Üble Mönche oder wohltätige Bodhisattvas? Über Formen, Gründe und Begründungen organisierter Gewalt im japanischen Buddhismus
Whereas all major religions have recently come under suspicion of motivating, fostering or intensifying violent conflicts, Buddhism is still largely conceived of as a religion of peace, notwithstanding the historical fact that representatives and institutions of this religion have over long periods...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | German |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Diagonal-Verlag
2012
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| In: |
Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft
Year: 2003, Volume: 11, Issue: 2, Pages: 235-258 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Japan
/ Buddhism
/ Monk
/ Violent behavior
/ Foundations of
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| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy BL Buddhism KBM Asia |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Parallel Edition: | Electronic
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| Summary: | Whereas all major religions have recently come under suspicion of motivating, fostering or intensifying violent conflicts, Buddhism is still largely conceived of as a religion of peace, notwithstanding the historical fact that representatives and institutions of this religion have over long periods of time and in various regions been actively involved in violent conflicts, the most notorious example being the so-called »warrior monks« of medieval Japan. The »cognitive dissonance« that results from the conflict between the historical data and the cliché is mostly resolved by recurrent theories of decadence and deviation which presuppose that Buddhist violence can only be explained in terms of the corruption of the Buddhist order, and is by no means compatible with Buddhist ethics and doctrines. In this paper I try to demonstrate that early on in Mahayana Buddhism ethical postulates were formulated that legitimized - or at times even demanded - violence, including the killing of human beings, and that the prohibitions against killing were significantly relativized. These ethical postulates were combined with ontological theories such as the theory of the voidness of all existence, non-duality, etc., by virtue of which the killing of the enemies of Buddhism became a legitimate option, perfectly in accordance with fundamental principles of the religion. |
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| ISSN: | 2194-508X |
| Contains: | In: Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/zfr.2003.11.2.235 |