Buddhism And Moral Responsibility: Response To Shyamon

By Kapila Abhayawansa -August 1, 2013 

Prof. Kapila Abhayawansa

It is not an exaggeration to point out that in the modern world inspired by advanced scientific and technological knowledge and extensively developed education systems people are seemed to be running off from their moral responsibilities never than before. In this context, it is not out of place to write on moral responsibilities of the man for it leads man to think about himself and his responsibilities to the society where he lives. In this regard, the article entitled “How A Non-religious Person Can Be A Better Moral Being?” written by Shyamon Jayasinghe and published in Colombo Telegraph on 28 July seems to me as an eye opening piece of writing.

Though the title seems to be rather hurting the heart of religious people who attached to their respective religions it really reminds me the teaching of the Buddha to a group of people known as Kalamas. As P.D Premasiri observes elsewhere “it draws attention to the possibility of independent inquiry into moral questions.”. The Buddha advised there to Kalamas to arrive at the moral judgments on purely non religious basis. According to the Buddha, man has to think over his own psychological dispositions which give rise to his own moral behavior and how it repercussions affects to himself and others, without depending on any kind of authority; religious or otherwise in order to arrive at the judgment on the moral acts. To make it clearer it is better to present here what the Buddha said to the Kalamas. It runs as follows: “Now, Kalamas, does not this man, thus become greedy, being overcome by greed and losing control of his mind – does he not kill a living creature, take what is not given, go after another’s wife, tell lies and induce others, too, to commit deeds that would conduce to disadvantage and unhappiness for a long time?” This same observation was made by the Buddha in respect of malice (dosa) and delusion (confusion). In the same way the Buddha drew the attention of Kalamas to the behavior of the man induce by the absence of greed, malice and delusion with the opposite effect.

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