Report: Michael Zimmermann on Buddhism and Society

On April 26 and 27, 2010, Professor Michael Zimmermann presented two well-received lectures at UBC’s Asian Centre and C.K. Choi Building, “Is Violence Avoidable? On War and Peace in Indian Buddhism” and “Engaged Buddhism: Social Entanglement with Spiritual Gain?”

Zimmermann challenged his audience with the perennial issue of violence and religion, offering a periodization of views on violence in Indian Buddhism. The next evening, he presented a fascinating example of a classical Indian Mahayana Buddhist text that spoke strongly to the contemporary Buddhist social activist. He ended with a strong statement on a contentious issue: Bhikkhuni ordination. “Sometimes,” he said, “it is easy to be an academic,” for there are fewer political considerations. He said explicitly that there are no formal scriptural monastic rules that would prevent the present ordination of women...

Prof. Zimmermann arrived from the Center for Buddhist Studies, Hamburg University, where he holds the position of director. Before that, he spent 5 years (2003-2007) at the Stanford Center for Buddhist Studies, which has recently become a sister centre to our Program through a donation by the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation. (There are now five institutions endowed by the Tung Lin Kok Yuen or the Family Foundation: University of Hong Kong, International Buddhist College in Thailand, University of Toronto at Scarborough, and Stanford University.)

He specializes in Mahayana forms of Buddhism, through the study of Indian, Tibetan, and Chinese Buddhist texts. From the point of view of the Buddhism and Contemporary Society Program at UBC, what he does with these materials is of great interest. He skillfully brings the ethics of these earlier traditions into conversation with issues that concern contemporary society. He examines everything from how best to administer a state, the conduct of war and use of violence, the role-based ethics of the Buddhist king and the bodhisattva, all the way to vegetarianism and treatment of animals–every item on this list came up either in his lecture or in the ensuing discussion.

He has also, of course, written on these topics. His edited volume, Buddhism and Violence (2006), contains his chapter “Only a Fool Becomes a King: Buddhist Stances on Punishment.” The chapter is a pioneering and clearly-written work on state violence. In that chapter, Prof. Zimmermann explores the complicated topic of ethical responsibility when a king–acting as a king–takes human life or administers violent punishment. Why, indeed, would anyone want to become a king?

Again, in a very brief take on the topic of “War” in the Encyclopedia of Buddhism (2003) we see Zimmermann consistently placing doctrine in its historical context. (In other words, he views the development of doctrine as pragmatically and realistically related to the local exercise of power. He comments, for example, that it might have been concerns for the safety of his community that lead the Buddha to avoid interfering in the affairs of local rulers and to avoid criticizing their military endeavors.) In so doing, he is able to explain why and how is it that Buddhist texts display a variety of positions on war—including absolute positions that war and conflict are to be avoided in all circumstances. In Prof. Zimmermann’s words, texts can vary between: “(1) an uncompromising rejection of any kind of participation in military activities; (2) a pragmatic approach shaped by the needs of a realistic royal policy, yet restricted by certain ethical considerations; and (3) a straightforward call for engagement in war in order to achieve a clearly defined goal” (894). Zimmermann, of course, had much more to say on this subject.

In his second lecture, Zimmermann turned to Socially Engaged Buddhism. Socially Engaged Buddhism, broadly understood, is a title applied by, and to, those Buddhist groups who view ethical action in society as itself the manifestation of Buddhist teachings. In some cases, ethical action in society is both the path to realization and the enactment of realization. The activities themselves–compassionate care, caring for the sick and dying, generosity, service, working to alleviate poverty and hardship, working to improve conditions that cause endemic suffering or those that are a result of natural forces (such as hurricanes, typhoons, earthquakes, and tsunami)–are old, and examples can be found throughout Buddhist history. But the relationship they have with the goals of Buddhism, and their integration with structural, regional, and global understandings of the causes of suffering, these are new. As a specialist in early Buddhist and Mahāyāna texts, Zimmermann was uniquely able to guide us through this web of old and new in Socially Engaged Buddhism. He lead us through some fascinating primary sources, including a classical Indian text describing the bodhisattva that read like a set of instructions for a contemporary social worker.

Professor Zimmermann teaches Indian Buddhism and directs the Center for Buddhist Studies at the University of Hamburg, Germany. His research focuses on all aspects of Mahayana Buddhism in India, in particular its textual-historical dimension, based on the study of primary sources in the Buddhist canonical languages of India, Tibet, and China.