Buddhist Ethics of Life and Death in the View of Garfield-Kovan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.71294/ers.2024.04Keywords:
Buddhist ethics, motivation, doctrine of rebirth, experience of death, doctrine of time, moral phenomenology, Buddhist moral philosophy, Kalachakra, bodhisattva, Mahayana, VajrayanaAbstract
Abstract. The article draws attention to current research on Buddhist ethics and proposes to consider the approaches set out in the monographs of Jay Garfield (2021) and Martin Kovan (2022), where the authors call for a departure from the historical descriptive method and resort to a historical-philosophical reconstruction of the metaphysical and epistemological structure, which forms the basis of Buddhist moral thought. Garfield, relying on the doctrines of interdependent origination and karma, explores the limits of the possible naturalization of Buddhist ethics, taking into account the principles of moral phenomenology; Kovan adds the doctrine of rebirth to the consideration, which makes it possible to more deeply explore the concept of samskaras as factors shaping the motivation of the individual, particularly during the lethal act. In this manner, the authors gradually immerse themselves in the transcendental layer of Buddhist ethics and prepare the ground for a full-fledged introduction into the research field of the experience of death. In agreement with Garfield and Kovan, this article calls for a full-fledged consideration of the Buddhist doctrine of time and bardo practices as the basis for such exploration. To demonstrate and build upon Garfield and Kovan's methodological techniques, this article applies their approach to the six-aspect formula of reconstruction, and develops it further by considering four Buddhist ethical narratives that touch on the issues of the moral code of Buddhas, Sutrayana bodhisattvas, warrior-rulers, and Tantrayana bodhisattvas, therefore problematizing the cognitive potential of motivation in Buddhist ethics and sketching an outline of intentionality in Buddhist metaethics.
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