The principles of Buddhism and murder

hort Essay 2:
If a monk decided to kill a man in order to stop the chaos of another person and to
save lives, then it would fall in the principles of Buddhism. Even though peace is a huge thing in
Buddhism, there are exceptions to the rules. The monk did not have any intentions of being evil,
he kept a good heart and put his own life on the line in order to help others.
In the principles of Buddhism is to reach Nirvana. The end goal is to reach enlightenment
through the trials and following the rules. One of the philosophy of Buddhism and
Characteristics of Samsara in the lecure states that All the worlds constituents, even the
constituents of the heavenly realm, are impermanent, ultimately dissatisfactory, and contain no
permanent inner substance (Sandvig 2022, 3). One of the main points is that you have to be
non-self. In other words you have to be selfless. If someone is on the ship and there is a maniac
killing everyone, people are scared. Their life is at risk. If you are bystanding as a monk you are
still doing evil because you are only thinking about yourself. That is being selfish. Putting your
own life at risk to save others and prevent him from taking other people’s lives would mean that
he is still following the principles of Buddhism.
Secondly, we learned that there are warrior Shaolin Monks. These monks trained their
whole life to be mentally and physically at their peak while studying the scriptures of Buddhism.
These Shaolin warriors would use deadly force if they needed to without disrupting their beliefs.
These Warrior Monks would be called to defend China and the temples, In mid-16th century
China, however, the monks of Shaolin Temple were called upon to who
had been raiding the Chinese coastline for decades (Szczepanski 2020, 1). This does not mean
that these monks would go out of their way to just kill someone. They would only do it if it was
absolutely necessary. Their type of Kung-fu still copies nature and the style would represent a
type of animal or insect, mimicking nature. The Shaolin Monks purpose is to defend their
temples and defend China from outsiders that are invading.
Thirdly, in Buddhism you have to have multiple points of view. You can not be just stuck
on one view because it changes in different situations. In the Monastery and Microscope
Zajonc has a conversation with the Dalai Lama about quantum physics and evidence about the
world. One quote that really struck out in this situation is, Even if Im not a Buddhist, maybe
Buddhist philosophy is interesting because it brings some thoughts that I hadnt thought before, a
new way of looking, a new way of understanding (Hasenkamp 2017, 49). The philosophy of
Buddhism and the whole point is to have unworldly views. We have to see that the monk did not
kill just because he wanted to kill. We have to see a whole different perspective. That monk
killed the maniac because he saw that everyones life was at risk. We can not see that the monk
just killed someone, in Buddhist philosophy we have to see the whole picture and have it in a
different perspective.
Karma and compassion plays a huge role in this story. Karma is The good or bad willful
intentions that motivate the doing of good or bad actions are what result in karmic fruition
(Sandvig 2022, 2). In other words, if you do good in the world it will come back to you, and if
you do bad things the bad things will come back to you. This is a huge belief in Buddhism,
religion and philosophy. Whatever you do in the past life and the actions you take will affect
what will happen in the next life. Good and bad rebirths are not simply rewards and
punishments, but are the resulting effect of ones conscious character molded by lives of good
and bad actions that reflect how one ultimately chooses to act and live (Sandvig 2022, 2). Going
back into the monk on the ship, the biggest argument would be if the monk would be allowed to
be rebirthed. Does the monk go against the teachings of Buddhism? In another perspective what
if he knew he had the ability to stop the killer yet he just sat there and did nothing? That would
mean he was Delusioned. This is also related to the Three root evils. Being ignorant and doing
unwholesome acts would mean he would not reach nirvana. I believe that this Monk would be
reborn in the human realm and have a chance to redeem himself, that is where compassion
comes in. The monk is saving others.
Some people may argue that, if you kill another being and animals it goes against the
teachings of Buddhism. It is true that so many people in Buddhism are vegetarian because they
do not want to harm the animals. However, the excerpts are not commandments. Buddha does
not want these to be restrictions. It is more of a free will if you follow these you can. On the
Eightfold Path, it is said that you are supposed to live life without remorse or regret. If the Monk
was being a bystander, he would have regretted letting all those people die and he would have to
live with that. In the excerpt it claims to not kill, however To abstain from killing is on a more
subtle level to do no harm out of malice (Buddho 2022, 2). The monk is not killing out or
malice. He is simply doing it because he has to.
At the end, Karma would favor the monk. The man can still continue on his path into
enlightenment if he is not too hung up on killing someone. The monk has to learn to let go of his
emotions. If he does not, compassion would give him a chance to redeem himself and he would
be set to a realm that would not be suffering. The monk did the right thing in that situation and is
still in course of following the Buddhist philosophies.
Reference:
Sandvig, Kirk. Life, Love, Karma REL_338. Reading presented at the REL_338, October
9, 2022.
Sandvig, Kirk. Chinese Buddhism REL_338. Reading presented at the REL_338,
October 9, 2022.
Hasenkamp, Wendy, and . The Monastery and the Microscope:
Conversations with the Dalai Lama on Mind, Mindfulness, and the Nature of Reality. New
Haven: Yale University Press, 2017.
Szczepanski, Kallie. Why Did Buddhist Monks Fight Japanese Pirates? ThoughtCo.
ThoughtCo, January 16, 2020.
https://www.thoughtco..
About The Editors Since 2017 our Editors have been working hard to give everyone the
opportunity to get acquainted with samatha meditation on buddho, About The Editors, and
All posts by The Editors. The 5 Precepts: Buddhism and Morality. Buddho.org, June 26,
2022. https://buddho.org/buddhism-and-morality-the-five-precepts/.