The Buddha in the Voting Booth: Buddhist Political Thought

What would the Buddha have told us about political involvement? We'll look at a couple of recent scholarly takes on this question that suggest political disengagement. Then we'll turn to some of the Buddha's political views, and how it all might help us towards a better future in today's world.

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✅ Videos mentioned:
King Asoka: Buddhism's Great Political Modernist --    • King Asoka: Buddhism's Great Politica...  
Politics, Religion, and Engaged Buddhism --    • Politics, Religion, and Engaged Buddhism  

✅ Papers mentioned:
Amod Lele, “Disengaged Buddhism.” Journal of Buddhist Ethics, 2019. https://philarchive.org/rec/LELDB
Matthew Moore, “Political Theory in Canonical Buddhism.” Philosophy East and West, Jan. 2015 — https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cg...

✅ Suttas mentioned:
https://suttacentral.net/dn27/en/sujato
https://suttacentral.net/dn26/en/sujato

✅ Other resource:
Bhikkhu Brahmali on voting in the sangha: https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/...

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00:00 Intro
01:50 Political disengagement in early Buddhism
06:29 The Buddha’s positive political views
11:55 The sangha and democratic government
16:04 The political landscape today

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