Buddhism: A Religion of Compassion (1921)
Selected Essays of Allan Bennett, Bhikkhu Ananda Metteyya - (Volume 2 of Allan Bennett, Bhikkhu Ananda Metteyya: Biography and Collected Writings) - Elizabeth J. Harris
Allan Bennett [+]
Allan Bennett (1872-1923) was one of the first British men to gain higher ordination as a Buddhist monk and one of the seminal figures in the development of Buddhism in the UK.
Description
This is one of Allan Bennett’s shortest articles and was published through his Ceylonese friends, in The Buddhist Annual of Ceylon 1921. It shows his thought coming full circle. In his lecture on the Four Noble Truths in 1901, he had summed up Buddhism through the word, ‘pity’. In this article, he argues that the greatest spiritual achievement of Buddhism could be summed up in one word, compassion. His implication is that World War I might not have happened, if this quality had been developed in the west.