[Buddha-l] Silence of the List

[Peter D. Junger]

"Stephen Hodge" writes:

: Gad Horowitz wrote
: 
: > "Because you lack the karmic necessity to kill even a single person, you 
: > do
: > not commit murder.  That is why you do not kill, not because YOU are GOOD.
: 
: This part of the Shinran quote is reminiscent of something that Gandhi 
: said -- to paraphrase:  only the strong have a right to call themselves true 
: pacificists; the weak are pacificists only out of necessity.

Shinran's quote suggests nothing like the remark you attribute to
Gandhi.  According to Shinran killers and pacifists are both acting
out of karmic necessity and none of us---including Shinran---has the
power to do otherwise, except through power of the infinite Wisdom
and Compassion that surrounds us.  The point is that we have in
ourselves no power whatsoever to overcome our---if I may use the
word---condtioning.

Here is a more extensive version of the quoted passage:

  This is taken from Taitetsu Unno's translation of the Tannisho. It 
  starts with the second paragraph in Chapter XIII.

      Good thoughts arise in our minds due to the effect of past 
      good, and we are made to think and do evil due to the working 
      of karmic evil. The late master said, ``We should know that 
      even as trifling a thing as the speck of dust on the tip of a 
      rabbit's hair or a sheep's fleece is the product of the evil 
      of past karma.'' Another time he asked me, ``Would you accept 
      anything I say, Yu-ien?'' 

    ``Of course I will,'' I replied. 

    ``Are you sure that you won't disobey me?,'' he repeated, and 
      when I again agreed he continued, ``Go, then, and kill a 
      thousand people and your birth in the Pure Land is settled.'' 

      ``Even though that is your order,'' I protested, ``and even 
      though with all that is in me, I cannot kill even a single 
      person.'' 

      ``Then why did you just say that you would not disobey what I, 
      Shinran, said?'' And then he went on, ``By this we know that if 
      we could act according to our thoughts, we could kill a 
      thousand people for the sake of birth in the Pure Land--if so 
      required. We do not kill, not because our thoughts are good but 
      because we do not have the karma to kill a single person. Yet, 
      even though we do not want to injure anyone, we may be led to 
      kill a hundred or a thousand people.'' 

<http://samsara.law.cwru.edu/blog/archive1/Passage_from_Tannisho.html>

--
Peter D. Junger--Case Western Reserve University Law School--Cleveland, OH
 EMAIL: junger at samsara.law.cwru.edu    URL:  http://samsara.law.cwru.edu