Journal of Buddhist Ethics ISSN 1076-9005 http://jbe.gold.ac.uk/ What’s Compassion Got to Do with It? Determinants of Zen Social Ethics in Japan Christopher Ives Stonehill College Email:
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[email protected] What’s Compassion Got to Do with It? Christopher Ives Stonehill College Email:
[email protected] Abstract Judging from pronouncements by contemporary Engaged Buddhists, one might conclude that historical expressions of Zen social ethics have rested on the foun- dation of compassion and the precepts. The de facto systems of social ethics in Japanese Zen, however, have been shaped largely by other epistemological, so- ciological, and historical factors, and compassion should best be understood as a “theological virtue” that historically has gained specificity from those other factors. Modern Zen thinkers and contemporary Zen activists tend to situate compassion 1 (Skt. karun. a¯; J. jihi) at or near the center of their representations of Zen. Through- out his writings, Abe Masao portrays Zen as directed toward an awakening — to s´unyat¯ a¯ (emptiness) — that equips the awakened with wisdom and compassion and motivates them to function compassionately through skillful means to liberate suffering beings.2 Similarly, many Engaged Buddhists build their formulations of social ethics around compassion, as reflected in the title of the first anthology of their writings, The Path of Compassion.3 This emphasis on compassion finds support from Mahay¯ ana¯ sutras¯ and Zen texts.