Welcome to the website of The Centre for Applied Buddhism. Buddhist philosophy and contemporary life.
When developing and setting up the Centre for Applied Buddhism in 2011, we spent quite some time discussing what we understood by the term Applied Buddhism. We asked questions like what is being applied and to what? The sub title of the centre is ‘Buddhist Philosophy and Contemporary life.’ This then opens up a little more the type of work we want to carry out. We are interested in bringing Buddhist ideas and concepts into modern life and exploring what is of use and value to the issues which we see around us today. The areas of exploration are huge and over time will include such areas and topics as psychotherapy, war, economics, science, the digital world, creativity, conflict and peace, ecology, Human rights and Global citizenship, ethics, gender, and sexuality.
You will see from the home page the areas in which we are working at present. We wish the centre to be a place of inquiry, research and exploration, but also a place of action, for anybody who is interested in these ideas of Buddhist and non-western philosophy and its relevance in today’s world. The work is developed in seminars, conferences, symposiums, workshops, on the internet and other ways still to be discovered. We are already working with various organisations including the Development Education Research Centre at UCL, The Centre for Religion Reconciliation and Peace at the University of Winchester, Eco-Dharma network and Faith for the Climate. We have a great library, a real library with books, which is available to anyone who wishes to carry out research or simply to spend a day reading. We also have a growing loan library. Our approach is personal and accessible and at the hub of all this will be interrelationships, friendship and dialogue. We welcome anyone who would like to collaborate with us on our various areas of interest.