[Buddha-l] Evil

[Mike Austin]

Jayarava <jayarava at yahoo.com> writes

"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."

Me too. The 'evil' in the world is the result of folly.  The prime mover 
for beings is happiness, not unhappiness. The big mistake is to consider 
that the happiness of one may be achieved at the expense of others. So I 
feel there is no enduring force of evil, because it is not in accordance 
with reality. Rather, it waxes and wanes in dependence on conditions. On 
the other hand, a 'force' of good is in accordance with reality and thus 
has no limitations.


"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 Buddha has no power to bestow liberation upon beings. Asserting that 
he had would be equivalent to asserting the existence of some omnipotent 
God. It is the motivation of a Buddha to save all beings, not his 'job'. 
The 'job' of a Buddha is to teach. And so he did. And his teachings show 
that the rest is up to us.


"The prevalence of evil, and to mind my it's advancement, argues against 
any large scale effective force for good."

As we have not the slightest idea of the conditions of beings throughout
the universe, we should not draw conclusions from a limited view of what 
happens on one planet. Rather, the reasoning that I proposed above shows 
that evil lacks any coherent power  because it is not in accordance with 
reality. Good may have coherence and sustainability and is in accordance 
with reality - the next best thing to a 'force'. So it seems like a good 
prognosis to me.

Good luck with your presentation!

-- 
Metta
Mike Austin