BUDDHISM ETHICS - JURY DUTY

Buddhism Ethics - Jury Duty

Buddhism Ethics - Jury Duty

Introduction

Buddhism is one of the globe's most significant and oldest religions. It has spread through almost all of Asia, influencing the many cultures there, and is now gaining followers in the West. But it had its started in India and arose from the understanding of one person. The word Buddhism has roots in a Sanskrit word “buddha” (wise, awakened, or learned), that was one of the many labels given to Siddhartha Gautama (c. 563-c. 483 BCE), the founder of the set of theories and practices that are now called Buddhism. This paper discusses Buddhism and the origin and background of the this religion, it also discusses the Buddhism ethics related to jury duty.

Discussion

According to traditional accounts Gautama left his wife and newborn child to seek his liberation from suffering and followed various teachers who ultimately failed to satisfy his needs. He then set out on his own and found the liberation he sought through meditation and self-discipline. At first disinclined to teach, because he felt his teachings would appeal to few people, he finally decided to tell others what he had discovered. Soon after his death, his disciples met and repeated all they could remember being taught by him, and these recollections were committed to memory. All the rules he had set down for the community of his disciples were collectively known as the vinaya (Juergensmeyer 2006). The collections of his other teachings on good character, contemplative exercises, and the theory behind them were known collectively as sutras. The vinaya and sutras supposedly collected shortly after Gautama's death became a closed canon for some Buddhists; other Buddhists eventually accepted as canonical a large corpus of other literature. Although there is a great deal of agreement between what is found in both the closed and extended canon, there is also a good deal of difference. In what follows, an attempt will be made to make note of where there is agreement and where there is divergence of opinion among Buddhists. (Rahula 2004)

The epithet Buddha emphasizes Gautama's claim to have awakened, as if from a slumber, to seeing things as they really are. Another epithet commonly given to Gautama is jina (conqueror), which emphasizes his having overcome his internal enemies, the passions. In much of the Buddhist canonical literature Gautama refers to himself as Tathagata, an epithet that has been explained in various ways by later Buddhists; one possible interpretation is that the Tathagata knew the truth or understood things as they really are. Traditionally being a follower of Buddhism consists in going for refuge to the Buddha, the dharma (the goal of Buddhist practice), and the sangha (the community of virtuous people). (Armstrong 2001 )

The Origin And Background Of The Buddhism Religion

Buddhism might have remained an entirely Indian religion, much as Jainism has, if it were not for an energetic king named Ashoka, who flourished about 250 B.C.E. (Timeline ...