A Buddhist Philosophy of Global Mind for Peaceful Future

Human-caused global problems like conflict and violence stem from an epistemological issue: how humans know and view the world. This paper argues that since global conditions depend on collective thoughts, critical analysis of the mind is essential. It introduces the Buddhist concept of the "conditioned mind," shaped by social frames of reference, as a source of trouble, and the "unconditioned mind," free from attachment to such frames, as an antidote. A "global mind" combining both, through mindful practice, dialectical contemplation, and compassion, enables people to recognize universal humanity and co-create new values and norms with those holding different perspectives, fostering interdependent relationships.

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Abstract

While addressing global problems including conflict and violence is a common human agenda, they are human-caused: They are created and sustained through our thoughts. Though external causes and conditions cannot be ignored, the most fundamental problem is an epistemological one—our way of knowing and viewing the world. As the shape of the global conditions relies on our thoughts or ways of thinking, it is imperative to make a critical analysis of our mind. This paper explores how the Buddhist philosophy of human mind develops a model of global mind to achieve a peaceful future. Firstly, the analysis offers the concept of “the conditioned mind”—mind shaped by socially constructed frame of reference and examines how it becomes a cause of trouble. Secondly, it proposes the concept of “the unconditioned mind”—mind-state transcendent of an attachment to any form of frame of reference as an antidote to the potential danger of the conditioned state. Then, global mind is explored. It is characterized as the mixture of the conditioned and the unconditioned mind with the practice of multiple functions of mind—mindful practice, dialectical philosophical contemplation, and compassionate mind. The appreciation and enacting of both the conditioned mind and the unconditioned mind underpinned by the multiple functions of mind empowers us to touch universal humanity and inherent dignity of all human beings and to co-create new values, norms, and visions with those having different frames of reference to embody interdependent and interconnected human relationships.