15 Is dharma concerned with individual development or of society? | a secular dharma
Channel: a secular dharma?
Date: 2020-08-10

How modern scientific thinking is becoming more open to overlaps between specialisms and prepared to consider and explore fields that would have been considered inappropriate in the past. How this openness provides opportunities for today’s generations to move though ideas quickly.

Blueprint; The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society

The premise of this book is that underlying human development/evolution is a set of embodied guiding principles, the ‘social suite’ Relating this to dharma; could we reimagine the concept of sanga in light of this idea?

Was the original idea of Gautama’s dharma related to individual development or could it have been about the development of society? Buddhism and dharma as presented in the west today appear to be focused on the individual with the concept of sanga being something of a side effect, something that emerges when like minded individuals come together. 

Could this be looking at dharma from the wrong end of the telescope? If humans are essentially a societal animal and the current emphasis on individualism is a later development, this would suggest that exploring ways of living should start from a consideration of the group not the individual.

The eightfold path explores how we as individuals can aspire to live our lives, is there an interpretation/translation where the focus is on how groups can aspire to live in harmony? Or something in between where there is a recognition of the dynamics of individual and group?

The secular Buddhist model most prevalent in the west in the 21st century is of silent retreat and individual practice through meditation. While individually beneficial a silent retreat by its nature restricts conversation between retreatants thus while bringing individuals together a retreat does little to encourage the development of sanga.

Perhaps rather than ‘my dharma’ we should consider ‘our dhama’ and consider the aim of secula dharma to create local groups and interest groups.


*TIP: For the best listening experience, speed up this video 1.25x or 1.5x.