Page 164 - Applied Buddhism

One of the greatest contributions of lay Buddhism in present three major schools would be converging. There are several factors
time is the promotion of inter-sectarian understanding and harmony
amongst the various schools of Buddhism. There are many sects
and groups in the Buddhist world today. Having many different
Buddhist groups or centers can be positive as it means more people
are interested in Buddhism. In many cases, devotees tend to support
their own temples or centers, and seldom interact with each other.
On the negative side, there is little interaction among members of
the various groups; hence instead of different Buddhist activities
being well coordinated, duplication arises instead. There are also
instances where devotees of one temple disparaged those of other
temples. The situation becomes worse when certain groups deify
their masters as a “Living Buddha”, sometimes even denigrating
Sakyamuni Buddha himself.
Most of the Buddhist groups belonging to the various schools
of Buddhism are led by monastics. Ven. Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda
once said that “The term ‘Theravāda, Mahāyāna, Vajrayāna’ are
applicable only to monastics, because of certain customs, traditions
and practices specific to the school they follow. However, lay
Buddhists should not classify themselves as ‘Theravāda, Mahāyāna
or Vajrayāna’.” This means that lay Buddhists who follow a
particular school of thought should not have a bias or narrow view
of other schools but learn to respect the uniqueness of each school
or tradition. A good example is the Kuching Buddhist Society, a
lay Buddhist organisation that has successfully encouraged all
three major schools of Buddhism to be practiced within the society
harmoniously.
In the West, many lay Buddhist organisations have monks as
their resident teachers, but the feeling of self-centeredness is not
strong. Many people have predicted that it is in the West that the
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for this, and the role played by lay Buddhists is one of them.
ii. Nurturing equality
The world today emphasises on equality. Lay Buddhism can
play an effective role in promoting equality amongst the sexes. In
Taiwan, the dissatisfaction amongst females on the Eight Rules
(Gurudhammas) had caused an upheaval. In Theravāda countries,
women still faced difficulties in getting ordained. Although there
are monks sympathetic toward female ordination, nonetheless
conservative forces are strong and a breakthrough seems unlikely
in the near future. Lay Buddhism, which practices gender equality
will be able to showcase this practice to the conservatives and
gradually change their attitude. It is only when Buddhists practice
gender equality can it hope to gain further ground in the West.
In Buddhist circles, there is a common belief that monastics are
superior to lay people. For instance, however mediocre a monastic,
his words must be taken as the truth, or as commandments to be
obeyed, and lay people are not supposed to question them. On the
other hand, lay people, no matter how knowledgeable or advanced
in their Dharma practice, are not allowed to teach the Dharma. This
belief had resulted in self-conceit amongst some monastics causing
lay Buddhists to lose confidence in them. However, the scenario had
changed recently with the rise of an active lay Buddhist movement
in the country.
iii.Offering alternatives
This is an era of economic globalisation. The essence of
economic globalisation is to exploit human greed to the fullest extent.
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