Dalits are the mass
victims of a slow cooking Holocaust that has been going on for millennia
And apart from changing their name, in spite of just trying to assess their
number and without even really trying to put an end to the segregation, some
glorify some divine models that just perpetuate their fate till death ensues.
A hot debate on Youtube and some other reviews of very provocative and
challenging books on the fate of Dalits and women in a culture that sings the
beauty of taking women along the road for your pleasure when you are a man, and
that makes you divine.
Publication
Date: Apr 30, 2015
Publisher: Editions
La Dondaine
Location: Olliergues, France
Research Interests:
IN THE NEAR FUTURE
Jataka 547
Is compulsive good doing
acceptable?
Should good for us be bad
for others?
Intention versus collateral damage.
Jataka
547, the very last of the standard collection, the very last birth of Buddha
before the final life to enlightenment is deeply contradictory at several
levels.
First
is it acceptable to compulsively and obsessively give away one’s possessions?
If giving is the basis of goodness how can those who have nothing give anything
and hence be good? Can only rich people be good?
Second
is it acceptable to cause the suffering of other people by giving things they
consider as theirs and they deem sacred, like the sacred elephant that
supposedly brings wealth to the nation?
Third
is it acceptable for a ruler to follow the will of the people and hurt someone
who has officially done nothing wrong? Is the vox populi respectable and
acceptable in the political management of the world’s affairs?
Fourth
is it acceptable to give away one’s children or one’s wife just as if they were
belongings? Note the case of giving away one’s husband is not even considered.
Isn’t it sexist to imagine a husband could give his wife away to a stranger and
contemptible to even imagine it could be a good thing to give one’s children
into slavery?
Fifth
isn’t it caste-critical to imagine that the main beneficiaries of such gifts
are Brahmins. Are Brahmins all and always well inspired? Is it good to give to
someone who obviously is greedy? Is that a criticism of the caste system?
Sixth
if tanha is something to avoid absolutely, can we consider tanha may exist for
a positive action or thought. Can good doing be negative?
Seventh
if dukkha has to be avoided at all cost and can only be pushed aside by being
detached from the possession of anything – including mental positive
orientations? – can we be detached from other human beings to the point of
causing their own suffering, their own misery, their own dukkha?
Conclusion.
Is there a selfish practice of Buddhism, a self-centered interest in abiding by
the ethical rules of Buddhism? Why was this birth not the last one? What was
missing to reach enlightenment? Is restraint essential even when doing good is
considered? Why couldn’t Vessantara reach nibbana?
N.B. I will work on the English version published by the
Pali Text Society under the editorship of Professor E.B. COWELL, translated by
E.B. COWELL and S.H.D. ROUSE, published in 2005, as well as on the bilingual
edition Pali-English of V. FausbØll for the Pali text published in 1896 and a
translation adapted from E. B. Cowell and W. H. D. Rouse, originally published
in 1907. I will also use Buddhist Storytelling in Thailand
and Laos: The Vessantara
Jataka Scroll at the Asian
Civilisations Museum (Anglais) Relié –
30 janvier 2012, H. Leedom Lefferts (Author), Sandra Cate (Author), Wajuppa
Tossa (Author).
# posted by Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU @ 12:20 PM