Sarvodaya Shramdaya Movement; Path to Nibbana; Engaged Buddhism; Ariyaratne, A. T.; 阿里耶拉涅; 莎弗陀耶分享布施運動; 指示涅槃; 入世佛教
摘要
The teachings of the Buddha transcends time and space. Any diligent human being who wants to practice what He taught can do so in his or her everyday life. A group of persons who want to try out his teachings in contemporary society pertaining to family，group or community well being too can do so and come to their own conclusions about their usefulness or ineffectiveness. Buddha gave that freedom to us. His teachings elevated us, the human beings, to a supreme level where the shaping of our destiny is not determined by the intervention of any other outside divine power but we have to work it out ourselves. He admonished his disciples to work for their own liberation. He was only a Teacher who discovered and showed the Path to Nibbana-the lasting and unconditioned happiness all Buddhists aspire for.
The Buddha's teaching，the Dhamma, is the seed. It can germinate and grow to fruition in a human mind，in a human personality，resulting in total liberation of such human being from the sufferings in the cycle of births and deaths -- samsara. Some individuals thought out and worked at societal level to develop certain cultural，social，economic and political infrastructures, which would be conducive to germinate this seed not only in individual minds but also in the collective consciousness of the community. In Buddhist tradition and history there are many such successful attempts which were made and which are on record. The Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement of Sri Lanka is an example from contemporary society of such an attempt.
In this paper I am trying to make an attempt to trace the core teachings of the Buddha as applicable to the spiritual awakening of the practitioner living in society and simultaneously creating an enabling and a conducive environment to acquire self realization he or she is seeking. Some scholars have called this engaged Buddhism. In contemporary society I have taken the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement of Sri Lanka with which I am closely associated as an illustration. The application of the social dimensions of the Buddha's teachings in all aspects of social organization，including political and economic life and the vistas open to extend this endeavour to address all problems humanity is faced with, are briefly dealt with in this paper.
