The Lotus Sutra-Historical Development and Contemporary Issues; Printed in the United States of America; From the 36th International Congress of Asian and North African Studies (ICANAS 2000)
The Buddhist scriptures do not refer directly to specific modern human rights, however in them we may identify a concept that forms the foundation of human rights. To borrow the terminology of modern human rights we may call this the concept of human dignity. In order however to discover this type of concept and see it begin to take form in the scriptures, we must engage in the act of interpretation. To do so it is important to understand Buddhism as “living Buddhism,” and to reinterpret the Buddhist sutras in light of our awareness of problems in modern society. This ideological task requires the practical study of various Buddhist doctrines carried out to date by religious groups, and in addition to Buddhology, which involves philological and corroborative research on Buddhism, a new Buddhist theology. In one of its rulings,6 the US Supreme Court, quoting a section from the report of the Second Vatican Council, commented that “People are looking to religion for answers to the riddles posed by human existence. In other words, religion is what we look to answer the questions of what is a human being, and what is the meaning and purpose of our lives.” It would be correct to view the purpose of the Supreme Court in quoting this extract as an expectation of answers from various religions to the question of the meaning of human existence, which lies at the root of human rights. This essay is one answer from Mahayana Buddhism.
