In Buddhism, as in the Hindu tradition, the concept of dignity appears in different and paradoxical qualities. As in Hinduism, in Buddhism there exists a tension between dignity which is inherent to all living beings and socially embedded dignity which appears in different gradations. In this chapter, I will focus primarily on dignity in classical and Mahāyāna Buddhism.

‘Since beginning-less time’ man is imprisoned in the round of rebirth, and whether he is born as an animal, spirit, human in a high or low class, in hell or even as a divine being, is entirely dependent on karma: action understood as a cause which explains a being's (way of) existence. This is reflected in the idea that the individual is completely responsible for his own existence: what one is depends wholly on one's previous actions – in this life and the ones preceding it. Indeed, in Buddhism we find a type of radical individualism: one's (well)being and fate is in a very fundamental sense an individual affair. This is a basic premise shared by nearly all Indian philosophical and religious traditions, but where Buddhism differs from the others is that it understands existence to be characterized by impermanence and emptiness – everything perishes the moment it comes into existence. This also means that there is in the strict sense no such thing as ‘the self’: beings, like all other things, lack essence. Insight in the nature of existence, combined with concentrational and meditative practices, may allow the individual to realize the end of his own suffering/disquietude: the end of further rebirth, the extinction of the self in nirvāṇa. Thus, in Buddhism, the individual is absolutely responsible for his own existence: his past actions are the cause of his direction towards good or bad or towards the final freedom one may seek by adopting a monk's life and isolating himself from society – solely focused on his individual salvation.