The Effects of Buddhist Teachings

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 happiness, these two foundations work to lend a helping to the underprivileged within their communities by enabling them to fulfill their dreams (Nibbana) and to realize their potential.

Poverty is something that many people dread and would never want to experience. Everyone in this world wants to be rich. Some view wealth as a symbol of happiness and poverty as a sign of misery. Well in Buddhism, wealth does not guarantee happiness for it is impermanent. People suffer worldwide, rich or poor but the ones who understand Buddhist teachings are those who can or will find true happiness. It is a basic precept of Buddhism that the purpose of ending or resolving suffering is for all things to have no self or to be essential to nature. If that is the case, then, poverty does not truly exist because it is neither self-originating nor self-sustaining. So, are the people of Cambodia and Laos individually responsible for their poverty? Did they bring this condition of poverty on themselves? In Buddhism it ...

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...what we need most is the humility to acknowledge that we are unable to determine the best path for the underprivileged within society. The path of alleviating poverty is endless, yet we must travel it.

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Vinaya Pitaka (Book of the Monastic Discipline). One of the three sections of the Pali Canon tr. I B Horner, Pali Text Society, Oxford