Zoroastrianism? Buddhism?

DhSunanda · 03 Sep 1999, 15:34 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: DhSunanda at aol.com
Subject: (urth) Zoroastrianism?  Buddhism?
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 11:34:52 EDT
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> "And the Ascian, his voice no louder than my own had been, and
> perhaps even softer, answered, 'How shall the state be most
> vigorous? It shall be most vigorous when it is without conflict.
> How shall disagreement be banished? By banishing the four causes
> of disagreement: lies, foolish talk, boastful talk, and talk
> which serves only to incite quarrels.=20

Hi, I'm new too, and the archive search doesn't seem to work for me, so I=20
don't know if the Buddhist side of the Ascians has been discussed before. I=20
know nothing about Zoroastrianism, but the Ascian's talk struck me on first=20
reading as a parody of both Communist and Buddhist texts. Leaving aside the=20
Communist....

'How can a state be vigorous?' is a question asked of the Buddha (via an=20
intermediary) by King Ajatasattu about the Vajjians. (Ajatasattu wants to u=
se=20
the answer to subvert the Vajjian State, and thus wage a winning war). The=20
Buddha lists 48 conditions that under which a state might be expected to=20
prosper and not decline.

The four causes of disagreement are a direct translation, if slight=20
rearrangement, of the traditional four speech precepts ('I undertake to=20
abstain from false speech, harsh speech, useless speech, slanderous speech'=
).=20
Traditional Buddhist precepts (guidelines for ethical action) are divided=20
into those for the body (physical actions), those for the speech=20
(communication acts) and those for the mind (wrong views about reality).

--Sunanda.

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