[Buddha-l] Levinas and Buddhism

[Gad Horowitz]

eric, can you refer me to writings exploring the Buddhism/Levinas interface?
Of course Levinas's is a phenomenology/metaethics rather than an ethical
system which tells people how to make ethical decisions.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eric Nelson" <esnels at gmail.com>
To: "Buddhist discussion forum" <buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2005 1:09 PM
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] Levinas and Buddhism


> Dear Gad,
> Actually there are a number of people working on Buddhist and
> Levinasian ethics, especially regarding the significance of the
> Bodhisattva as existing for the sake of others.
>
> Levinas himself did not encourage such comparative pursuits given his
> complete disregard of eastern thought.
>
> Zen masters and scholars have sometimes unfortunately misinterpreted
> the ethical core of Buddhism, with disastrous results, if the ethical
> is not merely a means to be overcome and left behind but is rather
> constitutive of awakening itself.
>
> One needs to be careful not to mystify what Levinas means by God and
> religion (prereflective ethical obligations to others). For Levinas:
> "When I maintain an ethical relation I refuse to recognize the role I
> would play in a drama of which I would not be the author or whose
> outcome another would know before me; I refuse to figure in a drama of
> salvation or of damnation that would be enacted in spite of me and
> that would make game of me. This is not equivalent to diabolical
> pride, for it does not exclude obedience. But obedience precisely is
> to be distinguished from an involuntary participation in mysterious
> designs in which one figures or prefigures. Everything that cannot be
> reduced to an interhuman relation represents not the superior but the
> forever primitive form of religion" (TI 79).
>
> best wishes, Eric
>
> On 5/26/05, Gad Horowitz <horowitz at chass.utoronto.ca> wrote:
> > Levinas' "God" is nothing other than the primordial obligation that
arises
> > for a human being to do his/her utmost, and more, for the other.  The
> > command comes from what Levinas calls "the face of the Other".  I am
> > suggesting that Sakyamuni's enlightenment experience per se was not
enough
> > to lead him to teach.He would  also have had to be confronted with the
> > command coming from the face of the other--all suffering beings. I would
> > like to read the story of his being "begged" by Brahma or Whoever as an
> > indication or premonition of this .
> > Levinas can help Buddhists finally deal with the question of Ethics . in
a
> > manner that might satisfy Judaeo-Christian-Islamic objections to
Buddhism as
> > demoting the ethical from the level of absolute truth to the level of
> > conventional truth.  Thus I read Masao Abe arguing that
> >
> > "Auscwitz" though very reprehensible conventionally, is absolutely
speaking
> > nothing at all.  Christians have been fascinated with Levinas--andso has
> > Derrida-- for decades.  Time for you Buddhists to discover something new
in
> > the "West"
> >
> > all.
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "jkirk" <jkirk at spro.net>
> > To: "Buddhist discussion forum" <buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com>
> > Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2005 10:38 AM
> > Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] angels
> >
> >
> > > That sounds good to me except for the insistence on using the "God"
> > concept.
> > > If one insists on that, one is not writing about Buddhism, IMO.
> > > Otherwise, many religions proclaim duties to humankind similar to
those
> > > found in Buddhism. Somewhere in one of the suttas there is also found
the
> > > "golden rule."  But the Buddha did not claim that what he was teaching
was
> > > God or gods, or came from him/her or them.
> > >
> > >  Joanna
> > > =========================================
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Gad Horowitz" <horowitz at chass.utoronto.ca>
> > >
> > >
> > > > thats all very well, but for Levinas"s Judaism "God" refers to our
> > > > obligation to do our utmost and more for the other.  Does the Buddha
not
> > > > relate to such an obligation?  Why then does he teach?
> > >
>
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