Buddhist Peacework: Creating Cultures of Peace

The book is organized around Buddhist peacework as lived practice rather than abstract theory. Its first section, “Building Inclusive Communities,” presents concrete social initiatives: anti-caste Buddhist renewal in India, Sulak Sivaraksa’s culture of peace, Shih Cheng-yen’s humanitarian work, Buddhist women as peacemakers, the recovery of Buddhism in Mongolia, and Sarvodaya’s village-based peacebuilding in Sri Lanka. The second section, “Rebuilding Moral Cultures,” develops the ethical and organizational foundations of peacework through ecological responsibility, vows, Korean Chontae activities, Shambhala’s model of enlightened society, pilgrimage, and the SGI peace movement. The final section, “Inner Peace, Outer Kindness,” returns to the interior disciplines that sustain social action: loving-kindness, nonviolence, compassion, mindfulness, reconciliation, and dialogue. Essays by figures such as Maha Ghosananda, Thich Nhat Hanh, Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Shih Sheng-yen, José Ignacio Cabezón, and the Fourteenth Dalai Lama show that Buddhist peace begins with the transformation of mind but must extend outward into relationships, communities, institutions, and global culture.