Towards Buddhist Social Theory

Western liberal democratic society is based upon ideals of justice, human rights and equality and these are themselves rooted in certain assumptions about individual human dignity and freedom that have their roots in the Western tradition. It is not readily apparent that these concepts have any grounding in Buddhist theory, even though Buddhism is centrally concerned with righting many of the wrongs of oppressive social systems. Much of what is called socially engaged Buddhism is not soundly rooted in Buddhist theory but