Journal of International Buddhist Studies

Buddhist Social Engagement in Contemporary Myanmar: An Anthropological Interpretation of the Humanitarian Work of Sitagu Sayadaw

2026-08-08T17:58:28+07:00

Sitagu Sayadaw is one of the most influential monastic leaders in contemporary Myanmar. The large-scale humanitarian work he has led represents a significant development in contemporary Buddhist social engagement. While existing scholarship on Burmese Buddhism tends to focus on historical developments, meditation lineages, political dynamics, and nationalist movements, the motivational dimensions of monastic social action and their theoretical interpretation remain comparatively understudied. This article addresses this gap by applying Max Weber’s concept of social action to the humanitarian work of Sitagu Sayadaw. Adopting a qualitative case study approach, the study employs documentary and thematic analysis of Dhamma talks, interviews, and institutional publications of the Sitagu International Buddhist Academies, together with relevant scholarship on Burmese Buddhism. The findings show that his humanitarian engagement reflects Weber’s four ideal types of social action: purposive-rational, value-rational, affective, and traditional, alongside traditional legitimacy and charismatic authority. Compassion (karuṇā) and merit-making (kusala) provide key ethical and cultural motivations for social engagement. These motivations are reinforced by monastic authority and institutionalized through modern organizational rationality, enabling compassion-driven initiatives to develop into sustained, large-scale humanitarian activities. The study demonstrates how Buddhist ethical values and monastic authority interact with organizational rationality in the contemporary transformation of Buddhist social engagement in Myanmar.

The DSC Triangle Model of Buddhist Palliative Care: Doctrine, Spiritual Pillar, and Community at Wat Kham Pramong

2026-09-23T17:02:25+07:00

This qualitative case study examines Buddhist spiritual care for terminal cancer patients through the case of Wat Kham Pramong in Sakon Nakhon Province, Thailand. It addresses three objectives: to examine how the temple responds to patients’ spiritual needs, to identify the Buddhist teachings and practices relevant to those needs, and to assess the approach’s qualitative impact in terminal care. Drawing on scriptural analysis, narrative review, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews with five care-team informants and five terminal patients, this research article develops the DSC Triangle Model. The model consists of Doctrine, Spiritual Pillar, and Community. Relevant teachings and practices include impermanence (aniccam), suffering (dukkham), non-self (anattā), mindfulness meditation on death (maraṇānussati), Buddho recollection, daily chanting, the herbal medicine and guilt-letter ceremony, and final-day spiritual support. Patient narratives, care-team explanations, and field observations indicate qualitative patterns of movement from fear, resistance, anxiety, unresolved burden, and isolation toward greater acceptance, inner peace, relational connection, and a more meaningful final stage of life. These responses varied according to physical condition, psychological readiness, religious familiarity, family support, and ability to participate. The article contributes a case-derived framework for understanding how Buddhist doctrine, embodied spiritual practice, and community support interact in temple-based palliative care without claiming universal or statistically measurable effects.

Is Buddhism a Science of Mind? - Against False Concepts of a Possible Reconciliation between Science and Religion

2026-05-25T22:27:53+07:00

Since the commencement of the Age of Enlightenment, religion has unceasingly been challenged by upcoming science. Step by step, this science replaced once firmly believed doctrines with fact-based knowledge gained by proper methods of empirical research or derivation logic. After a long and conflictual history, during which many brave scientists were burned at the stake, today we witness sustained efforts to bring religion and science together again and to undo its historical separation. In particular, Buddhism is considered a candidate for a genuine religious belief that would make such reconciliation possible. This article shows the futility of such attempts at reconciliation and the fallacies on which they are grounded. The author pleads for a farewell to any oversimplified and harmonious concept of a possible reconciliation between science and religion. As science is reductionist by its very nature, neither Christianity nor Buddhism can overcome the cleavage between fact-based knowledge and that gained by spiritual insights.

Buddhahood and the Buddha’s Bad Kamma: A Theravāda Perspective

2026-06-12T16:28:58+07:00

This article examines the contentious relationship between the absoluteness of kamma and the perfection of Buddhahood in the case of Gotama Buddha. It seeks to determine whether, and to what extent, the residue of unwholesome past actions could compromise his state of enlightenment. Following an analysis of early Theravāda interpretations, three interconnected hypotheses are proposed: first, that Buddhahood constitutes a universal truth realized by the Buddha rather than an intrinsic source of his qualities; second, that kamma is defined psychologically as a sequence of volitional impulses governed by intention; and third, that Buddhahood is the ontological result of causal processes occurring mechanically, independent of the Buddha’s immediate volition. The findings based on these three hypotheses indicate that: first, Buddhahood did not imply absolute perfection in a metaphysical sense, but rather a profound accessibility to the Dhamma; second, the absoluteness of kamma signifies the definiteness of the intentional cluster, which is the consistency of the intentional process within the stream of consciousness; and third, Buddhahood is the natural effect of profound wholesome actions, not a dispositional fruit derived from intention. It is the culminating effect of the law of causation, representing a mechanical consequence of proper actions rather than a kammic residue. Buddhahood is thus a natural effect (phala), not a kammic fruit (vipāka). These findings lead to the conclusion that the Buddha’s past unwholesome kamma, while manifesting as physical suffering in his final life, does not blemish or render his attained Buddhahood incomplete.