Violence in Buddhism includes acts of violence and aggression committed by Buddhists with religious, political, or socio-cultural motivations, as well as self-inflicted violence by ascetics or for religious purposes. Buddhism is generally seen as among the religious traditions least associated with violence, but in the history of Buddhism there have been acts of violence directed, promoted, or inspired by Buddhists. As far as Buddha's teachings and scriptures are concerned, however, Buddhism forbids all forms of violence, even in extreme cases of self-defense.[4]

Even if thieves carve you limb from limb with a double-handed saw, if you make your mind hostile you are not following my teaching.

Kakacpama Sutta, Majjhima-Nikya 28 at MN i 128-29

Buddhism encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on teachings attributed to Gautama Buddha.[5] Ahimsa, a term meaning 'not to injure', is a primary virtue in Buddhism.

Nirvana is the earliest and most common term used to describe the goal of the Buddhist path and the ultimate eradication of dukkhanature of life that innately includes "suffering", "pain" or "unsatisfactoriness". Violent actions and thoughts, actions which harm and debase others and thoughts which contemplate the same, stand in the way of spiritual growth and the self-conquest which leads to the goal of existence and they are normally deemed unskilled (akusala) and cannot lead to the goal of Nirvana. Buddha condemned killing or harming living beings and encouraged reflection or mindfulness (satipatthana) as right action (or conduct), therefore "the rightness or wrongness of an action centers around whether the action itself would bring about harm to self and/or others". In the Ambalatthika-Rahulovada Sutta, the Buddha says to Rahula:

If you, Rahula, are desirous of doing a deed with the body, you should reflect on the deed with the body, thus: That deed which I am desirous of doing with the body is a deed of the body that might conduce to the harm of self and that might conduce to the harm of others and that might conduce to the harm of both; this deed of body is unskilled (akusala), its yield is anguish, its result is anguish.

The right action or right conduct (samyak-karmnta / samm-kammanta) is the fourth aspect of the Noble Eightfold Path and it said that the practitioner should train oneself to be morally upright in one's activities, not acting in ways that would be corrupt or bring harm to oneself or to others. In the Chinese and Pali Canon, it is explained as:

And what is right action? Abstaining from taking life, from stealing, and from illicit sex [or sexual misconduct]. This is called right action.

For the lay follower, the Cunda Kammaraputta Sutta elaborates:

And how is one made pure in three ways by bodily action? There is the case where a certain person, abandoning the taking of life, abstains from the taking of life. He dwells with his... knife laid down, scrupulous, merciful, compassionate for the welfare of all living beings. Abandoning the taking of what is not given, he abstains from taking what is not given. He does not take, in the manner of a thief, things in a village or a wilderness that belong to others and have not been given by them.[21]

Sarambha can be translated as "accompanied by violence". As the mind filled with lobha, dosa and moha (lust, hatred and delusion) is led to actions which are akusala. Indulging in violence is a form of self-harming. The rejection of violence in society is recognized in Buddhism as a prerequisite for the spiritual progress of society's members, because violence brings pain to beings with similar feelings to oneself. The Buddha is quoted in the Dhammapada as saying, "All are afraid of the stick, all hold their lives dear. Putting oneself in another's place, one should not beat or kill others". Metta (loving kindness), the development of mindstates of limitless good-will for all beings, and karuna, compassion that arises when you see someone suffering of the human being, are attitudes said to be excellent or sublime because they are the right or ideal way of conduct towards living beings (sattesu samma patipatti). The Sutta Nipata says "'As I am, so are these. As are these, so am I.' Drawing the parallel to yourself, neither kill nor get others to kill."[27]

In Buddhism, to take refuge in the Dharmaone of the Three Jewelsone should not harm other sentient beings. The Nirvana Sutra states, "By taking refuge in the precious Dharma, One's minds should be free from hurting or harming others". One of the Five Precepts of Buddhist ethics or la states, "I undertake the training rule to abstain from killing." The Buddha reportedly stated, "Victory breeds hatred. The defeated live in pain. Happily the peaceful live giving up victory and defeat." These elements are used to indicate Buddhism is pacifistic and all violence done by Buddhists, even monks, is likely due to economic or political reasons.[34]

The teaching of right speech (samyag-vc / samm-vc) in the Noble Eightfold Path, condemn all speech that is in any way harmful (malicious and harsh speech) and divisive, encouraging to speak in thoughtful and helpful ways. The Pali Canon explained:

And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, and from idle chatter: This is called right speech.[14][15]

Michael Jerryson,[36] Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Ohio's Youngstown State University and co-editor of the book Buddhist Warfare, said that "Buddhism differs in that the act of killing is less the focus than the 'intention' behind the killing" and "The first thing to remember is that people have a penchant for violence, it just so happens that every religion has people in it."

Gananath Obeyesekere, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University, said that "in the Buddhist doctrinal tradition... there is little evidence of intolerance, no justification for violence, no conception even of 'just wars' or 'holy wars.' ... one can make an assertion that Buddhist doctrine is impossible to reconcile logically with an ideology of violence and intolerance"

There is however in Buddhism a long tradition of self-inflicted violence and death, as a form of asceticism or protest, as exemplified by the use of fires and burns to show determinations among Chinese monks or by the self-immolations of monks such as Thch Qung c during the Vietnam war.

In Southeast Asia, Thailand has had several prominent virulent Buddhist monastic calls for violence. In the 1970s, nationalist Buddhist monks like Phra Kittiwuttho argued that killing Communists did not violate any of the Buddhist precepts. The militant side of Thai Buddhism became prominent again in 2004 when a Malay Muslim insurgency renewed in Thailand's deep south. At first Buddhist monks ignored the conflict as they viewed it as political and not religious but eventually they adopted an "identity-formation", as practical realities require deviations from religious ideals.

In recent years the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the military regime of Burma from 1988 to 2011, had strongly encouraged the conversion of ethnic minorities, often by force, as part of its campaign of assimilation. The regime promoted a vision of Burmese Buddhist nationalism as a cultural and a political ideology to legitimise its contested rule, trying to bring a religious syncretism between Buddhism and its totalitarian ideology.

The Saffron Revolution, a series of economic and political protests and demonstrations that took place during 2007, were led by students, political activists, including women, and Buddhist monks and took the form of a campaign of nonviolent resistance, sometimes also called civil resistance.

In response to the protests dozens of protesters were arrested or detained. Starting in September 2007 the protests were led by thousands of Buddhist monks, and those protests were allowed to proceed until a renewed government crackdown in late September 2007.[42] At least 184 protesters were shot and killed and many were tortured. Under the SPDC, the Burmese army engaged in military offensives against ethnic minority populations, committing acts that violated international humanitarian law.[43]

Myanmar had become a stronghold of Buddhist aggression and such acts are spurred by hardline nationalistic monks.[44][45][46][47][48] The oldest militant organisation active in the region is Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), headed by a Buddhist monk U Thuzana, since 1992.[49] In the recent years the monks, and the terrorist acts, are associated with the nationalist 969 Movement particularly in Myanmar and neighboring nations.[50][51] The violence reached prominence in June 2012 when more than 200 people were killed and around 100,000 were displaced.[52][53] As of 2012, the "969" movement by monks (the prominent among whom is Wirathu) had helped create anti-Islamic nationalist movements in the region, and have urged Myanmar Buddhists to boycott Muslim services and trades, resulting in persecution of Muslims in Burma by Buddhist-led mobs. However, not all of the culprits were Buddhists and the motives were as much economic as religious.[50][54][55] On 20 June 2013, Wirathu was mentioned on the cover story of Time magazine as "The Face of Buddhist Terror".[56] According to the Human Rights Watch report, the Burmese government and local authorities played a key role in the forcible displacement of more than 125,000 Rohingya people and other Muslims in the region. The report further specifies the coordinated attacks of October 2012 that were carried out in different cities by Burmese officials, community leaders and Buddhist monks to terrorize and forcibly relocate the population.[57] The violence of Meiktila, Lashio (2013) and Mandalay (2014) are the latest Buddhist violence in Burma.[58][59][60][61]

Michael Jerryson, author of several books heavily critical of Buddhism's traditional peaceful perceptions, stated that, "The Burmese Buddhist monks may not have initiated the violence but they rode the wave and began to incite more. While the ideals of Buddhist canonical texts promote peace and pacifism, discrepancies between reality and precepts easily flourish in times of social, political and economic insecurity, such as Myanmar's current transition to democracy."[62]

However several Buddhist leaders including Thch Nht Hnh, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Shodo Harada and the Dalai Lama among others condemned the violence against Muslims in Myanmar and called for peace, supporting the practice of the fundamental Buddhist principles of non-harming, mutual respect and compassion. The Dalai Lama said "Buddha always teaches us about forgiveness, tolerance, compassion. If from one corner of your mind, some emotion makes you want to hit, or want to kill, then please remember Buddha's faith. We are followers of Buddha." He said that "All problems must be solved through dialogue, through talk. The use of violence is outdated, and never solves problems."[63][64]

Maung Zarni, a Burmese democracy advocate, human rights campaigner, and a research fellow at the London School of Economics who has written on the violence in Myanmar and Sri Lanka, states that there is no room for fundamentalism in Buddhism. "No Buddhist can be nationalistic," said Zarni, "There is no country for Buddhists. I mean, no such thing as me, my community, my country, my race or even my faith."[65]

Ashokavadana states that there was a mass killing of Jains for disrespecting the Buddha by King Ashoka in which around 18,000 followers of Jainism were killed.[66] However this incident is controversial.[67][68] According to K.T.S. Sarao and Benimadhab Barua, stories of persecutions of rival sects by Ashoka appear to be a clear fabrication arising out of sectarian propaganda.[67][68][69]

Buddhism in Sri Lanka has a unique history and has played an important role in the shaping of Sinhalese nationalist identity. Consequently, politicized Buddhism has contributed to ethnic tension in the island between the majority Sinhalese Buddhist population and other minorities, especially the Tamils.

The mytho-historical accounts in the Sinhalese Buddhist national chronicle Mahavamsa ('Great Chronicle'), a non-canonical text written in the sixth century CE by Buddhist monks to glorify Buddhism in Sri Lanka, have been influential in the creation of Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism and militant Buddhism.[70][71][72][74][75][76][77][78] The Mahavamsa states that Lord Buddha made three visits to Sri Lanka in which he rids the island of forces inimical to Buddhism and instructs deities to protect the ancestors of the Sinhalese (Prince Vijaya and his followers from North India) to enable the establishment and flourishing of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. This myth has led to the widely held Sinhalese Buddhist belief that the country is Sihadipa (island of the Sinhalese) and Dhammadipa (the island ennobled to preserve and propagate Buddhism). In other words, Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists maintain that they are the Buddha's chosen people, and that the island of Sri Lanka is the Buddhist promised land. The Mahavamsa also describes an account of the Buddhist warrior king Dutthagamani, his army, and 500 Buddhist monks battling and defeating the Tamil king Elara, who had come from South India and usurped power in Anuradhapura (the island's capital at the time). When Duthagamani laments over the thousands he has killed, the eight arhats (Buddha's enlightened disciples) who come to console him reply that no real sin has been committed by him because he has only killed Tamil unbelievers who are no better than beasts and go onto say: "thou wilt bring glory to the doctrine of the Buddha in manifold ways; therefore cast away care from the heart, O ruler of men".[86]

The Dutthagamani's campaign against king Elara was not to defeat injustice, as the Mahavamsa describes Elara as a good ruler, but to restore Buddhism through a united Sri Lanka under a Buddhist monarch, even by the use of violence.[87] The Mahavamsa story about Buddha's visit to Sri Lanka where he (referred to as the "Conqueror") subdues forces inimical to Buddhism, the Yakkhas (depicted as the non-human inhabitants of the island), by striking "terror to their hearts" and driving them from their homeland, so that his doctrine should eventually "shine in glory", has been described as providing the warrant for the use of violence for the sake of Buddhism and as an account that is in keeping with the general message of the author that the political unity of Sri Lanka under Buddhism requires the removal of uncooperative groups.

According to Neil DeVotta (an Associate Professor of Political Science), the mytho-history described in the Mahavamsa "justifies dehumanizing non-Sinhalese, if doing so is necessary to preserve, protect, and propagate the dhamma (Buddhist doctrine). Furthermore, it legitimizes a just war doctrine, provided that war is waged to protect Buddhism. Together with the Vijaya myth, it introduces the bases for the Sinhalese Buddhist belief that Lord Buddha designated the island of Sri Lanka as a repository for Theravada Buddhism. It claims the Sinhalese were the first humans to inhabit the island (as those who predated the Sinhalese were subhuman) and are thus the true "sons of the soil". Additionally, it institutes the belief that the island's kings were beholden to protect and foster Buddhism. All of these legacies have had ramifications for the trajectory of political Buddhism and Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism."

With the rise of modern Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a reaction to the changes brought under the British colonialism,[90] the old religious mytho-history of the Mahavamsa (especially the emphasis on the Sinhalese and Tamil ethnicities of Duthagamani and Elara, respectively) was revitalized and consequently would prove to be detrimental to the intergroup harmony in the island. As Heather Selma Gregg writes: "Modern-day Sinhalese nationalism, rooted in local myths of being a religiously chosen people and of special progeny, demonstrates that even a religion perceived as inherently peaceful can help fuel violence and hatred in its name."[92]

Buddhist revivalism took place among the Sinhalese to counter Christian missionary influence. The British commissioned the Sinhala translation of the Mahavamsa (which was originally written in Pali), thereby making it accessible to the wider Sinhalese population.[93] During this time the first riot in modern Sri Lankan history broke out in 1883, between Buddhists and Catholics, highlighting the "growing religious divide between the two communities".

The central figure in the formation of modern Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism was the Buddhist revivalist Anagarika Dharmapala (18641933), who has been described as "the father of modern Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism". Dharmapala was hostile to all things un-Sinhalese and non-Buddhist. He insisted that the Sinhalese were racially pure and superior Aryans while the Dravidian Tamils were inferior.[96][97] He popularized the impression that Tamils and Sinhalese had been deadly enemies in Sri Lanka for nearly 2,000 years by quoting the Mahavamsa passages that depicted Tamils as pagan invaders.[98] He characterized the Tamils as "fiercely antagonistic to Buddhism".[99] He also expressed intolerance toward the island's Muslim minorities and other religions in general.[100] Dharmapala also fostered Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism in the spirit of the King Dutthagamani who "rescued Buddhism and our nationalism from oblivion" and stated explicitly that the Island belongs to the Sinhalese Buddhists. Dharmapala has been blamed for laying the groundwork for subsequent Sinhalese Buddhists nationalists to create an ethnocentric state and for hostility to be directed against minorities unwilling to accept such a state.[103]

Upon independence Sinhalese Buddhist elites instituted discriminatory policies based on the Buddhist ethno-nationalist ideology of the Mahavamsa that privileges Sinhalese Buddhist hegemony in the island as Buddha's chosen people for whom the island is a promised land and justifies subjugation of minorities. Sinhalese Buddhist officials saw that decreasing Tamil influence was a necessary part of fostering Buddhist cultural renaissance.[105] The Dutthagamani myth was also used to institute Sinhalese Buddhist domination with some politicians even identifying with such a mytho-historic hero and activist monks looked to Dutthagamani as an example to imitate. This principal hero of Mahavamsa became widely regarded as exemplary by the 20th century Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists because of his defense of Buddhism and the unification of Sri Lanka that journalists started talking about "the Mahavamsa mentality".[106]

D. S. Senanayake, who would become Sri Lanka's first prime minister in 1947, reaffirmed in 1939 the common Mahavamsa-based assumption of the Sinhalese Buddhist responsibility for the island's destiny by proclaiming that the Sinhalese Buddhists "are one blood and one nation. We are a chosen people. Buddha said that his religion would last for 5,500 [sic] years. That means that we, as the custodians of that religion, shall last as long." Buddhists monks became increasingly involved in post-independence politics, promoting Sinhalese Buddhist interests, at the expense of minorities. Walpola Rahula, Sri Lanka's foremost Buddhist monk scholar and one of the leading proponents of Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism, played a major role in advocating for the involvement of monks in politics, using Buddhist king Dutthagamani's relationship with the sangha to bolster his position. Rahula also argued for a just war doctrine to protect Buddhism by using the example of wars waged by Dutthagamani to restore Buddhism. Rahula maintained that "the entire Sinhalese race was united under the banner of the young Gamini [Dutthagamani]. This was the beginning of nationalism among the Sinhalese. It was a new race with healthy young blood, organized under the new order of Buddhism. A kind of religionationalism, which almost amounted to fanaticism, roused the whole Sinhalese people. A non-Buddhist was not regarded as a human being. Evidently all Sinhalese without exception were Buddhists." In reflecting on Rahula's works, anthropologist H.L. Seneviratne writes that, "it suits Rahula to be an advocate of a Buddhism that glorifies social intercourse with lay society ... the receipt of salaries and other forms of material remuneration; ethnic exclusivism and Sinhala Buddhist hegemony; militancy in politics; and violence, war and the spilling of blood in the name of "preserving the religion"".

In 1956, the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress (ACBC) released a report titled, "The Betrayal of Buddhism", inquiring into the status of Buddhism in the island. The report argued that Buddhism had been weakened by external threats such as the Tamil invaders mentioned in the Mahavamsa and later Western colonial powers. It also demanded the state to restore and foster Buddhism and to give preferential treatment to Buddhist schools. The same year, S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike capitalized on the ACBC report and its recommendations as the foundation for his election campaign, using it as the 'blueprint for a broad spectrum of policy', which included introducing Sinhala as the sole official language of the state. With the help of significant number of Buddhist monks and various Sinhalese Buddhist organizations, Bandaranaike became prime minister after winning the 1956 elections. Bandaranaike had also campaigned on the basis of Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism, drawing influences from the writings of Dharmapala and the Mahavamsa, arguing that it was the duty of the government to preserve the Sinhalese Buddhist nature of the island's destiny. Once in power, Bandaranaike implemented the 1956 Sinhala Only Act, which would make Sinhala the country's official language and hence all official state transactions would be conducted in Sinhala. This put non-Sinhala speakers at a disadvantage for employment and educational opportunities. As a result, Tamils protested the policy by staging sit-ins, which in turn prompted counterdemonstrations by Buddhist monks, later degenerating into anti-Tamil riots in which more than one hundred people were injured and Tamil businesses were looted. Riots then spread throughout the country killing hundreds of people. Bandaranaike tried to mitigate tensions over the language policy by proposing a compromise with the Tamil leaders, resulting in a 1957 pact that would allow the use of Tamil as an in administrative language along with Sinhala and greater political autonomy for Tamils. Buddhist monks and other Sinhalese nationalists opposed this pact by staging mass demonstrations and hunger strikes.[110] In an editorial in the same year, a monk asks Bandaranaike to read Mahavamsa and to heed its lessons: "[Dutthagamani] conquered by the sword and united the land [Sri Lanka] without dividing it among our enemies [i.e. the Tamils] and established Sinhala and Buddhism as the state language and religion." In the late 1950s, it had become common for politicians and monks to exploit the Mahavamsa narrative of Dutthagamani to oppose any concession to the Tamil minorities.

With Buddhist monks playing a major role in exerting pressure to abrogate the pact, Bandaranaike acceded to their demands in April 9, 1958 by tearing up "a copy of the pact in front of the assembled monks who clapped in joy". Soon after the pact was abrogated, another series of anti-Tamil riots spread throughout the country, which left hundreds dead and thousands displaced. Preceding the 1958 riots, rhetoric of monks contributed to the perception of Tamils being the enemies of the country and of Buddhism. Both Buddhist monks and laity laid the foundation for the justifiable use of force against Tamils in response to their demand for greater autonomy by arguing that the whole of Sri Lanka was a promised land of the Sinhalese Buddhists and it was the role of the monks to defend a united Sri Lanka. Tamils were also portrayed as threatening interlopers, compared to the Mahavamsa account of the usurper Tamil king Elara. Monks and politicians invoked the story of the Buddhist warrior king Dutthagamani to urge the Sinhalese to fight against Tamils and their claims to the island, thereby providing justification for violence against Tamils. As Tessa J. Bartholomeusz explains: "Tamil claims to a homeland were met with an ideology, linked to a Buddhist story, that legitimated war with just cause: the protection of Sri Lanka for the Sinhala-Buddhist people." In order to appease Tamils amidst the ethnic tension, Bandaranaike modified the Sinhala Only Act to allow Tamil to be used in education and government in Tamil areas and as a result a, Buddhist monk named Talduwe Somarama assassinated him on September 26, 1959. The monk claimed he carried out the assassination "for the greater good of his country, race and religion".[114] It has also been suggested that the monk was guided in part by reading of the Mahavamsa.

Successive governments after Bandaranaike implemented similar Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist agenda, at the expense of minorities. In 1972, the government rewrote its constitution and gave Buddhism "the foremost place [in the Republic of Sri Lanka]" and making it "the duty of the state to protect and foster Buddhism". With another pact in 1965 that sought to establish greater regional autonomy for Tamils being abrogated (some members of the Buddhist clergy were at the forefront in opposing the pact) and the implementation of discriminatory quota system in 1974 that severely restricted Tamil entrance to universities, Tamil youth became radicalized, calling for an independent homeland to be established in the Tamil-dominated northeastern region of the island. In 1977, anti-Tamil riots spread throughout the country, killing hundreds of Tamils and leaving thousands homeless.[116] A leading monk claimed that one of the reasons for the anti-Tamil riots of 1977 was the Tamil demonization of the Sinhalese Buddhist epic hero Dutthagamani which resulted in a justified retaliation. Another anti-Tamil riot erupted in 1981 in Jaffna, where Sinhalese police and paramilitaries destroyed statues of Tamil cultural and religious figures; looted and torched a Hindu temple and Tamil-owned shops and homes; killed four Tamils; and torched the Jaffna Public Library which was of great cultural significance to Tamils.[105] In response to the militant separatist Tamil group LTTE killing 13 Sinhalese soldiers, the largest anti-Tamil pogrom occurred in 1983, leaving between 2,000 and 3,000 of Tamils killed and forcing from 70,000 to 100,000 Tamils into refugee camps, eventually propelling the country into a civil war between the LTTE and the predominately Sinhalese Buddhist Sri Lankan government.[118] In the 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom, Buddhist monks lead rioters in some instance. Cyril Mathew, a Senior Minister in President Jayawardene's Cabinet and a Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist who in the year preceding the pogrom reaffirmed the special relationship between Buddhism and Sinhalese and the Buddhist nature of the country, was also responsible for the pogrom.[119] In the months following the anti-Tamil pogrom, authorizations for violence against Tamils began to appear in the press, with Tamils being depicted as interlopers on Dhammadipa. The Mahavamsa narrative of Dutthagamani and Elara was also invoked to justify violence against Tamils. The aftermath of the pogrom spawned debates over the rights to the island with the "sons of the soil" ideology being called into prominence. A government agent declared that Sri Lanka's manifest destiny "was to uphold the pristine doctrine of Theravada Buddhism". This implied that Sinhalese Buddhists had a sacred claim to Sri Lanka, while the Tamils did not, a claim which might call for violence. The Sinhalese Buddhists, including the Sri Lankan government, resisted the Tamil claim to a separate homeland of their own as the Sinhalese Buddhists maintained that the entire country belonged to them. Another government agent linked the then Prime Minister Jayewardene's attempts to thwart the emergence of a Tamil homeland to Dutthagamani's victory over Elara and went on to say, "[w]e will never allow the country to be divided," thereby justifying violence against Tamils.

In the context of increasing Tamil militant struggle for separatism, militant Buddhist monks founded the Mavbima Surakime Vyaparaya (MSV) or "Movement for the Protection of the Motherland" in 1986 which sought to work with political parties "to maintain territorial unity of Sri Lanka and Sinhalese Buddhist sovereignty over the island". The MSV used the Mahavamsa to justify its goals, which included the usage of force to fight against the Tamil threat and defend the Buddhist state. In 1987, along with the MSV, the JVP (a militant Sinhalese nationalist group which included monks) took up arms to protest the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord which sought to establish peace in Sri Lanka by requiring the Sri Lankan government to make a number of concessions to Tamil demands, including devolution of power to Tamil provinces. The JVP, with the support of the Sangha, launched a campaign of violent insurrection against the government to oppose the accord as the Sinhalese nationalists believed it would compromise the sovereignty of Sri Lanka.[121]

From the beginning of the civil war in 1983 to the end of it in 2009, Buddhist monks were involved in politics and opposed negotiations, ceasefire agreements, or any devolution of power to Tamil minorities, and most supported military solution to the conflict.[124] This has led to Asanga Tilakaratne, head of the Department of Buddhist Philosophy in the Postgraduate Institute of Pali and Buddhist Studies in Colombo, to remark that "the Sinhala Buddhist nationalists are ... opposed to any attempt to solve the ethnic problem by peaceful means; and they call for a 'holy war' against Tamils". It has been argued that the absence of opportunities for power sharing among the different ethnic groups in the island "has been one of the primary factors behind the intensification of the conflict". Numerous Buddhist religious leaders and Buddhist organizations since the country's independence have played a role in mobilizing against the devolution of power to the Tamils. Leading Buddhist monks opposed devolution of power that would grant regional autonomy to Tamils on the basis of Mahavamsa worldview that the entire country is a Buddhist promised land which belongs to the Sinhalese Buddhist people, along with the fear that devolution would eventually lead to separate country.[127][128]

The two major contemporary political parties to advocate for Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism are The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) or "National Heritage Party", the latter of which is composed solely of Buddhist monks. According to A. R. M. Imtiyaz, these groups share common goals: "to uphold Buddhism and establish a link between the state and religion, and to advocate a violent solution to the Tamil question and oppose all form of devolution to the minorities, particularly the Tamils". The JHU, in shunning non-violent solutions to the ethnic conflict, urged young Sinhalese Buddhists to sign up for the army, with as many as 30,000 Sinhalese young men doing just that.[129] One JHU leader even declared that NGOs and certain government servants were traitors and they should be set on fire and burnt due to their opposition to a military solution to the civil war.[130] The international community encouraged a federal structure for Sri Lanka as a peaceful solution to the civil war but any form of Tamil self-determination, even the more limited measure of autonomy, was strongly opposed by hard-line Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist groups such as the JVP and JHU, who pushed for the military solution.[131][132] These groups in their hard-line support for a military solution to the conflict, without any regard for the plight of innocent Tamil civilians,[133] have opposed negotiated settlement, ceasefire agreement, demanded that the Norwegians be removed as peace facilitators, demanded the war to be prosecuted more forcefully and exerted influence in the Rajapaksa government (which they helped to elect), resulting in the brutal military defeat of the LTTE with heavy civilian casualties.[134] The nationalist monks' support of the government's military offense against the LTTE gave "religious legitimacy to the state's claim of protecting the island for the Sinhalese Buddhist majority."[135] President Rajapaksa, in his war against the LTTE, has been compared to the Buddhist king Dutthagamani by the Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists.[136]

Other minority groups have also come under attack by Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists. Fear of country's Buddhist hegemony being challenged by Christian proselytism has driven Buddhist monks and organizations to demonize Christian organizations with one popular monk comparing missionary activity to terrorism; as a result, Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists, including the JVP and JHU, who oppose attempts to convert Buddhists to another religion, support or conduct anti-Christian violence. Number of attacks against Christian churches rose from 14 in 2000 to 146 or over 200 in 2003 and 2004, with extremist Buddhist clergy leading the violence in some areas. Anti-Christian violence has included "beatings, arson, acts of sacrilege, death threats, violent disruption of worship, stoning, abuse, unlawful restraint, and even interference with funerals". It has been noted that the strongest anti-West sentiments accompany the anti-Christian violence since the Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists identify Christianity with the West which they think is conspiring to undermine Buddhism.[137][138]

In the postwar Sri Lanka, ethnic and religious minorities continue face threat from Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism.[139][140][141] There have been continued sporadic attacks on Christian churches by Buddhist extremists who allege Christians of conducting unethical or forced conversion.[142] The Pew Research Center has listed Sri Lanka among the countries with very high religious hostilities in 2012 due to the violence committed by Buddhist monks against Muslim and Christian places of worship.[143] Extremist Buddhist leaders justify their attacks on the places of worship of minorities by arguing that Sri Lanka is the promised land of the Sinhalese Buddhists to safeguard Buddhism.[144][145] The recently formed Buddhist extremist group, the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), or Buddhist Power Force, founded by Buddhist monks in 2012, has been accused of inciting the anti-Muslim riots that killed 4 Muslims and injured 80 in 2014.[146] The leader of the BBS, in linking the government's military victory over the LTTE to the ancient Buddhist king conquest of Tamil king Elara, said that Tamils have been taught a lesson twice and warned other minorities of the same fate if they tried to challenge Sinhalese Buddhist culture.[135] The BBS has been compared to the Taliban, accused of spreading extremism and communal hatred against Muslims[147] and has been described as an "ethno-religious fascist movement".[148] Buddhist monks have also protested against UN Human Rights Council resolution that called for an inquiry into humanitarian abuses and possible war crimes during the civil war.[149] The BBS has received criticism and oppostition from other Buddhist clergy and politicians. Mangala Samaraweera, a Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist politician who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2015, has accused the BBS of being "a representation of Taliban terrorism" and of spreading extremism and communal hatred against Muslims.[150][151] Samaraweera has also alleged that the BBS is secretly funded by the Ministry of Defence.[150][151] Anunayake Bellanwila Wimalaratana, deputy incumbent of Bellanwila Rajamaha Viharaya and President of the Bellanwila Community Development Foundation, has stated that "The views of the Bodu Bala Sena are not the views of the entire Sangha community" and that "We dont use our fists to solve problems, we use our brains".[152] Wataraka Vijitha Thero, a buddhist monk who condemns violence against Muslims and heavily criticized the BBS and the government, has been attacked and tortured for his stances.[153][154][155]

Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism is opposed to Sarvodaya, although they share many of the same influences like Dharmapla's teachings by example, by having a focus upon Sinhalese culture and ethnicity sanctioning the use of violence in defence of dhamma, while Sarvodaya has emphasized the application of Buddhist values in order to transform society and campaigning for peace.[156]

These Buddhist nationalists have been opposed by the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, a self-governance movement led by the Buddhist Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne and based in Buddhist ideals, who condemn the use of violence and the denial of Human rights to Tamils and other non-Buddhists.[157] Ariyaratne calls for non-violent action and he has been actively working for peace in Sri Lanka for many decades, and has stated that the only way to peace is through "the dispelling of the view of 'I and mine' or the shedding of 'self' and the realization of the true doctrines of the interconnection between all animal species and the unity of all humanity,"[158] thus advocating social action in Buddhist terms. He stated in one of his lectures, "When we work towards the welfare of all the means we use have to be based on Truth, Non-violence and Selflessness in conformity with Awakening of All".[159] What Ariyaratne advocates is losing the self in the service of others and attempting to bring others to awakening. Ariyaratne has stated, "I cannot awaken myself unless I help awaken others".[159]

The beginning of "Buddhist violence" in Japan relates to a long history of feuds among Buddhists. The shei or "warrior monks" appeared during the Heian period, although the seeming contradiction in being a Buddhist "warrior monk" caused controversy even at the time.[160] More directly linked is that the Ikk-sh movement was considered an inspiration to Buddhists in the Ikk-ikki rebellion. In Osaka they defended their temple with the slogan "The mercy of Buddha should be recompensed even by pounding flesh to pieces. One's obligation to the Teacher should be recompensed even by smashing bones to bits!"[161]

During World War II, Japanese Buddhist literature from that time, as part of its support of the Japanese war effort, stated "In order to establish eternal peace in East Asia, arousing the great benevolence and compassion of Buddhism, we are sometimes accepting and sometimes forceful. We now have no choice but to exercise the benevolent forcefulness of 'killing one in order that many may live' (issatsu tash). This is something which Mahayana Buddhism approves of only with the greatest of seriousness..."[162] Almost all Japanese Buddhists temples strongly supported Japan's militarization.[163][164][165][166][167][168] These were heavily criticized by the Chinese Buddhists of the era who disputed the validity of the statements made by those Japanese Buddhists supporters of the war. In response the Japanese Pan-Buddhist Society (Myowa Kai) rejected the criticism and stated that "We now have no choice but to exercise the benevolent forcefulness of 'killing one in order that many may live' (issatsu tash)" and that the war was absolutely necessary to implement the dharma in Asia. The society re-examined more than 70 text written by Nichiren and re-edited his writings, making changes in 208 places, cutting all the statements that disagreed with the state Shinto.[169][170] In contrast, a few Japanese Buddhists such as Ichikawa Haku[171] and Senoo Gir opposed this and were targeted. During the 1940s, "leaders of the Honmon Hokkeshu and Soka Kyoiku Gakkai were imprisoned for their defiance of wartime government religious policy, which mandated display of reverence for the state Shinto".[172][173][174] Brian Daizen Victoria, a Buddhist priest in the St Zen sect, documented in his book Zen at War how Buddhist institutions justified Japanese militarism in official publications and cooperated with the Imperial Japanese Army in the Russo-Japanese War and World War II. In response to the book, several sects issued an apology for their wartime support of the government.[175][176]

In more modern times instances of Buddhist-inspired terrorism or militarism have occurred in Japan, such as the assassinations of the League of Blood Incident led by Nissho Inoue, a Nichirenist or fascist-nationalist who preached a self-styled Nichiren Buddhism.[175][177][178]

Aum Shinrikyo, the Japanese new religion and doomsday cult that was the cause of the Tokyo subway sarin attack that killed thirteen people and injured more than a thousand, drew upon a syncretic view of idiosyncratic interpretations of elements of early Indian Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism and Hinduism, taking Shiva as the main image of worship, Christian millennialist ideas from the Book of Revelation, Yoga and the writings of Nostradamus.[179][180] Its founder, Chizuo Matsumoto, claimed that he sought to restore "original Buddhism"[181] and declared himself "Christ",[182] Japan's only fully enlightened master and identified with the "Lamb of God".[183] His purported mission was to take upon himself the sins of the world, and he claimed he could transfer to his followers spiritual power and ultimately take away their sins and bad deeds.[184] While many discount Aum Shinrikyo's Buddhist characteristics and affiliation to Buddhism, scholars often refer to it as an offshoot of Japanese Buddhism,[185] and this was how the movement generally defined and saw itself.[186]

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Definitions

Synonyms

SentencesSentence examples

After having a moment of enlightenment, Bekah was finally able to solve the riddle.

He hoped to achieve a state of enlightenment by attending numerous courses about unfamiliar topics.

Young adults typically seek enlightenment from older people who have more wisdom and experience.

Major advances were made in science and philosophy during The Enlightenment period in Europe.

As a young person, you should take advantage of every opportunity to seek enlightenment from adults.

It was impossible for her to find enlightenment in such a hectic environment.

Derek sought enlightenment from his professors so that he could be more successful in the workplace after graduating.

He encouraged the study of Sanskrit, and furthered schemes for the enlightenment and amelioration of the Hindus.

A valiant soldier and a man of much enlightenment, John Albert was a poor politician, recklessly sacrificing the future to the present.

The people exhibit every stage of human progress, and every type of human enlightenment and superstition from the educated classes to primitive hill tribes.

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Puritan society found these new ideas of thought to be extremely radical in comparison to what they believed which was a belief of strong rational religion and morality.... [tags: Age of Reason, Revolution]796 words(2.3 pages)Better Essays[preview] Age of Enlightenment - The 18th century is referred to as the Age of Enlightenment. The trends in thought and letters from Europe to the American colonies brought a new light and attention upon mankind. This new movement described a time in Western philosophy and cultural life in which reason was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority. To understand the natural world and humankinds place in it solely on the basis of reason and without turning to religious belief was the goal of the wide-ranging intellectual movement (Hackett).... 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This brief quotation was spoken by the famous writer and philosopher Voltaire; I believe it vaguely points out that some people are full of absurd ideas, and for others to follow such nonsense is foolish. The quote is just a taste of Voltaires wisdom and knowledge of the world, during the Age of Reason. The Age of Reason or The Enlightenment is defined as a change in not just a way of thinking, but an establishment of values and rational actions.... [tags: Enlightenment]:: 5 Works Cited 1167 words(3.3 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Influence of the Enlightenment on American History - It was during and after the American Revolution that many of the main ideas of the Enlightenment were used as the guidelines to help influence things such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The United States was founded on key figures such as Thomas Jefferson, who was greatly influenced by the Enlightenment ideas, which helped shaped the country as well. Great Britian had its own Enlightenment before America, whih was developed by thinkers like John Locke, and many others.... [tags: American History]:: 1 Works Cited 869 words(2.5 pages)Better Essays[preview] Romanticism as a Reaction to the Enlightenment - Romanticism as a Reaction to the Enlightenment The epoch known as the Age of Reason, or the Enlightenment, was a secular intellectual movement that looked to reason as an explanation of the world. The Enlightenment began in 1687 with the publishing of Sir Isaac Newtons Principia and ended in 1789 with the French Revolution (Fiero 134). The epoch of Romanticism was a reaction to the rationalism of the Enlightenment. The movement of Romanticism began in 1760 and ended in 1871. Romanticism as a movement was a reaction to the Enlightenment as a cultural movement, an aesthetic style, and an attitude of mind (210).... 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Being the largest and richest organization in the world for centuries gave The Church the ability to squash any free thinkers. Before the printing press, the majority of the educated and literate were the christian monks who controlled the information, mostly religious texts, and delivered this selected information to the ignorant masses.... [tags: Philosophy]785 words(2.2 pages)Better Essays[preview] The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment - ... (7) It was believed that God had created the universe for man, and that he had given the central position in his creation to man, giving people a profound sense of security however Copernicus theory took away mans central position in the universe. (7) The new scientific discoveries were detrimental to authority as they fostered doubt uncertainty, anxiety and threated belief in the faith (*), however the full implications of these discoveries were not fully understood by people during the scientific revolution.... 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During the Neo-Classical era, many world famous writers such as Jean-Baptiste Poquelin known by Moliere, Jonathan Swift, and Francois-Marie Arouet know by Voltaire wrote some incredible stories, poems, plays and articles about the age of reason.... [tags: Social Studies]:: 3 Works Cited 1172 words(3.3 pages)Strong Essays[preview] Chan Samadhi: Enlightenment in Buddhism - Buddhas are considered to manifest from Chan Samadhi. Those who lack the skill of Chan Samadhi, cannot become enlightened or attain Buddhhood. Since beings can be born in ignorance, and life remain meaningless if we were to die in confusion, humanity needs to find how it comes to this world and how it will die. Can we be free independently the time when we die. The Chan meditation tell us in order to clear the confusion. The goal of this practice is to attain freedom over birth and death, which is considered to be true freedom the ability to come and to go whenever we want, without afflictions or worries.... 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I'm simply saying that there is a way to be sane. I'm saying that you can get rid of all this insanity created by the past in you. Just by being a simple witness of your thought processes.

It is simply sitting silently, witnessing the thoughts, passing before you. Just witnessing, not interfering not even judging, because the moment you judge you have lost the pure witness. The moment you say this is good, this is bad, you have already jumped onto the thought process.

It takes a little time to create a gap between the witness and the mind. Once the gap is there, you are in for a great surprise, that you are not the mind, that you are the witness, a watcher.

And this process of watching is the very alchemy of real religion. Because as you become more and more deeply rooted in witnessing, thoughts start disappearing. You are, but the mind is utterly empty.

Thats the moment of enlightenment. That is the moment that you become for the first time an unconditioned, sane, really free human being. Osho

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Enlightenment Quotes (1203 quotes)

Personal development covers activities that improve awareness and identity, develop talents and potential, build human capital and facilitate employability, enhance the quality of life and contribute to the realization of dreams and aspirations. Personal development takes place over the course of a person's entire life.[1] Not limited to self-help, the concept involves formal and informal activities for developing others in roles such as teacher, guide, counselor, manager, life coach or mentor. When personal development takes place in the context of institutions, it refers to the methods, programs, tools, techniques, and assessment systems that support human development at the individual level in organizations.[2]

Among other things, personal development may include the following activities:

Personal development can also include developing other people. This may take place through roles such as those of a teacher or mentor, either through a personal competency (such as the alleged skill of certain managers in developing the potential of employees) or through a professional service (such as providing training, assessment or coaching).

Beyond improving oneself and developing others, "personal development" labels a field of practice and research:

Any sort of developmentwhether economic, political, biological, organisational or personalrequires a framework if one wishes to know whether a change has actually occurred.[3][need quotation to verify] In the case of personal development, an individual often functions as the primary judge of improvement or of regression, but validation of objective improvement requires assessment using standard criteria. Personal-development frameworks may include:

Personal development as an industry[4] has several business relationship formats of operating. The main ways are business-to-consumer and business-to-business. However, there are two newer ways increasing in prevalence: consumer-to-business and consumer-to-consumer.

The business-to-consumer market involves selling books, courses and techniques to individuals, such as:

Some programs are delivered online and many include tools sold with a program, such as motivational books for self-help, recipes for weight-loss or technical manuals for yoga and martial-arts programs.

A partial list of personal development offerings on the business-to-individual market might include:

The business-to-business market also involves programs in this case ones sold to companies and to governments to assess potential, to improve effectiveness, to manage work-life balance or to prepare some entity for a new role in an organization. The goals of these programs are defined[by whom?] with the institution or by the institution and the results are assessed.[by whom?][citation needed] Universities and business schools also contract programs to external specialist firms or to individuals.[citation needed]

A partial list of business-to-business programs might include:

Some consulting firms specialize in personal development[5] but as of 2009[update] generalist firms operating in the fields of human resources, recruitment and organizational strategy have entered what they perceive as a growing market,[6] not to mention smaller firms and self-employed professionals who provide consulting, training and coaching.

Additionally, the International Alliance for Personal Development Professionals (IAPDP), an international group launched in 2015 to support professionals in the self-help and personal development industry.

Major religions such as the Abrahamic and Indian religions as well as New Age philosophies have used practices such as prayer, music, dance, singing, chanting, poetry, writing, sports and martial arts. These practices have various functions, such as health or aesthetic satisfaction, but they may also link[citation needed] to "final goals" of personal development such as discovering the meaning of life or living the good life (compare philosophy).

Michel Foucault describes in Care of the Self[7] the techniques of epimelia used in ancient Greece and Rome, which included dieting, exercise, sexual abstinence, contemplation, prayer and confessionsome of which also became important practices within different branches of Christianity.

In yoga, a discipline originating in India, possibly over 3000 years ago, personal-development techniques include meditation, rhythmic breathing, stretching and postures.

"Yi"Wushu and T'ai chi ch'uan utilise traditional Chinese techniques, including breathing and energy exercises, meditation, martial arts, as well as practices linked to traditional Chinese medicine, such as dieting, massage and acupuncture.

In Islam, which arose almost 1500 years ago in the Middle East, personal-development techniques include ritual prayer, recitation of the Qur'an, pilgrimage, fasting and tazkiyah (purification of the soul).[citation needed]

Two individual ancient philosophers: Aristotle and the Western Tradition and Confucius and the Eastern Tradition stand out as major sources [8] of what has become personal development in the 21st century, representing a Western tradition and an East Asian tradition. Elsewhere anonymous founders of schools of self-development appear endemic note the traditions of the Indian sub-continent in this regard.

Some ancient Indians aspired to "beingness, wisdom and happiness".[9]

The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 BCE 322 BCE) influenced theories[which?] of personal development in the West. In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle defined personal development as a category of phronesis or practical wisdom, where the practice of virtues (arte) leads to eudaimonia,[10] commonly translated as "happiness" but more accurately understood as "human flourishing" or "living well".[11] Aristotle continues to influence the Western concept of personal development to this day[update], particularly in the economics of human development[12] and in positive psychology.[13]

In Chinese tradition, Confucius (around 551 BCE 479 BCE) founded an ongoing philosophy. His ideas continue to influence family values, education and management in China and East Asia. In his Great Learning Confucius wrote:

The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the kingdom, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.[14]

Psychology became linked to personal development in the early 20th century starting with Alfred Adler (18701937) and Carl Jung (18751961).

Adler refused to limit psychology to analysis, making the important point that aspirations look forward and do not limit themselves to unconscious drives or to childhood experiences.[15] He also originated the concepts of lifestyle (1929he defined "lifestyle" as an individual's characteristic approach to life, in facing problems) and of self image,[citation needed] a concept that influenced management under the heading of work-life balance.[clarification needed]

Carl Gustav Jung made contributions to personal development with his concept of individuation, which he saw as the drive of the individual to achieve the wholeness and balance of the Self.[16]

Daniel Levinson (19201994) developed Jung's early concept of "life stages" and included a sociological perspective. Levinson proposed that personal development come under the influencethroughout lifeof aspirations, which he called "the Dream":

Whatever the nature of his Dream, a young man has the developmental task of giving it greater definition and finding ways to live it out. It makes a great difference in his growth whether his initial life structure is consonant with and infused by the Dream, or opposed to it. If the Dream remains unconnected to his life it may simply die, and with it his sense of aliveness and purpose.[17]

Levinson's model of seven life-stages has been considerably modified[by whom?] due to sociological changes[which?] in the lifecycle.[18]

Research on success in reaching goals, as undertaken by Albert Bandura (born 1925), suggested that self-efficacy[19] best explains why people with the same level of knowledge and skills get very different results. According to Bandura self-confidence functions as a powerful predictor of success because:[20]

In 1998 Martin Seligman won election to a one-year term as President of the American Psychological Association and proposed a new focus: on healthy individuals[citation needed] rather than on pathology (he created the "positive psychology" current)

We have discovered that there is a set of human strengths that are the most likely buffers against mental illness: courage, optimism, interpersonal skill, work ethic, hope, honesty and perseverance. Much of the task of prevention will be to create a science of human strength whose mission will be to foster these virtues in young people.[21]

Personal development has been at the heart of education in the West[citation needed] in the form of the Greek philosophers;[which?] and in the East[citation needed] with Confucius. Some people[which?] emphasize personal development as a part of higher education. Wilhelm von Humboldt, who founded the University of Berlin (since 1949: Humboldt University of Berlin) in 1810, made a statement interpretable[by whom?] as referring to personal development: if there is one thing more than another which absolutely requires free activity on the part of the individual, it is precisely education, whose object it is to develop the individual.[22]

During the 1960s a large increase in the number of students on American campuses[23] led to research on the personal development needs of undergraduate students. Arthur Chickering defined seven vectors of personal development[24] for young adults during their undergraduate years:

In the UK, personal development took a central place in university policy[citation needed] in 1997 when the Dearing Report[25] declared that universities should go beyond academic teaching to provide students with personal development.[citation needed] In 2001 a Quality Assessment Agency for UK universities produced guidelines[26] for universities to enhance personal development as:

* a structured and supported process undertaken by an individual to reflect upon their own learning, performance and / or achievement and to plan for their personal, educational and career development;* objectives related explicitly to student development; to improve the capacity of students to understand what and how they are learning, and to review, plan and take responsibility for their own learning

In the 1990s, business schools began to set up specific personal-development programs for leadership and career orientation and in 1998 the European Foundation for Management Development set up the EQUIS accreditation system which specified that personal development must form part of the learning process through internships, working on team projects and going abroad for work or exchange programs.[citation needed]

The first personal development certification required for business school graduation originated in 2002 as a partnership between Metizo,[27] a personal-development consulting firm, and the Euromed Management School[28] in Marseilles: students must not only complete assignments but also demonstrate self-awareness and achievement of personal-development competencies.

As an academic department personal development has become[when?] a specific discipline, usually associated with business schools.[29] As an area of research, personal development draws on links to other academic disciplines:

Abraham Maslow (19081970), proposed a hierarchy of needs with self actualization at the top, defined as:[30]

the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming.

Since Maslow himself believed that only a small minority of people self-actualizehe estimated one percent[31]his hierarchy of needs had the consequence that organizations came to regard self-actualization or personal development as occurring at the top of the organizational pyramid, while job security and good working conditions would fulfill the needs of the mass of employees.[citation needed]

As organizations and labor markets became more global, responsibility for development shifted from the company to the individual.[clarification needed] In 1999 management thinker Peter Drucker wrote in the Harvard Business Review:

We live in an age of unprecedented opportunity: if you've got ambition and smarts, you can rise to the top of your chosen profession, regardless of where you started out. But with opportunity comes responsibility. Companies today aren't managing their employees' careers; knowledge workers must, effectively, be their own chief executive officers. It's up to you to carve out your place, to know when to change course, and to keep yourself engaged and productive during a work life that may span some 50 years.[32]

Management professors Sumantra Ghoshal of the London Business School and Christopher Bartlett of the Harvard Business School wrote in 1997 that companies must manage people individually and establish a new work contract.[33] On the one hand the company must allegedly recognize that personal development creates economic value: "market performance flows not from the omnipotent wisdom of top managers but from the initiative, creativity and skills of all employees".

On the other hand, employees should recognize that their work includes personal development and "... embrace the invigorating force of continuous learning and personal development".

The 1997 publication of Ghoshal's and Bartlett's Individualized Corporation corresponded to a change in career development from a system of predefined paths defined by companies, to a strategy defined by the individual and matched to the needs of organizations in an open landscape of possibilities.[citation needed] Another contribution to the study of career development came with the recognition that women's careers show specific personal needs and different development paths from men. The 2007 study of women's careers by Sylvia Ann Hewlett Off-Ramps and On-Ramps[34] had a major impact on the way companies view careers.[citation needed] Further work on the career as a personal development process came from study by Herminia Ibarra in her Working Identity on the relationship with career change and identity change,[35] indicating that priorities of work and lifestyle continually develop through life.

Personal development programs in companies fall into two categories: the provision of employee benefits and the fostering of development strategies.

Employee benefits have the purpose of improving satisfaction, motivation and loyalty.[citation needed] Employee surveys may help organizations find out personal-development needs, preferences and problems, and they use the results to design benefits programs.[citation needed] Typical programs in this category include:

Many such programs resemble programs that some employees might conceivably pay for themselves outside work: yoga, sports, martial arts, money-management, positive psychology, NLP, etc.[citation needed]

As an investment, personal development programs have the goal of increasing human capital or improving productivity, innovation or quality. Proponents actually see such programs not as a cost but as an investment with results linked to an organization's strategic development goals. Employees gain access to these investment-oriented programs by selection according to the value and future potential of the employee, usually defined in a talent management architecture including populations such as new hires, perceived high-potential employees, perceived key employees, sales staff, research staff and perceived future leaders.[citation needed] Organizations may also offer other (non-investment-oriented) programs to many or even all employees. Typical programs[which?] focus on career-development, personal effectiveness, teamwork, and competency-development. Personal development also forms an element in management tools such as personal development planning, assessing one's level of ability using a competency grid, or getting feedback from a 360 questionnaire filled in by colleagues at different levels in the organization.

A common criticism[36] surrounding personal development programs is that they are often treated as an arbitrary performance management tool to pay lip service to, but ultimately ignored. As such, many companies have decided to replace personal development programs with SMART Personal Development Objectives, which are regularly reviewed and updated. Personal Development Objectives help employees achieve career goals and improve overall performance.

Scholars have targeted self-help claims as misleading and incorrect. In 2005, Steve Salerno portrayed the American self-help movementhe uses the acronym SHAM: The Self-Help and Actualization Movementnot only as ineffective in achieving its goals, but also as socially harmful. 'Salerno says that 80 percent of self-help and motivational customers are repeat customers and they keep coming back whether the program worked for them or not'.[citation needed] Others similarly point out that with self-help books 'supply increases the demand...The more people read them, the more they think they need them...more like an addiction than an alliance'.[citation needed] Self-help writers have been described as working 'in the area of the ideological, the imagined, the narrativized....although a veneer of scientism permeates the[ir] work, there is also an underlying armature of moralizing'.[37]

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Personal development - Wikipedia

(Part I)

While the Renaissance, with its roots in Christian art and doctrine, created solid foundations for the flourishing of art, architecture, philosophy, science and mathematics, free thought was still restricted. This period of restriction continued until the Enlightenment, a period where, free of the shackles of religious dogma, free thinkers could expand human knowledge at a rate never before seen.

Don't miss these related articles:

Science And The Enlightenment - Part II

Immanuel Kant (1784)

The Biblical worldview of the Renaissance held sway and any scientific findings deviating from this were regarded as bordering upon blasphemy. Copernicus and Galileo the two foremost casualties of theological interference, with Galileo placed under house arrest by the notorious Inquisition. This period of restriction continued until the Enlightenment. The evidence building up against religious doctrine, irrefutably contradicting the Biblical timeline, burst forth in an unstoppable torrent, aided by the work of scholars and philosophers across Europe. This Scientific Revolution, which began during the 17th century, became a catalyst for a new philosophy, one that permeated every level of human society and placed the emphasis for change on humanity rather than intangible gods. The Age of Enlightenment, a phrase coined by the German philosopher, Immanuel Kant (22 April 1724 12 February 1804), represents the change from antiquity to modernity, the period in history where the modern world began and science replaced superstition.

It is extremely difficult to state exactly where the Age of Enlightenment began, because it blended into the Renaissance and varied from discipline to discipline, but many historians point to the Scientific Revolution of the 17th Century as the precursor. The later half of this century saw minds such as Descartes, Newton, Leibniz, and Galileo begin to change scientific thought, their views even trickling downwards to the common man. For the intents of this article, we will begin the Enlightenment at the time of Newtons publication of Principia (1687), and end it with the French Revolution of 1789, a time of social change in continental Europe, and a period when the Industrial Revolution of England had gathered momentum. Isaac Newton (4 January 1643 31 March 1727) devised a physical model of the universe that tore apart the intricate models created by the Ancient Greeks, building his system upon gravity and mechanics and fuelling an explosion of humanistic thought.

This change in thought coalesced around the philosophy of minds such as Newton and John Locke (1632 1704), and it was based upon transforming society and describing knowledge in terms of human experience rather than Biblical tenets.

Western Europe, largely due to the wealth flowing in from colonialism, moved away from agrarian economies, and underwent a rapid process of urbanization. Not only did this population migration generate wealth, but urbanization also allowed academics and thinkers to congregate and share ideas, with cities such as London, Paris, and Edinburgh becoming strongholds of Enlightenment thought. Away from Catholicism, England flourished and began to produce some of the greatest philosophers, scientists, engineers, and fomented the Industrial Revolution, as wealth flowed from the New World and Asia. During this Age of Reason, scholars adopted empiricism, proposing the idea that theories should be based upon human observations and experience. The universe operated like a soulless machine, without the hand of God behind every unexplained phenomenon, although many scholars, even Newton, felt that there was room for a creator, the Uncaused Cause of Aristotle. This new definition of knowledge permeated every aspect of human society, including art and culture, and the rapid accumulation of knowledge, free from religious overtones, saw science start to split into separate disciplines as the age of the great polymaths ended. Scholars and philosophers rebelled against the restrictions of Christianity and used science and metaphysics to question and probe the universe. Reflecting the politics of the time, Europe became much more secular and science, in turn, tore apart the roots of Biblical literalism and absolutism. Philosophers, such as Descartes (31 March 1596 11 February 1650), had already questioned the nature of the soul and envisioned a purely physical and mechanical universe, postulating that animals and the body were automatons, with only the soul elevating humanity. Money began to flow into research, and the easy availability of such inventions as the microscope, telescope, and barometer gave scholars the means to make accurate observations, conducting experiments as they refined the scientific method into its modern form. Books were cheaper than ever before, and the improvement in roads and transportation allowed ideas to flow freely, with men such as Newton and Leibniz (July 1, 1646 November 14, 1716) conducting fierce debates by letter. Scientific societies sprang up, offering places to share and refine ideas, as well as give some semblance of peer review and criticism.

The overarching goal of the Enlightenment thinkers was social reform, and they provided the first real challenge to the autocracy and theocracy that had dominated society for so long, with science one of the foremost tools for promoting change. Trade and commerce replaced agriculture, which largely became outsourced to the colonies and the New World. Europe, after the earlier deprivations of plague, famine and war, transformed into rich and abundant societies, with more time devoted to the pleasures of life. As was the case with the Greeks and Islamic scholars, this allowed resources to be channeled into academia and research. The Age of Enlightenment was characterized by optimism, a feeling that humanity could change the world and rectify any mistakes of the past. Rather than Aristotelian metaphysics and abstract musings about the philosophical framework of the universe, philosophers began to look at the nature of knowledge itself, throwing out theology and understanding that humanity could influence nature rather than be subject to the whims of fickle Gods. Knowledge served humanity, not religion, and the ideas of original sin and asceticism declined. According to the Enlightenment philosophers, man was governed by Natural Law, not archaic commandments written in a pre-historic book, and science expanded, away from the strongholds of physics, astronomy, natural science and alchemy/chemistry into economics, social science and political science. This trend was an offshoot of the belief that anything could be studied and broken down by science, that explanations were available through observation and experimentation rather than philosophy.

This idea of a mechanistic framework for human society and for the universe itself became the bedrock of modern society, with Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Isaac Newton and John Locke becoming the founding fathers of the Enlightenment, possibly the biggest change in human society of all time, the transition from the ancient into the modern world. The science of man became the dominating force.

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Science and the Enlightenment - A Scientific Revolution

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Introduction To Prem Nagar Ashram

Shri Prem Nagar Ashram is the premier Ashram established by Shri Hans Ji Maharaj and further developed by Jagat Janani Shri Mata Ji andShri Satpal Ji Maharaj.

Situated on the banks of Ganges, Hardwar is one of the holiest pilgrimage places in India. For thousands of years, it has been the chosen retreat of saints, sages and pilgrims who after retiring from worldly involvement pursued a solitary life of study, meditation & austerity.

Shri Prem Nagar Ashram is situated on Jwalapur Road, 3 kilometres from the town of Hardwar, between the major pilgrimage places of Hardwar, Jwalapur and Kankhal. Located as it is between the swiftly-flowing yet serene Ganges and the foothills of the Himalayas, it is an ideal and tranquil setting for spiritual practice. The twin peaks of Chandi Devi and Mansa Devi, capped by temples, are visible from the Ashram. The sounds of nearby temple bells and devotional songs are carried on the morning and evening breezes, mingling with birdsong and augmenting the peaceful and contemplative atmosphere of the Ashram.

Founded in 1944 by Yogiraj Satgurudev Shri Hans Ji Maharaj, the building and shaping of Prem Nagar was his and his devotees' labour of love. When the land was purchased, it was rocky and overgrown with thorny scrub, and its only inhabitants were snakes and scorpions, Yet Shri Hans Ji Maharaj had a vision:

"From here to the street, well construct a long driveway bordered by beautiful gardens. Well build seven arches along it. Over there well build a huge satsang hall which will be adorned with quotations from the saints and divine Masters of all religions. The driveway gardens will be decorated with fountains, benches and flowerbeds. The pathway itself will have raised borders carrying quotations from saints and scriptures about the spiritual experience, service, love and devotion. Devotees will read them as they walk down the path, and this will purify their minds and prepare them for satsang and meeting the spiritual Master."

This dream has come true, through the combined efforts of Masters and devotees over the years. From 1950 onwards the work began in earnest. Devotees got together to level the land and construct a hut where Shri Hans Ji Maharaj and a few devotees lived. From this humble beginning it has grown into a huge and uniquely beautiful showplace of more than 1000 rooms.

As Shri Hans Ji Maharaj said, "I have been offered donations large enough to complete the construction of this Ashram, but that is not what I want. I prefer to give each and every devotee a chance to participate in this holy and meritorious work. Service is the expression of love, and this kind of spontaneous loving service will gradually build Prem Nagar, the City of Love."

He further said, "Anyone entering Prem Nagar will be blessed with spiritual knowledge and service in this Ashram will give incredible merit towards higher life and salvation."

Indian ashrams are traditionally places where saints and sages practise meditation and where spiritual knowledge is passed on from Master to disciple. The ashram represents purity, virtue, spirituality and high ideals. It is a place for sharing the highest wisdom. Not just retreats, ashrams are ideally centers of learning, similar to the great monasteries of Europe. Here, sincere aspirants are initiated into the techniques of meditation, along with learning the art of selfless service and studying the scriptures and teachings of the Saints and Masters.

Prem Nagar enshrines the twin ideals of service and meditation. As soon as a person enters the front gate, he experiences the aura of peace.The scriptural quotations lining the main driveway illustrate the fundamental unity of all religions, which is Self-realization and merging of the individual soul with God.

The beauty of the Ashram is further enhanced by approximately 250 varieties of flowers and different types of trees. On the eastern extremity of the Ashram is the Ganges, on the bank of which bathing facilities ('ghats') have been constructed. Shri Hans Ji Maharaj passed away in 1966, and in his memory a shrine was built by his wife, Shri Mata Rajeshwari Devi, and his son, Shri Satpal Ji Maharaj, who took over the reins of his mission and continued his noble work. Under their guidance the Ashram flourished and expanded, growing more beautiful year by year.

Shri Hans Ji Maharaj, from the Himalayan district of Uttarakhand, was an enlightened master in the tradition of the divine masters such as Lord Rama, Lord Krishna, Shri Shankaracharya, Guru Nanak, Jesus Christ, Lord Buddha and Shri Ramakrishna, who came into the world to free people from blind faith, ignorance, superstition and misery by means of the practical technique of Spiritual Knowledge which leads to the direct realization of the self.

The noble work of Shri Hans Ji Maharaj is being carried on by his eldest son, Shri Satpal Ji Maharaj, who was born in Kankhal (Haridwar) on Sept 21, 1951. His innate leadership and organising abilities, as well as his inherent spirituality, started manifesting themselves even in his childhood, so that, when the time came, he dedicated himself to his father's work with characteristic zeal and efficiency. Totally devoted to his own Master, and never veering from the high ideals and moral integrity of his teachings, Shri Satpal Ji Maharaj demonstrated the path of service and sacrifice in his own life.

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Prem Nagar Ashram

The consequences of Gold Truth, such as it is but has not yet been revealed, are beyond sobering. If the Gold Truth is that USG, Inc. does not possess and own the gold it has promised the world that it owns and possesses, every last shred of monetary, fiscal, financial, economic and moral authority that USG, Inc. still possesses would be destroyed in a matter of seconds. And it is virtually impossible to see how the U.S. dollar could survive such a revelation without plummeting. Stewart Dougherty

Stewart Dougherty has written another compelling, thought-provoking essay about gold and the United States Governments intentional omission of gold as the foundation of monetary and fiscal policy. Please note that Mr. Doughterys view of Trump does not represent IRDs view of Trump or his efforts as President.

Passivity is fatal to us. Our goal is to make the enemy passive. Communism is notlove. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy. Mao Tse-tung, proclaiming the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, 1949

Circumstantial evidence is mounting high that there is something seriously wrong with the amount of gold reportedly owned by the United States government, or more precisely, the American people.

After nearly two generations of being brainwashed into believing that gold is a meaningless relic, western citizens have lost all concept of golds crucial monetary importance. If it turns out that the United States does not, in fact, possess and own the gold it claims to, the monetary, fiscal, economic, and humanitarian fallout will be unprecedented in its destructiveness. Unfortunately, the people have no idea what is at stake.

The largest corporation in the world, by far, is the United States government. No other corporation has anything even close to its $3.4 trillion in annual revenues, and $4.4 trillion in annual expenses. And no other corporation has ever suffered multiple annual losses exceeding $1 trillion dollars, nor could it have, as such losses would have financially annihilated it. To be able to print money at will and without limit, as USG, Inc. can do, has blinded it to the powerful beast called Consequences that is slowly and methodically hunting it down.

USG, Inc. employs thousands of accountants, many of whom work at the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO prepares detailed budgets, one of which looks forward thirty years, and then extrapolates the numerical trends for an additional forty-five years, for a total forward horizon of 75 years. The 2015 report examines USG, Inc.s projected performance until the year 2090. According to that report, not only will USG, Inc. lose money every single year for the next 75 years, the losses will actually accelerate each year and total more than $300 trillion. In 2047 alone, the deficit is estimated to be $5.3 trillion, on a cash accounting basis. On an accrual accounting basis, it will be far worse, if USG, Inc. even makes it to that point in its current state, something we find it difficult to envision. It is arithmetically impossible for the dollar to avoid destruction in such a scenario.

It should be no surprise that USG, Inc.s finances are such a disaster, because for the past generation and longer, the CEOs of USG, Inc. have never in their lives held real jobs in the productive economy, other than GW Bushs brief stints as a member of an oil and then a baseball investor group, which is not the kind of real job we mean. Instead, these CEOs have all been professional politicians, who by definition do not contribute to the real economy, but rather, feed upon it.

This pattern was about to repeat itself in 2016, with the Deep States planned installation of Hillary Clinton into the CEO role at USG, Inc. Clinton, too, has never in her life had a real job in the productive economy, and has precisely zero experience managing anything even beginning to resemble a massive corporation with millions of employees and projected $1+ trillion, accelerating annual losses extending as far as eyes can see. This is exactly what the Deep State wanted: a corrupt, financially clueless, ideological figurehead, who would be oblivious as they ramped up the looting of USG, Inc. to a new level of rapaciousness while she was busy hectoring the nations producers and taxpayers about their deplorable selves. It is this looting that is the precise reason why USG, Inc. is now drowning in losses and debt, and is strategically paralyzed.

While anyone with any common sense would immediately understand that it would be ridiculous to expect that someone with zero education, training or experience in engineering could oversee the design of a spacecraft capable of landing on Mars, or that someone with zero medical education, training or experience could successfully conduct brain surgery, for some unfathomable reason, people think that someone with zero business education, training or experience can successfully manage the worlds largest corporation. USG, Inc.s catastrophic financial results demonstrate the regrettable stupidity of that thought.

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Investment Research Dynamics

Self-improvement or personal development is a conscious effort that is focused towards getting yourself out of the mundane banalities of life. This is when a strong desire prevails that takes you where you want to be, helps you grow into the person that you have been longing for and allows you to elevate your life by bringing positive changes.

Self-improvement, therefore, is the path that leads you to a happy and healthy state of being. It tries to help you develop your personality in such a manner that even makes people around you happy too. Thus, if you want to fulfill the goal of achieving an invigorated self, you must also be ready to undergo various challenging physical and emotional situations.

This is how an attitude of constant personal development helps you:

Want to start walking this path? The following are self-improvement skills that will provide you with abundant long-term benefits:

Time management is the first step towards self-improvement, for it is important that you balance the conflicting demands of time. You have to equally give time to your professional and personal life.

Once you have identified to improve how you manage your time, you can begin to adjust your routines and patterns of behavior. When you start organizing your time in a better way, you increase your efficiency and ability to utilize your time where it really counts.

In order to be productive in terms of managing your time, you need to prioritize your goals and shut down distractions like emails, co-workers, and social media.

When there is stress, your sleep habits are normally getting disturbed as well. Today, many sleep disorders like insomnia are having negative implications for peoples health. Insomnia, in turn, is associated with many life-threatening diseases such as cancer, chronic pain, hypertension, arthritis, fibromyalgia, and depression.

Sleep is also very important for resetting your body and brain functions. There are many animals that go into hibernation in order to reset their bodies. For example, Grizzly bears and polar bears go for six months in hibernation; or snails can hibernate for as many as three years!

Clearly, sleep is important for every living being as much as it is for humans. Maybe we should learn a little bit from nature.

The power of listening is a highly valuable asset that builds strong relationships and requires you to improve your attention span along with disciplining yourself. Whether you are at a partyor at your workplace, you just dont want to be heard, but to be truly listened to as well.

Active listening is such an important habit that it can even help you get ahead in your career. When youre mindful, youre fully concentrated, you engage in and absorb whatever someone else says to you. Hence, it is a great way of earning the trust and respect of your peers and friends.

Pay attention to what people say and it will help you understand issues, come up with better solutions and deal with problems in a more efficient way.

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is an important step towards self-improvement. When you combine your good nutrition with physical activity and exercise, you basically choose a healthy body as well as a healthy mind.

When you know an action will have a positive impact on your health, you are greatly motivated to perform it. Moreover, while doing so, you will also motivate your family and friends. When you focus on keeping yourself healthy, you are choosing to accumulate more strength in terms of going on a hike, playing your favorite sport and enjoying things and people around you.

In a few words, if you have a healthy lifestyle, youll gain energy, improve your attention span, and even develop a more pleasant mood.

When you are compassionate, you have the motivation and desire to help a suffering person. However, the ultimate aim of being compassionate is to improve your life by helping others improve theirs. Be sure that this will give you peace and inner happiness!

Compassion is the perspective of assuming the best in others. It ensures that you choose to remain happy by making others life happy. When you focus on serving others, you gain a better perspective on your own problems. This way, you can work through your own feelings rather than simply live with them.

Want to help others improve their lives? Become a yoga instructor! Its easier than you might think, there are hundreds of yoga teacher training courses available on the web.

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5 Outstanding Self Improvement Skills You Should Start ...