Hwang Soonil
Dongguk University
In his recent book, Buddhism in the Shadow of Brahmanism, Johannes Bronkhorst has argued that Buddhism offered ‘very little’ in terms of practical and sensible advice on statecraft to the royal court. One of the examples given in the book is the letter sent to young King Kaniṣka of the Kushana dynasty from a Buddhist monk Mātṛceṭa, considered to be the intellectual grandchild of Nāgārjuna. In this letter he, as a Buddhist counselor to the King, discusses only saving the life of animals, but does not even mention the killing of humans.
It does not seem that this advice can offer much to the King who is busy with the intense demands of statecraft and bloody warfare. Although it can be regarded neither as practical nor as sensible, it in fact conveys the core Buddhist ethical value of universal morality. If one places a high value on the life of animals, there is no need to mention the life of human beings, including even enemy troops. Indeed, there is one charming Jātaka story in which the future Buddha, born as Śakra/Indra, Lord of the devas, defeats the asuras by saving the life of animals in a war. It is preserved in both the Pali Jātaka and in ĀryaŚūra’s Jātakamāla, in slightly different settings.
Nowadays religion has been condemned as a divisive force powered by in-group/out-group enmity and vendetta. Buddhism seems to be a step aside from religious conflicts and violence. Buddhists, based on non-violence as well as loving kindness and compassion, wish for the happiness and well-being of all living creatures. In this there is no such distinction as oneself and others, our side and other side, or in-group and out-group. The spirit of Buddhist universal morality seems to be embedded in diverse Buddhist stories, such as the Kulāvakajātaka, and they could offer the key for Buddhists to deal with multi-religious and multi-cultural society we live in.
(Presented in the 2012 Chulalongkorn-EFEO International Conference on Buddhist Studies : Imagination, Narrative, and Localization, 6-7 January 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, organized by Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University In conjunction with The Buddhist Studies Group, EFEO)