cover image Buddhist Peacework: Creating Cultures of Peace

Buddhist Peacework: Creating Cultures of Peace

. Wisdom Publications (MA), $14.95 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-86171-167-3

Eighteen Buddhist leaders respond here to the recent United Nations document Declaration on the Role of Religion in the Promotion of a Culture of Peace. Peace, according to the collection's editor, is more than merely the inner tranquillity sometimes ascribed to Buddhism; it requires the recognition that all beings suffer, and that ""we are not separate from others."" The book's contributors include monks and laypersons from the Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist traditions, speaking not just theoretically about peace, but from their personal experiences of life in war-ravaged or unjust societies. Vietnamese exile Thich Nhat Hahn writes of his efforts to rescue the ""boat people"" who fled his home country in the 1970s, while Dhammachari Lokamitra recounts the resurgence of Buddhism in India, its country of origin, where thousands of ""Untouchables"" seek a religion that will uproot the hierarchical foundations of the caste system. The various essays offer examples of Buddhist initiatives for peace all over the world, from Myanmar to Los Alamos; such ""engaged Buddhists"" agitate on issues such as the environment, nuclear arms, interreligious dialogue, homelessness, hunger and women's rights. The contributors' perspectives on peace are illuminating, but the most intriguing stories deal with the justice-oriented offshoots of the Buddhist tradition, such as the revival of Chontae Buddhism in Korea. (May)