Global Buddhist Summit

Global Buddhist Summit

• PM inaugurated the First Global Buddhist Summit hosted by the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the International Buddhist Confederation.
• Theme: “Responses to Contemporary Challenges: Philosophy to Praxis”.
• Aim: The Summit is an effort towards engaging the global Buddhist Dhamma leadership and scholars on matters of Buddhist and universal concerns, and to come up with policy inputs to address them collectively. 

https://www.dalailama.com/news/2023/global-buddhist-summit-2023

Highlights:

• The Summit witnessed the participation of eminent scholars, Sangha leaders and Dharma practitioners from all over the world.
• PM also offered monk robes (Chivar Dana) to nineteen eminent monks. 
• The discussions were held under four themes: 
  • Buddha Dhamma and Peace; 
  • Buddha Dhamma: Environmental Crisis, Health and Sustainability;
  • Preservation of Nalanda Buddhist Tradition; 
  • Buddha Dhamma Pilgrimage, Living Heritage and Buddha Relics: a resilient foundation to India’s centuries-old cultural links to countries in South, South-East and East Asia.
• The Prime Minister gave the example of Mission LiFE, an initiative by India which he said was influenced by the inspirations of Buddha.
• On the occasion, an exhibition, the Panch Pradarshanwas was organised depicting the rich cultural legacy of Buddha manifesting in the heritage of Vadnagar city, Gujarat, travel accounts of Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang, work of Buddhist religious leader and master Atisa Dipankara Srijana, and Digital Restoration of Ajanta Paintings.

Coverage

• Buddhism also spread to western and southern India, where dozens of caves were hollowed out of hills for monks to live in
• Buddhism also spread south eastwards, to Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, and other parts of Southeast Asia including Indonesia. 

 Its Relevance  for Peace in World

• The concept of peace is central to Buddhism. Therefore, the Buddha is called the “Santiraja” ‘king of peace. 
• Leading a Buddhist way of life, is to maintain harmonious, untroubled good life, which consists of “samacariya”, which literally means, a harmonious life or a peaceful way of living with one’s fellow beings. 
• The Buddha, with great compassion for the world, required his followers to practice the four boundless states (appamanna) of loving kindness (metta), of compassion (karuna), of sympathetic joy (mudita), and of equanimity (upekkha). 
• This practice of ‘metta’ or universal love, begins by suffusing ones own mind with universal love (metta) and then pervading it to one’s family, then to the neighbors, then to the village, country and the four corners of the Universe.

Practice Questions for Prelims

Mains Practice Question

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