Tenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

If one were to ask Buddha, “Who am I?” Buddha would have replied, “nothing” or “a bunch of changing molecules.” These simplistic responses seem to reflect the scientific string theory regarding the nature of existence, which states that life is energy strings in motion. However, being a pragmatist, Buddha was less interested in the scientific explanation of how human life formed, evolved, or arose, but he was more interested in life’s well-functioning. While scholars of the Upanishads focused on the permanency of the soul or inner mind (Atman), and its essential similarity with Absolute Reality (Brahman, Cosmic mind), Buddhists focused on the all-inclusive form of the self, i.e. person. Pali, the middle-Indic language of original Buddhism, helped transform Upanishadic (Sanskritic) idealism into realistic humanism, from seeing a person as a divine being to seeing a person as a human facing the challenging conditions of life, and seeking solely rational ways of solving human problems. The Buddhist analysis of the self as a person suffering in the context of changing times and dependency on others forced the Buddhist thinkers to provide a system of core ethics. In today’s world of diversity, every person is subjected to increased suffering as a result of violence, conflicts, oppression and exploitation stemming from biological and cultural differences. This paper examines the Buddhist view of a person as applied to solving modern conflicts related to gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity.