[Buddha-l] Aung San Suu Kyi and the latest Burmese prosecutions

[Zelders.YH]

Richard writes :

>When decisions are made solely by one figure [the Buddha], even with
>consultation, then that figure strikes me as authoritarian.
>
> > When at a certain moment dissent arose among the bhikkhus the Buddha
> > just went away to the jungle and lived there for a while, certainly
> > not the average authoritarian way to solve a dispute.
>
>The decision, however, was finally made by the Buddha and by him alone. That
>he ran off into the forest when things got hectic does not make him any less
>an authoritarian. It just makes him an irresponsible authoritarian.

Isn't this just a little too black-and-white ? You present him as a 
dictator. Oh well, your last remark was made in jest, I trust.
The story I was referring to can be found in the last chapter of the 
Mahaavagga of the Vinaya Pitaka.
That dispute is not in any way cut off by an authoritarian decision 
on the part of the Buddha, but solved in a different way. The Buddha 
then proposes a set of rules in which conflicts might be solved and 
consensus reached through a process in which every opinion might be 
brought forward and considered by all. How "democratic" can one get ? 
As he had great authority as a revered spiritual teacher those rules 
were codified as part of the code of conduct by his followers. Does 
that make him an authoritarian leader in any ordinary sense of the term ?


Earlier Richard wrote in response to Christopher Fynn :

> > > It is rather depressing that several countries with a predominantly
> > > Buddhist population and culture produce such authoritarian
> > > governments.
> >
> >As is the case with so many depressing things, it is not at all
> >surprising. The Buddha, after all, was an authoritarian teacher, and
> >almost all Buddhist traditions have a deeply authoritarian structure.
> >One can hardly expect to get much of anything but lemon juice out of
> >lemons.

In all seriousness, I don't think you can blame the Buddha for the 
mess made by contemporary myopic authoritarian regimes in South and 
South-east Asia. And hey, let's not forget that we're discussing a 
legendary figure, even as the legend has a historic kernel.

Herman