全球人間佛教：以台灣佛教慈濟基金會為例的初探

Globally Engaged Buddhism: The Buddhist Compassion Relief Foundation from Taiwan

晚近二十年來，國內外對於人間佛教的討論方興未艾，各領域相關著作汗牛充棟。對於何謂人間佛教的討論已有相當成就，毋須贅述。本文僅以常被國人討論的台灣佛教慈濟基金會為例，提出：為什麼人間佛教在此時此刻如此重要？並當試初步回答，人間佛教在此時此刻的重要性攸關全球化與在地化的連結。慈濟成功的例子似乎告訴我們：全球化佛教與人間佛教，不但並行不悖，而且相益得彰。本文主要資料來源為西方關於全球化與宗教的文獻回顧，以及Queen對人間佛教（engaged Buddhism）的理論模型，加上本人過去的慈濟研究所蒐集的資料。

Amidst the burgeoning discussions on renjian fojiao (recently translated into ''engaged Buddhism'') in Taiwan, this paper is an attempt to raise and to answer, albeit speculatively, the­-se questions of ''why engaged Buddhist?'' and ''why now?'' by drawing upon my previous re­search of Taiwan's Buddhist Tzu-Chi (Ciji, Compassion Relief) Foundation and relevant liter­atures. It will try to answer these questions by articulating the global and the local, that ''being global'' and ''being engaged'' in some ways mutually perpetuate each other. I will try to lay out the plausibility of this articulation by first depicting the theoretical framework in discussing globalization and religion and then by examining Compassion Relief as an example of engaged Buddhism according to Queen's theory.