From Monastic Ethics to Modern Society

In 1964 Winston King asked the then critical question defining studies of Buddhist ethics: “What is the relation of ethics to the total structure of Buddhist doctrine and practice, particularly with regard to the definition of moral values ... and the nature of ultimate sanctions.” Nearly half a century later, this question retains its status for inquiries about Buddhist conduct. This paper examines the critical role of Vinaya, or monastic regulations for the renunciant tradition, in contrast to the code of conduct, known as

śīla, for lay practitioners, and does so with respect to both the ancient Asian tradition and the modern Western tradition of Buddhists. It muses on the possibility of how these twin spires of Buddhist conduct can form the basis of a compassionate socially engaged Buddhism for today.

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About the Author

Charles Prebish currently holds the Charles Redd Endowed Chair in Religious Studies at Utah State University. Prior to that appointment, he taught Buddhist Studies at the Pennsylvania State University for more than thirty-five years. He is the author or editor of nineteen books, and more than fifty refereed articles and chapters. He is the founding co-editor of the Journal of Buddhist Ethics and the Journal of Global Buddhism. From 1996 until 2006 he was co-editor of the Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism series, and currently co-edits the Routledge World Religions series. With Damien Keown, he created Journal of Buddhist Ethics Online Books, a project that publishes textbooks on Religious Studies topics for college students. He has been an officer in the International Association of Buddhist Studies and co-founded the Buddhism Section of the American Academy of Religion in 1981. In 1993 he held the Numata Chair of Buddhist Studies at the University of Calgary as Distinguished Visiting Professor, and in 1997-98 held a Rockefeller National Humanities Fellowship at the Centre for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto.