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The Philosophy of the Myōken: The Ethics of the Dead and Bodhisattvas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2020

Fumihiko Sueki  and
Anton Luis Sevilla
Fumihiko Sueki*
Affiliation:
International Research Centre for Japanese Studies
Anton Luis Sevilla
Affiliation:
International Research Centre for Japanese Studies
*
*Corresponding author. Email: qwe01000@nifty.com
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Abstract

Today, the modern value systems that once held sway have fallen apart, and people throughout the world are wandering in an aimless state. Amidst this, we are pressed to ask, “What kind of a new ethics might we construct?” We need to consider the possibility of an ethics that focuses on the religious view of humankind (previously ignored by modernity), that goes beyond this life, and includes the next life. In this article, I examine the way of being of bodhisattvas in Mahāyāna Buddhism via the Lotus Sutra. According to the Lotus Sutra, human existence is one that necessarily relates with the other, and this relationship is not confined to this life, but continues from past lives to future lives. Here, I refer to this as “bodhisattva as existence.” On this basis, it is possible to think of an ethics of “bodhisattva as praxis” that considers the benefit of others even after death. This view of bodhisattvas in the Lotus Sutra lives on in Japanese Buddhism and can be said to point to a new possibility for ethics today.

Keywords

modernityreligious ethicsnext lifethe otherLotus Sutra
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , January 2020 , pp. 57 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

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Footnotes

This article was originally published in Japanese as Chapter 9 of Sueki Fumihiko 末木 文美士, Shisha to bosatsu no rinrigaku 死者と菩薩の倫理学, Myōken no tetsugaku 1 冥顕の哲学 1 (Tokyo: Puneumasha ぷねうま舎, 2018).

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