Nonviolence to Animals, Earth, and Self in Asian Traditions,

·期刊原文
Nonviolence to Animals, Earth, and Self in Asian Traditions,
By Christopher Key Chapple
Reviewed by Douglas W. Shrader
Philosophy East & West
V. 47 (April 1997)
pp. 274-279
Copyright 1997 by University of Hawaii Press

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p.274

Whether by nature or by nurture, by destiny or by choice, human beings are no strangers to violence. Ours is a history of aggression, exploitation, enslavement of our own species, destruction of our own environment, and warfare with our own kin. For many, violence is a given: a simple, inexorable fact of life. It is "eat or be eaten." Our wealthiest, most sophisticated, most "highly developed" societies pit individual against individual and group against group: labor versus management, male versus female, black versus white, Republican versus Democrat, and so on.

The marketplace is a battlefield. We struggle to get ahead in a "dog-

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eat-dog" world dominated by hostile takeovers and competition in which only the strong survive. In our more noble moments we wage war on poverty and combat homelessness. We think of disease as an invasion of our bodies by foreign agents. We fight infection, stave off an attack of influenza, and develop ever more potent chemicals to kill cancer cells. In a society frightened by AIDS, much contemporary research focuses on ways to protect and/or strengthen the body's natural defense system. Even aging is regarded as an unnatural occurrence to be fought, resisted, and--in the minds of some--eventually conquered.

Throughout the ages, visionaries have called to us with messages of love, peace, and acceptance. Jesus instructed his disciples to turn the other cheek, to love their enemies as well as those who love them, and to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's. He taught that the persecuted are blessed, that the meek shall inherit the earth, that those who live by the sword shall perish by the sword. More recently, we have heard the voices and dreams of Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Individually and collectively they speak about a profound relationship between the value of our lives and the values by which we live.

It is to this continuing, controversial dialogue that Christopher Chapple's text is directed. He traces, explores, and defends a concept of nonviolence as radical and thoroughgoing as any the world has ever known. Known as ahimsaa the concept forms an integral part of the fabric of Jainism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Through these vehicles it has influenced lives and shaped societies throughout Asia.

It is perhaps significant that the term ahimsaa, like its English counterpart nonviolence, is a negation: it carries on its linguistic sleeve a rejection of the dominant model of human behavior. Even so, the terms are not entirely equivalent. Sanskrit embodies an etymological sophistication that permits a deeper understanding of the original meaning than would otherwise be possible. The root hims is a desiderative form of the verb han: whereas han means "to kill, injure, or strike," hims carries the connotation of wishing or desiring to do so. Thus ahimsaa is first and foremost a rejection of the affective attitude that gives rise to and/or tolerates harm.

By extension, ahimsaa rejects harm to all beings: both self and others. But because it targets intentions, the concept is both weaker and stronger than a purely extensional rule. "Thou shalt not harm," without additional qualification, would censure all instances of harm with equal force. The wishes, intentions, or knowledge state of the agent would matter little. In principle, compliance would be a straightforward empirical matter. One's actions either inflict harm or do not. All other considerations would be immaterial.

Extensional rules may seem clear, practical, and attractive for a va-

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riety of reasons. We can concentrate on facts and ignore the messy problem of trying to gain access to the mental, emotional, or spiritual state of another being. Unfortunately, as has long been acknowledged, extensional rules gain this simplicity by divorcing agents from their behavior. We bind the hands, but ignore the heart. In contrast, by targeting desires and wishes, ahimsaa lays claim to the heart itself. One who wishes to inflict harm but fails to do so through fear of reprisal may be more culpable than one who causes actual (possibly extensive) harm as an unintended consequence of otherwise laudable behavior.

There is a vast difference between instructing one not to kill and requiring one to care about the beings whose lives one has spared. Similarly, although the logical and psychological distance is perhaps somewhat less, purging all wish or desire to inflict harm is not yet a positive consideration of others. If etymology is a reliable guide, ahimsaa may originally have required little more than absence of malice. In practice, it evolved into a wide-ranging concept characterized by Chapple as "a personal commitment to respect life in its myriad forms" (P xiii).

With a few thousand years, an assortment of religious traditions, and a variety of social and cultural contexts in which to operate, this "commitment to respect life" manifested itself in a multiplicity of ways. No single text could, or should, be expected to cover them all. To his credit, : Chapple does not promise an exhaustive, definitive, or even unbiased analysis. Each of the seven chapters reflects on an application or dimension of the concept that he finds to be a matter of philosophical or historical interest, personal intrigue, or moral appeal. The result is somewhat more disjointed and eclectic than I had initially hoped, but it works surprisingly well. Professor Chapple's presentation is articulate, his discussion reasonable, and his position worthy of serious consideration.

Most of the chapters are relatively self-contained and could, without serious violence to their content, be read as independent articles. Thus several chapters might be skipped or rearranged without substantially altering the focus or orientation of the text. With few exceptions, however, it would be best to begin with a thoughtful analysis of chapter 1, "Origins and Traditional Articulations of Ahimsaa." Chapple opens with an important observation: the concept of ahimsaa is closely connected to that of karma. Both provide guidance concerning our treatment of others, but remind us that actions are two-edged swords that shape the agent as much as they do the external world. In fact, taken to their logical conclusion, both ahimsaa and karma deconstruct the separation between self and other.

"Modern scholarship," Chapple complains, "has been surprisingly scant and inconclusive on the origins of ahimsaa" (p. 4). He reviews, briefly, the contributions of Ludwig Alsdorf, Hanns-Peter Schmidt, and a

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small handful of others. A particular matter of concern revolves around the complex, sometimes murky relationship between Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. Although Chapple does not in his more reasoned moments wish to claim that ahimsaa is a Jaina concept stolen or bastardized by rival traditions, he clearly agonizes over what he regards as a tendency to concentrate on Hindu or Buddhist texts while downplaying, perhaps even denigrating, Jainism. Thus much of the first chapter-- indeed the text as a whole--is designed as a partial remedy for this widespread neglect and/or misrepresentation.

Chapple finds clues concerning the origins of ahimsaa in the terracotta seals of the Indus Valley civilization. Most striking are the representations of meditative beings in characteristic yogic postures surrounded by a host of apparently sacred animals. The seals are not always as clear as one would like and their interpretation depends as much on what one expects to see as on the image itself. Nonetheless they do provide some physical evidence for Chapple's thesis that "the practice of nonviolence arose from an ancient renouncer tradition that later gave birth to Jainism and Buddhism and heavily influenced aspects of Hinduism, including the classical yoga school" (p. xiii). This "iconographic and thematic continuity" (p. 9) provides a foundation for an extended discussion of Jainism, Hinduism, and Buddhism and justifies to a certain extent his tendency to interweave elements of one religion with those of another.

A proper understanding of Jainism is critical, for it is in this tradition, Chapple argues, that "ahimsaa serves as the centerpiece of religious practice "(p. 9). His discussions of Jainism are clear and coherent. Even those familiar with the religion may gain new insight concerning some of its more unusual precepts or practices. For the unfamiliar, Chapple begins with a tight, focused, and instructive summary. In slightly over six pages he effectively outlines the tradition's history, metaphysics, and ethical requirements (pp. 9-15). Special attention is given to concepts like ahimsaa and karma, behavioral commitments like vegetarianism, complex Jaina views concerning the many forms that life can take, the interconnectedness of these myriad forms of life, and the path to liberation (the fourteen stages of purification). Subsequent chapters add depth and dimension and, perhaps more importantly, discuss ways to enrich our understanding and treatment of both self and other.

Chapter 2 provides an interesting overview of the ways in which Buddhism has led to a more humane treatment of animals in India, China, and Japan. Of particular interest to Chapple are lessons we might learn concerning the use of animals in scientific research, the pharmaceutical industry, and single-species preservation.

Chapter 3 examines an assortment of contemporary Hindu, Jaina, and Buddhist responses to the environmental crisis that holds Asia as

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well as the rest of the world in its unforgiving grasp. Included are discussions of the ecological framework provided by the Vedic and Vedaantic philosophies; Gandhi's notion of a village-based economy; the Chipko movement, in which Indian women formed human chains around trees to prevent their harvest; and the conceptually more radical but perhaps equally effective practice of ordaining trees as Theravaada Buddhist monks in Thailand. Chapple devotes a separate section to Jaina environmentalism and--in an attempt to bridge East and West, past and present--suggests a series of parallels between Jaina cosmology and the Gaia theory of Vladimir Vernadsky, James Lovelock, and Lynn Margulis; He presents an imaginative reinterpretation of Jaina vows and concludes with a call for "a new form of environmental orthopraxy" (p. 71).

Beginning with chapter 4, Chapple directs our focus inward to consider "how the nonviolent perspective can influence one's thinking about others and about death" (p. xiii). Using lessons from the Mahaabhaarata, he invites reflection concerning choice, karma, fate, and the interconnectedness of all beings.

In chapter 5, "Nonviolent Approaches to Multiplicity," Chapple connects reverence for life with religious tolerance and respect for the opinions of others. He presents the Jaina concept of partial truth; elaborates and defends their sevenfold analysis, which "makes all statements provisional" (p. 88); and champions what he terms "intellectual nonviolence" (p. 97).

Chapter 6 explores one of the most bizarre and misunderstood Jaina practices: sallekhanaa the fast unto death. Chapple explains that fasting is an act of spiritual purification (a way of purging negative karma) and that sallekhanaa "is acceptable only in four situations: calamity, severe famine, old age, or illness from which there is no escape or against which there is no remedy" (p. 101). He argues that it is not suicide, for death is not sought, merely accepted. By fasting, one may be freed from the desire for food as well as the distractions of digestion. As a result the individual may achieve a purer, more spiritual concentration and thus obtain better rebirth or possibly even final release. Chapple relates a firsthand experience of the sallekhanaa fast of an eighty-year-old nun of the Terapanthi `Svetaambara sect and reflects on the printed experiences of others. He compares Eastern with Western views concerning death, muses briefly about some of the ethical dilemmas occasioned by advancements in modern medicine, and suggests that "the Jaina tradition offers a view of life that offers not hope but a sense of equanimity and acceptance" (p. 109). The practice of nonviolence paves the way for release from excessive attachment to the good as well as unhealthy abhorrence of evil.

Chapter 7, "Living Nonviolence," combines a basic summary with a brief overview of several ways in which the concept of ahimsaa may have

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worked its way into the fabric of Creek, European, and American thought. It is a discussion that weaves its way from Gnosticism, Manichaeanism, the Cathar Church, and St. Francis of Assisi to Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Jack Kerouac, Alan Ginsberg, and Gary Snyder. Chapple concludes with a personal story concerning his love of nature and a message of hope.

Nonviolence to Animals, Earth, and Self in Asian Traditions is suitable for undergraduate courses in philosophy, anthropology, and Asian studies. It presumes some knowledge of Hinduism and Buddhism--and perhaps some familiarity with Asian culture as well--but not so much to make its use prohibitive for an instructor willing to supplement Chapple's discussions with some basic lectures or subsidiary materials. His presentation of Jainism is a bit too monolithic--he insists repeatedly that the tradition has remained unchanged for thousands of years and ignores differences between Digambaras and `Svetaambaras--but more often than not his moral compass points in the right direction.

The issues with which Christopher Chapple wrestles are both urgent and vexing. There are no easy answers and no guarantees. As his discussion of pollution in Kerala, Bhopal, and New Delhi makes clear, even a general cultural commitment to nonviolence does not automatically produce sound environmental practice. Ahimsaa is a concept that Western culture can no longer afford to ignore, but it would be a mistake to regard the concept itself as a panacea for the many ills we have inflicted on ourselves, the environment, and those who share this space we call Earth. Violence is deeply ingrained in our attitudes as well as our behavior. Professor Chapple presents us with an occasion to reexamine our lives, values, and priorities. He has crafted an instrument that may help spark an awakening in some of our students. At the very least he is to be applauded for his sensitive treatment of some of the world's most enduring issues.