Polar Bear wrote: ↑Fri Jun 25, 2021 3:25 am
DooDoot wrote: ↑Fri Jun 25, 2021 2:37 am
Dear DW forum
I read the following from Brahmavihāra Dhamma by The Venerable Mahāsi Sayādaw of Burma:
Take the case of an accused person who has committed a
criminal offence. In such a case, one should develop loving-kindness
and compassion to the best of one’s ability in the interests of that
accused person so that he or she may escape punishment. However,
if the court passed imposes a sentence of imprisonment or even death,
having found him guilty of the offence, no occasion should arise to
be concerned about their inevitable fate
http://www.aimwell.org/Brahmavihara%20Dhamma.pdf
Is it really the Buddhist practice of metta to have criminals avoid punishment?
Please discuss, including with sutta quotes. Thanks
You’re already sitting alone, wishing stuff, you might as well wish a bit extravagantly, e.g. that all murderers should swiftly become arahants like Angulimala and be a comfort to pregnant women and all sentient beings. If someone is no longer the type of person to commit a crime, then there is no need to separate them from society aside from retribution/punishment- which in my mind is associated with the defilement of hatred.
“Venerable sir, if the people of Sunaparanta stab me with a knife, then I will think: ‘These people of Sunaparanta are excellent, truly excellent, in that they do not take my life with a sharp knife.’ Then I will think thus, Blessed One; then I will think thus, Fortunate One.” -
https://suttacentral.net/sn35.88/en/bodhi
On the other hand, it makes sense to remove violent people from society until they’ve changed, or until death, whatever comes first. But this should be done without killing them and while providing them with sufficient requisites for life, safety, and a chance at rehabilitation.
So I’d give a qualified yes to the OP’s topic question.
Yes, this is to my mind the best response. It might be helpful to consider the reasons for punishing wrongdoers, at least in the west. We punish serious criminals by jailing them in order to
1) take them off the streets and make their potential victims safe by their removal
2) rehabilitate them, by means of processes they undergo while in jail (either active interventions such as counselling and training for work, or at least the opportunity for reflection on their wrongdoing)
3) give those wronged the satisfaction of knowing that the evildoer is suffering
4) deter those who might be inclined to commit similar offences.
I think developing loving-kindness towards malefactors is perfectly possible with 1, 2 and 3 above. If they are off the streets, mending their ways, and others are deterred from following their example, then the "punishment" is working and there is no need for them to suffer more than they are. They should not avoid punishment, if their punishment consists of these things working effectively.
It may be, of course, that very wicked people need to undergo some very hard times in order for them not to reoffend. That's their kammic legacy. The best we can do in such circumstances is to wish that they suffer no more than is necessary, and to deploy some sort of kamma based Buddhist theodicy, if that's not too much of a contradiction in terms. Compassion for both the victim and the perpetrator seems to be the option most likely to bring about our own personal stability and happiness. If we are personally involved in a case, then we are likely to have some very uncomfortable and unhelpful emotions ("I hope that bastard gets what's coming to him!" ) but if we are merely talking about generating metta during practice, I personally would avoid getting the mind snagged on details of cases we can do nothing about.
Ajahn Thanissaro addressed some of these issues:
just as you're the primary architect of your own happiness and suffering, other people are the primary architects of theirs. If you really want them to be happy, you don't just treat them nicely. You also want them to learn how to create the causes for happiness. If you can, you want to show them how to do that. This is why the gift of dharma — lessons in how to give rise to true happiness — is the greatest gift.
In the Buddha's most famous example of how to express an attitude of unlimited good will, he doesn't just express the following wish for universal happiness:
Happy, at rest,
may all beings be happy at heart.
Whatever beings there may be,
weak or strong, without exception,
long, large,
middling, short,
subtle, blatant,
seen & unseen,
near & far,
born & seeking birth:
May all beings be happy at heart.
He immediately adds a wish that all beings avoid the causes that would lead them to unhappiness:
Let no one deceive another
or despise anyone anywhere,
or through anger or irritation
wish for another to suffer.
— Sn 1.8
So if you're using visualization as part of your goodwill practice, don't visualize people simply as smiling, surrounded willy-nilly by wealth and sensual pleasures. Visualize them acting, speaking, and thinking skillfully. If they're currently acting on unskillful intentions, visualize them changing their ways. Then act to realize those visualizations if you can.
A similar principle applies to compassion and empathetic joy. Learn to feel compassion not only for people who are already suffering, but also for those who are engaging in unskillful actions that will lead to future suffering. This means, if possible, trying to stop them from doing those things. And learn to feel empathetic joy not only for those who are already happy, but also for those whose actions will lead to future happiness. If you have the opportunity, give them encouragement.
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/aut ... heart.html
Interesting topic, anyway. Thanks to DooDoot for raising it.
