Applying Buddha's Teachings in Modern Society: A Thesis Presented For the Degree of Ph. D in Religious Studies

Today society is facing with its ethical problems. Religious function of Religion play more have more roles than at any time for contributing to build a society of order, stability and peace on the earth. This time, the actually Buddha's teachings are not the application of the Buddhist community only, but to existence of human kind in general. Those are ecological risks, such as pollution, finiteness of natural resources, progressing diseases, risk of the mass murder using nuclear weapon, all kinds of dependencies, from drugs to Internet, consumerism, terrorism, the problem of the Third World, and so on. Due to the acceleration of the technological progress, the risk is growing every year in a geometrical progression, and because of that, now it is extremely important to look for solutions in the ancient wisdom that proved to be immortal and true. The Buddha's teaching is one of those heritages of humankind that can serve as a cure of a new society.
In Buddhist worldview, human beings live in the illusion of separateness while their true nature is single with the whole universe. We are all a single living organism with interrelated and integrated physically, spiritually and locally. But majority of mankind is still ignorant of that fact, and acts egoistically so as we all were separated. Most people act egoistically, following their delusional vain passions from suffering, in which they live, and deepening their suffering even more in their fussy races for the desires. The problem is their actions (along with our words and thoughts) not only do harm to themselves but to every part of the being at the same time. For that reason, many people in the world are suffering, animals and plants are suffering, and the planet Earth itself is suffering.