The Buddha and slavery

[Modus.Ponens]

Hello

I read yesterday a post by Digger that quoted a scripture that seemed to be suportive of slavery. The post is here: http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.ph ... ad#p103510" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; . This got me worried, so I started to investigate about the position of the Buddha regarding slavery. I found a refference to a scripture, in a notation system that I don't understand, in which the Buddha forbade monks and nuns to have slaves. The refference is D.I,5. Can anyone link me to this sutta?

Thanks

[tiltbillings]

Hello

I read yesterday a post by Digger that quoted a scripture that seemed to be suportive of slavery. The post is here: http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.ph ... ad#p103510" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; . This got me worried, so I started to investigate about the position of the Buddha regarding slavery. I found a refference to a scripture, in a notation system that I don't understand, in which the Buddha forbade monks and nuns to have slaves. The refference is D.I,5. Can anyone link me to this sutta?

Thanks

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .bodh.html

[Modus.Ponens]

Thanks tilt. I'm more relieved. Still, it's not a prohibition to all monks. But monks of course should follow the Buddha's example. I wonder if the Buddha didn't want social agitation by strictly forbiding monks or lay people to have slaves.

There's also a passage that seems to have a different notion of slave than we in the west do:

In five ways should a master minister to his servants and employees:

by assigning them work according to their ability,
by supplying them with food and with wages,
by tending them in sickness,
by sharing with them any delicacies,
by granting them leave at times.

Sigalovada sutta

[Sanghamitta]

The Buddha was Awakened. By implication that means that he had great compassion and Insight into the human condition.
He also lived 2500 years ago.
His "role" if you like was to outline the means to Awaken others. We must be careful not to project on to him sensibilities that are a modern concern that might have little relevance to the mores of his own day. He did not come to reform society.
He came to show the way out of conditioned existance.
See also his leaving his wife and child, and so on.
We cannot project onto him our current preoccupation with "romance" and the nuclear family. Or modern concerns with egalitarianism.

[Bankei]

see

Schopen, Gregory 1994 "The Monastic Ownership of Servants or Slaves: Local and Legal Factors in the Redactional History of Two Vinayas" JIABS Vol 17/2 pp. 145-73 in Vol 2.


Bankei

[Kim OHara]

Thanks tilt. I'm more relieved. Still, it's not a prohibition to all monks. But monks of course should follow the Buddha's example. I wonder if the Buddha didn't want social agitation by strictly forbiding monks or lay people to have slaves.

There's also a passage that seems to have a different notion of slave than we in the west do:

In five ways should a master minister to his servants and employees:

by assigning them work according to their ability,
by supplying them with food and with wages,
by tending them in sickness,
by sharing with them any delicacies,
by granting them leave at times.

Sigalovada sutta

Hello, M.P,
I can't see anything about 'slaves' in the passage you quote - neither 'servants' nor 'employees' are slaves, however much we grumble about our bosses being slave-drivers so why do you think you have found 'a different notion of slave'?
Anyway, there is no guarantee that any of those three words - slave, servant, employee - corresponds exactly to any of the social relationships the Buddha was talking about. Some of our really old terms, like serf, villein, vassal or peasant, may be a better match.


Kim

[cooran]

Resurrecting an old thread:

Some interesting discussion here ....
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/inde ... 027AAvdWFN" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

With metta,
Chris

[SarathW]

Modern day we have a new kind of slavery.
We call them employees.
We find many slave employees in Sri Lanka.
My father had many employees their only wage was the food and mat to sleep.
Conditions are tough in Sri Lanka.
Little bit of food and the shelter could be a luxury.
Think about the sweatshops in places like India and Sri Lanka.