societies. The conference in Chang Mai was testament
to the efforts of INEB to develop creative responses to today’s
challenges, including engaging with those of all faith and non-believers
in the spirit of cooperation, compassion, and non-harming.
Attendees at the conference reflected, critiqued, and celebrated the
work of the last two decades, while also further developing and planning
a vision for the next decades – one that emphasizes the transformation
of not just the individual, but their relationships, communities, and
organizations. The strongest quality of the conference is that it is
not an academic discussion. Rather, it is a platform for dialogue among
Buddhist scholars, ordained monks and nuns, social activists, thinkers,
community leaders and grassroots leaders.
“
This interplay of spiritual practice, social action, and developing
human relationships is the key to INEB’s work, and to the conference,” said
Jonathan Watts, an INEB Executive Council member who works at the International
Buddhist Exchange Center in Yokohama.
The conference’s week and half of activities included a three-day
meditation retreat, talks and panels, national and issue based strategy
sessions, cultural evenings at Suan Dok Temple, an international alms
round collecting money and medicine for Burmese refugees, a day-long
festival of engaged Buddhism, and an evening peace walk through the
canal-lined and market streets of Chiang Mai. Action plans were made
for the coming years on key INEB issues including:
• Advancing
peace and reconciliation
• Supporting human rights and social justice activist
• Combating climate change and environmental degradation
• Developing alternative economic models
• Promoting youth and spiritual leadership development
• Supporting gender justice, including the full ordination of Buddhist
women and the dismantling of patriarchal structures and culture.
• Encouraging inter-religious and ecumenical work
• Reforming and revitalizing Buddhist institutions
• Engaging in social justice work in nations and regions of critical
concern such as Burma, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Korea, and so forth.
Hozan
Alan Senauke, a long-time INEB member and organizer, summarized the
collective and personal aims of INEB at the concluding peace
march in Chang Mai, “These concerns, wherever they arise
in the world, are our concerns. They are close to our hearts.
In the Buddha's way
and in the way of every great religion, we know that we must
meet this suffering not with faith alone, but with all our efforts
and
action
day by day.”
Monks and nuns at the INEB conference from the Buddhist traditions of Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka, Laos, Vietnam, Tibet, Bhutan, and Cambodia walk on their morning alms round among villages outside Chang Mai.
Bhikkhuni Dhammanada, the first fully ordained nun in Thailand and INEB Advisory Council member, speaks about gender equality among monastic institutions.
Ms. Douangdeuane Bounyavong of Buddhists for Development in Laos, leads a workshop with monks, nuns, and lay persons from neighboring countries.
Conference attendees stayed at the International Meditation Center of Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University and had the opportunity for group meditations in the morning and evening.
Before each morning panel discussion, prayers and sutras were chanted in the various languages of the attendees.
Harsha Kumara Navaratne, Chairman of INEB’s Executive Council and Founder of the Sewalanka Foundation in Sri Lanka, welcomes the attendees at the conference.
Translation in eight languages was offered for the 300 delegates who arrived from South, South East and East Asian countries.
INEB was formed in 1989 under the leadership of Thai social activist and writer Sulak Sivaraksa, and a small circle of like-minded friends, Buddhist practitioners and activists in Asia and the West.
Revered Yukan Ogawa (foreground) and Revered Eka Shimada (background), Jodo Pure Land priests who are both involved in suicide prevention work in Japan, lead prayers before a morning session.
Nuns and monks from Bhutan and Ladakh involved in strengthening education for Tibetan Buddhist nuns sit next to an American Tibetan Buddhist monk who is active in advancing health care among the poor in Cambodia.
Monks from the Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana traditions worked and prayed together at the conference.
Conference attendees stayed at the International Meditation Center of Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University and had the opportunity for group mediations in the morning and evening.
Professor Hisashi Nakamura of Ryukoku University in Kyoto is presented with a lifetime achievement award for his work on alternative economics in South and Southeast Asia.
Sulak Sivaraksa, the prominent and outspoken Thai intellectual and social critic and author of more than a hundred books and monographs, gives the keynote address on the first morning.
NEKORPA—Preserving Sacred Pilgrimage Sites and Traditions
Matthew Pistono, Director
Washington DC 202.352.4607
Kathmandu 977.1.424091
www.nekorpa.org
