[Buddha-l] A question for Jewish Buddhists

[L.S. Cousins]

Richard,

Although not a Jewish Buddhist, I respond.


> In my advanced undergraduate course on Buddhist philosophy in India we have been discussing dependent origination from a bewildering variety of 
> perspectives. One of the readings we have looked at was from David 
> Kalupahana's book "Causality". In that book (p. 131) Kalupahana makes the 
> observation that in the Buddhist view of moral responsibility, "the effect of 
> a deed is not determined solely by the deed itself but also by the nature of 
> the person who commits the deed." So, he goes on to say, if a great man 
> commits an unskilful act, the effect is less serious than if a scoundrel 
> commits the same act. He cites the example of a pinch of salt thrown into a 
> small cup of water as opposed to a pinch of salt thrown into the Ganges.
>   

Does not this refer to the effect on the person himself ?

> A Jewish woman in my class observed that in Judaism the exact opposite is 
> said. She reports that in Jewish thought, the greater a person, the more 
> damage is done by an indiscretion that the person commits. (This seems right 
> to me. I have always found the Buddhist doctrine counterintuitive, which is a 
> polite way o saying just plain wrong.

And this to the effect on others ?


Lance