Utilitarianism and Consequentialism

There are utilitarian tendencies that go back a very long way. You could see buddhism as to some extent utilitarian, because of its emphasis on compassion for all sentient beings. And i've been having a series of dialogues with the venerable chaw way, who is a female buddhist monastic in tian. We found a considerable overlap between my secular utilitarianism and her enlightened buddhist view. One of the very attractive things about this kind of consequentialism is that it gives clear indications of how we ought to behave,. particularly how we in the west ought to behave.