Searching for a Mahāyāna Social Ethic
Journal of Religious Ethics 24 (2):351 - 375 (1996)
| Abstract | Mahāyāna ethics has a threefold emphasis: avoiding all evil, cultivating good, and saving all beings. Most Western studies of Buddhist ethics have used Pali and Sanskrit sources to examine the first two components, which are based on monastic codes for avoiding wrong doing and attain- ing virtue. Among the few studies of the third category, which includes Buddhist social ethics, East Asian Mahāyāna materials have been sadly lacking despite the Mahāyāna rhetoric about saving all beings. To correct this deficiency, this paper analyzes an early lay Mahayana text, the Updsaka Precept Sūtra. The Upāsaka differs from earlier Buddhism and from many other Mahāyāna texts in two ways: it gives supremacy to com- passionate action in society rather than monastic spiritual attainment, and it asserts that helping others out of compassion is the highest practice and best way to attain enlightenment. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | No categories specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,711 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesAlfonso Verdú (1974). Dialectical Aspects in Buddhist Thought: Studies in Sino-Japanese Mahāyāna Idealism. Sole Distributors in Usa & Canada, Paragon Book Gallery.
Charles Goodman (2008). Consequentialism, Agent-Neutrality, and Mahāyāna Ethics. Philosophy East and West 58 (1):17-35.
Pabitrakumar Roy (2011). Mapping the Bodhicaryāvatāra: Essays on Mahāyāna Ethics. Indian Institute of Advanced Study.
José Ignacio Cabezxn (1999). Incarnation: A Buddhist View. Faith and Philosophy 16 (4):449 - 471.
Charles Goodman (2009). Consequences of Compassion: An Interpretation and Defense of Buddhist Ethics. Oxford University Press.
Colette Sciberras (2010). Buddhist Philosophy and the Ideals of Environmentalism. Dissertation, Durham University
José Ignacio Cabezón (1999). Incarnation. Faith and Philosophy 16 (4):449-471.
Jeffrey Samuels (1997). The Bodhisattva Ideal in Theravāda Buddhist Theory and Practice: A Reevaluation of the Bodhisattva-Śrāvaka Opposition. Philosophy East and West 47 (3):399-415.
Asaf Federman (2009). Literal Means and Hidden Meanings: A New Analysis of Skillful Means. Philosophy East and West 59 (2):pp. 125-141.
Hải Quang (2000). Philosophical Conversations with Buddhist Followers. Dharma Flower Publication.
Junjirō Takakusu (1956/1973). The Essentials of Buddhist Philosophy. Westport, Conn.,Greenwood Press.
Edward Conze (1962). Buddhist Thought in India. London, Allen & Unwin.
Susanne Mrozik (2004). Cooking Living Beings: The Transformative Effects of Encounters with Bodhisattva Bodies. Journal of Religious Ethics 32 (1):175 - 194.
Gregory Schopen (1999). The Bones of a Buddha and the Business of a Monk: Conservative Monastic Values in an Early Mahāyāna Polemical Tract. Journal of Indian Philosophy 27 (4):279-324.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2011-05-29Total downloads8 ( #123,255 of 551,007 )Recent downloads (6 months)2 ( #37,450 of 551,007 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
