Quote sheet Flashcards
Richard Jones
This description perfectly drew criticism from ‘Mahayana elitism’ by stating that Arhat only focused on its spiritual development and lacked enough compassion to help others.
Buddha
‘Mahayanists fault them for focusing on their own salvation—getting themselves out of the realm of suffering—while the whole world suffers.’
Buddha
This quote precisely points out the contradiction in the arguments, as it is impossible to argue from a doctrinal perspective that Buddha, as an Arhat, and his disciples are only selfishly concerned with their own salvation.
“I am the teacher supreme. I alone am a fully enlightened one whose fires are quenched and extinguished.”
Bhikkhu Bodhi
This implies that the ultimate goal of the Bodhisattva ideal is universal enlightenment and Nirvana, which align with Theravada and Arhat, but with the additional support of visualisations, chanting, and teachings from different Bodhisattvas.
“Through gradual practice and learning, all of you will become Buddhas.”
? of the Buddhist population, particularly in Southeast Asia, adheres to these teachings.
53%
Bhikkhu Bodhi and many scriptural scholars
This critique sheds light on the Boddhisattva path and Mahayana Buddhism as a whole, as their scriptures and teachings may be seen as deviated and distorted versions of the Dharma. These scriptures are considered to be less prone to mistakes and misinterpretations that may occur during the oral transmission of the Dharma.
“Likely to be closer to the Buddha’s actual verbal teachings”
Bhikkhu Bodhi two perspective
“Historical-realistic perspective” vs “Cosmic-metaphysical perspective”
Gethin
Mahayana ignores part of the evidence in Nikaya in which the Buddha does refer himself as a Boddhisatva in the period before his enlightenment and the historical record of Megha spending aeons in samsara perfecting spiritual qualities, which draws similarities to the six paramita and four further perfection of skills such as Upaya-Kausalya and Jnana, demonstrated in Gautama Buddha special ability to articulate and guide others to achieve nirvana.
“The eighteen special qualities of a Buddha are common to all Buddhist schools.”
Bhikkhu Bodhi
It shows that the Theravada tradition is not reductive to a single account of Nikayas and historical interpretation. It emphasises both as all of them have the eventual goal of reaching enlightenment.
“The Theravada tradition has absorbed the bodhisattva ideal into its framework and thus recognised the validity of both.”
The Boddhisattva vow
“I vow to save them all”
Edward Conze’s Definition of Upaya
“‘Skill in means’ is the ability to bring out the spiritual potentialities of different people”
Who were physically and sexually through the use of skilful means?
2017 eight long-term disciples and Rigpa students.
Richard Gombrich
Even the doctrine of upaya is often prescribed in Mahayana tradition, but it has a theoretical basis in much foundational text
“Upaya Kausalya, is post-canonical, but the exercise of expounding to which it refers, is of enormous importance in the Pali Canon.”
Gowans
He disagrees that Buddhist ethics are deontological, arguing that virtue and consequences are also important in Buddhist ethics. Gowans argues that there is no moral theory in Buddhist ethics that covers all conceivable situations such as when two precepts may conflict, but is rather characterized by that.
“a commitment to and nontheoretically grasp of the basic Buddhist moral values”
Sam Harris
He believes avoiding white lies and false encouragement – so being brutally honest, even about the smallest matters – will allow us to have more beneficial relationships with others and allow others to see reality clearly, without filters and ideologies.
“By lying, we deny others a view of the world as it is and deny them a collision with reality that is necessary to improve their life.”
Alicia Matsunaga
Showing that Upaya is necessary even in the language and teaching of the Buddha.
“Inadequacies of human language, which is based on a conceptualized view of reality”
Sutra of Hui Neng
Trikaya is a fundamental doctrine, that is permeated in reality.
“Within our Essence of Mind, the Three Bodies of Buddha (Trikaya) are to be found, and they are common to everybody.”
Chogyam Trungpa
This describes the feature of Dharmakaya as the ultimate reality.
“The basis of the original unbornness.”
Bhikkhu Bodhi Emanation body
“The truth of Buddhism depends on the efficacy of the Buddhist path exemplified by the life of the Buddha.”
Avi Sion
It demonstrates that any metaphysical claim that Mahayana makes is pointless, as it doesn’t have any empirical and pragmatic justification for the whole theory.
“Dogmatic metaphysical claim, that is logically confusing and meaningless”
Buddha
The Buddha emphasised the significance of this attainment and encouraged the direct and profound contemplation on void nature. Since there is no rising nor falling, thus everything was originally in complete calmness.
“Since there is no absolute self-nature thus every existence exhibits void-nature.”
Douglas Berger representing the School of Logic (Nyaya)
“For one to say that all things lack a fixed nature would be also to say there is no assertion, no thesis like Nagarjuna’s.”
Prajnaparamita
“Even all dharma cannot be talked about in any proper sense.”
Peter Harvey
Seeing it through the lens of Upaya (conventional truth)
“Seeing them thus is wisdom, leading to non-attachment to conventional realities.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
“The word ‘emptiness’ should not scare us. It is a wonderful world.”
Historical Record (Douglas Berger)
“…styled himself a vaitandika, a person who refutes rival philosophical positions while advocating no thesis themselves.”
Hume
“Reason is the slave of the passions”
Fromm
‘The voice of our true self that summons us’
Piaget
“Children consider rules as being absolute and unchanging, that is ‘divine-like’”
Keith Ward
Criticism on Freud
“no more than the rationalisation of primitive drives to sex, aggregation, or power.”
Freud (Superego)
“The superego can be thought of as a type of conscience that punishes misbehaviour with feelings of guilt.”
Freud (Religion)
“The protection against consequences of his human weaknesses.”
Aquinas against Augustine
“Conscience is reason making right decisions, not a voice giving us commands”
Aquinas synderesis
‘’No evil can be desirable, either by natural appetite or by conscious will’’
Aquinas Conscientia
“Every judgment of conscience, be it right or wrong…in such a way that he goes against his conscience, always sins.”
Romans 2 conscience
“Do by nature those things that are laws… their consciences bearing witness to them.”
Wolterstoff on regret and time
“Regrets over the pervasive pattern of what transpires within time have led whole societies to place the divine outside of time.”
Augustine Presentism
“a never-ending present.”
Augustine fake revelation
“Else we have time and change; and not a true eternity nor true immortality…”
Katherin A. Rogers
“Does succeed in solving the dilemma of freedom and foreknowledge,”
Anselm on eternity
“Eternity cannot be changed, but is changeable by free will at some time before it exists.”
Richard Swinburne on the nature of God
“God moves through time the same way as we do.”
Richard Swinburne on criticism of eternity
“The God of the Hebrew Bible… is pictured as being in continual interaction with humans”
Anthony Kenny All causal relations and sequence between events within time disappear
“My typing of this paper is simultaneous with the whole of eternity.”
Boethius
“Eternity is the simultaneous possession of boundless life, which is made clearer by comparison with temporal thing.”
AJ Ayer
“A sentence is factually significant (meaningful) if, and only if, we know how to verify the proposition.”
Aquinas Omnipotence
“Not because of any defect in the power of God, but because it has not the nature of a feasible or possible thing.”
E.M. Curley
“Descartes’s doctrine commits him to the contradiction that there are no necessary truths, no truths whose negation is impossible.”
Anslem Omnipotence
“That than which nothing greater can be conceived”
Matthew 19:24 Omnipotence
“With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
DZ. Philip
“To ask of what use are the scream of the innocent… is to embark on a speculation we should not even contemplate.”
Hume on the problem of evil (Hickean edition)
“Couldn’t our world be a little more hospitable and still teach us what we need to know? could we not learn through pleasure as well as pain?”
Hickean theodicy
“Man is in process of becoming the perfected being whom God is seeking to create……through a hazardous adventure in individual freedom.”
Genesis 1:26
‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.’
Swinburne on theodicy x2
The analogy of “over-protective parent”
“…… the very language it employs, actually adds to the evil it seeks to justify”.
Augustine own contradiction
“Nothing, therefore, happens unless the omnipotent wills it to happen. He either
allows it to happen or he actually causes it to happen”
[Evans] on Augustinian theodicy
“All evil arises in the will of man”
Saulius Geniusas
“Pain is a distinctive phenomenological experience”
Augustine on theodicy and evil
“As God only made things that exist, and because “evil” is not an existing thing, so God cannot be responsible for any evil”.
Genesis 1 on no evil
“God saw that all he made and it was really good”.
Spinosa on the problem of evil
“All things are necessary what they are, and in nature there is no good and evil.”
Kant produce a deontological way of measuring actions based on categorical imperative and duties.
“To seek out and establish this supreme principle of morality”
Kant This means to treat people in ways that reflect their inherent value, and not mere objects of instrumental value, which is good as it is fair and applicable to everyone.
“We are, however, as human beings, not things but persons, and by turning ourselves into things, we risk dishonor human nature in our own persons.”
Kant This provides a moral grounding/justification for basic human rights. Coming from the external freedom that everyone is treated equally.
“Humanity is itself a dignity and I am obliged to recognize practically the dignity in the humanity of every other person.”
Kant This mean that through using reason, we can avoid feeling and intuition from interfering with decision making. It should be use in a large scale.
“Unless reason takes the reigns of government into its own hands, the feelings and inclinations play the master over man.”
Kant first categorical imperative
“Act as if the maxim of your action were to become, by your will, a universal law of nature.”
O’Neil
“…Kantian moral theory requires unambiguously that we do no injustice.”
Palmer
“If one person reasoning logically concludes that a particular argument is self-contradictory, then another person going through the same argument and also reasoning logically will arrive at the same conclusion.”
David Hume (Kant)
“The approbation or blame …… is not a speculative proposition or affirmation, but an active feeling or sentiment”
Arthur Schopenhauer
“…all can be equally well off only if each makes the egoism of others the limit of his own.”
Jean Paul Sartre on ethic
“No rule of general morality can show you what you ought to do: no signs are vouchsafed in this world.”
W.D. Ross
“Contest between one element which alone has worth and a multitude of others which have none.”
H.J Paton
“We have no independent insight into the alleged necessity first presupposing freedom.”
Hegel
“a system of shared customs and social institutions”
Robert E Goodin
‘’Utilitarianism of whatever stripe is, first amd foremost, a standard for judging public action.’’
Jeremy Bentham Acts (utility as a way of measuring)
“Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do.”
Jeremy Bentham (greatest amount of happiness on largest amount of people effected.)
‘The interest of the community then is… the sum of the interests of the several members who compose it.’
Jeremy Bentham This demonstrates the universality of the utilitarian theory, which everyone is considered in the theory.
“The question is not can they reason? nor can they talk? but Can they suffer?”
Mill Rules
‘’Act in accordance with those rules which, if generally followed, would provide the greatest general balance of pleasure over pain.’’
Mill This shows that qualitative measure of utility is more fitting to the human nature, as quantitative measures.
“It is better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. “
Mill (Golden Principle)
“To do as one would be done by, and to love one’s neighbour as oneself, constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality.”
Sidgwick
“In practice it is hard to distinguish between higher and lower pleasures”
Sidgwick Ethics is about which actions are objectively right. Our knowledge of right and wrong arises from common-sense morality and intuition
‘Reason shows me that if my happiness is desirable and good, the equal happiness of any other person must be equally desirable.’ (an axiom of justice, prudence and benevolence)
Peter Signer
‘Our own preferences cannot count any more than the preferences of others.’
Philip Pettit
‘’So long as they promised the best consequences (…) it would forbid nothing, not rape, not torture, not even murder’’
Robert Nozick
“What else can matter to us, other than how our lives feel from the inside?”
Zizek on business ethics and Utilitarianism
“[Utilitarianism] —sounds appealing, but it leaves intact the existing order of things, providing the illusion that a slight correction here and there will bring about a just society.”
Zizek on CSR
“Prolonging the disease…. rather than curing it.”
Marx
“On the exploitation of the many by the few.”
Anand Giridharadas
“Jeff Bezos wants to start a school for kids whose families are underpaid by people like Jeff Bezos.”
Milton Freeman
“Make as much money for their stockholders as possible”.
William MacAskill
“All you are doing is taking away the best working opportunity that these people in very poor countries have”
Peter Singer x2
“Famine, Affluence, and Morality,”
“Promoting the long-term, sustainable welfare of all.”
Augustine on original sin
“seminally present”
Nagarjuna
“…dependent designation, Is itself the middle way.”
the Heart Sutra
form is emptiness, emptiness is form’
Ciero, through nature we can observe the goals and regularity of things.
‘’True law is right reason in agreements with nature; it is applied universally, unchanging, and everlasting.’’
Bible Roman 1:20 (Natural Law)
“Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been perceived in the things that have been made”.
Aquinas. This describes the advantage of universality
‘’natural law is the same for all men…. there is a single standard of truth and right for everyone…. which is known by everyone.’
The doctrine of double effect acknowledges the chaotic and difficult nature of the world by making the theory more applicable to real-life situations.
“Nothing hinders one act from having two effects, only one of which is intended, while the other is beside the intention. Moral acts take their character from what is intended, not from what is outside the intention, as this is accidental.’’
Aristotle This shows that everything has a final cause/telos. Allowing the creation of primary precept.
‘’Nature makes nothing without a purpose.’’
GE Moore This describes the problem of the naturalistic fallacy
“Good does not, by definition, mean anything that is natural; and it is therefore always an open question whether anything that is natural is good.”
David Hume Is ought statement
‘’For as this ought, or ought not, expresses some new relation or affirmation, it is necessary that it should be seen and explained; and while a reason should be given’’
Kai Nielsen
‘’According to science, there is no such thing as an essential nature that made a man man.’’
Lie Zi
‘’how we explain coincidences depends on how we see the world…….and we give meaning to these co-occurrences based on our belief system.’’
Karl Barth (the fall)
‘’The relativising effect of both freedom and sin upon all historical term.’’
William Temple (the good Samaritan and the selfless sacrifices from Jesus.)
“There is only one ultimate and invariable duty, and its formula is ‘Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself’.”
Joseph Fletcher
“Relativizes the absolutes, it does not absolutize the relative!”
Augustine (situation ethics)
‘’To know whether a man is a good man one does not ask, what he believes or what he hopes but how he loves.’’
Paul Tillich (a middle way of legalism and anti-nomianism)
“The law of love is the ultimate law because it is the negation of law; it is absolute because it concerns everything concrete. The paradox of final revelation, overcoming the conflict between absolutism and relativism, is love.”
Authur Schopenhauer (on compassion)
“Boundless compassion for all living beings is the surest and most certain guarantee of pure moral conduct and needs no casuistry.’’
John 13:34-35 (love)
‘’I give you a new commandment, that you love one another’’
Paul Ramsey on rules
“The rules often assist us in adjusting between contradictory courses of action grounded in love.”
1 Corinthian on intention
‘’Or do you not know the saint will judge the world’’
William Barclay
“……But if there is no love, or if there is not enough love, then freedom can become licence, freedom can become selfishness and even cruelty.”
Leviticus 20:16 (intrinsically and wrong action)
“‘If a woman approaches an animal to have sexual relations with it, kill both the woman and the animal. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.’’
Mortimer J. Adler
“half-baked theory of conduct aired during the early sixties. It is morally wrong.”
William Paley (Design Qua Purpose)
“The marks of design are too strong to be got over. Design must have had a designer. (That designer must have been a person. That person must have been God.)”
William Paley (watch/watchmaker)
“Yet why should not this answer serve for the watch as well as for stone (that happened to be lying on the ground).”
Aquinas (telelogical argument)
“Hence it is plain that they achieve their end, not fortuitously, but designedly……As the arrow is directed by the archer. Therefore, some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end”
John Hick (posterior/empirical method to prove the existence of God) criticism
“The universe is religiously ambiguous, it evokes and sustains non-religious as well as religious response.”
J.L Mackie (If the physical aspect of this argument fails, it would only be reduced to a cosmological argument.)
“All material order not only is not self-explanatory but is positively improbable and in need of further explanation”
David Hume (no experience of the universe being made)
“…… Our experience, so imperfect in itself and so limited both in extent and duration, can afford us no probable conjecture concerning the whole things.”
David Hume (too many imperfect problems and evils that a perfect create.)
“This world, for ought he know, is very faulty and imperfect, compared to a superior standard, and was only the first rude essay of some infant deity.”
Richard Swinburne (Ockham razor teleological)
“The great simplicity of a wide hypothesis outweighs by far its wideness of scope in determining intrinsic probability… great simplicity of the hypothesis of the thesis.”
Michael Palmer (the attribute of God cannot even be identified/logically described by humans.)
“For while the definition of the divine attributes may seem straightforward enough, its implications may be much less so.”
Genesis (Scientific evidence is not fully compatible with the traditional explanation)
“So, God created mankind in his own image.”
Neal Gillespie (Darwin)
“Darwin deprived their argument of the analogical inference that the evident purpose to be seen in the contrivances by which means and ends were related in nature was necessary a function of the mind.”
Richard Dawkins The hypothesis of God is entirely unnecessary, and that order is due to natural selection alone without any purpose.
“Evolution has no long-term goal. There is no long-distance target, no final perfection to serve as a criterion for selection.”
Friedrich Tennant
“The fitness of our world to be the home of living beings depends upon certain primary conditions, astronomical, thermal, chemical… It is suggestive of a formative principle.”
Mill on good
advantage
“What good it brings to them is mostly the result of their own effort.”
Mill (problem of evil)
“the force of good cannot subdued-completely and all at once-the power of evil, either physical or moral.”
Penrose deus ex machina
“It tends to be invoked by theorists whenever they do not have a good enough theory to explain the observed facts.”
Bernard Russell on Ontological Argument
“The argument does not to a modern mind, seem very convincing, but it is easier to feel
convinced that is must be fallacious, than it than it is to find out precisely where the fallacy
lies.”
St. Anselm on the validity of the Ontological arguments
“Why then has the fool said in his heart, there is no God, since it is evident to a rational mind’’
Gaunilo
“reductio ad absurdum”
Descartes Ontological argument
“… The necessity which lies in the things itself, that is, the necessity of the existence of God,
determines me to think in this way”
Kant on ontological arguments
“Existence is not a perfection, but that in the absence of which there are no perfection.”
Hume on ontological arguments
“There is an evident absurdity in pretending to demonstrate a matter of fact, or to prove it by
any arguments a priori”
