[Buddha-l] Evil

[jkirk]

I recommend Stephen Batchelor's book, _Living with the Devil : A
Meditation on Good and Evil_. NY: Riverhead Books, 2004. 
Best thing I've ever read on the subject of evil, bar none. I
keep going back
to it for solace and the beneficial effects of a fine mind at
work.

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


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


      

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