Page 106 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

There is the strictly social aspect, the political aspect, and the

economic aspect, and Buddhism has teachings which cover all
three.

If we look at the social side, we find that Buddhism has various
social teachings, especially iri the context of ancient Indian life.

We find that the Buddha was not at all in favour of the dominant
feature of social life in India at his time, that is to say, the caste

system, which is still very much a feature of social life in India
today. According to that system your position or rank in society
was dependent on your birth. If you were the son of a brahmin

you were a brahmin, if you were the son of a trader you were a
trader, and you could not get away from that. This system is

very, very strong and all-pervasive in India, even now, especially
in the villages, and it has a very stultifying effect upon human
initiative generally. For this reason the Buddha said very clearly

and emphatically that the criterion of a man's position in society
should be not birth, but worth. This is just one example of his

social teaching.

In the same way we find that, politically speaking, Buddhism

upholds — or rather upheld in ancient times — the ideal of what
it calls the Dharmaraja, a number of sutras being devoted to this

topic. Dharma means truth, righteousness, reality. Raja means
king, or even government. Thus the ideal of the Dharmaraja
represents the ideal of government by righteousness: the ideal

that even in political affairs ethical and spiritual consideration
and values must be paramount. It represents the idea that

politics should not be just a cockpit of rival interests and
factions, not just a question of manipulation and string-pulling,
but that one should try and see what ethical and spiritual

principles are

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