SarathW wrote: ↑Mon Jan 09, 2023 9:05 am
This sounds like Marxism–Leninism
Not really.
In Marxism-Leninism when the proletariat rises up and expropriates from the expropriators, not only is it not considered stealing, but it's considered that what they do is a good and a just thing.
The transformation of scattered private property, arising from individual labour, into capitalist private property is, naturally, a process, incomparably more protracted, violent, and difficult, than the transformation of capitalistic private property, already practically resting on socialised production, into socialised property. In the former case, we had the expropriation of the mass of the people by a few usurpers; in the latter, we have the expropriation of a few usurpers by the mass of the people.
– Karl Marx, Capital, ch. 32
By contrast, the Buddha doesn't state that it's good to take from an animal, merely that it doesn't count as theft.
SarathW wrote: ↑Mon Jan 09, 2023 9:05 amPerhaps someone has to elaborate this.
On one occasion a number of monks were descending from the Vulture Peak when they saw the remains of a tiger’s kill ...
saw the remains of a panther’s kill ...
saw the remains of a hyena’s kill ...
saw the remains of a wolf’s kill ...
They had it cooked and ate it. They later became anxious [and reported to the Buddha what they'd done] ...
“There’s no offense when it’s the possession of an animal.”
This story, however, dates from an early stage in the Vinaya's evolution. Later it became a requirement that all food had to be offered to monks before it would be allowable to eat, which I guess came as a relief to all the Magadhan tigers, panthers, hyenas and wolves.