Buddhism in a democratic world

Buddhism is a way of life. It is also an attitude. From these two features stems the uniqueness of Buddhism in the world. What is that way of life and how does it integrate itself in the modern world? Buddhism is not thinkable without the towering figure of the Buddha. Let us consider this first and find some clues there as to the adaptability of the way of life he preached to what we call a democratic outlook. Though the Buddha was the founder of the way of life we call Buddhism, he never put his own person into the foreground. Instead, he put there the insight he had won in the shape of the Dhamma. He was a teacher, but such a one that will not make the acceptance of the thing he taught dependent on the fact that it was he who taught it. He never asked anyone to follow him, personally. He asked people to think with him and, having thought, prove their findings reasonable to themselves. He left the personality of the pupil intact. Thus we gather from the attitude of the Buddha himself that in Buddhism personality is respected above all else. Teaching and expounding of the Dhamma is carried on in the most ideal way, with no trace of indoctrination, without coercion. The pupil gives his free assent; if he so decides, with his own mined left in complete Integrity. This is the ideal education we have been striving for all along. Education is a growth of the mind and personality. But just as the garden needs a gardener, so the pupil needs a teacher. The gardener can do no more than to hoe and weed and water. That there shall be flowers and fruits is dependent on the inherent qualities of the plants themselves. In the democratic society we recognize these fundamentals of education. Of late they have been called progressive. Yet we know they are very ancient. We find them practiced by every teacher worthy of the name.