[Buddha-l] Subject: the poignancy of Donald Lopez

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Tue, 2010-01-19 at 02:35 -0500, Dan Lusthaus wrote:

> Persecution can mean a variety of things. Sticking to physicial "violence" 
> as the criterion, I am aware of Hindu and Buddhist episodes of violence, but 
> have so far not seen Jains implicated (except in some hot-headed speech, and 
> occasional factional outbreaks of misogyny). Do you have any actual episodes 
> of physical violence in mind attributed to Jains? They are my last hold-out 
> for a world religion that has successfully embodied ahimsa, not just in word 
> but in deed. Are you saying that's not so?

I attended a fascinating session many years ago, back in the days when I
went to meetings of professional societies such as the AAR, at which
Phyllis Granoff and others presented papers on mutual intolerance and
hostility between Jainas and Buddhists in Tamilnadu. There were acts of
desecration of religious images, destruction of temples and even
physical violence against persons resulting in death.

Of course Jainas have the most absolutist rhetoric against ahimsa in the
world, and when Jainism is practiced strictly, it is difficult to
imagine any practice that could surpass starving oneself to death to
avoid harming any living thing, including plants. But why should Jainas
be except from being "human, all too human" like everyone else? To be
surprised that a Jaina can be violent would be like being surprised that
a Jewish friend is eating a ham and cheese sandwich or driving a car on
Shabbat.

Many of these discussions of the past week or so remind me of something
that Wilfred Cantwell Smith, the professor who set the tone for
religious studies at McGill for about fifty years, often said. To
compare the very best of one's own tradition with the very worst of
another tradition invariably results in unfair and lopsided comparison.
Making that sort of comparison is the work of proselytizers, not
scholars. The very best of Buddhism looks pretty good when compared to,
say, the Spanish inquisition. But the very best of Christianity looks
pretty good when compared to some of the antics of Buddhists in Japan
during the Kamakura period.

Cantwell Smith also urged people to be mindful of methodology. If one is
looking at historical currents in religious traditions, then one should
do that consistently. If one is looking at the philosophical ideals in
different traditions, then one should consistently do that. It is very
easy to slip into mindlessness (if that is the opposite of mindfulness)
and to find oneself comparing the ideal of one tradition against the
historical realities of another. People do this in subtle ways all the
time, often without realizing they are doing so. (It is really just
another version of comparing the best of one tradition with the worst of
another. Usually the best of any tradition is its moral ideals, and
usually the worst is its actual behavior.) 

-- 
Richard P. Hayes <rhayes at unm.edu>
University of New Mexico