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Buddhadasa Bhikkhu (1906-1993)
is widely regarded as modern Thailand's most influential Buddhist
philosopher. His thought had a profound intellectual impact in Thailand
in the second half of the twentieth century. His life mission was
to undertake a complete reexamination of Theravada Buddhist teachings.
By returning to the Buddha's original teachings in the Suttapitaka
and by drawing on aspects of Zen Buddhism, Buddhadasa crafted a
vision of Thai Buddhism as a socially, politically, and intellectually
progressive force. This vision of a modern Theravada Buddhism fit
for a modern, democratic, and socially just Thailand continues to
inspire large numbers of Thai people in the twenty-first century.
In this book Peter Jackson examines Buddhadasa's life work and
thought, placing them in the context of the political, economic,
and intellectual changes that transformed Thailand in the twentieth
century. Combining biographical studies with critical philosophical
and sociological analyses of Buddhadasa's reforms of Thai Buddhist
teachings, Peter Jackson emphasizes the path-breaking and often
radical ideas of one of the greatest Buddhist thinkers of the last
century. This book is a revised and expanded edition of Peter Jackson's
Buddhadasa: A Buddhist Thinker for the Modern World, published in
1988. It contains a new epilogue tracing the controversy surrounding
Buddhadasa's death in 1993 and reflecting on the philosopher-monk's
lasting legacy in Thailand.
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