Author: Baidyanath Saraswati
Publisher: D K Printworld
Year: 1999
Language: English
Pages: 262
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8124601240
Description
Over the rolling centuries, ‘peace’ has been a major concern: in religions and, more often, within socio-political contexts. Yet, perhaps ironically, the world history is a long, uninterrupted story of wars and violence. Not long ago-in the aftermath of Hitler’s defeat, the inception of the United Nations held out hopes of a new, free-from-war world order, which the hostile scenario today belies!
Is peace then a dream? A Utopian abstraction in a dehumanized, fragmented world, stock-piling all-devastating war machines? And can we possibly uphold the culture of peace amidst the growing cult of violence and blind consumerism, or in a climate of distrust, acrimony and intolerance? Addressed in this collection of essays are these and other related questions by some of the best minds from different countries of Asia.
Cutting across narrow compartmentalizations of disciplines, the authors try to share, with wider audiences, their concerns for peace, situating their sensuous/intellectual/spiritual experiences in a culture of peace. Also identifying specificities-in terms of peace-threat-ening issues, situations, geographical zones, the volume attempts to show how education, individual responsibility, philosophy, ethics, artistic creativity, collective spirituality, Gandhian non-violence, Sufis’ universal love, and the Buddhist message of compassion and equanimity can reinforce the culture of peace-even in the face of despair.
This volume-6th in the Culture and Development series-is essentially the assemblage of essays presented at the Asian Conference on The Culture of Peace: the Experiences and the Experiments, held on 25-29 November 1996 in New Delhi.
ABOUT THE EDITOR:
BAIDYANATH SARASWATI, Unesco Professor, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi, was associated with the Anthropological Survey of India, Culcutta, for a decade, and another decade with the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. During this period he did extensive fieldwork in rural India and conducted a detailed study of the sacred city of Varanasi.
As a Professor of Visva-Bharati University, Ranchi University and North-Eastern Hill University, he taught anthropology in a highly unconventional style. For the last twelve years, he is drawing out relevant themes from traditional thoughts and modern sciences to build up an indigenous anthropology from within. His research opens up new possibilities for non-Western anthropologists to imagine a future for themselves. He has authored The Sacred Science of Man, The Sacred Science of Nature, as well as other books and articles.
Contents
FOREWORD
PROLOGUE
INTRODUCTION: DIFFUSING GLORY WITH PEACE
PART – I: SHARING THE EXPERIENCE OF BEAUTY AND PEACE
1. The Cosmos and Humanity as a Healing Family
2. The True Meaning of Peace from the Chinese Literary Perspective
3. Buddhist Art, the Mission of Harmonious Culture
4. Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram
5. Creative, Hence a Peaceful Society
6. Peace as Theatrical Experience
Part – II: Examining the Emperical Reality of Beauty and Peace
7. A Dehumanized Environment
8. Modernity and Individual Responsibility
9. The Illusion of Seeking Peace
10. Man in His Becoming: A Change of Perspective
PART – III: WORKING TOWARDS THE RESTORATION OF PEACE
11. Vipassana and the Art of Peaceful Living
12. Buddhist Doctrine and the Culture of Peace
13. Buddhism as a Contribution to Peace in Vietnam
14. Buddhism and Peace: A Personal View
15. The Sufi Paradign of Peace-Makin
16. The Contribution of Indian Sufis to Peace and Amity
17. The Call of the Forest
18. The Culture of Peace: Experiment and Expectation
19. Creativity, Pax Mundi and Gandhi
20. The Culture of Peace versus Materialism and Consumerism
PART – IV: FORMING THE NETWORK OF ACTORS IN PEACE
21. Experiencing Peace while Engaging in Experiments Based on Moral Principles
22. Working Together for Peace: The Asian Perspective
23. Public Opinion and the Movement for Peace
24. An Odyssey of Peace
25. Baha’i Principles of Education and World Peace
26. The United Nations and Permanent Peace in the 21st Century
27. An International Network of Peace
28. Self-Organizing Centres and Networks of Peace
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
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