Michael Jerryson > Quotes

“Violence abounds in Buddhist thoughts, doctrine, and actions. However, it is not widely acknowledged or understood.”
― Michael Jerryson, If You Meet the Buddha on the Road: Buddhism, Politics, and Violence

“There is no global authority to ascertain and to confirm "authentic" Buddhists. While Buddhist sanghas (monastic communities) have the power to defrock monks from their particular community, there is no global platform to survey all monks, much less an institution to assess the viability of Buddhist laity.”
― Michael Jerryson, If You Meet the Buddha on the Road: Buddhism, Politics, and Violence

“While emptiness serves to explain reality ontologically and epistemologically, it also provides a critical lens for valuing human life. This line of reasoning raises the following query: if human life is empty of any true nature—if we are to abandon notions of an "I" and a self—what, then, is destroyed in killing a person?”
― Michael Jerryson, If You Meet the Buddha on the Road: Buddhism, Politics, and Violence

“Western academics did not create a Buddhist category. Many Asians had referred to themselves as followers of the Buddhadharma (doctrine of the Buddha) for over a millennium prior to the Encyclopédie. However, they did not employ the term "Buddhism.”
― Michael Jerryson, If You Meet the Buddha on the Road: Buddhism, Politics, and Violence

“In Theravāda Buddhist traditions, monks represent ideal behavior to the laity. This is partly due to their unworldly aspirations (laukika), but it also has much to do with the fact that the standardized discourse on ethics, known as the Vinaya Piṭaka, is located within the monastic guidelines. This source provides rules of conduct for monks and simultaneously serves as a moral compass for the laity.”
― Michael Jerryson, If You Meet the Buddha on the Road: Buddhism, Politics, and Violence

“The principle of ahiṃsā is quite important to the discussion of Buddhist ethics and violence and should remain as such. However, translating ahiṃsā as "nonviolence" fails to capture the full contours of the term and its relevance within the Buddhist system.”
― Michael Jerryson, If You Meet the Buddha on the Road: Buddhism, Politics, and Violence

“Gender discrimination may not fall traditionally under the umbrella of religion and violence, but it does within the Buddhist system. Buddhist women have said they have been harmed by this gender-based practice.”
― Michael Jerryson, If You Meet the Buddha on the Road: Buddhism, Politics, and Violence

“Perhaps the most extreme measure of skill-in-means to justify violence is found in the chapter "Murder with Skill in Means: The Story of the Compassionate Ship's Captain" from the Upāyakauśalya Sūtra, or the Skill-in Means Sutra. In one of his many previous births, the Buddha is the captain of a ship at sea, and is told by water deities that a robber onboard the ship intends to kill the 500 passengers and the captain. Within a dream, the deities implore the captain to use skill-in means to prevent this, since all 500 men are future bodhisattvas and the murder of them would invoke upon the robber immeasurable lifetimes in the darkest hells. The captain, who in this text is named Great Compassionate (Mahākarunika), wakes and contemplates the predicament for seven days. He eventually rationalizes that he will kill the robber to prevent him from accruing so much negative karma. The captain subsequently murders the robber, and the Buddha explains, "For me, saṃsāra was curtailed for one hundred-thousand eons because of that skill in means and great compassion. And the robber died to be reborn in world of paradise." In this scenario, the skill-in-means is motivated by compassion, which nullifies (or ameliorates at the very least) the act of murder. It also underscores the way in which defense is interpreted. The Buddha was able to foretell future murders and committed himself to defensive violence to avoid the further bloodshed.”
― Michael Jerryson, If You Meet the Buddha on the Road: Buddhism, Politics, and Violence

“The Buddhist system is no different than other religious systems that contain laws with embedded exceptions. In reviewing various Buddhist doctrines, doctrines, I have identified three recurring recurring exceptions to the rule of killing:

1. The intention of the person who commits the violence. Is the act accidental or deliberate?
2. The nature of the victim. Is someone killing a human, an animal, or a supernatural being? If someone kills a human, how moral is that person?
3. The stature of the killer. When evaluating the violence, is the person a king, a soldier, or a butcher?”
― Michael Jerryson, If You Meet the Buddha on the Road: Buddhism, Politics, and Violence

“Buddhists may uphold principles of nonviolence, but employ heuristics to dismiss the relevance of particular lives.”
― Michael Jerryson, If You Meet the Buddha on the Road: Buddhism, Politics, and Violence

“Japanese Zen interpretations of killing stress the vacuity of the act. If an intended victim is empty of true existence (anâtman), then no person is being killed. Instead, killing puts an end to the victim's passions and fosters the Buddha-nature.”
― Michael Jerryson, If You Meet the Buddha on the Road: Buddhism, Politics, and Violence