Questions:
1) What is the main point of the author in this article? (at least one sentence)
2) What will we learn from the paper / What are the assumptions challenged in this paper? (at least two sentences)
3) What issues did you find problematic in the essay / What points do you seem to be missing in the essay? (at least 3 sentences)
THIS IS THE ARTICLE
As Buddha, one of the vows they take is not to cause harm to others. But what happens when this vow to not take another’s life is broken? Does the reasoning behind taking a life matter, or does the person who murdered simply become someone evil and irredeemable, destined to experience life in hell due to the bad karma their actions caused? By looking at the story of Captain Great Compassionate who killed a robber that had the intent to murder the Bodhisattvas disguised as merchants on his ship, we see that it is possible to kill with compassion rather than malicious or angry intent.
When a person sets out to become a monk, they are given ten precepts to follow, which are essential rules to follow in their path to enlightenment. These precepts include refraining from taking life, stealing, having sex, telling lies, drinking, eating after noon, attending shows, wearing cosmetics, using luxurious beds, and accepting money[1]. One can eventually become a monk by following these precepts, but breaking one of these rules, especially the first several, leads to severe consequences like being barred from becoming a monk. In order to avoid these repercussions, it’s imperative that monks follow these rules, but sometimes that isn’t always possible, especially when in the position that Captain Great Compassionate had to face.
As Captain of the ship, Great Compassionate had a duty to protect his 500 passengers who were close to reaching awakening and enlightenment, even when keeping them safe meant sacrificing himself. Captain Great Compassionate learned one day that there was a robber who wanted to kill all his Bodhisattva passengers, and because this would result in great amounts of bad karma, especially since these Bodhisattvas were on the path to becoming awakened, Captain Great Compassionate killed this robber to prevent future suffering and death.2 Even though Captain Great Compassionate would simply go to hell instead, he still killed the robber so neither the robber or his passengers would experience hell.3 Therefore, this story and Captain Great Compassionate’s actions show that it is difficult but possible to kill with compassion, especially because of the involvement of karma.
Karma, which has direct ties to whether someone suffers in the circle of samsara or experiences nirvana, heavily influences Captain Great Compassionate’s decision to kill the robber. Karma is “an action that leads to future consequences, especially when the act is performed intentionally. If one wishes to stop the circle of samsāra, one needs to take care of one’s actions including mental actions”4. To avoid hell and suffering in future lives, people must perform actions (both mental and physical) that have good intent behind them rather than actions that intentionally result in harm. Within these karmic actions there is a standard theme that “morally good actions result in such familiar goods as long life, health, wealth, beaty, influence and so forth, and morally bad actions result in the opposite…”5 If someone does something good, good things will happen to them in return, the opposite occurring when they do something bad, but karma becomes much more complicated when we take into account the intent behind this murder.
2
Tavakkoli, Tahereh. “Killing Out of Compassion: Killing Justified by Skillful Means
(Upāya) and Esoteric Knowledge (‘Īlm Ladunnī) in Buddhism and Islam.” McGill University, October, 2020. pp. 17. https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/0k225g85q. Accessed 24 February 2023. 3
Tavakkoli, Tahereh. pp. 18. 4
Tavakkoli, Tahereh. pp. 99. 5
Gowans, W. Christopher. Buddhist Moral Philosophy An Introduction. New York, NY:
Routledge, 2015. pp. 83. Accessed 24 February 2023.
To understand how Captain Great Compassionate’s actions align with Buddhist teachings, one has to believe in the idea of compassion killing and universal compassion. Compassion killing is when a person chooses to “terminate someone’s life in order to prevent him or her from accumulating heavy negative karma and even rid him or her of previous karmic outcomes, without his or her asking, intention, or effort.”6 By killing someone compassionately, the murderer is doing it as a way of saving someone else from future hell by preventing foretold harmful actions, also while actively condemning themselves to suffering that hell instead. Using this definition, we see that Captain Great Compassionate’s killing was certainly an act of compassion, one in which he saved the robber from future bad karma by killing him before that could happen, thus resulting in bad karma for himself instead. This also ties into the idea of universal compassion, which is the belief that compassion should be extended beyond one’s inner circle of close relationships. This type of universal compassion “arises from the realization of selflessness and interdependent origination. On the basis of this realization, the Bodhisattva, or person dedicated to the attainment of awakening, realizes the interdependence of all living beings, a realization that necessitates compassionate moral reactions in all contexts.”7 Universal compassion and compassionate killing both have a commonality between the two: they each require a great deal of selflessness. Universal compassion takes extending kindness to people unknown to you, which Captain Great Compassionate exhibits toward both the robber and his
6
Tavakkoli, Tahereh. pp. 99. 7
Gray, David. “Compassionate Violence? On the Ethical Implications of Tantric Buddhist Ritual.” Journal of Buddhist Ethics, May, 2010, pp. 241.
https://blogs.dickinson.edu/buddhistethics/files/2010/05/gray-article.pdf Accessed 4 March 2023. passengers. We also see selflessness in the way Captain Great Compassionate kills the robber in order to prevent him from gaining bad karma, even at the expense of his own karma. Therefore, we see that this killing does align with many of the Buddhist values.
Buddhism promotes teachings like treating others with kindness and compassion, living a life of minimalism and not engaging in selfish actions, and while most people wouldn’t expect murder to fit into anything here, Captain Great Compassionate killing the robber showcases many of these principles. While Captain Great Compassionate did break the rule of not taking the life of another person, he did not do it selfishly. By killing the robber to prevent him from suffering in hell and instead taking that burden himself, Captain Great Compassionate acted very selflessly, putting himself through future harm so another wouldn’t. Similarly, Captain Great Compassionate follows the teachings of treating others with kindness and compassion when he doesn’t tell his passengers of the robber’s intent. He knew that his Bodhisattva passengers would be angry about the threat to their safety and would have wanted to deal with the robber, but he granted both the robber and these passengers kindness by saving them from having the same knowledge that burdened him. By killing this robber, Captain Great Compassionate was saving those around him from accumulating bad karma, showing that killing someone can align with
Buddhist teachings if the intent behind it is out of kindness rather than anger or malice.
Bibliography
“Buddhism Beginnings Part 1.” Youtube, Uploaded by KakureNami, June 3, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLndsnF_y3I. Accessed 27 February 2023.
Tavakkoli, Tahereh. “Killing Out of Compassion: Killing Justified by Skillful Means (Upāya) and Esoteric Knowledge (‘Īlm Ladunnī) in Buddhism and Islam.” McGill University, October, 2020. pp. 17. https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/0k225g85q.
Accessed 24 February 2023.
Tavakkoli, Tahereh. pp. 18.
Tavakkoli, Tahereh. pp. 99.
Gowans, W. Christopher. Buddhist Moral Philosophy An Introduction. New York, NY:
Routledge, 2015. pp. 83. Accessed 24 February 2023.
Tavakkoli, Tahereh. pp. 99.
Gray, David. “Compassionate Violence? On the Ethical Implications of Tantric Buddhist Ritual.”
Journal of Buddhist Ethics, May, 2010, pp. 241. https://blogs.dickinson.edu/buddhistethics/files/2010/05/gray-article.pdf Accessed 4
March 2023.
[1] “Buddhism Beginnings Part 1.” Youtube, Uploaded by KakureNami, June 3, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLndsnF_y3I. Accessed 3 February 2023.
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