Buddhist socialism refers to a set of philosophies and political ideologies which synthesize the socioeconomic views and egalitarian values of socialism with the teachings and principles of Buddhism. A common feature of Buddhist socialism is that it sees the Buddhist goal of the inner transformation of the mind and the socialist goal of the transformation of socioeconomic relations as being deeply interdependent.
Both Buddhism and socialism seek to provide an end to suffering by analyzing its conditions (craving and the capitalist mode of production respectively) and removing its main causes through praxis (respectively, spiritual and political). Both also seek to provide a transformation of personal consciousness to bring an end to human alienation and selfishness. Buddhism approaches this mainly from the perspective of internal self-cultivation practices, while socialism tends to focus on external conditions and relations.Shields, James Mark; Liberation as Revolutionary Praxis: Rethinking Buddhist Materialism; Journal of Buddhist Ethics. Volume 20, 2013. The various forms of Buddhist socialism generally seek to synthesize both traditions of liberation, which are seen as complementary.
As there are numerous strains of socialism and Buddhism, so are there numerous forms of Buddhist socialism, with different perspectives on political praxis, metaphysics and views on how spiritual liberation is connected with sociopolitical liberation. Buddhist socialism emerged in the 19th and 20th centuries in various Asian nations as a response to colonialism, imperialism and the rise of global capitalism by Asian buddhists and socialists.Buddhadhasa Bhikkhu; Swearer, Donald K. (translator). Dhammic Socialism, pp. 19-20. 2nd Edition (1993). Sabbe Nalam Abhinivesaya, Suksit Siam, Bangkok.
People who have been described as Buddhist socialists include Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, B. R. Ambedkar,Bhārtī, K. (19 August 2017). Marx in Ambedkar's thinking . Forward Press. Han Yong-un,Tikhonov, Vladimir, Han Yongun's Buddhist Socialism in the 1920s–1930s , International Journal of Buddhist Thought and Culture 6, 207–228 (2006). Girō Senoo,Shields, James Mark; Blueprint for Buddhist Revolution The Radical Buddhism of Seno'o Girō (1889–1961) and the Youth League for Revitalizing Buddhism, Japanese Journal of religious Studies 39 (2), 331–351 (2012) PDF Uchiyama Gudō,Rambelli, Fabio (2013). Zen Anarchism: The Egalitarian Dharma of Uchiyama Gudō. Institute of Buddhist Studies and BDK America, Inc. Inoue Shūten, Norodom Sihanouk, Takagi KenmyoTakagi, Kenmyo (1904), My Socialism . and Peljidiin Genden.Baabar, B., History of Mongolia, 1999, , . p. 322
Proto-socialist elements in pre-modern Buddhism Buddhist socialists point to various primitive socialist elements found in Buddhist scriptures as well as in the welfare policies of ancient Buddhist institutions and rulers. These elements include a concern for social equality and communal harmony, a concern for social welfare, and a critique of casteism and social elitism. It also includes the practice of communal ownership and decision making within the Buddhist monastic community, which was considered the exemplary and superior way of life in Buddhist thought. These elements are considered by Buddhist socialists to anticipate the egalitarian concerns of modern socialism. Thus, authors like Samdhong Rinpoche write: "every socialistic and democratic principle in the realm of politics and socio-economic matter finds its origin in the Buddhist sutras."Samdhong Rinpoche, "The Social and Political Strata In Buddhist Thought", July 4, 2014
Nevertheless these elements remain proto-socialist since they did not engage in any economic analysis or provide a theory of revolutionary change or economic transformation. Pre-modern Buddhists thus generally accepted the existing economic and political institutions of their time, while also promoting policies and virtues that lead to better social and economic conditions for all people and animals.
The monastic saṅgha as a model
The most ancient protosocialist element in Buddhism is found in the structure of the monastic community established by the Buddha, the sangha of monks and nuns. This community initially solely relied on donations from laypersons and was thus a kind of gift economy. In exchange for basic necessities, the sangha acted as the steward of the spiritual teachings of the Buddha. According to Buddhist socialists like Buddhadhasa, the ancient monastic community functioned as a society that "consumes and uses only what is necessary and does not store things, so no surpluses fall to anybody".Preecha Changkhwanyuen, "Dhammic Socialism: Political Thought of Buddhadasa Bhikkhu." The Chulalongkorn Journal of Buddhist Studies, Vol. 2 No. 1, 2003. Buddhadasa writes:Thus we have an ideal socialist community without even knowing it. We could say it has existed in the administrative system of the Sangha from the time of the Buddha down to the present, or that it already exists in the system of Buddhist teaching. If we look at the way the Buddha conducted himself toward worldly beings, we will see that it was the ideal of socialism. (Dhammic Socialism p. 96)Buddhist socialists see this ancient community, founded on loving-kindness towards all beings and on a spiritual selflessness, as being a socialist community. Thus, Christopher S. Queen notes that "the Buddhist order may be considered a primitive form of economic socialism". The ancient sangha's way of life, being based on communal living and joint decision making, is strikingly similar to modern utopian socialist experiments. This point has been made by modern Marxist scholars like Debiprasad Chattopadhyay (1918-1993), who argued that the saṅgha acted as "a refuge from emergent caste, class and lineage inequities - not unlike modern day communes imagined by utopian socialists".Banerjee, Prathama. (2022). Religious Criticism and Public Ethic: Ambedkar and his Contemporaries. CSDS Delhi. 29, Rajpur Road, Delhi - 110054.
The ancient sangha also made decisions based on consensus decision making, where all members had a vote regardless of social class. They were modeled on ancient Indian tribal councils (ganasangha). According to the Vinayas, any official act of the sangha, a saṅghakamma, cannot be dictated by a single leader or small bureaucratic elite, rather all sangha acts require local unanimous consensus of all members in the sangha's boundary (sīmā). Election mechanisms included the use of wooden tickets or ballots (salākā) and voting officers (salākā-gāhāpaka). In situations which threatened to tear the community apart, various methods of settling disputes (adhikaraṇa-samatha) would be employed, such as yebhuyyasikā (the rule of the majority).
The socialistic character of the early Buddhist sangha was governed by the monastic rule (vinaya) which applied equally to all, regardless of former social status or wealth. All monastics thus had to renounce all their property and status. In the core texts of the ancient buddhist monastic codes, like the Pātimokkhas and the Khandhakas (the monastic chapters), monastics (bhikkhus and bhikkhunis) are permitted only the simplest personal requisites (mainly their robe and bowl, along with a few other minor items like a needle for repairing the robe) and are not allowed to store food or grow their own food.B. R. Ambedkar, Buddha or Karl Marx (1956) Any larger donations given to the sangha belong to the community as a whole. Breaching these rules are considered to fall under the Nissaggiya Pācittiya offenses, all of which involve "an item that a bhikkhu has acquired or used wrongly, and that he must forfeit before he may “make the offense known”—confess it".
Thus the very process and requirements for monastic ordination acted as a social leveling mechanism, since individuals from all castes could join the sangha, where they cannot hoard wealth and will be treated as equals. This rejection of hereditary social hierarchy in favor of communal equality constitutes a key element of early Buddhist monasticism.
Critique of private property and caste Buddhist socialists have relied on several Buddhist scriptures for their political theories. The Aggañña Sutta (DN 27) and its Chinese parallels is one of the key Buddhist scriptures which contain the beginnings of a Buddhist sociopolitical theory that socialists have drawn on.Walton, Matthew. (2019). The Aggañña Sutta and the Theravāda Buddhist Tradition. 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190253752.013.1. This sutta contains a cosmogonical tale that functions as social satire and as a critique of hierarchical caste-based Brahmanical society.Collins, S. "The discourse on what is primary (Aggañña-Sutta)." J Indian Philos 21, 301–393 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01089255 In this scripture, the Buddha recounts how human beings lived in a harmonious natural state where people had no private property, eating only what grew from the earth. Over time, people became increasingly greedy, and began to hoard foodstuffs, leading to the decline of natural food supplies. This eventually led to the growth of social classes and agriculture as well as the establishment of borders around farms and fields, and thus to private property. This then led to theft and violence, which in turn led humans to come together and elect the first king to protect property from thieves.
According to Steven Collins, this text argues for the equality of all people, and the constructed nature of social hierarchy and political structures, against the brahmanical idea that the Indian social system and its castes was divinely ordained. It also associates accumulation of private property with the defilement of greed that Buddhism seeks to eliminate. As such, the Aggañña Sutta's account of social development has been interpreted as a critique of private property and capitalism by Buddhist socialists like the Burmese independence leader Aung San.
Collins also notes the connections between the text's story of social decay and the rules of the monastic sangha in Vinaya. The rules of the Vinaya which prohibit monks from constructing houses, using money and storing food mirror how these actions are seen as developing through greed in the Aggañña Sutta. As such, the ideal Buddhist monastic community is supposed to mirror the ideal society outlined in the text, before the moral decline and rise of hierarchical society. Collins also notes the satirical elements of this scripture, comparing to Western utopian literature.
Promotion of public welfare