[FutureBuddha (SPECIAL QUESTION)] A Question for Buddhists ...

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  • Jundo
    Treeleaf Founder and Priest
    • Apr 2006
    • 40361

    [FutureBuddha (SPECIAL QUESTION)] A Question for Buddhists ...





    A wrathful deity of Tibetan Buddhism, charged with holding underfoot great evils and great demons
    when other Gods, Devas, Bodhisattvas and even Buddhas fail to do so
    .


    A Bodhisattva will do anything to release those trapped by the three poisons of greed, anger and ignorance so as to return the harm doer to a decent life and to prevent the harm they cause.

    A QUESTION: Assuming that we will soon see the development of safe and effective pharmaceutical, hormonal, genetic and neurological medical treatments to increase human empathy when witnessing the suffering of strangers, to cure substance addictions, as well as means to forestall raging anger and violence (such as bodily implants to mitigate anger in convicted or likely potential violent criminals, or to mitigate sexual drives in sexual offenders, including child abusers), and further, assuming that proper procedures can be established honoring the civil and human rights of recipients as weighed against the social benefits, should they be employed?

    If we imagine treatments, widely dispersed throughout the population, including (very importantly) widely among our powerful and ruling classes, to increase feelings of inner empathy by (arbitrary example) 30%, and concurrently to increase their inner feelings of revulsion at the thought of inaction upon witnessing or merely hearing about the suffering of distant strangers (much as one might feel were the sufferer one's own sibling or child), what would be their possible effect on headlines such as this?

    Without billions of dollars more to feed millions of hungry people, the world will see mass migration, destabilized countries, and starving children and adults in the next 12 to 18 months, the head of the Nobel prize-winning U.N. World Food Program warned Friday. ... [He is] "extremely worried" that WFP won't raise about $23 billion it needs this year to help millions of needy people "Right at this stage, I'll be surprised if we get 40% of it, quite frankly," he said.

    ... Beasley said he was able to convince the United States last year to increase its funding from about $3.5 billion to $7.4 billion and Germany to raise its contribution from $350 million a few years ago to $1.7 billion, but he doesn't think they'll do it again this year. Other countries need to step up now, he said, starting with China, the world's second-largest economy which gave WFP just $11 million last year. ... Beasley said the wealthiest billionaires made unprecedented profits during the COVID-19 pandemic, and "it's not too much to ask some of the multibillionaires to step up and help us in the short-term crisis," even though charity isn't a long-term solution to the food crisis.
    The world will see mass migration, destabilized countries and starving people in the next 12 to 18 months without billions of dollars more funding, the U.N. World Food Program chief warned.
    What would have been the possible effect in preventing tragedy if suffering individuals like the following, who appear to have exhibited warning signs of extreme anger and violence for weeks and months before acting, had been identified and had received, upon examination by physicians, a medical intervention to moderate extreme anger and violent tendencies? Might the victims, including small children, be alive today?

    The former student of a Christian grade school in Nashville who killed three 9-year-olds and three adults in a shooting spree there was under a doctor's care for an "emotional disorder" and had amassed a collection of guns, the city's police chief said on Tuesday.
    The former student of a Christian grade school in Nashville who killed three 9-year-olds and three adults in a shooting spree there was under a doctor's care for an "emotional disorder" and had amassed a collection of guns, the city's police chief said on Tuesday.


    ...

    Robert “Bobby” E. Crimo III, the person of interest identified by police after Monday’s shooting in a Chicago suburb that killed seven people and wounded 47 others, left a long trail of tributes to mass shootings and public killings on social media platforms, according to numerous profiles that appear to belong to him. Crimo performed as a rapper who went by the name “Awake,” whose recent music videos included depictions of mass murder. ... Crimo also posted frequently to a message board that discussed graphic depictions of murder, suicide and death. His most recent post to that message board came last week, when he posted a video of a beheading.
    Social media profiles show he performed as a rapper who went by the name “Awake,” whose recent music videos included depictions of mass murder.
    What might be the effect of an implanted device to forestall sexual urges (in combination, of course, with any other therapies and methods possible) to prevent stories such as this, often even involving clergy (it is not only the other religions, alas)?

    At the start of his trial in the southern German city of Augsburg on Friday, a Zen Buddhist priest fully admitted to sexually abusing a total of seven boys over the course of a decade. The 62-year-old man is accused of 22 cases of sexual abuse, several of which have been deemed as "severe abuse" by prosecutors. He could face up to 15 years in prison. ... The abuse, which spanned a period of 10 years, involved victims aged between 4 and 13. "It hurts me greatly, that I caused so much pain," the defendant told the court, according to news agency dpa. ... Among other acts, Genpo Döring, former vice-president of the World Buddhist Association, long-time council member, deputy chairman and honorary councilor of the German Buddhist Union, had assaulted two brothers of primary school age, with whose mother he had started a romantic relationship as part of a bereavement support. He also abused a refugee boy whose father was murdered in Chechnya. Authorities uncovered some 2,800 files ofchild pornographywhile searching the man's house. According to court documents, he also occasionally took pornographic photos of his victims. https://www.dw.com/en/buddhist-pries...NASphin4OfnlwI and https://web.archive.org/web/20221202...issbrauch.html
    Assuming that there are, on the horizon, effective pharmaceutical, hormonal, genetic and neurological medical implants and other treatments to forestall such death and destruction, should not we Buddhists support their use?

    (I am writing my book which argues 'YES!')


    Dorin Genpo was a German Zen priest,
    founder of the Bodaisan Shoboji Buddhist center, and is convicted pedophile.
    He was a board member and honorary councilor of the German Buddhist Union
    and Vice President of the World Fellowship of Buddhists. In July 2017,
    he was sentenced to seven years and nine months in prison by the Augsburg Regional Court
    for more than 25 counts of sexual abuse of children.
    MORE ON GENPO HERE: https://de-m-wikipedia-org.translate..._x_tr_pto=wapp


    Gassho, J

    stlah


    tsuku.jpgtsuku.jpg
    Last edited by Jundo; 04-06-2023, 03:55 AM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE
  • Jundo
    Treeleaf Founder and Priest
    • Apr 2006
    • 40361

    #2
    Elsewhere, some folks raised some objections.

    Someone asked if this would have to be done through coercion. I responded:

    Hello. NO COERCION!!

    It is a topic for future posts perhaps, but I believe that:

    (1) there are ways to rely on individuals (both common citizens and the rich & powerful), fully of their own volition and free choice, to undertake such treatments voluntarily because it leaves them feeling rapidly healthier, happier, more peaceful and content, and is actually good for them, such that they would undertake the treatments for much the same reason that we do any number of things out of free choice and voluntarily, ranging from buying a puppy to sitting Zazen to eating ice cream to getting a face lift to taking viagra ... because it makes people feel VERY good to choose to do it. I imagine treatments that feel as pleasurable as puppy and ice cream and Zazen and beauty treatment and viagra combined, and which then leave the folks healthy and well, peaceful and good!! For example, folks often have turned down the recent vaccine because they do not feel the instant benefit. On the other hand, so many (of the same) folks will drink alcohol or take opiods or engage in unprotected sex even though bad for them, because it makes them feel good. But in this case, I envision something that makes folks feel good AND is actually good for them!

    (2) in the case of violent criminals, I believe that a (hopefully less overworked and overwhelmed, thus more careful and caring) criminal justice system would offer treatments as a voluntary alternative for the convicted to incarceration. For individuals who show a clear propensity to extreme violence prior to first murder, rape, etc. (e.g., someone who shows clear signs of being about to commit violence), that is a very gray area open to debate by ethicists.
    I also just commented to someone who said that Buddha depends on us to make our own choices. I responded, "You don't think that Buddha would do whatever was possible to do to save rape victims, murder victims, and the poor, hungry and homeless of the world? What kind of Buddha would that be?"

    Someone asked if this was like the forced castration of Alan Turing in 1940s Britain based on his homosexuality being judged a criminal offence. I responded:

    "No. I am not speaking about homosexuals in 1948. I am speaking about child molesters and murderers today. Please do not equate the two. I assume that the Buddha would have acted to prevent a raped child or murder, even calling in law enforcement to imprison the individual, without simply waiting for the murderer or rapist to decide themself not to do so. Or would the Buddha just watch the heinous act occur because he did not wish to intervene in free decision making?"
    I also ask this:

    A FURTHER QUESTION: If there become available safe and effective means which would lead to feeding the hungry and housing the homeless, preventing child rape and murder in anger, and someone in this group fails to make use of such measures ... thus allowing the hungry and homeless to remain so, the child to be raped and the victim to be murdered ... are you not violating the Bodhisattva Vows by your inaction in refusing to turn to use of such medical means, not to mention contributing through your inaction to the violence and suffering done? Would the Buddha fail to use such safe and effective means if available to prevent the violence and suffering?
    Gassho, J

    stlah
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

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