[Buddha-l] Levinas and Buddhism

[r.g.morrison]

 From: "Eric Nelson":

: Perhaps because he [i.e. Levinus] shows the ethical core of "religion" and 
seems
: relevant today as a critic of bracketing ethical relations to others
: in the name of faith, creed, dogma, mysticism, theodicy, and such.
: Some might be interested in his work because he focused on the
: priority of the suffering of the other. Wasn't suffering important to
: some Buddhists?

>From what I've read, tying to find some real 'core' to this thin abstaction 
called 'religion' is a complete waste of time.  If this be the case, then it 
is even more absurd to try and find some ethical core to what has no real 
existence!  As the Buddhist keep telling us, there is no essence to anything 
'thing' - a 'thing' being a prajnapti, i.e. created in our own-heads-only 
[sva"siromaatra]!  If there is a 'source' to this thing called 'religion', 
then we have to look no further than the human mind.  As for 'suffering' 
being important to the Buddhists, well one place to begin is to find out 
just what is implied by the term 'dukkha' [Pali] / 'du.hkha' [Sanskrit] as 
it is used in Buddhism.  It includes basic 'suffering', but extends to 
include all forms of unawakened existence, which may very well include all 
three Middle East 'religions' (which would imply that whatever Buddhism is 
it is not of the same 'essence' as these Middle East religions)!

Robert Morrison