DOCSLIB.ORG

The Buddhist Ethics of Killing: Metaphysics, Phenomenology, Ethics

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Buddhist Ethics of Killing: Metaphysics, Phenomenology, Ethics The Buddhist Ethics of Killing: metaphysics, phenomenology, ethics Martin Kovacic https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7459-5359 January 2020 School of Historical and Philosophical Studies Faculty of Arts University of Melbourne Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Abstract Significant media interest and academic scholarship has in recent years brought attention to the normative status of killing in Buddhism, concurrent with the worst genocidal event since the last century, committed by apparent Buddhists, in Rakhine State in Myanmar, in August-September 2017. This event, the culmination of some five years of Buddhist aggression, was preceded by a concerted trend in academic Buddhist Studies to re-frame the textual, historical and cultural-anthropological account of violence and killing in classical and modern Buddhist sources. A normative schism appeared to be one of the results of this revisionary project, summarised by the question: are some cases of intentional killing actually or conceivably permissible in Buddhism? Popular media and academic specialists appeared to belie the orthodox claims of senior Buddhist representatives, contributing to a possibly equivocal understanding among Buddhists themselves, as well as the general public. While working in 2011 in humanitarian contexts in Thailand-Myanmar, I soon became concerned to engage this question on a properly philosophical footing. Seeking to provide a robust account of the normative status of killing in Buddhism, this study theorises on relevant Buddhist philosophical grounds the metaphysical, phenomenological and ethical dimensions of the distinct intentional classes of killing, in dialogue with some elements of Western philosophical thought. The thesis pursues this philosophical explanation and justification for the Buddhist-ethical prohibition of killing in two main sequential stages. First, in Part I, Foundations, I examine and assess canonical modes of reasoning and criteria for the ethical evaluation of lethal acts, available in canonical Nikāya, Vinaya, Theravāda, and some classical Mahāyāna texts, and their modern commentaries. Second, in Part II, Constructions, with reference to these and other early Buddhist sources, including those available in Abhidhamma/Abhidharma, Sautrāntika and Pramāṇavāda texts, I analyse four major intentional categories of lethal action. This engages the domains of killing as (1) preventive, deterrent and retributive punishment; (2) as a form of mercy-killing (including relevant cases of euthanasia, suicide and assisted-suicide, and abortion); (3) as ideological-religious contestation (relevant to terrorism, religious and political violence, and ii ideological militarism among other forms of symbolically-constituted action); and (4) as existential self-defence. In sum, the study engages a broad theoretical spectrum of lethality in the Buddhist-textual and cultural context, with a view to establishing a philosophical groundwork for the Buddhist-ethical theorisation of the many intellectual quandaries that emerge around killing in the different domains of Buddhist normative and applied ethics. In doing so, the study offers explanation for why killing in these domains is fundamentally wrong, by exposing what specifically in each intentional domain makes it so. In accounting for these differentiated cognitive-affective causes of killing, we come to understand how the acquisition of philosophical insight into such causes cognitively enables the Buddhist-ethical project of the extirpation of human-caused suffering. Declaration This is to certify that: (i) The thesis comprises only my original work towards the PhD (ii) Due acknowledgement has been made in the text for all other material used (iii) The thesis is fewer than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of bibliography Acknowledgements The author would like to express gratitude to: Jay L. Garfield, for a tireless commitment (and hitherto-undiscovered form of transcendental kṣānti) to the supervision of the work produced; Graham Priest, for braving a query from the Burmese borderlands and taking a punt on a philosophical novice; Roy Perrett, for assisting at the very early stages of research for the thesis; Toby Mendelson, for much-appreciated philosophical and academic comradeship; Sebastian Job, for manifesting the authentically universal kalyāṇamitra. The research herein, and its writing, could not have been completed without the much-valued support and generosity especially of my mother Flis Andreasen, and of generous and patient friends between Sydney and Singapore, Bangkok and Bristol, Paris and Prague. iii The Buddhist Ethics of Killing: metaphysics, phenomenology, ethics * Contents General Introduction i. The purpose of the thesis …. p.2 ii. Textual studies and philosophical analysis: difference and complementarity … p.6 iii. The structure of the thesis … p.8 iv. Summary and textual note … p.11 Part I: Foundations: The Nature of the Problem Introduction: Text and tradition: an overview of sources … p. 13 Chapter 1: Canonical Buddhist discourse on killing … p. 24 Chapter 2: Conceiving the first precept: evaluative criteria in the Śrāvakayāna … p. 48 Chapter 3: Mahāyāna exceptionalism and the lethal act … p. 77 Chapter 4: Affect and cognition: unwholesome consciousness, hatred, wrong view, delusion, and their relations … p. 96 Part II: Constructions: The Nature of the Act Introduction: Personhood and the other: property predication and the conventional identity of persons … p.122 Chapter 5: Persons as the objects of lethal preventive-retributive justice … p. 152 Chapter 6: On purported oblivion: the obviation of suffering in acts of lethal mercy … p. 184 Chapter 7: The person as representation: the identity of persons as symbolically- constituted objects of killing … p. 211 Chapter 8: Conclusion: Buddhist violence, self-defence, and the end of life … p. 244 Abbreviations & Bibliography … p. 258 General Introduction * i. The purpose of the thesis This thesis addresses the question of why in Buddhist ethics and religion intentional killing is held to be fundamentally wrong. Buddhism’s first precept (P. pāṇātipātā; Skt. prāṇātipātaḥ) does not suggest killing is only in most cases wrong, or interpretable otherwise, or dependent on historical-cultural conditions. It asserts that intentional killing is to be universally rejected by Buddhists, inasmuch as to be Buddhist requires at the least upholding the five precepts (pañcaśīla) and general injunction to non-harm (ahiṃsā) that pervades the Buddhist canon, and indeed the religion across its diverse doctrinal and historical contexts. The variation of interpretations between Buddhist traditions, similarly, does not signify the attenuation of the first precept as central to Buddhist normativity and practice. It is thus unarguably true that Buddhist ethics unequivocally prohibits killing; the rare and distinctly antinomian exceptions, that pertain specifically to the soteriological normativity of transcendental Mahāyāna Buddhist wisdom-realisation (prajñā) and not that of the unenlightened worldling (puthujjano), I address in greater detail throughout the thesis. At the same time, however (and sometimes backgrounded by this antinomian precedent), a number of contemporary theorists of Buddhist ethics and Buddhist studies scholars (Perrett 1996, 2000; Jenkins 2010/2011; Keown 2016, 2014; Barnhart 2018) theorise permissible killing in some cases. While the prohibition is recognised as the normative Buddhist position, it appears secondary in these cases to the more realistic human contingencies of, for example, negotiating intolerable suffering, unwanted pregnancy, defensive and just war, counter- terroristic combat, legitimate lethal self-defence, and so on. 2 Given this fairly broad spectrum of cases of apparently justified killing, the Buddhist ethics of killing comes to appear not dissimilar to a secular ethics of permissible lethality. Indeed, significant secondary scholarship argues for or against these cases in much the same conceptual register as non-Buddhist applied-ethical theory does (with the addition of such well-known Buddhist qualifiers as altruistic compassion, forbearance, or selflessness) (for example in Keown 2001, 2005, 2014, 2016; Schlieter 2014; Perrett 1992), or in the descriptive terms of cultural anthropology and the sociology of lethal practises in Buddhist societies (Florida 2000; Keown 2018; Perret 1996; LaFleur 1992). Moreover, some Buddhists themselves, including monastic exemplars of traditional doctrinal formation, even promulgate justifications for killing in serving their various religious, political, ethnocentric or ideological purposes (for example, in Myanmar, Thailand, or Sri Lanka; see Jerryson and Juergensmeyer 2010). This issue is becoming more than a pressing one in contemporary Buddhist polities, as we see it played out to tragic effect in recent South Asian history. Some traditional Buddhists have in recent years been guilty of the most heinous and cruel acts of killing it is possible to conceive (most obviously in Myanmar, noted in Part II of this thesis). How are these and other acts of killing that may be religiously motivated to be understood from a Buddhist perspective, beyond being judged, rightly but facilely, as more or less impermissible and morally regrettable? Addressing this question is the central purpose of this thesis. There is a range of scholarship that in varied ways engages the question of lethality in Buddhism. In the broadest context,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services Fifth Edition United States Conference of Catholic Bishops CONTENTS
    Issued by USCCB, November 17, 2009 Copyright © 2009, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. All rights reserved. To order a copy of this statement, please visit www.usccbpublishing.org and click on “New Titles.” Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services Fifth Edition United States Conference of Catholic Bishops CONTENTS Preamble General Introduction Part One: The Social Responsibility of Catholic Health Care Services Part Two: The Pastoral and Spiritual Responsibility of Catholic Health Care Part Three: The Professional-Patient Relationship Part Four: Issues in Care for the Beginning of Life Part Five: Issues in Care for the Seriously Ill and D y i n g Part Six: Forming New Partnerships with Health Care Organizations and Providers Conclusion 2 PREAMBLE Health care in the United States is marked by extraordinary change. Not only is there continuing change in clinical practice due to technological advances, but the health care system in the United States is being challenged by both institutional and social factors as well. At the same time, there are a number of developments within the Catholic Church affecting the ecclesial mission of health care. Among these are significant changes in religious orders and congregations, the increased involvement of lay men and women, a heightened awareness of the Church’s social role in the world, and developments in moral theology since the Second Vatican Council. A contemporary understanding of the Catholic health care ministry must take into account the new challenges presented by transitions both in the Church and in American society. Throughout the centuries, with the aid of other sciences, a body of moral principles has emerged that expresses the Church’s teaching on medical and moral matters and has proven to be pertinent and applicable to the ever-changing circumstances of health care and its delivery.
    [Show full text]
  • Thinking in Buddhism: Nagarjuna's Middle
    Thinking in Buddhism: Nagarjuna’s Middle Way 1994 Jonah Winters About this Book Any research into a school of thought whose texts are in a foreign language encounters certain difficulties in deciding which words to translate and which ones to leave in the original. It is all the more of an issue when the texts in question are from a language ancient and quite unlike our own. Most of the texts on which this thesis are based were written in two languages: the earliest texts of Buddhism were written in a simplified form of Sanskrit called Pali, and most Indian texts of Madhyamika were written in either classical or “hybrid” Sanskrit. Terms in these two languages are often different but recognizable, e.g. “dhamma” in Pali and “dharma” in Sanskrit. For the sake of coherency, all such terms are given in their Sanskrit form, even when that may entail changing a term when presenting a quote from Pali. Since this thesis is not intended to be a specialized research document for a select audience, terms have been translated whenever possible,even when the subtletiesof the Sanskrit term are lost in translation.In a research paper as limited as this, those subtleties are often almost irrelevant.For example, it is sufficient to translate “dharma” as either “Law” or “elements” without delving into its multiplicity of meanings in Sanskrit. Only four terms have been left consistently untranslated. “Karma” and “nirvana” are now to be found in any English dictionary, and so their translation or italicization is unnecessary. Similarly, “Buddha,” while literally a Sanskrit term meaning “awakened,” is left untranslated and unitalicized due to its titular nature and its familiarity.
    [Show full text]
  • Bhāra Sutta the Discourse on the Burden | S 22.22/3:25 F Theme: There Is No “Person” in the Aggregates Translated & Annotated by Piya Tan ©2005
    S 3.1.1.3.1 Saṁyutta 3, Khandha Vagga 1, Khandha Saṁy 1, Mūla Paṇṇāsaka 3, Bhāra Vg 1 14 Bhāra Sutta The Discourse on the Burden | S 22.22/3:25 f Theme: There is no “person” in the aggregates Translated & annotated by Piya Tan ©2005 1 Introduction 1.1 In his well-acclaimed work, How Buddhism Began, Richard Gombrich points out the relationship between the Buddhist conception of upādāna (clinging) and its early Indian roots in meta- phors of fuel and fire: The word upādāna has both a concrete and an abstract meaning. In the abstract, it means attach- ment, grasping; in this sense it is much used in Buddhist dogmatics. Concretely, it means that which fuels this process. The PED sv: “(lit that [material] substratum by means of which an active process is kept alive and going), fuel, supply, provision.” So when the context deals with fire it simply means fuel… In my opinion, it is clear that the term the term khandha too was a part of the fire metaphor. (Gombrich 1996:67)1 1.2 Gombrich goes on to discuss the historical problem related to the Bhāra Sutta (S 22.22), where the aggregates are said to be a burden (bhārā paca-k,khandhā) to be put down. The metaphor is more historically correct and spiritually more urgent when upādāna-k,khandha is translated as “the aggregates that are fuelled)” or even “the aggregates that are on fire (or burning).” It is a burden for the early brahmins to daily collect fuel (wood, herbs, etc) to feed the sacred fire (Gombrich 1996:67).
    [Show full text]
  • Anattā and Nibbāna: Egolessness and Deliverance
    Anattā and Nibbāna Egolessness and Deliverance by Nyanaponika Thera Buddhist Publication Society Kandy • Sri Lanka The Wheel Publication No. 11 First published: 1959 Reprinted: 1971, 1986 A slightly differing German version of this essay appeared in 1951 in the magazine Die Einsicht. The English version was first published in the quarterly The Light of the Dhamma, Vol. IV, No. 3 (Rangoon 1957) under the title “Nibbāna in the Light of the Middle Doctrine.” BPS Online Edition © (2008) Digital Transcription Source: BPS Transcription Project For free distribution. This work may be republished, reformatted, reprinted and redistributed in any medium. However, any such republication and redistribution is to be made available to the public on a free and unrestricted basis and translations and other derivative works are to be clearly marked as such. Contents Introduction 2 I. The Nihilistic-Negative Extreme 5 II The Positive-Metaphysical Extreme 9 III Transcending the Extremes 14 Introduction This world, Kaccāna, usually leans upon a duality: upon (the belief in) existence or non- existence.… Avoiding these two extremes, the Perfect One shows the doctrine in the middle: Dependent on ignorance are the kamma-formations.… By the cessation of ignorance, kamma-formations cease.… (SN 12:15) The above saying of the Buddha speaks of the duality of existence (atthitā) and non-existence (natthitā). These two terms refer to the theories of eternalism (sassata-diṭṭhi) and annihilationism (uccheda-diṭṭhi), the basic misconceptions of actuality that in various forms repeatedly reappear in the history of human thought. Eternalism is the belief in a permanent substance or entity, whether conceived as a multitude of individual souls or selves, created or not, as a monistic world-soul, a deity of any description, or a combination of any of these notions.
    [Show full text]
  • A Study of the Saṃskāra Section of Vasubandhu's Pañcaskandhaka with Reference to Its Commentary by Sthiramati
    A Study of the Saṃskāra Section of Vasubandhu's Pañcaskandhaka with Reference to Its Commentary by Sthiramati Jowita KRAMER 1. Introduction In his treatise "On the Five Constituents of the Person" (Pañcaskandhaka) Vasubandhu succeeded in presenting a brief but very comprehensive and clear outline of the concept of the five skandhas as understood from the viewpoint of the Yogācāra tradition. When investigating the doctrinal development of the five skandha theory and of other related concepts taught in the Pañcaskandhaka, works like the Yogācārabhūmi, the Abhidharmasamuccaya, and the Abhidharmakośa- bhāṣya are of great importance. The relevance of the first two texts results from their close association with the Pañcaskandhaka in terms of tradition. The significance of the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya is due to the assumption of an identical author of this text and the Pañcaskandhaka.1 The comparison of the latter with the other texts leads to a highly inconsistent picture of the relations between the works. It is therefore difficult to determine the developmental processes of the teachings presented in the texts under consideration and to give a concluding answer to the question whether the same person composed the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya and the Pañcaskandhaka. What makes the identification of the interdependence between the texts even more problematic is our limited knowledge of the methods the Indian authors and commentators applied when they composed their works. It was obviously very common to make use of whole sentences or even passages from older texts without marking them as quotations. If we assume the silent copying of older material as the usual method of Indian authors, then the question arises why in some cases the wording they apply is not identical but replaced by synonyms or completely different statements.
    [Show full text]
  • Studies in Buddhist Hetuvidyā (Epistemology and Logic ) in Europe and Russia
    Nataliya Kanaeva STUDIES IN BUDDHIST HETUVIDYĀ (EPISTEMOLOGY AND LOGIC ) IN EUROPE AND RUSSIA Working Paper WP20/2015/01 Series WP20 Philosophy of Culture and Cultural Studies Moscow 2015 УДК 24 ББК 86.36 K19 Editor of the series WP20 «Philosophy of Culture and Cultural Studies» Vitaly Kurennoy Kanaeva, Nataliya. K19 Studies in Buddhist Hetuvidyā (Epistemology and Logic ) in Europe and Russia [Text] : Working paper WP20/2015/01 / N. Kanaeva ; National Research University Higher School of Economics. – Moscow : Higher School of Economics Publ. House, 2015. – (Series WP20 “Philosophy of Culture and Cultural Studiesˮ) – 52 p. – 20 copies. This publication presents an overview of the situation in studies of Buddhist epistemology and logic in Western Europe and in Russia. Those studies are the young direction of Buddhology, and they started only at the beginning of the XX century. There are considered the main schools, their representatives, the directions of their researches and achievements in the review. The activity of Russian scientists in this field was not looked through ever before. УДК 24 ББК 86.36 This study (research grant № 14-01-0006) was supported by The National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow). Academic Fund Program in 2014–2015. Kanaeva Nataliya – National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow). Department of Humanities. School of Philosophy. Assistant professor; [email protected]. Канаева, Н. А. Исследования буддийской хетувидьи (эпистемологии и логики) в Европе и России (обзор) [Текст] : препринт WP20/2015/01 / Н. А. Канаева ; Нац. исслед. ун-т «Высшая школа экономи- ки». – М.: Изд. дом Высшей школы экономики, 2015. – (Серия WP20 «Философия и исследо- вания культуры»).
    [Show full text]
  • Searching for a Possibility of Buddhist Hermeneutics: Two Exegetic Strategies in Buddhist Tradition
    Searching for a Possibility of Buddhist Hermeneutics: Two Exegetic Strategies in Buddhist Tradition Sumi Lee University of California, Los Angeles One of the main concerns in religious studies lies in hermeneutics 1 : While interpreters of religion, as those in all other fields, are doomed to perform their work through the process of conceptualization of their subjects, religious reality has been typically considered as transcending conceptual categorization. Such a dilemma imposed on the interpreters of religion explains the dualistic feature of the Western hermeneutic history of religion--the consistent attempts to describe and explain religious reality on the one hand and the successive reflective thinking on the limitation of human knowledge in understanding ultimate reality on the other hand.2 Especially in the modern period, along with the emergence of the methodological reflection on religious studies, the presupposition that the “universally accepted” religious reality or “objectively reasoned” religious principle is always “over there” and may be eventually disclosed through refined scientific methods has become broadly questioned and criticized. The apparent tension between the interpreter/interpretation and the object of interpretation in religious studies, however, does not seem to have undermined the traditional Buddhist exegetes’ eagerness for their work of expounding the Buddhist teachings: The Buddhist exegetes and commentators not only devised various types of systematic and elaborate literal frameworks such as logics, theories, styles and rhetoric but also left the vast corpus of canonical literatures in order to transmit their religious teaching. The Buddhist interpreters’ enthusiastic attitude in the composition of the literal works needs more attention because they were neither unaware of the difficulty of framing the religious reality into the mold of language nor forced to be complacent to the limited use of language about the reality.
    [Show full text]
  • {PDF EPUB} Still Counting the Dead by Frances Harrison Still Counting the Dead
    Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Still Counting the Dead by Frances Harrison Still Counting the Dead. Still Counting the Dead: Survivors of Sri Lanka's Hidden War is a book written by the British journalist Frances Harrison, a former BBC correspondent in Sri Lanka and former Amnesty Head of news. The book deals with thousands of Sri Lankan Tamil civilians who were killed, caught in the crossfire during the war. This and the government's strict media blackout would leave the world unaware of their suffering in the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War. The books also highlights the failure of the United Nations, whose staff left before the final offensive started. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Related Research Articles. The Sri Lankan Civil War was a civil war fought in the island country of Sri Lanka from 1983 to 2009. Beginning on 23 July 1983, there was an intermittent insurgency against the government by the Velupillai Prabhakaran led Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in the north and the east of the island due to the continuous discrimination against the Sri Lankan Tamils by the Sinhalese dominated Sri Lankan Government, as well as the 1956, 1958 and 1977 anti-Tamil pogroms and the 1981 burning of the Jaffna Public Library carried out by the majority Sinhalese mobs, in the years following Sri Lanka's independence from Britain in 1948. After a 26-year military campaign, the Sri Lankan military defeated the Tamil Tigers in May 2009, bringing the civil war to an end.
    [Show full text]
  • Discourses of Ethno-Nationalism and Religious Fundamentalism
    DISCOURSES OF ETHNO-NATIONALISM AND RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM SRI LANKAN DISCOURSES OF ETHNO-NATIONALISM AND RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM By MYRA SIVALOGANATHAN, B.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts McMaster University © Copyright by Myra Sivaloganathan, June 2017 M.A. Thesis – Myra Sivaloganathan; McMaster University – Religious Studies. McMaster University MASTER OF ARTS (2017) Hamilton, Ontario (Religious Studies) TITLE: Sri Lankan Discourses of Ethno-Nationalism and Religious Fundamentalism AUTHOR: Myra Sivaloganathan, B.A. (McGill University) SUPERVISOR: Dr. Mark Rowe NUMBER OF PAGES: v, 91 ii M.A. Thesis – Myra Sivaloganathan; McMaster University – Religious Studies. Abstract In this thesis, I argue that discourses of victimhood, victory, and xenophobia underpin both Sinhalese and Tamil nationalist and religious fundamentalist movements. Ethnic discourse has allowed citizens to affirm collective ideals in the face of disparate experiences, reclaim power and autonomy in contexts of fundamental instability, but has also deepened ethnic divides in the post-war era. In the first chapter, I argue that mutually exclusive narratives of victimhood lie at the root of ethnic solitudes, and provide barriers to mechanisms of transitional justice and memorialization. The second chapter includes an analysis of the politicization of mythic figures and events from the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahāvaṃsa in nationalist discourses of victory, supremacy, and legacy. Finally, in the third chapter, I explore the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam’s (LTTE) rhetoric and symbolism, and contend that a xenophobic discourse of terrorism has been imposed and transferred from Tamil to Muslim minorities. Ultimately, these discourses prevent Sri Lankans from embracing a multi-ethnic and multi- religious nationality, and hinder efforts at transitional justice.
    [Show full text]
  • Buddhism and Abortion
    424 Book reviews J Med Ethics: first published as 10.1136/jme.25.5.424 on 1 October 1999. Downloaded from of the unborn patient is the phrase Postgraduate Medical Dean, University of abortion rate in Korea is very high used here to describe the introduction Bristol and General Secretary, Institute of (partly driven there by son prefer- of treatment primarily directed at the Medical Ethics ence). Moreover the rate among Ko- fetus. rean Buddhists is as high or higher Early in the book the author states: than that of the rest of the population. "it is a key goal ofthis book to reframe Buddhism and However, only rather recently have fetal surgery as a women's health issue Abortion Korean Buddhists begun to express a and to re-situate fetal personhood concern for aborted fetuses and de- within the specific relationships in and mand Edited by Damien Keown, London, memorial services for them, by which it is produced". This per- though of a distinctively Korean form. Macmillan, 1998, 222 pages, spective results in questioning much £45. Part three begins with a review by of the practice of fetal surgery, but McDermott of This interdisciplinary collection James the ancient Pali whether this perspective is shared by of textual sources on nine essays is a welcome and abortion, which expectant mothers is debatable. pioneer- it for as a ing attempt to explore the abortion regard (especially monastics) The book documents the period serious breach of the Buddhist precept from the start of intrauterine transfu- question from a number of Buddhist life.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rise of Buddhist-Muslim Conflict in Asia and Possibilities for Transformation by Iselin Frydenlund
    Policy Brief December 2015 The rise of Buddhist-Muslim conflict in Asia and possibilities for transformation By Iselin Frydenlund Executive summary Violence against Muslim minorities in Buddhist societies has increased in recent years. The Muslim Rohingyas in Myanmar are disenfranchised, and many of their candidates were rejected by the official Union Election Commission prior to the 2015 elections. Furthermore laws about religious conversion, missionary activities, and interfaith marriage are being pro- moted to control relations between religions and prevent conflict. The danger, however, is that increased control will lead to more, not fewer, conflicts. Discrimination against religious minorities may lead to radicalisation. In addition minority-majority relations in a single state may have regional consequences because a minority in one state can be the majority in another, and there is an increasing trend for co-religionists in different countries to support each other. Thus protection of religious minorities is not only a question of freedom of religion and basic human rights; it also affects security and peacebuilding in the whole region. Anti- Muslim violence and political exclusion of Muslim minorities take place in the wake of in- creased Buddhist nationalism. This policy brief identifies local as well as global drivers for Buddhist-Muslim conflict and the rise of Buddhist nationalism. It then shows how Buddhist- Muslim conflict can be addressed, most importantly through the engagement of local religious leaders. Introduction Buddhist countries are generally at risk of persecution. But Attacks on Muslim minorities in Buddhist countries have weak state protection of Muslim communities leaves these escalated in recent years (OHCHR, 2014).
    [Show full text]
  • Early Buddhist Metaphysics: the Making of a Philosophical Tradition
    EARLY BUDDHIST METAPHYSICS This book provides a philosophical account of the major doctrinal shift in the history of early Theravada tradition in India: the transition from the earliest stratum of Buddhist thought to the systematic and allegedly scholastic philosophy of the Pali Abhidhamma movement. Conceptual investigation into the development of Buddhist ideas is pursued, thus rendering the Buddha’s philosophical position more explicit and showing how and why his successors changed it. Entwining comparative philosophy and Buddhology, the author probes the Abhidhamma’s shift from an epistemologically oriented conceptual scheme to a metaphysical worldview that is based on the concept of dhamma. She does so in terms of the Aristotelian tradition and vis-à-vis modern philosophy, exploiting Western philo- sophical literature from Plato to contemporary texts in the fields of philosophy of mind and cultural criticism. This book not only demonstrates that a philosophical inquiry into the conceptual foundations of early Buddhism can enhance our understanding of what philosophy and religion are qua thought and religion; it also shows the value of fresh perspectives for traditional Buddhology. Combining philosophically rigorous investigation and Buddhological research criteria, Early Buddhist Metaphysics fills a significant gap in Buddhist scholar- ship’s treatment of the conceptual development of the Abhidhamma. Noa Ronkin received her PhD from the University of Oxford. She is currently a lecturer in the Introduction to the Humanities Programme and a Research Fellow at the Center for Buddhist Studies, Stanford University. Her research interests include a range of issues associated with Indian Theravada Buddhist philosophy and psychology, the Abhidhamma tradition and comparative Indian philosophy.
    [Show full text]