Enacting Social Change Through Buddhist Meditation
The Oxford Handbook of Meditation November 10, 2020 Ann Gleig 3 citations
Meditation can serve either to stabilize existing social structures or to challenge them, depending on how it is adopted. The assimilative approach assumes that individual practice naturally leads to social change and has been integrated into schools, hospitals, and politics. The radical approach prioritizes structural change and collective liberation, using meditation as self-care and protest in activist communities. Both currents stem from the modernization of Buddhism during colonialism, which detached meditation from its traditional religious context and re-embedded it in settings focused on social transformation and justice.