[Buddha-l] Doxastic minimalism (was: flat earth?)

[Richard Hayes]

On Friday 18 May 2007 11:41, Jackhat1 at aol.com wrote:

> I'm not against rites and rituals. They are useful to some people. But, 
> they can also get in the way. The first level of attainment in Buddhism is
> the stream enterer. One of the fetters one has to overcome to reach this
> level is not to have blind acceptance of rites and rituals, that is, belief
> that rites and rituals in themselves buy us anything.

There are several interpretations of what the fetter of attachment to good 
habit (siila) and vows (bata) means. Lance Cousins can no doubt fill us in on 
others, but the one that sticks in my mind is one given by Buddhaghosa in his 
commentary to the sutta on the foundations of mindfulness. He says that 
attachment to good habits and vows consists in being willing to cultivate 
good habits or taking vows only after asking "What do I have to gain by doing 
this?" The idea seems to be that when one has attained stream-entry, then one 
cultivates virtue for its own sake, simply because it is the right thing to 
do, rather than because she thinks she'll benefit somehow from virtue and 
vows. This is one of the many ways in which Buddhist ethics, as seen by 
Buddhaghosa, is quite like Aristotle's or the Stoics' virtue ethics.

Another interpretation of seeing attachment to good conduct and vows as a 
fetter is that this is a broadside dismissal of Vedic ritual. That 
interpretation would be like the one you report, Jack.

Given that very few of us outside India are tempted to perform Vedic rituals, 
I prefer Buddhaghosa's interpretation. It addresses a condition more people 
these days are likely to have, namely, that of asking "What's in this for 
ME?"

You'll be glad to know that Dr Peavler and I screen all applicants to buddha-l 
and determine that they are stream-entrants before allowing them to register. 
That's why you'll never see anyone asking "What good is buddha-l for ME?"

-- 
Richard 

P.S. My very helpful e-mail program (kmail 1.9.1 on Ubuntu Linux) spotted the 
word "attachment" in this message and said "Your message seems to refer to 
attachments, and yet you have attached no files. Would you like to attach a 
file now?" Apparently kmail 1.9.1 doesn't know about Buddhists and their 
penchant for sending e-mails with no attachments.