Demandingness, Well-Being and the Bodhisattva Path

Harris, S. E.

doi:10.1007/s11841-015-0474-0

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…This might be rendered nonsensical if I were to abandon the notion of a self. Denying the existence of an ego or self might also eradicate the distinction between self and other, which may lead to various absurdities (Harris, ; Wetleson, ; Williams, ). Buddhist thinkers have a strategy to avoid these problems; namely, a distinction between ultimate reality and conventional reality (Cowherds, ).…”

Section: Arguments For Ahiṃsā and Its Extension To Animal Welfarementioning

confidence: 99%

Buddhism and animal ethics

Finnigan

2017

Philosophy Compass

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This article provides a philosophical overview of some of the central Buddhist positions and arguments regarding animal welfare. It introduces the Buddha's teaching of ahiṃsā or nonviolence and rationally reconstructs five arguments from the context of early Indian Buddhism that aim to justify its extension to animals. These arguments appeal to the capacity and desire not to suffer, the virtue of compassion, as well as Buddhist views on the nature of self, karma, and reincarnation. This article also considers how versions of these arguments have been applied to address a practical issue in Buddhist ethics; whether Buddhists should be vegetarian.

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Section: Arguments For Ahiṃsā and Its Extension To Animal Welfarementioning

confidence: 99%

Buddhism and animal ethics

Finnigan

2017

Philosophy Compass

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“…The saint or Waliyullah (God's guardian) can be categorized into this term. In the Mahayana tradition of Buddhism, this can be inter-preted as Bodhisattva (Harris, 2015;Heller, 2014). This also means that the cosmos (everything other than God, especially humans) will eventually return to God.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indonesian Javanese Cosmology and its Transformation in Social Tradition and Built Environment

Surjono,

Antariksa,

Titisari

2023

SLJIL

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The research focuses on how the teaching of different faiths was blended into Javanese-Nusantara culture and has created a culture with a peaceful and moderate Islamic image that is different from radical Islam which has generated Is-lamic phobias in many countries. This research examines how Javanese cosmology (syncretism of Hindu - Buddha - Islam) had been translated in social space and built-environment. The second is to describe how the system in Java successfully harmonized different faiths into Javanese culture. This study was a purposeful qualitative study that focused on traditional communities and two prominent existing Kingdoms of Surakarta and Yogyakarta in Java. Observation, in-depth interviews, and reviews on literature and documents of classical authors in Islamic Sufism were conducted to collect and compile data. The results show that the cultural process of Javanese prefers similarities rather than emphasizing differences between faiths. Converting faith from Hindu or Buddha to Islam did not necessarily cause conflicts and hostilities. The study underlined that the Javanese’s understanding of cosmology at the micro and macro level, orientation or qiblah, and spiritual axis found similar mystical knowledge between Islam and the pre-Islam (Hindu-Buddha). This syncretism process created Kejawen culture and moderate Islam in Nusantara. Islam Nusantara is recently used as a paradigm by the largest Islamic organization in Indonesia

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A Nirvana that Is Burning in Hell: Pain and Flourishing in Mahayana Buddhist Moral Thought

Harris

2017

SOPHIA

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This essay analyzes the provocative image of the bodhisattva, the saint of the Indian Mahayana Buddhist tradition, descending into the hell realms to work for the benefit of its denizens. Inspired in part by recent attempts to naturalize Buddhist ethics, I argue that taking this 'mythological' image seriously, as expressing philosophical insights, helps us better understand the shape of Mahayana value theory. In particular, it expresses a controversial philosophical thesis: the claim that no amount of physical pain can disrupt the flourishing of a fully virtuous person. I reconstruct two related elements of early Buddhist psychology that help us understand this Mahayana position: the distinction between hedonic sensation (vedanā) and virtuous or nonvirtous mental states (kuśala/akuśala-dharma); and the claim that humans are massively deluded as to what constitutes well-being. Doing so also lets me emphasize the continuity between early Buddhist and Mahayana traditions in their views on well-being and flourishing.Keywords Mahayana Buddhism . Buddhist ethics . Buddhism . Ethics . Hell Julia Annas has shown that taking seriously Stoic and Epicurean claims that the sage is happy even while being tortured on the rack helps articulate the structure of their ethics, and in particular the relationship between virtue (arête) and happiness (eudaimonia). In brief, it highlights that for Epicurus, eudaimonia depends on an attitude taken towards one's life as a whole, rather than merely the quality of individual moments of experience, and it shows the emphasis he places on our internal attitude towards external conditions. See Annas (1993), esp. 348-350. For the Stoics, it shows that virtue (arête) alone has value for our well-being, so that no amount of damage to the body can harm us. See Annas (1993), 388-411. The Stoic explanation has much in common with Buddhist attitudes towards pain and virtue (kuśala-dharma) that I explore below, although a comparison between the two traditions cannot be given here.

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Demandingness, Well-Being and the Bodhisattva Path

Cited by 3 publications

References 15 publications

Buddhism and animal ethics

Buddhism and animal ethics

Indonesian Javanese Cosmology and its Transformation in Social Tradition and Built Environment

A Nirvana that Is Burning in Hell: Pain and Flourishing in Mahayana Buddhist Moral Thought

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