“Dual awakening?”
Anja Zalta
Poligrafi December 29, 2022 DOI: 10.35469/poligrafi.2022.353 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | Argues that "dual awakening" describes socially engaged Buddhism's aim of realizing a "wholesome" paradigm on both social and individual levels, illustrated by the Sarvodaya Sramadana movement in Sri Lanka. Contends that Western research on mindfulness meditation de-contextualizes Buddhist ideas and methods, including empathy and compassion as foundations for social action, when transferring them into the Western modernist paradigm. |
Abstract
The paper presents the concept of “dual awakening”, which is based on the Buddhist mindfulness appropriated by socially engaged Buddhism as a method to recognize and implement a “wholesome” paradigm on both the social and individual level. In the first half of the paper, I analyze the idea of “dual awakening” in the Southeast Asian context, especially in the case of the Sarvodaya Sramadana movement in Sri Lanka, In the second part of the paper, I review some of the research on (mindfulness) meditation in the West to critically evaluate the de-contextualization of transferring Buddhist ideas and methods (such as cultivating empathy and compassion as a basis for social action) into the Western modernist paradigm.