[Buddha-l] Sangha model for running a country? Possible?

[Piya Tan]

I don't think the "monastic" Sangha would be any better than a democratic
system, the pre-Chinese Tibetan theocracy is such an example. Today it has
produced the likes of Trungpa (which was a chogyam, a sort of Tibetan
royalty) and Michael Roach.

Sulak I think is referring to the "seven conditions for a nation's welfare"
(D 16.1.4/2:73-76), followed by 6 other sets of the conditions for
non-decline of practitioners.

The monastic sangha is supposed to turn the Dharma wheel (practise and teach
the Dharma), while the politicians and rulers turn the wheel of power (
aa.naa,cakra).

Basically, I think the sangha system is a sort of republican (res publica)
system, very much like the early Greek democracy where the common people,
not just the rich, has a chance to speak and change things.

Piya

On 8/30/06, jkirk <jkirk at spro.net> wrote:
>
> Pol Pot actually didn't try to go back to the "pure past." He tried to
> eliminate the past, getting rid of monks and monasteries, civil
> organizations, etc. He was into radical communism, forcing everybody to
> work
> in the fields and only for the state, klling everybody who disagreed with
> his policies or who were of the social classes he wished to eliminate.
> Much
> scarier than a return to the past, surely. Sivaraksa, whatever his
> failings
> might be, wouldn't approve of such a regime.
> But as I wrote earlier on this article: where is the evidence that
> allowing
> "the sangha" to run a country would be any better than what the Thais have
> now?
> Joanna
> ==========================
> jehms wrote:
> This scares me. It could have been written by Poll Pot. Going back to
> the pure past by keeping the strangers out. I know his reputation as the
> uncrowned king of engaged Buddhism, but here he shows a very naïve
> view on the possibilities of social enginering. It's very modern, He
> doesn't
> seem to understand that history is not under control.
>
>
> Erik
>
>
> www.xs4all.nl/~jehms
> weblog http://www.volkskrantblog.nl/pub/blogs/blog.php?uid=2950
>
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