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The Effects of Buddhist Teachings Essay

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In this paper I will explore the effects of Buddhist teaching used by these two organizations: The Cambodian Buddhism Association for Vulnerable Children and the ACT Alliance. Using these two foundations I will focus on the work of Buddhist monks, nuns and lay people on how they use a Buddhist approach to tackle poverty and hunger in their designated areas. Buddhist monks believe they can influence development in a positive way and actually have a way responsibility to do so from a Buddhist perspective; it is the monks’ duty to instruct the lay-population in Buddhist teachings and ethics, to give moral support and become engaged in activities that reduce dukkha (suffering). In recognizing that all human beings share a common desire for …show more content…

This is called Karma. The idea that a person can be reborn based on the past action, into the present and the future. If a person is living in poverty in their present life, this can be viewed as an inappropriate behavior in their preceding lives. If you were to think of the poor people of Cambodia and Laos in this light then you are blaming them for the circumstances that exist in their lives. As a result of this, you may be less likely to try and help alleviate poverty in the lives of those people. Buddhism challenges people’s understanding of poverty by contextualizing this problem in a different light. It questions the supposition that dominates a person’s thinking about undeveloped societies.
Buddhist teaching views poverty as a bad thing because it involves dukkha, which is a fundamental concept of Buddhism. This concept of Dukkha emphasizes “suffering, frustration, dissatisfaction and ill being.” That being said, the main point of Buddhism is to eliminate Dukkha. As a philosophy and way of life, which supports the alleviation of dukkha, “Buddhism does not and cannot value poverty that is a source of dukkha.” One can argue that the Buddhist teaching values nonattachment to material things; it promotes the virtue of being content with what you have. However, this teaching does not encourage poverty. It characterized poverty as the lack of the basic necessities in life that human beings cannot do or live without. These basic necessities are

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