Buddhist Moral Philosophy

An Introduction

Christopher W. Gowans

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780415890670
• eBook ISBN: 9781317659341
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Eastern Philosophy

The first book of its kind, Buddhist Moral Philosophy: An Introduction introduces the reader to contemporary philosophical interpretations and analyses of Buddhist ethics. It begins with a survey of traditional Buddhist ethical thought and practice, mainly in the Pali Canon and early Mah?y?na schools, and an account of the emergence of Buddhist moral philosophy as a distinct discipline in the modern world. It then examines recent debates about karma, rebirth and nirvana, well-being, normative ethics, moral objectivity, moral psychology, and the issue of freedom, responsibility and determinism. The book also introduces the reader to philosophical discussions of topics in socially engaged Buddhism such as human rights, war and peace, and environmental ethics.

Part 1
Buddhist Ethical Thought and Buddhist Moral Philosophy

Chapter 1
The Teaching of the Buddha

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the teaching of the Buddha. The next chapter will give a summary of the development of this teaching in the centuries immediately after his death and in subsequent centuries during the rise of Mahāyāna Buddhism (primarily, though not exclusively, in India). Together these two chapters will establish a context for a more detailed examination of Buddhist ethics and Buddhist moral philosophy. Readers already familiar with this context may wish to skip these chapters.

Our Knowledge of the Buddha’s Teaching

The Buddha lived in India nearly 2,500 years ago. He wrote nothing, and our knowledge of his teaching (dhamma/dharma) derives primarily from a large body of texts that are thought to be based on and to preserve this teaching. According to the Theravāda tradition (the form of Buddhism that prevails today in Sri Lanka and parts of Southeast Asia), shortly after the Buddha died a large group of his enlightened disciples met for a group recitation of what he said during the 45 years that he taught. This was the beginning of an organized oral tradition in which the memory of Buddha’s teaching was passed down by his followers from generation to generation. After quite some time, perhaps close to four centuries, this oral tradition was put in the written form that is the source of the texts we have today. One group of these texts is entitled the Vinaya Piṭaka: it contains the rules regulating the monastic community established by the Buddha, and it is one source for our understanding of the ethical aspects of his teaching. A second group of the texts is called the Sutta Piṭaka: most of the five Nikāyas that make up this group purport to represent the conversations and discourses in which the Buddha (or his disciples) explained his thought. It is our main source for comprehending his original teaching. A third and final group of texts is entitled the Abhidhamma Piṭaka: in comparison with the texts in the first two groups, these texts offer a more analytical, abstract and systematic account of the Buddha’s teaching. They are widely believed to have been developed primarily in the centuries after the life of the Buddha (and so are a much more indirect and interpretive representation of his thought). This group will be discussed in the next chapter. The three groups together are known as the “three baskets” (Tipiṭaka/Tripiṭaka). The best-known and most complete version of the three baskets is in Pali, a language related to Sanskrit that is thought to be close to, but not identical with, the language the Buddha spoke (there are also renditions of many of these texts in Chinese and Tibetan). The Pali version, commonly referred to as the Pali Canon, is considered authoritative by Theravāda Buddhism. It has been translated into English almost in its entirety and is the primary basis for this chapter (especially the Sutta Piṭaka).

The genealogy of the Pali Canon raises obvious concerns about its accuracy as an account of what the Buddha actually taught. Since it is the product of a long oral tradition lasting nearly four centuries, it is natural to wonder whether it includes mistakes or even more or less conscious changes (additions, subtractions or modifications) to what the Buddha said. This concern is aggravated by the fact that during this period there were numerous schools (18 according to one tradition) that sometimes differed in their interpretation of the Buddha’s thought. The Theravāda school that is the source of the Pali Canon and the ancestor of contemporary Theravāda Buddhism was but one of these. Though consistency across different renditions of these texts may provide some reassurance, these different versions may have common sources that are themselves problematic. To a very large extent, there is no way to know in detail with any certainty how accurate the Pali Canon is as a representation of the Buddha’s teaching.

However, it is the teaching of the Buddha as depicted in these texts that has been historically influential—certainly in the Theravāda tradition, and in overall substance in other traditions as well. What the world has regarded, and continues to regard, as the Buddha’s original teaching is basically the ensemble of ideas and practices put forward in these texts. Moreover, though there is scholarly disagreement about what can be known about the Buddha’s ideas, it is widely thought that there was a single person who came to be called the Buddha and who is the source of the ideas in these texts at least in broad outline. In any case, for the most part there is little reason to think that there is a better source for understanding the teaching of the Buddha than the Pali Canon (for discussion of the development of the Pali Canon, see Gethin 1998: ch. 2).

The Life of the Buddha

One entrée into the teaching of the Buddha is the traditional representation of his life. Buddhist traditions as well as contemporary scholars generally agree that the Buddha lived in the vicinity of the Ganges River basin in the northeastern area of present-day India. However, there is disagreement about exactly when he lived. The dates assigned by different traditions range from the seventh to the fourth centuries BCE, but today most Western scholars think that the Buddha probably died close to 400 BCE. Hence, he probably lived most of his life in the fifth century BCE (and so about the same time as Socrates). In any case, it was a very long time ago, and we can have little confidence about any specific details of the Buddha’s life. Nonetheless, there is a traditional understanding of his life that is mostly rooted in the Pali Canon and presumably is a product of the same oral tradition that produced the texts of this Canon. If we set aside the virtually unanswerable question of the historical accuracy of this account, there is much that we can learn from it about what, traditionally, the Buddha is supposed to have taught. The representation of his life is itself a partial statement of his thought (for an account of the life and thought of the Buddha, see Carrithers 1983).

The man who became the Buddha, Siddhattha Gotama (Siddhārtha Gautama), is said to have been born near the present-day border of India and Nepal, in a park named Lumbinī, and to have been raised in nearby Kapilavatthu (Kapilavastu). (Strictly speaking, Gotama is said to have been reborn, and more complete accounts refer to his previous lives leading up to this one.) His father was a rather well-off and powerful leader of the Sakka (Śākya) tribe. Gotama probably grew up in comparative good fortune by the standards of the day. At age 16 he married a woman named Yaśodharā, and when he was 29 he and Yaśodharā had a son named Rāhula. At this point in his life, Gotama may well have possessed what for many people, then and now, have been regarded as largely sufficient for happiness: a measure of prosperity, reputation and power as well as a beautiful spouse, a son and even, we are told, good looks. However, when Gotama was born, it was foretold that he would become either a great political leader or a great spiritual leader. His father hoped he would follow the political path and so he protected his son from troublesome features of life that might lead him in a spiritual direction. But this protection could not last forever. One day, not long after the birth of his son, Gotama went out and saw a very old man: he discovered that human beings age and decline over time. On another occasion he went out and saw someone who was very sick: he realized that human beings are subject to illness. On a third outing he saw a funeral procession: he found out that human beings eventually die. The three-part realization of aging, illness and death, as inevitable features of human life, greatly disturbed Gotama. He left his wife and child and set out on a quest to understand and overcome such suffering.

The quest was to last six years. At first Gotama studied with two figures rooted in traditional Brahminism. He quickly mastered their respective meditation systems and realized their highest states of concentration, but he was dissatisfied with the value of these states. He then spent considerable time with five samaṇas (śramaṇas), spiritual seekers who had abandoned Brahminism and the household life that was at the center of its concerns, and who lived lives of extraordinary asceticism and meditation in search of true understanding and happiness. Once again Gotama proved extremely proficient in their spiritual disciplines, but he concluded that the rigors of the most extreme asceticism imaginable did not bring him the wisdom and relief from suffering that he sought. So he took some nourishment and set off on his own. After a period of reflection and meditation, he achieved three forms of knowledge. First, he saw the specific details of his own past lives. Second, he grasped the nature of karma (kamma/karma) and rebirth, that morally good actions bring about greater happiness for the person who performs them and morally bad actions bring about greater unhappiness for this person, both in the person’s current life and throughout the series of lives, past and future, that all human beings undergo. Third, he understood the Four Noble Truths that explain the nature, origin, cessation and way leading to the cessation of suffering. He was now a Buddha, an enlightened or awakened being, someone who had discovered and attained nirvana (nibbāna/nirvāṇa). This meant that he had overcome suffering in this life and would escape the cycle of rebirth, with its inevitable suffering, in the future.

An interesting feature of the traditional story is that, immediately after his enlightenment, the Buddha was momentarily perplexed about what to do and needed some guidance. He realized that what he had learned is rather difficult to understand and he observed that the people of his time were quite preoccupied with the pleasures of the senses. So he thought it would be pointless, indeed “wearying and troublesome,” to try to teach them. But then the Brahmā Sahampati appeared and convinced the Buddha that some persons would understand his teaching. And so, we are told, the Buddha decided to teach what he had discovered “out of compassion for beings” (MN I 168–9). This episode may be interpreted in different ways. But it is striking that, though the Buddha is often presented as an extraordinary being, more godlike than human (especially in Mahāyāna Buddhism), here, in this account of a pivotal moment in his life, he appears all too human—uncertain, a bit anxious, in need of help—even though he is enlightened, and as enlightened, has the compassion to devote the remaining 45 years of his life to enabling others to attain enlightenment themselves.

The Buddha first taught the Four Noble Truths to the samaṇas he had lived with earlier when he was seeking enlightenment. At first they were wary of him: had he not betrayed them by abandoning their ascetic ways for what they perceived as a life of luxury? The Fourth Noble Truth, the way to the cessation of suffering known as the Eightfold Path, was presented as a response to this concern. It was said to be a “middle way” (majjhimā paṭipadā) between the sensuous lives of most people and the ascetic lives of the samaṇas. As will be seen, by most standards, the Eightfold Path is still pretty ascetic, and in any case this was enough to convince the samaṇas. They became the Buddha’s first disciples and the first under his tutelage to attain enlightenment—persons who are called Arahants (Arhats).

This was the beginning of the monastic order established by the Buddha, the Sangha, a group of male disciples called “bhikkhus” who had forsaken an ordinary life of work and family for a disciplined and celibate life supported by alms and devoted to the pursuit of enlightenment. Some years later the Buddha established a parallel community of female disciples called “bhikkhunīs.” Another striking feature of the traditional story is that he had to be talked into this by his attendant Ānanda and his step-mother Mahāpajāpatī: only after three pleas did the Buddha agree that women could attain enlightenment as well as men and so should have their own monastic order (there is more about this in Chapter 12). The Buddha also had male and female lay followers, known as upāsakas and upāsikās, who lived ordinary non-celibate lives of work and family, but in certain ways embraced values of the Buddha and provided support for the Sangha. However, though he addressed all of these groups of people, much of his teaching in the Sutta Piṭaka seems to be directed primarily to an audience of male monastics. In this connection, it is worth noting that the Buddha did not return to his wife Yaśodharā and son Rāhula (though Rāhula later became one of his followers). He did not think the “household life” was a suitable environment for seeking enlightenment, and as the leader of the monastics pursuing enlightenment he evidently did not think it was a suitable environment for himself. To a large extent, early Buddhism is centrally a monastic tradition.

At age 80, according to the traditional account, the Buddha became ill (perhaps from food poisoning) and died. Though he was enlightened and hence had in some sense overcome suffering, he nonetheless grew old, got sick and died—the three features of human life that had disturbed him so much that he began his quest for enlightenment more than 50 years earlier. Since he was enlightened, the Buddha was not to be reborn into another such life. However, in this life overcoming suffering evidently meant, not the elimination of these features, but a change in attitude toward them. As he was dying, he said to Ānanda: “Whatever is born, become, compounded is liable to decay—that it should not decay is impossible. And that has been renounced, given up, rejected, abandoned, forsaken” (DN II 118). He also left these instructions for the bhikkhus: “You should live as islands unto yourselves, being your own refuge, with no one else as your refuge, with the Dharma as an island, with the Dharma as your refuge, with no other refuge” (DN II 100). He appointed no successor, leaving behind only this rather sparse advice to take refuge in oneself and the Buddha’s teaching. Summing up these points, his final words were, “all conditioned things are of a nature to decay—strive on untiringly” (DN II 156).

The Buddha’s life, as represented in the tradition, is most plausibly regarded, less as a factual record of events, and more as a statement of the Buddha’s teaching. From this point of view, there are several lessons that we might take away from his life. First, the things that people commonly suppose will bring them happiness are not sufficient for happiness. The Buddha had most of these things: he was married and had a son, he was in a position of some prestige, power and wealth, he was good looking and so forth. But all of this was overshadowed by the realization that all human beings, including ourselves and those we love, will decline with age, become ill and eventually die. We are “of a nature to decay.” By itself, this might seem a rather depressing lesson, and so it appeared to the Buddha at first. However, what the remainder of his life is supposed to teach is that there is a way, somehow, to overcome this pessimistic perspective. Whatever this way is, it is clear that it involves a basic reorientation in our attitudes to those things we thought would bring us happiness. As will be seen, a key to this reorientation is overcoming craving (taṇhā/tṛṣṇā), and attachment or possessiveness (upādāna), with respect to these things. The Buddha’s later life might give the impression that this basically requires a monastic life, and one of the challenges for ascertaining the relevance of Buddhism in the world today is determining whether this impression is correct.

Karma and Rebirth

We are now in a position to look more closely at the teaching of the Buddha. The place to begin is with karma and rebirth, two doctrines that are distinct but very closely related in the Buddha’s thought (for an overview of these doctrines in early Buddhism, see McDermott 1980). It is noteworthy that two of the three things the Buddha discovered when he was enlightened involved these doctrines: the nature of karma and rebirth as well as the details of his own past lives. In contemporary philosophical discussions of Buddhism in the West, there has been a debate about whether karma and rebirth, at least as traditionally understood, are unimportant, problematic, or dispensable features of Buddhism (see Chapter 4). However, there can be no question that for the Buddha, and for the early Buddhist tradition, they were fundamental features of his ethical thought. The third thing he discovered upon his enlightenment, the Four Noble Truths, take karma and rebirth for granted and explain how to attain liberation from the cycle of rebirth.

The concepts of karma and rebirth were already features of Brahmanism, the main religious tradition in India when the Buddha lived, but they were understood differently. For the Brahmanic tradition, the correct performance of ritual determined the quality of a person’s rebirth. The Buddha’s innovation was to diminish the importance of ritual (though it has hardly disappeared from Buddhist traditions) and to emphasize the importance of the morality of our actions. The Jains had a similar position. This is one of the primary ways in which morality is central to the Buddha’s thought. For the Buddha, our measure of happiness or unhappiness in this and future lives is determined by how morally good or bad our actions are. Hence, his position is partly similar to, and partly critical of, the Brahmanic viewpoint (for discussion of this background, see Gombrich 2009: chs. 3–4).

Karma and rebirth are not manifestations of a cosmic justice in which a divine being similar to the God of the monotheistic religions distributes rewards and punishments. The Buddha did not recognize such a God and he did not think of karma as a form of desert. There is no suggestion that morally good people deserve to be happy and morally bad people deserve to be unhappy. Rather, karma and rebirth are regarded as natural causal processes in the world. A fundamental feature of the Buddha’s thought, arguably the centerpiece of his metaphysics, is that all things (except for nirvana) are causally conditioned or dependently arisen (translations of paṭicca samuppāda/pratītya-samutpāda). Karma and rebirth are among the most important respects in which this is true. It is better to think of the principle of karma as similar to causal principles of biology, such as that describing photosynthesis, than as the work of a divine being in the universe. A frequent metaphor for karma in Buddhists texts is a biological metaphor, that our actions are similar to seeds that will bear fruit in the future:

Whatever sort of seed is sown,
That is the sort of fruit one reaps:
The doer of good reaps good;
The doer of evil reaps evil.
By you, dear, has the seed been sown;
Thus you will experience the fruit.

(SN 1 227)

Of course, both doctrines—divine justice in the future, and karma and rebirth—might function in motivationally similar ways to promo...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part 1 Buddhist Ethical Thought and Buddhist Moral Philosophy
• Part 2 Theoretical Topics in Buddhist Moral Philosophy
• Part 3 Practical Issues in Buddhist Moral Philosophy
• Bibliography
• Index