Impact of Enlightenment on Buddhism in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

The Dalai Lama advocates a “secular morality” in a struggle to go beyond sectarian and ethical boundaries appealing to a common human core. Dalai Lama supports the agreement of faiths in their common objective of refining the human situation. Today Buddhist/Hindu scholars like the scholars of other religions have tried their best to make them compatible with incumbent Buddhism by today’s democratic values. According to Buddhist scholars, Buddhism and liberal self-rule are not only matching with each other but they have maintained a reasonable balance between each other. According to them, self-rule is strengthened by the moral values that were derived directly from the Buddhist ethical theory, which obtained a strong official and practical place and paved the way for liberal democratic theory.