[Buddha-l] Evil

[Jayarava]

--- On Thu, 30/7/09, Richard Hayes <rhayes at unm.edu> wrote:

> I move we ban the word "evil" from buddha-l (along with the word 
> "hīnayāna").

But we want to ban the word hīnayāna precisely because it is evil! 

> I don't believe that evil is at all a useful concept. It
> has neither a descriptive nor an explanatory value. Belief in evil is
> itself just one of the many manifestations of the human incompetence
> that takes the forms of greed, hatred and delusion. Greed, hatred and
> delusion are counterproductive. Nothing much is gained by saying
> that they are evil, or that they cause evil. 

I agree to some extent. I mainly used the word evil because I mentioned it in passing on Facebook and got a good reaction, and became a running gag (Now over). I was thinking of "the problem of evil". Like why is there so much suffering, much of which seems so unnecessary, and unwarranted? Like kids dying of cancer. It's not enough to just say shit happens. Is it? That seems a bit callous.

Another strand that came out in last night's discussion is that it is entirely rational to avoid pain. I bet all those folks who tell us that we should not react to pain, not avoid it, still look before they cross the road - because avoiding being run down by a car is sensible. So if we can avoid pain we should, and we can more successfully avoid pain if we know what causes it. So the question about why a kid dies of cancer is a fair and reasonable question to ask. It's about trying to figure out the rules of the game in order to play better. 

Human incompetence seems incompetent to fully answer this question. A kid dying of cancer can't be chalked up to that, surely? On the other hand we adults are not always good at avoiding things we know to be harmful (here I am typing away trying to ignore the pain it causes me!)

I'm open to the possibility that we simply can't know, and that we just have to work with what we've got. I just want to see if that is the last word. I suppose the Buddha would that the karmic/intentional stuff is where you have an influence so that's where you should focus?

Anyway it provided good fodder for discussion last night.

Best Wishes
Jayarava