Mitra H\u00e4rk\u00f6nen and Johannes Cairns
\nUniversity of Helsinki<\/p>\n
Socially engaged Buddhism emerged in the 1960s with the participation of Buddhists in Asia and the West alike in the anti-war movement and war relief efforts. The movement rapidly expanded to encompass numerous social and environmental concerns and projects. Although many theoretical studies discuss doctrinal aspects concerning the relationship of Buddhism to social action, very few empirical studies have been conducted investigating how Buddhists relate to social action and which doctrinal aspects they emphasize in actual practice. Here, we address this knowledge gap by examining the stances of Finnish Buddhists on social engagement. The study respondents represent a wide set of Buddhist traditions and groups in Finland. We identify several attitudes\u2014positive, positively indifferent, reserved, and critical\u2014among the respondents. Intriguingly, even those with a positive or positively indifferent attitude frequently display high caution in taking social action, preferring to keep it as an individual affair outside of the activities of the Buddhist group. The cautionary stance is related to Buddhist teachings such as impartiality, a meditation practice-focused approach to Buddhism, and financial and personnel resource constraints of Finnish Buddhist groups. We also suggest the stance could be partly explained by social and geopolitical factors. We argue that because Buddhist teachings relate to social engagement in an ambiguous fashion, individual and social factors can outweigh their influence among Buddhists.<\/p>\n
Read article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ISSN 1076-9005 Volume 32, 2025 Engaged Buddhism in Finland\u2014Too Cautious to Take Action Mitra H\u00e4rk\u00f6nen and Johannes Cairns University of Helsinki Socially engaged Buddhism emerged in the 1960s with the participation of Buddhists in Asia and the West alike in the anti-war movement and war relief efforts. The movement rapidly expanded to encompass numerous social … Continue reading Engaged Buddhism in Finland<\/span>