[Buddha-l] Re: buddha-l Digest, Vol 32, Issue 17

[Richard Hayes]

On Thu, 2007-10-18 at 20:36 -0400, Dan Lusthaus wrote:
> Richard wrote, in response to Joy:

> > I don't recall any such instances. The Buddha told some people they had
> > misunderstood him, but he did not shame them or ridicule them or speak of
> > them as jerks and idiots. Or so I recall from what I have read. I wasn't
> > actually there.
> 
> Does calling someone a "fool" in front of the whole assembly count?

No. Saying that someone has misunderstood something hardly counts as an
instance of shaming them. I have read (oddly enough, only from Brahmin
writers) that the only people humiliated in public by the Buddha were
men of low caste. The favorite example of this public humiliation is the
Mahatanhasakhaya sutta, where the unhappy recipient of the Buddha's
humiliation was a fisherman's son. But that sutta is my prime example of
the Buddha correcting someone for misunderstanding him, and not calling
them anything like a jerk or an idiot. The phrase used was
"moghapurisa," which just means "mistaken man" or "confused person." 

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico