Chin Kung: A “Potential” Humanistic Buddhist

The paper aims to demonstrate that Chinese Buddhist monk Chin Kung’s theory of “Buddhism as Education” exemplifies Humanistic Buddhism, even though he never made that claim himself. Humanistic Buddhism is a Buddhist revival movement in China of the 20th Century, which emphasizes this life and this world while playing down concerns about the afterlife and other worlds. It highlighted rationality, with the demotion of Buddhist mystic and supernatural elements. Humanistic Buddhism embodies an inevitable tendency in modern and contemporary development of Chinese Buddhism, and Chin Kung lives in the same era. Therefore this paper attempts to demonstrate Chin Kung’s theory and practice of “Buddhism as Education” can be seen as a contemporary example of Humanistic Buddhism and Chin Kung is a “potential” Humanistic Buddhist, in order to offer a reference to future study on more “potential” Humanistic Buddhists like Chin Kung in China