ABSTRACT
The contribution of the iconoclastic Thai monk Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu (1906–93) was primarily as an influential expounder of a reformist hermeneutic intended to reinterpret the traditional teachings of the school known as Theravāda in order to make them more relevant to the day-to-day lives of ordinary lay people (specifically in Thailand) in the modern era. Buddhadāsa also formulated new interpretations of Theravāda doctrines that linked individual behavior with society at large, and so he is widely viewed as a major contributor to “Engaged Buddhism.” Because of his lifelong interpretive and arguably innovative agenda, Buddhadāsa also finds a place among international figures as a prominent Asian Buddhist leader at the forefront of the encounter between Buddhism(s) and “modernity” (Swearer 1989: 1; McMahan 2008: 152).
