107

Humanistic Buddhism, compassion

and liberation from suffering
Leandro DURAZZO
Doctoral student in History
and Culture of Religions,
University of Lisbon

Eu tambm t do lado de Jesus

s que acho que ele se esqueceu
de dizer que na Terra a gente tem
de arranjar um jeitinho pra viver
Gilberto Gil - Procisso

We are told that the Buddha was fated to accomplish one of two
great destinies: he could become a king, fairly ruling a large territory with
wise and good hand, or he could become a teacher, spiritual master of
the whole world. He became a teacher. From the begining of his life as
enlightened he taught about liberation, about eradicating the ignorance,
and told all the sentient beings that they should pay attention to their
behaviours within the world. As long as all things are impermanent
because time, this tyrant, never stops to pass the beings in search of
liberation should act conforming this understanding. It would not be possible, with the vision of an unpredictible and impermanent world, to delay
to another future life the correction of one's own attitude.
Differently from Christianism, Indian Buddhism had a cyclic vision
of life and rebirth: after death all being would rebirth again in an endless
chain of repetition. The liberation would be the overcome of this return,
its transcendence.
Then, with a vision over successive rebirths, what could a buddhist do to overcome this condition? Act, said Buddha. Act correctly, with
mindfulness in all attitudes and inter-relations presented by life. Think,
said Buddha. Think about the correct conduct, the proper way to dedicate oneself to the others, to the whole beings who exist not only the

108 Leandro DURAZZO

humans but all the sentient beings, even the rocks and mountains which,
at first glance, feel nothing.
Buddha was not a king, at last, but his enlightenment and teaching still guide the behaviour of those who are not monks, those who still
live in the secular life as the Christian would name it. Even the monks,
retired from the common life, understand the importance of leading a
mindful life in society. We are told that the Buddha always remained close
to the society, to the people and the governors. Enlightened, he never
retreated to any deep cave, ignoring the problems of the world, the suffering of the beings.
What he did is what we still do nowadays, when the Buddhism
pays attention to the world in which it finds itself. Humanistic Buddhism,
engaged, compromised. Because since its begining, 2500 years ago, the
inter-relationship between all beings, events and attitudes is the heart of
the Buddhist practice. The heart of enlightenment is the understanding
that there is no isolated event, that there is no suffering without a relation
with other occurences.
Nowadays, with global communications, ecological/environmental/
social crisis, Buddhism starts to see that its action in the world has to be
more than simply contemplative. Contemplation remains but the behaviour, the correct action born from an attained contemplation, from a
seed of wisdom and compassion should give ways to the practitioner
to contribute with a wider panorama.
While it modernizes itself, Buddhism meets other cultural influences the West and even the dynamic and modernized East. These meetings
allow the Dharma to expand imply detachment from ancient cultural elements. Women, for instance, were almost totally excluded from Buddhism
at first, but now they are the most responsibles for the flourishing and
spreading of the Buddhas' message. The enormous presence of nuns revitalizes the Buddhist practice because it frees the religion from patriarchal
and conservative Indian (and Chinese, and Japanese...) characteristics.
The contemporary relativization of an institutional structure that
still exists but becomes more and more flexible because of the wider contacts and dialogues between practitioners, scholars and Dharma teachers favors the widespread practice of Buddhism anywhere, something
that the basic ecclesial communities already experienced. The conection
with an official tradition remains, with institutionalized ceremonies and
investitures, but an opportunity of a dialogue very akin to the modern
and investigative mentality of a lay West also arises.
We can assume that the lay thinkers are powerful allies of engaged
and humanistic Buddhism, because they force the Dharma to review
itself, to understand itself under new places and times. There are things

Budismo humanista, compaixo e libertao do sofrimento 109

that still, however, there are same things that remains just as the faith
to the Christians inspired by the spirituality of liberation. In Buddhism
what remains is the understanding of impermanence, of inter-relationship
between all phenomenas and the possibility of enlightenment. Possibility
of liberation, too.
A big challenge to us, Buddhists, born and grown-up within a
society, is to find the correct way to act in this same social world, this
complex plan so many times agressive and unruled. I believe that the
Christians inspired by liberation also have this common challenge as the
structures within which we all live, which are impermanent because permanence is only possible out of time, condition our lives, our positions.
Budhism, engaged or not, is a cosmovision that does not deal with
Eternity. If there is God, Final Judgment, transcendental Grace, it does
not matter to us as a matter of faith. What are we concerned about is this
world and life, the action that takes place right now in all instants. We are
concerned about the attention to the possibilities that exist now, within
time. Doctrinally, there will never be an agreement between Buddhists
and Christians about divine dimension, the Father's one although there
will never be disagreement neither. It is safe to say that the Buddhists
will not polemize about transcendence because the concrete reality of the
Verb made flesh, this historical dimension in which we are all together,
it is the core of attention.
It is why it cannot be said that Buddhism considers reality only as
an illusion, a meaningless flow of chaos and irrationality. We do say that
reality is an endless flow, but its meaningless only exists according to our
incapacity to see the relations between all things. When we ignore the
appeal to compassion for the beings and the world, Buddhism runs the
risk to exclude itself from reality and to judge it as unworthy. But this
would be a distorted and equivocal view of the Buddha's message a
wrong view that the engaged Buddhism, conscious not only of mind but
also of concrete reality, comes to set in order.
Then, how can we act together? Which will be our attitudes of
compassion and solidarity in this world of injustice, ignorance and suffering? If something still lacks in the Latin American Buddhism I believe
it is the organization and deeds that the theology of liberation already
could accomplish. I believe it is possible and desirable that we deepen
our dialogues, partnerships, projects and activities, for all beings' sake.
The action for a fairest and compassionate world is essential.
Action which the spirituality of liberation calls struggle and the Buddhism
would call right action. There are not different attitudes because the right
action plus right speech and livelihood is the core of the Buddhist
ethical path. No one who follows the Buddha's Dharma can ignore the

110 Leandro DURAZZO

urgency of acting properly and talking about injustices, structural ignorance, the greed and hate that our social system stimulates. Struggle, say
the Christians. Act, we say, and both verbs can become flesh of the same
movement because both are animated by compassion, the salvation and
liberation of all those who suffer.
Nowadays, with so many opportunism in the midst of the so-called
religious activities; with a large crisis ruining social structures and macroinstitutions; in this moment, both Buddhism and spirituality of liberation, from the base, must find ways to occupy social spaces, to stimulate
popular participation in the world and to orient their spiritual practice
their meeting with liberation. Buddhism is in the world, and from this
world we rejoice for the reunion with the Christian brothers already in
the struggle and acting for love and justice among the humans.

NOVELTY!
Roger LENAERS' book
Nebuchadnezzars Dream
The End of a Medieval Catholic Church,
at Gorgias Press, Piscataway, NJ, U.S.A. 2007,
is being translating
into Indonesian language by
FIDEI PRESS Publishing House
Jl. Tanjung Lengkong No. 25,
RT/RW 06/07, Kelurahan Bidaracina,
Jatinegara Jakarta Timur 13330.
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