The Contemporary Relevance of Buddha. Issue 1 (19th March 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sen, Amartya
• Is Part Of: Ethics & international affairs. Volume 28:Issue 1(2014)
• Page Start: 15
• Page End: 27
• Publication Date: 2014-03-19
• Subjects: International relations -- Moral and ethical aspects -- Periodicals; 172.405
• DOI: 10.1017/S0892679414000033
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0892-6794

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="text-abstract"> <title> <x content-type="archive" xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>The great poet and novelist Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) once remarked that he was extremely sad that he was not alive when Gautama Buddha was still around. Tagore very much wished he could have had conversations with Buddha. I share that sentiment, but, like Rabindranath, I am also immensely grateful that, even now, we can enjoy—and learn from—the ideas and arguments that Buddha gave us twenty-five hundred years ago. Our world may be very different from what Buddha faced in the sixth century <sc>bce</sc>, but we can still benefit greatly from the reasoned approach to ethics, politics, and social relations that Gautama Buddha brought to the world of human understanding.</p> </abstract>