[Buddha-l] Rice & Dragons

[Jo]

On Apr 15, 2012, at 9:45 AM, "Jo" <jkirk at spro.net> wrote:

> The BJP line so far as citizens views go, as one Hindu nationalist 
> told me, seems to be that Buddhist doctrines were already in Hinduism. 
> No need to become a Buddhist if you like their doctrine.

Although I am not a big BJP fan, I think they are essentially right about
this. If one is drawn to Buddhism, there is no reason to convert to it,
because everything it has to offer can be found pretty much everywhere else.

Richard Hayes
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Hi Richard,

Well--not really "everywhere else." So far as India in the "everywhere"
goes, one significant exception with Hinduism is, today and always, the
Buddhist opposition to caste as an evaluator of moral identity and standing
in one's community. 
Extensions of this exception would provide differences also with Hindu
notions of karma as affecting caste at birth. Thus, the Dalits after
Ambedkar took up Buddhist practice and identity as the solution to their
Hindu untouchableness, enforced on them as punishment for supposed terrible
crimes in past lives (aka really bad karma). 
This view, of course, historically served as a moralistic rationale for
keeping them in the filthy occupations that no doubt were the initial causes
of untouchability when it finally was cemented in Hindu ethics. (Laws of
Manu? No time to check but as I recall, yes.)

Joanna