In Rene Girard’s Sacrifice, religious cultures or communities use laws to justify upon the claims of lives. Many thought that sacrifices were a sacred obligation in order to appease the deities but it is just a farce to hide the real meaning of sacrifices. These sacrifices were used to suppress internal violence in the communities such as rivalries and conflicts and it also induces harmony, unites the society, and establishes order. Sacrifices comes from violence and since violence cannot be erased easily from the face of the earth, the only way to suppress it is though the judicial system. The judicial system makes vengeance into a form of punishment for the criminal. Thus laws were used to justify the reason for sentencing a life to death.
In Buddhism's The Liberation Rite, the criminal, who had committed an irredeemable act of either insulting a noble one or threatening Buddhist teachings, is beheaded by the ritual master in order to have his sins and consciousness be cleansed/dissolved in Buddha’s stomach and to earn Enlightenment in the afterlife. This tradition was deemed as necessary for someone who was tainted with sins to be released from life in order to gain Enlightenment. This law made it fitting as a sacred duty in order for one to be cleansed. Although one may say it is a voluntary action to get into a better afterlife, it is how the society or community brought the criminal up and instilling him/her with religious incentives of what is right and wrong.
Other religions/communities such as the Aztecs, Greeks/Athenians, and Ancient Judaism believe in the use of a scapegoat in order to suppress the turmoil in the community. They use either animals (Judaism) or human sacrifice (Aztecs and Athenians) to direct the violence on something or someone out of the community. The animal had sins that were transferred from the townspeople and was sent out to death while the human sacrifices were for festivals and the deities. During the uses of scapegoats, there are no free will or voluntary action because they were picked by the community in order to atone for the “guilty” sins. This was seen as a part of a ritual thus it was necessary for them to do it yearly or monthly to appease for better crops or their sins.
In regards to the Liberation Rite, I like you pointed out that although it is a voluntary action, one that the criminal must humbly submit to, his beliefs and obligations are a product of the ideals that his Buddhist community has instilled in him. The community expects this behavior out of him, and in order to achieve enlightenment and continue to be a part of it, the criminal must sacrifice his own life for the greater good of the community.
ReplyDeleteIts interesting to connect this idea to the scapegoat, as practiced in Greek tradition where an undesirable and unwanted member of the community, called the pharmakos is treated like royalty, and given the highest honors until they are banished or stoned to death. This can be connected to Buddhism in that an unwanted member of the community is killed in order for them to achieve the highest honors found in Enlightenment. The criminals are rewarded for their sacrifice for the greater good of the community.
On the other hand, I think it's also important to note that the scapegoat, especially in Greek and Jewish belief is seen as extremely impure, and after being banished, a reappearance by the scapegoat would be horrifying, symbolizing the return of sin or bad fortune.