ABSTRACT
Buddhists sometimes describe the relationship between Buddhism and politics by saying that when the Buddha was born it was prophesied that he could either become a ruler of the world, a ‘Wheelturning Monarch’ (cakravartin), or become a Buddha (Khosla 1989: 32;Walshe 1987: 205). This idea – that the roles of secular ruler and spiritual leader are two distinct paths – stands at the heart of Buddhist tradition. Both are leaders: the secular ruler establishes security and prosperity in this world and the Buddha leads the people towards spiritual liberation. This notion of the two separate, but complementary, roles has contributed greatly towards the compatibility of Buddhist ideas on governance and modern Western conceptions of the separation between the church and state.
