CHAPTER 5

ASIAN ETHICAL
TRADITIONS
◦ Asian traditions share some general characteristics Manuel B. Dy identifies six
common themes which can be drawn from the great Asian spiritual and
intellectual traditions. Firstly, one can immediately notice that religious though
is intertwined with philosophical and ethical thinking. There is no real
separation of beliefs about the transcendent and the cosmos, including the
traditional mythical beliefs. Beliefs about Darma and Karma, the Dao and the
gods, frame the critical understanding of the great Asian Philosophical
traditions regarding the good and the good life.
◦ At heart, there is a quest to define what it means to live a good human life and
their reflections could not be extricated from their greater belief about how the
gods or the greater order of Heaven govern the universe and keep order, or
their intuition that there is transcendent order that rules human flourishing but
is not and cannot be defined by the intellect.
◦ Dy then notes that a second theme which binds them intellectual traditions is
“love and compassion”. Since every system seeks to realize human
emancipation and fullness, a human fullness that is rooted in the
transcendence of suffering, finitude, disorder, strife , and maybe even death,
it becomes important that people live with love and compassion. These are
paths to tranquility, peace and being whole. Connected with those is the third
theme which is the Connectedness of personal cultivation and social
responsibility. Realizing one’s goodness is sometimes tied to fulfilling one’s
duty to one's family, one’s clan, and one’s government.
◦ Enlightenment is the fourth theme. Each of the great Asian traditions, more
or less outlines a path to enlightenment. This means an awakening to the true
order of the universe which leads to an awakening to the order to which
human beings align their existence. Thus, these traditions give human beings
a path to awareness of the true order of all things, unclouded by human desire
and the folly, in order to become what they ought to be.
◦ A final characteristics is that these great teachings offer paths of “harmony
with oneself, with others, with nature with Transcendent” because the fullness
of human becoming is central to all these traditions they all have teachings
related to the harmony of self with all beings, especially the transcendent.
◦ Human suffering and disquiet are rooted in the person’s inability or inadequate
participation .
◦ The Vedas and Upanishads’
◦ The Vedas are some of the oldest philosophical writings in the world. These
series if hymns to the most ancient gods are a poetic articulation of the
structure and meaning of the universe. There is a family of gods for whom the
hymns are composed. The hymns themselves are considered direct
revelations that speak of the most sacred knowledge about the world, its
creation, and the principles of reality, and the most basic insight of these
writings is that Rita is the foundational principle of all things.
◦ Rita is the right order of the universe. Human beings experience this order
through the presence of the gods to whom they dedicate the performance of
the hymns embodied in rituals.
◦ The writers of the Upanishads seek to understand the fullness of human
becoming by realizing the deepest insight about the true nature of the
universe.
◦ If one lives well, Karma will lead one to a better life. Thus, one must
live well according to one’s Darma which is the duty that one has based
on one’s station or station in life. All things return to
◦ All things that exist are from the Brahman, and ultimately all things
return to the Brahman.
◦ That simple realizations leads to Moskha or the state of enlightenment
that liberates persons from the cycle of birth and rebirth to a state of
stillness and rootedness in the eternal.
◦ Brahman is Atman and Atman is Brahman. Atman is
the self that underlies all being. It is the eternal self
which is all our selves. And so all things are one being
in Brahman and they are all one delf in Atman.
◦ To achieve Moksha is to come to the deepest
awareness of this truth and to realize it in one’s way of
being.
◦ Here we can see how the religious
/metaphysical/mythical/ mystical principles of Indian
philosophy can be the foundation for an ethics.
 Gautama Buddha
◦ Buddhism was born from the enlightenment of Gautama Buddha who lived between
the 6 th and 4 th BCE. A sheltered prince, Buddha sought the meaning of existence
when he realized that human life is suffering. The Buddha’s lifelong search him to
extreme asceticism.
◦ He discovered that enlightenment and salvation could be achieved in the ordinary
human life if people are enlightened about the nature f suffering. And people need
to realize from four truth called Chatvari –arya- satyani.
◦ First truth – is that life is suffering or dukkha. In the cycle of death,
life and rebirth, there is constant suffering.
◦ The Second truth – is that action or karma is the cause of this suffering,
particularly “nonvirtuous action, and the negative mental states that
motivate such actions.” these are afflictions of the mind such as desire,
hatred and ignorance which are rooted in the wrong valuation of self or
atman.
◦ The extreme valuing of the self, the desire to preserve the I is the cause
of suffering. People only need to awaken to the truth that there is no
self to preserve. And as long as people keep believing that it is the
human being’s task to cultivate the self, people will be trapped in
egotism and selfishness.
◦ The Third truth – is that there is an end to suffering and the
path beyond suffering is to transcend this illusion and enter
the state of nirvana. Nirvana is the dissolution of suffering
which is the fruit of the surrender of the ego. In this way, they
surrender hatred and desire because hatred and desire are
fruits of the fact that there is no individual self.
◦ In the Fourth truth – how human beings ought to live a life
free from suffering by following the eight fold path or
Astangika – marga (Donald Lopez)
◦ Eight Elements of the Path:
1. Correct view , an accurate understanding of the nature of things,
specifically the Four Noble Truths.
2. Correct intention avoiding thoughts of attachment, hatred, and
harmful intent.
3. Correct speech, refraining from verbal misdeeds such as lying,
divisive speech, harsh speech, and senseless speech.
4. Correct action refraining from physical misdeeds , such as killing,
stealing, and sexual misconduct.
5. Correct livelihood , avoiding trades that directly or indirectly harm
others, such as selling slaves, weapons animals for slaughter,
intoxicants or poisons,
6.Correct effort, abandoning negative states of mind
that have already arisen, preventing negative states that
have yet to arise, and sustaining positive states that
have already arisen.
7. Correct mindfulness m awareness of body, feelings,
thought. And phenomena ( the constituents of the
existing world)
8. Correct concentration single - mindedness.
◦ Chinese Philosophy and Confucian Ethics
◦ Confucian Ethics is not the only or primary form
of Chinese ethics. There ate Daoist and legalist
Chinese schools of thought that contribute
equally to the development pf the
traditionalChinese people’s conception of the
good.
 CONFUCIUS
◦ Confucianism is a system of thought attributed to the tescher.
Kongqui known in the West as Confucius. He was an aspiring
civil servant who lived his life as a teacher of governance,
ethics, and ritual, and was able to gather a following around
him. His main preoccupation was the possibility of building a
harmonious ordered society.
◦ He took his inspiration for building a just
kingdom from the ancient sage, rulers. King Wen
and King Wu and their virtuous regent, the Duke
of Zhou. He believed that if people were able to
internalize or take as their own the ways of these
virtuous people , then the state would be ordered
because it would reflect the order of Heaven.
This is what he taught people : the way to bear
the order of heaven in one's conduct.