Ethics

So never kill, that's step one in ethics. 

I'm not aware of the Buddha saying the Buddhist ethics is only for those on the path, but I kind of feel like it is. Of course there's a parallel between the 10 precepts and ethics, but you know, the ideals of an enlightened being are going to be not always applicable to those who aren't on the path. I've never really seen a good article on Buddhist ethics. They tend to be more written about by a certain personality with religious status. 

Take for instance you country is invaded by horrible brutal people, who just want to steal your land. Now you could quote Shantideva , give them the other cheek to strike too. That wild point making doesn't really seem practical or advised for regular people. 

So my question today is, is the Dharma allowed to be elaborated for ordinary people? Can we go from the Arupaloka to the Kamaloka or the Rupaloka? (Trailokya)

I'm asking this because of this article: Buddhist Pacifists at War. 

I used to go to talks by visiting speakers in the philosophy department at the University of Wisconsin. One guy said he wouldn't get into a Star Trek transporter because it wouldn't be the same person beamed down. Another argued for the concept of a just war. The example is that fighting Hitler was a just war. I was sort of shocked that, yea, maybe there was a just war, when the other side is unjust. 

The illusion that Buddhists don't war has already been shattered with the collection of essays in Buddhist Warfare, the Wikipedia entry Buddhism and Violence and Zen at War.

Todays post was inspired by this article (Buddhist Pacifists at War in JSTOR Daily). I didn't know about Marici. That post is inspired by an article by Ian Sinclair "War Magic and Just War in Indian Tantric Buddhism" in Social Analysis. 

It's weird, a country can't really be Buddhist, it's going to have a percentage of Buddhist people in the country with varying degrees of taking refuge in the three jewels. But there's an idea that Buddhist countries would not wage war if they were truly Buddhist. That absurdity shows that a country can't be Buddhist. Maybe the highest concentration of people who claim to be Buddhist. Cambodia claims to have 98% Buddhist population. Thailand 93% and Burma 90%.

USA supposedly has 1.2%, up from the 0.7% Pew figure I thought was the number. 

Anyway, that brings me back to ethics, striving towards enlightenment, and not being enlightened and practicing Buddhism. 

I kill insects. This might be a cultural belief and not Buddhist. I just don't think I have to suffer insects inside. Perhaps I haven't transcending my cultural conditioning, perhaps my metta meditation is inadequate. I know people who question your practice if you don't do what they ethically think you should. I'm not even sure the underlying idea that you should focus on yourself and not worry about others is true. More questions than answers when I look into it.

I choose to follow the 10 precepts to the best of my ability out of selfishness. It helps me to meditate, it simplifies life. I've read it leads to the gladdening, and I like the gladdening, selfishly, but also for the benefit of others. Friendly jovial people with joie de vivre are good advertisements for Buddhism, but authenticity is important too. I can't help but think of Troy in Community yelling, "I am not a mascot." He doesn't have to be perfect to represent African Americans, he can just be himself. He was saying that to Shirley who had high religiosity. 

I have witnessed some of the greatest acts of kindness in the sangha, but it's not exclusive to the sangha. I like focusing on virtue, like I like to focus on developing my Buddha nature. 

Is there value in pursuing unrealistic ideals that humans often fall short on? I think so. It's good to aim for things, you're more likely to get somewhere by trying, even if it doesn't go exactly to plan. 

I certainly can adopt a kind of righteous moral tone in essay. I think that can be useful in the body politic. 

I will admit to committing grave ethical mistakes that we'd have to know each other better to go into. I'm often raked through the coals of my harm to others, in my memories, and I have very deep regrets. The remorse for my mistakes has made me think a lot more about ethics. 

I confess ethically to myself in a journal, in the absence of closer spiritual friends. 

tantric sex magic

Just kidding. I want to write about redemption. Even so this is one of my most popular posts.

I remember back in 2010, Brit Hume suggested that Tiger Woods convert from Buddhism to Christianity because Christianity has redemption. I remember at the time a flummoxed Buddhist going on TV to respond to this charge. At the time I was unclear. I wish to muse further on this situation.

Buddhism doesn't have redemption in the sense that Jesus Christ died for our sins, in the sense that we've been kicked out of the garden because Eve gave the apple to Adam. The whole metaphysical contraption of Christianity isn't, obviously, part of Buddhism.

But were there great comeback stories in Buddhism. Of course there were. Did the Buddha think anyone could stage a great comeback? He did hesitate with allowing women into the order, and he gave them more rules, but many think that was quite revolutionary and feminist given the historical context. Of course the story of Angulimala comes to mind. He had a necklace made out of the fingers of the people he killed. When he turned to Buddhism the people stoned him and didn't give him food because they could remember him as a murderer. But that eventually died down and the Buddha taught that you don't run from your problems.

It's not Darth Vader finally acknowledging his son and saving his life type of redemption, but then again no two redemptions are alike.

Thinking about the Tiger Wood situation, obviously he's lost his wife, and by extension full time with his children. I'm sure he visits his children and whatnot, but it's never the same after a divorce. He's been linked to Linsey Vaughn, the great female skier who is injured during these olympics, so his love life has bounced back. He hasn't really won a major since the incident, and the impact on his golfing life has been quite significant. I'm sure he's lost millions and millions of dollars. I don't really know what it's like when you're super rich, what it's like to see some money drift away from you. I'm not sure how bad that really hurts. I don't know his social context, whether people treat him differently or whether he lost any friends. I suppose a real friend sticks by your side even in the bad times, so I guess he lost a lot of friendly acquaintances.

What ever your motivation for "doing good", I would say if it's a kind of redemption motivation, to make up for the bad you've done, well, there's nothing wrong with that. You might realize that it's not easy to tighten things up and "act good". Our lives are a bunch of habits and when we dig a hole, we often find that it wasn't worth it when we start digging out of it. I think that's one of the themes of My Name Is Earl. I think that's the whole point of ethics. It's not to turn you into a sheep, or to flip pleasure upside down and call it bad. The whole point of ethics is that you get hurt by not choosing the best path in life at times, and you really suffer through not being ethical. And that kind of insight is worth all the tantric sex magic in the world.

Long Quote on Confession and Ethics

"For many people, a belief in divine punishment or reward is integral to their sense of the meaning of religion. For instance, on a recent journey to India, I met a Sri Lankan Muslim while I was waiting for a connection at Kuwait airport. He was a nice chap and we got talking. When he heard I was a Buddhist, he started asking me about the violent things that he had seen some Buddhist monks doing in Sri Lanka. I had to agree with him and say, ‘Yes, it’s terrible’, because I knew about them too. He went on to ask, ‘Well, what is there that guarantees morality in Buddhism?’  So I tried to explain about Buddhist ethics, but he could only comment, ‘Well, that’s not enough is it? Who is going to refrain from doing bad things, or care about doing good, if there is no punishment for evil?’  To him it seemed obvious that, if people did not believe there was an all-powerful God waiting to fry them if they stepped out of line, they would throw all moral restraint to the winds.


This attitude is found in all theistic religions. In a sense, it is found in Buddhist societies too, although it does not really fit in with the Buddhist view of things. Bhante has often commented that the gory detail in which some Buddhists speak about the torments of hell is really a means of social control, comparable to similar talk in the theistic religious traditions. It seems that most societies have considered it necessary to frighten the mass of people into morality (or at least into docility). I doubt whether such terror tactics are beneficial or even effective, but this is not the place to explore that question. The point is that this fear of a punishing power has got nothing to do with Buddhist morality as such. We should recognise that some of the difficulties that we typically face in our spiritual lives come from our inability to distinguish remorse from its near enemy, namely the fear of losing love and acceptance, or of being punished (or some poisonous brew concocted from the two)."



(from "Remorse and Confession in the Spiritual Community" By Subhuti)



In a way, there's nothing to add to that, but it's a point I struggle with others.  They want ethics to have more bite.  They want to judge people.  The idea that ethics is something you develop for yourself, that you apply to yourself, is a foreign thing.  People want to hack into others.  In a way, there is something profound about just working on yourself, and letting everyone else sort themselves out.  It's the thing you have most control over.

a fellow Buddhist

There's a woman in my book club, run by the school my son go to, and she's from Sri Lanka. So we had a conversation. She likes Buddhism because it gives an ethical foundation. She doesn't meditate, and she doesn't go to the temple, but she has a Buddhist necklace. She runs a summer camp where the monks teach and play with the children. I'm going to see if I can get my kids to go to that. I found it interesting that she find the ethics to be the most important thing about Buddhism.

I was listening to a patient the other day, and he'd cleared the decks ethically, so to speak, and he was feeling good. It reminds me that in the path of ethics, meditation and insight, we need a grounding in doing well in life, to move on further. I read once, perhaps I'm misplacing it, but "the gladdening". You just get happy because the clouds have parted to a certain degree and there's a new level of clarity.

Another patient of mine has gone on such a spiritual journey, but he's fickle, he flits from one path to the other, and has chosen paths that were more short cuts. It confirmed me with sticking to my tradition, now renamed.