Hi Everybody,
We ended up last time with this key question which is a ctually a sub-title in the book...so what do we mean by morality?
This is a key question in our understanding of Buddhism. Why? Because we are so completely accustomed, conditioned even, to the idea that religions come complete with a clearly defined set of commandments, or dogma, or rules behaviour, that basically tell us the way that we should live, the rules we must observe if we are to live what that particular religion defines as the good life, both for ourselves and for the society we inhabit.
In the western world the ten Commandments might be said to provide the perfect example. So in Judaism and Christianity, they provide what has been described by religious historians as the universal and timeless standard of right and wrong. And so pervasive are they, so embedded are they in the western psyche, that they provide the model, the template so to speak, of what religions do. Even if we are not Jewish or Christian we can make a pretty good shot at listing them....well, most of them! For Jewish believers they cover all the matters of fundamental importance for an individual living in society. The greatest obligation, to worship only God. The greatest injury to another person, murder. The greatest injury to family bonds, adultery. The greatest injury to law or commerce, to bear false witness. The greatest generational obligation, to honour your mother and father. And the greatest obligation to the community in which you live, to be truthful and not to covet or steal your neighbour's goods.
When Christianity broke away from its Jewish rootsit took the Ten Commandments with it. When Protestantism broke away from Catholic theology, it did the same. So little wonder that the yprovide the primary model that most of us brought up in a Judao-Christian culture carry around inside our heads for what religions have to say when it comes to morality. And of course something very similar occurs in other great religious traditions. They are that is, highly prescriptive. Islam sets very precise codes of behaviour that even includes details of everyday living, such as when you must pray, and what you can eat, and when. Hinduism, even in the modern world has a strict caste system, laying down the life-paths that people can or cannot follow.
We tend to take it for granted therefore that Buddhism will also come with its own clearly defined set of dogma or rules of behaviour. It doesn't. As we've seen, Edward Conze from Cambridge University takes great care to remind us in his scholarly history of Buddhism, ' The Buddha always stressed that he was a guide, not an authority, and that all religious propositions must be tested, including his own.'
Buddhism is not prescriptive. The implication of Edward Conze's comment is profound, and it could certainly be argued that the great social and ethical power of Buddhism..particularly in the modern world with its powerful drive towards liberalism and individual autonomy...lies in the fact that it isn't prescriptive. Instead it seeks to make us much more keenly aware of the effects of our actions, good, bad and indifferent, for ourselves and for others, always for ourselves and for others, the two are inextricably interlinked. We practice...for ourselves and others.
And then, it places the responsibility for those actions entirely on ourselves. You could say that personal responsibility is the very basis of Buddhist ethics. we and we alone, it teaches, are responsible for the causes that we make, and the effects that those causes plant in our lives.
It could certainly be argued that rarely has there been a greater need for such a principle in wester society. There is little doubt that if there were such an understanding, such a movement to cultivate and nurture a profound sense of personal responsibility for all one's actions, so that it became widespread in society, taught in schools, promoted in public policies, it would transform the quality of our lives, particularly in our ever more crowded towns and cities.
We all seek to live in communities and societies where we freely experience fairness and justice, and compassion and respect for others, as the context of our lives.And creating just such a context is the overwhelming thrust of the Buddhist approach to morality.'
That's it. Probably a bit too long today. But I hope not . It's an argument that's all of a piece and it would be difficult to stop half way. I'm inclined to think that if this were to be the single message that people take away from this book, it would have been worth it to write it. What do you think?
Hope you managed to stick with it to here.
See you next time.
William
No comments:
Post a Comment