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| CONTENTS | INVOCATION | INTRODUCTION | PROLOGUE | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
CHAPTER 2, DIVINE LAW, TRUTH, AND COSMIC PRINCIPLE THE DECALOGUE The moral outlooks of most religions are basically quite similar. Just as the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, is the basis of Jewish and Christian ethical values, similar lists of ethical principles may be found in one form or another in the scriptures of most religions. The Qur'an contains several passages summarizing proper ethical behavior which have been called Islamic Decalogues. In Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism we find lists of ten charges or ten precepts for monks and lay people, and there are further condensations into five universal dharmas called samanya dharma. Another comparable list is found in the Buddhist Eightfold Path. The first table of the Decalogue contains positive injunctions for right worship to establish a proper vertical relationship with God, and the second table contains negative injunctions prohibiting criminal behavior in order to foster horizontal relationships of community. These two ethical dimensions, the vertical towards the Absolute and the horizontal towards one's neighbor, are characteristic of such lists in every religion. We may regard the injunctions to renunciation and meditation in the Buddhist Eightfold Path and in other Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain lists of dharmas as non-theistic expressions of the vertical dimension. In the horizontal dimension of law, prohibitions against social crimes such as murder, adultery, and stealing are universal. The specific offenses will be taken up again individually in Chapter 9.
You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you. You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's." 1. Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Exodus 20.1-17: The Ten Commandments
"You shall not murder" corresponds to "I the Lord am your God." The Holy One said, "If you did murder, I hold it against you as though you have diminished the image of God." "You shall not commit adultery" is paired with "You shall have no other gods." God said, "If you committed adultery, I hold it against you as though you bowed down to another god." "You shall not steal" is paired with "You shall not swear falsely by the name of the Lord your God.".... If you steal, you will go on to swear falsely, go on to lie, and end up swearing by My name falsely. "You shall not bear false witness" is paired with "Remember the Sabbath day." God said, "If you bear false witness against your neighbor, I hold it against you as though you bore witness against Me to the effect that I did not create My world in six days and did not rest on the seventh." "You shall not covet" is paired with "Honor your father and your mother." Clans like Gaius of Gadara and Lucius of Susitha would sneak into each other's homes and cohabit with the wives of the others, the others with the wives of these. In time a quarrel fell out between them, and a man killed his father, unaware that it was his father. 2. Judaism. Midrash, Pesikta Rabbati
Ascribe nothing as equal with Him; 3. Islam. Qur'an 6.151-53
4. Buddhism. Khuddaka Patha: The Ten Charges
5. Hinduism. Laws of Manu 6.92
6. Jainism. Tatthvarthasutra 9.6
7. Buddhism. Nagarjuna, Precious Garland 8-9
The second great vow, Sir, runs thus, I renounce all vices of lying speech arising from anger or greed or fear or mirth. I shall neither myself speak lies, nor cause others to speak lies, nor consent to the speaking of lies by others. I confess... There are five clauses.... The third great vow, Sir, runs thus: I renounce all taking of anything not given, either in a village or a town or a wood, either of little or much, of small or great, of living or lifeless things. I shall neither take myself what is not given, nor cause others to take it, nor consent to their taking it. As long as I live, I confess... There are five clauses.... The fourth great vow, Sir, runs thus, I renounce all sexual pleasures, either with gods or men or animals. I shall not give way to sensuality, nor cause others to give way to it, nor consent to their giving way to it. As long as I live, I confess... There are five clauses.... The fifth great vow, Sir, runs thus, I renounce all attachments, whether little or much, small or great, living or lifeless; neither shall I myself form such attachments, nor cause others to do so, nor consent to their doing so. As long as I live, I confess... There are five clauses.... He who is well provided with these great vows and their twenty-five clauses is really homeless if he, according to the sacred teaching, the precepts and the way, correctly practices, follows, executes, explains, establishes and, according to the precept, effects them. 8. Jainism. Acarangasutra 2.15
9. Hinduism. Laws of Manu 10.63
What is right view? Knowledge of suffering, knowledge of the arising of suffering, knowledge of the cessation of suffering, knowledge of the path leading to the cessation of suffering--this is called right view. What is right aspiration? Aspiration for renunciation, aspiration for non-malevolence, aspiration for harmlessness--this is called right aspiration. What is right speech? Refraining from lying speech, refraining from slanderous speech, refraining from harsh speech, refraining from gossip--this is called right speech. What is right action? Refraining from violence against creatures, refraining from taking what has not been given, refraining from going wrongly among the sense-pleasures, this is called right action. What is right livelihood? A disciple of the Noble Ones, getting rid of a wrong mode of livelihood, makes his living by a right mode of livelihood. This is called right livelihood. What is right effort? A monk generates desire, effort, stirs up energy, exerts his mind and strives for the non-arising of evil unskilled states that have not arisen... for the getting rid of evil unskilled states that have arisen... for the arising of skilled states that have not arisen... for the maintenance and completion of skilled states that have arisen. This is called right effort. What is right mindfulness? A monk fares along contemplating the body in the body... the feelings in the feelings... the mind in the mind... the mental states in the mental states... ardent, clearly conscious of them, mindful of them so as to control the covetousness and dejection in the world. This is called right mindfulness. And what is right concentration? A monk, aloof from the pleasures of the senses, aloof from unskilled states of mind, enters on and abides in the first meditation which is accompanied by initial thought and discursive thought, is born of aloofness, is rapturous and joyful. By allaying initial thought and discursive thought, with the mind subjectively tranquilized and fixed on one point, he enters on and abides in the second meditation which is devoid of initial thought and discursive thought, is born of concentration, and is rapturous and joyful. By the fading out of rapture... he enters on and abides in the third meditation... the fourth meditation. This is called right concentration. 10. Buddhism. Majjhima Nikaya iii.251-52, Saccavibhangasutta
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