"In America and Europe, everyone is very active. But if you become too active, you lose the essence of Buddhism. You only have the Buddhist labels. One must cultivate peace to be compassionate. Without this, what you do, even as an 'engaged Buddhist' is just a lot of activity with no good purpose."
Sivaraksa as one representative articulating one approach to "Engaged Buddhism." He has had an interesting life filled with jail time and activism. In this video, he calls says strongly that, "The West has been thinking too much." This goes along with what Tsoknyi Rinpoche speaks about in many of his teachings regarding the subtle body problem that seems to be manifest in the western experience - too much thinking creates blocks, cultural blocks, in the body.
This is a good video to show in a discussion about the definition of Engaged Buddhism - what is it? who is engaged or not engaged and how to we figure that out? But, best to give some context about Sivaraksa's life and where his motivation arises to do the work he is doing.
