Key Idea: Buddhist ethics is grounded in intention: the guide lists the role of karma in ethical action and intention, so karma attaches to the volition behind an act. And Buddhism is the only tradition in this course with no doctrine of righteous war at all. The response to conflict is the Five Precepts and the Eightfold Path.
Tested as
- The sources of authority in Buddhist ethics
- The Five Precepts and which matters most
- The Buddhist response to war and conflict
Watch for
- Calling the Five Precepts commandments
- Claiming no Buddhist has ever supported violence
- Treating karuna as the whole of Buddhist ethics
Use
- Karuna — compassion for all; Five Precepts; ahimsa
- Vinaya, and expulsion as the sanction
- The Three Poisons and intention
| Source | What the guide names |
|---|---|
| Persons | The Dalai Lama as an Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion; nuns and monks who teach monastic practices; priests in some forms of Mahayana; founders of schools |
| Texts | Scriptures |
| The division | The differences between lay and monastic morality |
| Principles | Karuna — compassion for all; the Five Precepts, especially ahimsa; the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path |
| Rules | The different vinaya for Theravada and Mahayana |
| Transgression | Receiving bad karma and being expelled from the monastery |
Four traditions on the use of force — and the one that has no category for it
- Christianity: pacifism and just war, both argued from the same Gospels.
- Judaism: war is regarded as legitimate, because the commandment forbids murder.
- Sikhism: dharam yudh, developed by Guru Gobind Singh to limit war.
- Islam: jihad as moral struggle under ethics, and jihad of the sword under transgression.
- Buddhism: nothing of the kind. The guide's response to war and conflict is the Five Precepts and the Eightfold Path.
Examine the role of the vinaya in Buddhist moral life.
🔒 Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Discuss whether Buddhist ethics can guide someone who is not a monk.
🔒 Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Where does Buddhist ethics locate moral weight? In intention. The guide lists the role of karma in ethical action and intention, so karma attaches to the volition behind an act rather than to its outward form alone.
What is karuna? Compassion for all — the first item in the guide's Buddhist ethics list, and the organising commitment of Mahayana through the bodhisattva.
What does the guide give as the Buddhist response to war? The Five Precepts, especially ahimsa, and the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path. Buddhism developed no doctrine of righteous war.
What happens on transgression in a monastery? Bad karma is received and the transgressor may be expelled — the sanction that makes the vinaya enforceable in a way lay morality is not.
Exam tips
- The precepts are undertakings, not commandments. The grammar follows from intention.
- Buddhism has no righteous-war category. That is the strongest comparative point in this topic.
- Ground karuna in anatta: with no fixed self, another's suffering has no lesser claim.
- Lay and monastic morality is a guide heading. Answer it as one ethic at two intensities.