For most people, the word “Buddhist,” conjures a figure seated in meditation. Yet for Buddhists of various traditions, activism — particularly the kind that champions the environment — is a vital part of their lives.

Engaged Buddhists, as these practitioners are known, value a symbiotic relationship to nature and have long sought to nurture peace and protect the Earth. For Engaged Buddhists, finding the inner path through meditation and non-violence allows activism to grow. Thich Nhat Hanh, the world-renowned Vietnamese peace activist, coined the term “Engaged Buddhism” in the late 1960s. Confronted with the Vietnam War, social injustices, and the destruction of his homeland, Hanh and his sangha (spiritual community) carried the practice of mindfulness and meditation into socio-political realms wherever they found suffering. The “Engaged” part of the phrase signifies the application of one’s spiritual practice on social scale.

Konrad Ryushin Marchaj, a seasoned mountaineer and monk, holds that insight alone makes one an activist. He claims that the term “Engaged Buddhism” is almost redundant. The action-taking place is the enlightenment in itself; in other words, the journey is the goal. “We practice, not to be enlightened, but because we are enlightened,” says Marchaj. “You don’t wait — you just practice and in that practice, that manifestation of compassion, that activism germinating is looking for an outlet of appropriate expression.” — Beliefnet.com