(Ed. Note: A group of concerned individuals (clergy and householders) met in consultation on the theme Buddhism, Human Rights and Social Renewal. Sponsored by the Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong and took place at the Ecumenical Institute for Study and Dialogue, Colombo Sri Lanka the consultation was held from 4 to 6 June,1999. After three days of deliberation and exchange of experiences and views, the group arrived at the following consensus on how Buddhist values and principles could provide an inspiration for those striving to safeguard and promote human dignity and thereby contribute to the building up of an egalitarian and dharmika society.)

The Buddha's Vision of a Social Humanity and a Humane Society

The Buddha gave his Message of Liberation "for the wellbeing and happiness of the many-folk (bahujana), out of compassion for the world". The Goal of the Noble Eightfold Path is the eradication of human suffering in all its dimensions. It fully recognizes that every human being, irrespective of gender, ethnicity, caste or class has an unalienable right to the fullness of life, liberty and happiness. After six years of investigation, experimentation and struggle, the Buddha broke through to a liberating understanding about the nature and the cause of human suffering: Suffering in the world is not the result of chance, determined by fate or the will of a Divine: it is the result of conditions produced by human beings themselves; human beings can therefore identify these conditions and eradicate them.

The Buddha founded a Fourfold Sangha (Male and Female Renouncers and Householders) to exemplify and propagate the values and the principles of his Dharma. He referred to the people to whom offered his Dharma as the bahujana. He thereby recognized that the human species is made up of a diversity of physical forms and a plurality of linguistic and cultural formations. He insisted that his Dharma should be taught and expounded everywhere in the language of the people (Vinaya Pitaka II.139)

A Sickness Within and a Sickness Without

The Buddha described the human condition as a "sickness within and a sickness without" (Sutta Nipata vs. 130) He thereby clearly recognized that personal and social suffering are mutually conditioning factors. The diseased human condition is a product of human action. The colonial period produced serious deformations in Sri Lankan society. New social conditions have emerged which are a combination of indigenous and Western modes of domination and exploitation. The local elites who took over the political leadership of the country after Independence have made little or no effort to change this state of affairs. The majority of the people continue to bear all the burdens of society without enjoying its advantages. The elites who have ruled the country during the fifty years after Independence have made little or no effort to create a truly participatory democracy. Democracy remains a formality and is confined to the electoral process. However, the people are not the simple victims of circumstances. They too subscribe to views and values and reproduce relationships, institutions and forms of social discrimination which, repeatedly births and rebirths oppressive conditions.

To bring about a change in this situation, the people must overcome their ignorance (avijja) about the real causes of their suffering and become aware of the dehumanizing character of the conditions in which they live. "The Mirror of the Dhamma" can be an effective means to activate critical consciousness. The mutual support and social solidarity of the first Buddhists can inspire people in our own day to break out of the samsaric culture of silence and submission which shackles them and to embark on the way that leads to true freedom and happiness. The Buddha declared that in his New Society "there will is only one flavour, the flavour of freedom" ( Vinaya Pataka II. p. 239).

Manifesto for a New Society

The Buddha and the first Buddhists were great innovators. They propagated their views in everyday language and plain style devoid of mysticism and abstract speculation. Their views on social and political issues are invariably cast in the form of parables and legends so that the broad masses of the people could readily grasp their content. This shows their democratic concern with informing and educating the ordinary people. In the Vasettha Sutta ( Majjhima Nikaya 98), the Buddha demonstrated and declared that all human beings belong to one and the same species ( jati). Gender and social identities are not the product of biology but conceptualisations and reifications of repeated practices. They are cultural not natural differences. Brahmin theologians of the Buddha's Day claimed, as they do to this day, that the hierarchical division of society into priests, aristocrats, property owning peasants and artisans and propertyless wage labourers and slaves was a manifestation of their separate natures as determined by the Creator God Brahma. The Buddha dismissed this as a spurious claim. In the Agganna Sutta (Digha Nikaya 27), beginning with simple and undifferentiated gatherer-hunter tribes, he elucidated that these divisions were the result of a gradual social evolution: transition from a mobile to a settled way of life with the invention of agriculture; the development of a complex division of labour; the breakdown of the collective ownership of the means of production by clans and the consolidation of private property and the hoarding of wealth in separate households. It is at this stage that the people decided to come together and by common consent appoint one from among themselves to maintain law and order. They gave the title of Mahasammata - the Great Consent or Elect, to this freely chosen ruler. The Buddha was the first thinker in human history to provide an ascending analysis of power and to trace the monarchy and the State to an originally social contract made by people. After tracing the emergence of each social stratum as well as of the monarchy, the Buddha repeatedly insisted :

Their origin was from among these same beings, like themselves, no different, and in accordance with the Dharma (conditioned co-genesis) and not contrary to Dharma.

The principles formulated, by the Buddha in this discourse provides the basis for a preamble to a Charter on Human Rights.

All men and women belong to the same species and share the same nature

All men and women are equal according to a Fundamental Law which is in accordance with actuality - Dharma

Power does not come from above but from the people. What constitutes the power of a king or a state is the Great Consent of the People - Mahajana Sammata or Great Elect.

As originally intended by the covenant, government should be, of the people, by the people, for the people.

Rulers (rajas) should gladden the hearts of their people by righteous (dharmika) rule. Governments whether monarchical (rastra) or republican (gana sanghas) which fail to do so, abuse the mandate of the people and are illegitimate.

Principles of Righteous Governance

The Cakkavatti Sihanada Sutta (The Lion's Roar on the Turning of the Wheel) (Digha Nikaya 26) enunciates principles for righteous rule. The Buddha suggests that the ruling elites are aware of their duties and responsibilities but consciously decide to rule according to their caprices and become despots. He attributes the historical origins of crime and immorality to a single root cause - poverty - which arises not due to natural causes but because those in power failed to ensure an equitable distribution of wealth. To emancipate themselves from oppressive conditions, the people do not have to await a Saviour or a Liberator. Conditions will change only if people become aware of the real causes of crime and immorality and begin a movement for the moral transformation of society.

In the Buddha's Day, the Wheel (of the War Chariot) had become an evocative symbol of impersonal State power, which extends along vertical and horizontal axes. Along the vertical axis it maintained a stratified social order. Along the horizontal axis it administered society in concentric circles from the capital city to the countryside. The monarchs of the Buddha's Day were regarded as 'Wheel Turners' because they reproduced this social order, utilizing monopoly of the means of violence (the rod and the sword) by the State. The Buddha took this symbol and gave it a new signification. In his first sermon the Buddha called himself the 'Turner of the Wheel of Righteousness' (Dharma). He invited rulers to imitate his example. The legend of the Wheel Turner begins with the rule of kings who attempted to rule justly in the tradition of the Great Elect. These kings were 'Turners of the Wheel of Righteousness' (Dharma). According to brahmin theology the King ruled according to this own dharma ('nature' in brahmin theory). The Buddha attacked this justification of despotism.

The Buddha and the first Buddhists publicly declared that the King too is subject to the same Dharma as his subjects. This is an anticipation of constitutional rule and the rule of law.

Foremost among the insignia of a Righteous Ruler is the Wheel of Righteousness. The Wheel of Righteousness is enshrined above the Palace of Justice and casts its radiance even into the interior of the King's inner chambers (- read, responsible and transparent governance). The King takes the initiative to appoint respected members of the citizenry to monitor his rule and complain to him whenever he departs from the principles of just governance. The Buddha recognized the importance of a sentinel function in society: it is not enough merely to have a democratic constitution, the citizenry should make sure that it is also implemented.

The first righteous king retired in old age and handed over the throne to his son. He inherited all the insignia of state power but the Wheel of Righteousness disappeared from its place. The anxious prince sought out his father and asked why this had happened. "The Wheel of Righteousness, my son", he was told, "is not a paternal inheritance". You must earn it by righteous conduct. Here, the Buddha lays down an important principle. A society may have different ways of determining the legal right to rule. But the rule becomes legitimate in the eyes of people only if rulers govern righteously. Clearly, the Buddha's aim is to substitute hereditary and legal privilege by purely moral standards. He thereby conveys his conviction that the regulation of human affairs is first and foremost an ethical not political question.

When a king or 'party' gains access to state power, they should, as it were, 'reconquer' the hearts and minds of the people. The new king tours his kingdom and instructs his people in the five basic and indispensable rules of morality: The first - Do not take life - the right recognizes the right to life not only of humans but of all sentient beings. The second - Do not appropriate what has not been given. Here the presumption is that when wealth is equitably distributed their would be no need to steal. Third - Do not misuse speech to harm anyone. Fourth- Abstain from misuse of sensual pleasures, especially sexual pleasure. Fifth - Abstain from intoxicating substances. The reason given for this is that addiction to intoxicating substances is harmful to the user as well as the others. King and subject are urged to adhere to these five precepts.

Men and women who lead exemplary moral lives are indispensable as role models for society. The king is asked to honour, support and periodically consult them on matters of governance.

He should use his power not to oppress, but to protect not only his subject but also the birds and beasts in his realm.

Last but not the least, he should ensure an equitable distribution of wealth in his kingdom.

Social and Economic Rights

In the Kutadanta and Sigalovada Suttas the Buddha formulates in greater detail how the above principles should be implemented. In the Kutadanta Sutta the Buddha outlines his views about political economy. Cast in legendary form, the Sutta begins with conditions of anarchy in the kingdom of a despotic king: there is widespread crime and the countryside is bristling with rebellion. The king decides to unleash state terror in order to crush and eradicate the criminals and 'terrorists'. His Chaplain advises him to follow a saner plan. Instead of hoarding wealth in the state coffers, use it to stimulate the productivity of the people: Give land and seed to the peasants. Provide livestock breeders with grasslands to pasture their animals. Provide traders with capital. Ensure that wage labourers, especially those in royal service, are paid a just wage. The king follows this plan and the country prospers and peace and security is restored. The people with joy in their hearts dwelt in unlocked homes dancing their children in their arms. In the Noble Eightfold Path, Right Livelihood is included as an indispensable feature of his Ethical Path. Implicitly he recognises that everyone has a right to a livelihood. The Buddha advocates a Middle Path between absolute state control and ethically uninformed private enterprise.

In the society of the Buddha's Day, as indeed until very recently, in all societies world-wide the household was the corner stone of the economy. The productive labour in North East Indian society at the time, was perfomed by wage labourers and domestic slaves. The Buddha's advice to the head of a household, in the Sigalovada Sutta (Digha Nikaya 31) is in fact a social charter on workers rights. The Buddha begins by formulating the antecedent duties of employers. The contemporary relevance of the following principles can be appreciated if one recognizes that they correspond to Articles 23 and 24 of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The head of the household as head of a productive, unit should

allocate work according to the strength and abilities of his employees - yathabalam kammanata samvidhadena

Provide food and (just) wages to his workers - bhatta-vetananuppadabena

Provide health care for his workers - gilŒna upatthana

Cultivate close friendship with the workers - acchariyanam rasanam samvibhgena

Not exploit their labour power, but recognize their right to periodic leisure and rest - samaye vossaggena

The Social Dimension of the Buddha's Dharma: Salient Features and Specific Concerns

Buddhist concern encompasses a wider field than that encompassed by the conventional human rights regime. It includes compassionate concern for all sentient beings and the living environment. The Goal of the Buddha’s Way is the realization of maitriya or universal and non-discriminatory friendliness towards every living being.

The five precepts lay down the basic principles of morality that should inform all social concerns.

The Buddha recognised that even his mendicant disciples had a right to four basic necessities or conditions of life/catu paccaya (Cf. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 25). Every human being likewise has a right to:

Food - pindapata
Clothing - civara
Housing - senasana
Medicine - gilŒnapaccaya)

Care for the aged is a deeply respected component of Buddhist ethics.

The Buddha's emphasis on the moral obligations of those in positions of power, underscores an important fact. The formulation of rights and their incorporation into law is meaningless, unless they are regarded as obligations and implemented by rulers.

The Buddha's insight into the character of human action - karma - is that conditions in which humans find themselves are the product of conditions created by humans. Humans can therefore change them. In his teaching the concern with personal welfare and social welfare are not separate but are two aspects of the struggle for freedom from suffering: "in protecting oneself one protects others; in protecting others one protects oneself" ( Samyukta Nikaya V. p.168 ).

The Buddha believed in the educatability and perfectibilty of human beings. He condemned resort to performing miracles to win converts as an abhorrent practice. He believed only in one miracle, he said -the Miracle of Education (Digha Nikaya 11) .

The Buddha founded a community to exemplify and mediate the values of his Dharma. He emphasized that people need to promote each others welfare by mutual advice and upliftment - a––am anna' vacanena a––am' a––a' u hŒpanaya

The Buddha described the spirit that should inform the communities of his disciples as kalyana mittata - beautiful friendship. Ananda once suggested that the beautiful friendship of the Sangha is a partial realization of the Goal of the Path. The Buddha in reply stated: Not so, Ananda, beautiful friendship is the Goal and the Consummation of the Noble Path (Samyukta Nikaya 1.88). The Buddha believed that when human beings care for each other in kalyana mittata they would need neither the gods nor earthly potentates to protect them. They would have no other refuge - sarana- but the Dharma.

The participants in the spirit of Kalyana Mittata, hope that this report would stimulate further inquiry and discussion but above all be useful to those engaged in action for social renewal and the protection of human rights.