Humanistic Buddhism

"Humanistic" (human-realm) Buddhism (Chinese: 人間佛教; pinyin: rénjiān fójiào) is a modern philosophy practiced by new religious movements originating from Chinese Buddhism. Humanistic Buddhism places an emphasis on integrating Buddhist practices into everyday life, and shifting the focus of ritual from the dead to the living.

Taixu, a Buddhist modernist, activist and thinker who advocated the reform and renewal of Chinese Buddhism, used the term "Buddhism for Human Life" (Chinese: 人生佛教; pinyin: rénshēng fójiào). The first two characters, "human" and "life", indicating his criticism of several aspects of late Ming dynasty and early Republican Chinese Buddhism that he wished to correct, namely, an emphasis on spirits and ghosts ("human"), and funeral services and rites ("life"). His disciples continued this emphasis.

Taixu also used the term "Buddhism for the Human World", or popularly "Humanistic Buddhism" (Chinese: 人間佛教; pinyin: rénjiān fójiào). It appears that at first the two terms were largely interchangeable. One of Taixu's disciples, Yin Shun, used the term "Humanistic Buddhism" to indicate a criticism against the "deification" of Buddhism, which was another common feature of much of Chinese Buddhism, in his articles and books. It was Yin Shun, and other disciples of Taixu, who brought both of these two terms to Taiwan in the wake of the Republican's defeat during the civil war against the Communist Party of China. It was in Taiwan that the term "Humanistic Buddhism" became the most commonly used term, particularly amongst the religious leaders who originally hailed from China.

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