Facing the Future: Four Essays on the Social Relevance of Buddhism

This is a Pariyatti audiobook of four essays from the book Facing the Future: Four Essays on the Social Relevance of Buddhism by Bhikkhu Bodhi, narrated by Shelina Hetherington.

• A Buddhist Social Ethic for the New Century

• A Buddhist Approach to Economic and Social Development

• The Changing Face of Buddhism

• Sangha at the Crossroads

Excerpt: If we use the Buddha’s teachings as a lens to examine the corporate economic system and its offshoot, the consumerist culture, we will see that it is ultimately detrimental to the well-being of both its masters and servants alike. Drawing upon the tools of Buddhist analysis, let us briefly sketch the inner dynamics of this system. We see in the first instance that such a social order is founded upon ignorance or delusion (avijjā, moha), namely, the supposition that material wealth and consumption are the criteria of the good life. According to the Buddhist texts, when ignorance infiltrates our cognitive systems it issues in a series of “distortions” (vipallāsa) which infect our perception (saññā), thinking (citta), and views (diṭṭhi). The Buddha mentions four such distortions: the notions that the impermanent is permanent, that the painful (or suffering) is pleasant, that the insubstantial is a self, and that the unbeautiful is beautiful. At the most basic level we perceive things by way of these distortions; when these distorted perceptions are taken up for reflection, we start thinking in terms of them; and finally, under the combined influence of distorted perception and thought, we adopt views—that is, beliefs, doctrines, and ideologies—that affirm the mistaken notions of permanence, pleasure, selfhood, and beauty.

© 2025 Pariyatti (Audiobook): 9781681728513

Release date

Audiobook: 17 June 2025