[Buddha-l] Non attached & mindful culinary triumphalism?

[andy]

Erik wrote:
> Hi Andy,
> the classical legend about the Buddha is that he found a solution for
> what he saw as the most fundamental human problem. He didn't claim to be
> intimate with the boss of the universe, nor to have found a universal
> set of rules. Later in Mahayana teachings there is a strong confidence
> in the assumption that eventually every living being will agree with the
> Buddha. But Buddhist prescriptions are only valid for Buddhists, those
> have have taken refuge and that is something you are free to chose.

That is the question, isn't it?  Whether Buddha's solution is in fact correct. 
If it is, that is something that should influence people's choice. 


> I sense some doubt in your comment about this freedom and if you look at
> Confucius and Mencius it is clear that you are not free to chose in
> their virtue ethics, because if you do not try to become a true
> gentleman you will go down in the ladder of status and become an outcast
> eventually. That is why radical Daoist revert to nature and leave
> society to dwell in solitude or live the life of an outcast. So if
> virtue ethics becomes a general duty, it loses it's individual freedom.

Social convention, loss of status, is not a definitive reason.  The whole point 
of renunciation abandons all of that.  

> Now the injunction of incest is not univesal either. Levi-Strauss
> discovered that in many cultures people just don't commit incest,
> because that's 'only for rabbits'. They never thought about explicit
> laws or regulions.
> So my conclusion is that in many cultures laws and injunctions are not
> top priority, but this may feel somewhat counter intuitive for someone
> who is brought up with these things.
> 
> erik

Sorry for accidentally ending your name with a "c" in an earlier post! But 
yes, this is the difficulty with asserting any universal moral rules.  The Ali'i 
or royal classes in ancient Hawai'i thought that incest was a very good thing. 

The question whether the Buddhist take on these things is true, or just 
complying with societal expectations for mendicants.  

Andy