[Buddha-l] Wealth and excess

[jkirk]

 Hi Vicente,

The Buddha left punishment up to the secular rulers, kings or
chiefs in his day (and of course consequences to the working of
karma).  Mass crimes would not be eradicated by mass killing.
Only a few members of any conspiracy get their just deserts in
secular courts. The rest stay on to perpetuate the mass culture
that led to the crimes in the first place.
I don't see that the Chan story helps in this instance--Jingshan
probably felt it was better to eat than to go hungry?
A Buddhist choice is to figure out how these things keep on
keeping on, and to help deal with them as we are able. If we
arrive at some plausible answers, then we can try to spread the
answers around. As individuals living in a mass society, I can't
see how individuals are able to remediate much more than that.
The Buddha's 'society' was composed of many little outfits here
and there, scattered over the Gangetic plain and in the hills, a
few towns, but probably nothing like a mass society.

Joanna
========================================

 

-----Original Message-----
From: buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com
[mailto:buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com] On Behalf Of Vicente
Gonzalez


"Monks, these five trades ought not to be plied by a
lay-disciple...
Trade in weapons, trade in human beings, trade in flesh, trade in
intoxicants and trade in poison."

when trading by itself is not good or bad, then it seems the
trade of these things causes bad kamma. So it seems there is a
kamma for the people belonging to these corporations. Behind any
genocide there is a table with individuals agreeing in making
these crimes.
Rest of the people involved are therefore enchained in the
success of their actions.

Looking the magnitudes of these crimes, a logical response in a
civilized world must be the public knowledge of their names and
the existence of a World Court to judge all them because crimes
against the human kind. This civilized situation didn't exists
because politics are in their hands as today even the more
analphabet person know. Without civilized solutions in the
horizon, there are two logical responses for this situation in
accordance with
Buddhism:

- the killing of these genocides by any means in order to protect
billions of lives.

- not impeding these genocides avoiding killing to be in
accordance with the final truth.

In the epitaph of Jingshan Faquin (793) there is a Chan dialogue.
The student asked wether, if two messengers knew the station
master was slaughtering a sheep for them, and one went to save
the sheep, but the other did not, they cause different results of
punishments and blessing. Jingshan answered: "the one who saved
the sheep was compassionate, and the one who did not save the
sheep was emancipated"

Can we see the difference?


best regards,


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