[Buddha-l] Evil

[Jayarava]

I'm not so good at philosophical thinking - tend to shoot from the hip. But tonight I'm doing a presentation to a small group on the problem of Evil. My reading for this has been quite stimulating.

I've never found the Buddhist explanations for the existence of evil very satisfying, though curiously I find the proposals for action in the face of evil quite compelling. 

One particular problem, it seems to me, is the Mahayana idea of the Buddha vowing to save all beings. It seems to me that if we start by accepting the idea that the job of a Buddha is to save all beings, then we'd have to conclude on the evidence that the Buddha is pretty useless and possibly getting worse. It is rather like the arguments against the existence of God. The prevalence of evil, and to mind my it's advancement, argues against any large scale effective force for good.

Any thoughts on this?

Best Wishes
Jayarava