Dear All ,
I would like to seek your opinion on the above topic as it is greatly troubling to me.
In many religions around the world, there have been practices where animal or human victims have been murdered on the altar in the belief that it will bring blessings.
I am deeply disturbed by all these. Perhaps anyone can kindly share his buddhist beliefs on the topic of blood sacrifice.
Originally posted by BroInChrist:Then in Buddhist thought do you call something e.g. rape, murder, adultery, wrong or merely unwholesome? And who/what decides what is wholesome or unwholesome? It would seem to be ultimately dictated by outcome and not by the act. There is mention of a good action, what then is good? It's hard to detach it from any moral judgement, yet you seem to say that it has nothing to do with justice. And if something is just a natural law, then it makes no sense to call anything right or wrong, just or unjust.
You can judge it to be 'wrong', I wouldn't have problem with
that. But karma in and of itself isn't about 'wrong' or 'right'...
karma is either wholesome, unwholesome, and pure [i.e. actions not
done out of craving, aggression and delusion].
With regards to karma, nobody decides something to be wholesome or
unwholesome just like nobody decides something to be black or
white... what is black is seen to be black by a discerning eye, and
a black seed seen plainly in sight produces a black result, while a
white seed produces a white result... just like a black animal
produces a black offspring and a white animal produces a white
offspring. A chinese man produces a chinese offspring, a western
man produces a western offspring [lets not talk about mix blood].
You don't need to "judge" if someone is a chinese, i.e. his skin
colour is already plain in sight for you to see, and if you have
the intelligence to discern. Seeing is enough, no need for
judgement. Same goes for karma.
When the Buddha calls it 'wholesome' or 'unwholesome' he is not
making a judgement on things, he is simply describing the
action and its results. What is wholesome produces states of well
being, happiness, freedom from suffering and afflictions. What is
unwholesome is... well... the opposite of that.
For example smoking two packs of cigarettes a day is certainly
unwholesome
because it does damage to one's body. You don't get cancer because
of someone's judgement that it is 'evil' and 'wrong', you get
cancer because smoking is unwholesome, it causes addiction and the
tars accumulate and cause cancer. We don't say smoking is 'evil' or
'wrong' - well, you are certainly entitled to your own opinion, but
regardless of your opinion whether it is 'right' or 'wrong' - it is
a fact that smoking is 'unwholesome', so karma is non-judgemental
in that sense yet can be catergorized as wholesome/unwholesome with
its corresponding effects:
1.
Buddha:
The Wholesome and the Unwholesome
3. "When, friends, a noble disciple understands the unwholesome, the root of the unwholesome, the wholesome, and the root of the wholesome, in that way he is one of right view, whose view is straight, who has perfect confidence in the Dhamma, and has arrived at this true Dhamma.
4. "And what, friends, is the unwholesome, what is the root of the unwholesome, what is the wholesome, what is the root of the wholesome? Killing living beings is unwholesome; taking what is not given is unwholesome; misconduct in sensual pleasures is unwholesome; false speech is unwholesome; malicious speech is unwholesome; harsh speech is unwholesome; gossip is unwholesome; covetousness is unwholesome; ill will is unwholesome; wrong view is unwholesome. This is called the unwholesome.
5. "And what is the root of the unwholesome? Greed is a root of the unwholesome; hate is a root of the unwholesome; delusion is a root of the unwholesome. This is called the root of the unwholesome.
6. "And what is the wholesome? Abstention from killing living beings is wholesome; abstention from taking what is not given is wholesome; abstention from misconduct in sensual pleasures is wholesome; abstention from false speech is wholesome; abstention from malicious speech is wholesome; abstention from harsh speech is wholesome; abstention from gossip is wholesome; non-covetousness is wholesome; non-ill will is wholesome; right view is wholesome. This is called the wholesome.
7. "And what is the root of the wholesome? Non-greed is a root of the wholesome; non-hate is a root of the wholesome; non-delusion is a root of the wholesome. This is called the root of the wholesome.
8. "When a noble disciple has thus understood the unwholesome, the root of the unwholesome, the wholesome, and the root of the wholesome, he entirely abandons the underlying tendency to lust, he abolishes the underlying tendency to aversion, he extirpates the underlying tendency to the view and conceit 'I am,' and by abandoning ignorance and arousing true knowledge he here and now makes an end of suffering. In that way too a noble disciple is one of right view, whose view is straight, who has perfect confidence in the Dhamma and has arrived at this true Dhamma."