Snapshot of some Kantian Ethics resources

Some books:

I would not waste your time with S.G.M. Weerasighe's "A Comparative Study of Early Buddhism and Kantian Philosophy." Even though it sounds fantastic, it's not. I have it. I might pull an idea or two for my thesis (which is practically based on the exact same topic), but probably not.

I WOULD have a look at Philip Olson's "The Discipline of Freedom: A Kantian View of the Role of Moral Precepts in Zen Practice." It is a very good, scholarly (even though the author is a lawyer and zen priest) approach to the topic - though written lucidly so that a lay reader will have no trouble.

Websites of present interest:

GUYER, PAUL (1998, 2004). Kant, Immanuel. In E. Craig (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge. Retrieved June 11, 2009, from http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/DB047

Kant: An Overview

LibriVox - Kant's books read to you!

Lawrence Hinman's Ethics Site.

It all begins with Morality

Passed on from an email from Bhikkhu Samahita: http://What-Buddha-Said.net

The Blessed Buddha once said:
The rewarding fruition of morality is freedom from regrets!
The rewarding fruition of freedom from regret is gladness!
The rewarding fruition of gladness is rapturous joy!
The rewarding fruition of joy is serene tranquillity!
The rewarding fruition of tranquillity is Happiness!
The rewarding fruition of happiness is concentration!
The rewarding fruition of concentration is knowing & seeing!
The rewarding fruition of knowing & seeing is realism!
The rewarding fruition of realism is disillusion!
The rewarding fruition of disillusion is release!
Step by step does morality thus lead to the highest!
Source: AN 10:1

About Fruition (Phala):
http://what-buddha-said.net/library/DPPN/wtb/n_r/phala.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/library/DPPN/wtb/s_t/saamanna_phala.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/library/DPPN/wtb/a/ariya_puggala.htm

Buddhism and Kant: Pisa 2010

http://www.kant2010.it/index.php/kantkongress/kant2010

Worth a shot!

Dharma as a (transcendent?) foundation for ethics

As stated in the Saṃyutta Nikāya II 25ff:

‘…whether there is an arising of Tathāgatas or no arising of Tathāgatas, that element still persists, the stableness of the Dhamma, the fixed course of the Dhamma, specific conditionality. A Tathāgata awakens to this and breaks through to it. Having done so, he explains it, teaches it, proclaims it, establishes it, discloses it, analyses it, elucidates it.’[1]

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[1] Bhikkhu Bodhi 2000, p.551.

Compassion: Mahayana vs Theravada

Roshi Robert Aitken (wiki) writes:

Nowhere among Mahayana practices is concern for other beings expressed more
clearly than in the metta practice of loving kindness in Theravada Buddhism. One
begins with a focus upon the self:

May I be free from danger.
May I have mental happiness.
May I have physical happiness.
May I have the ease of well-being. 8

Metta then is directed to those near and dear—may they be free from danger, and so on—then to those about whom one feels neutral, then to enemies, and so on to all beings. Under the guidance of a seasoned teacher, the resistance one feels to this compassionate practice is faced squarely and allowed to wither and disappear.

"Formal Practice: Buddhist or Christian" - Buddhist-Christian Studies 22 (2002)

8) Sharon Salsberg, Loving Kindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness (Boston: Sham-
bhala, 1995), p. 32.

Shin Buddhism

Shin = aka Jōdo Shinshū (浄土真宗 ,"True Pure Land School")

Based on teachings of Shinran Shonin (May 21, 1173 – January 16, 1263).

Key teaching: gratitude to Amida Buddha. (See Jeff Wilson article here)

Shinran was a student of Hōnen (法然 1133-1212), founder of Jōdo shū "Pure Land."

Gethin poking some fun at modern revisionist scholars

...the "ethical" portion of the discourse is to be preferred to the "mythic" precisely because it is ethical, and, as we all know, the earliest Buddhist teachings were simple, ethical teachings, unadulterated by myth and superstition; we know that early Buddhist teaching was like this because of the evidence of the rest of the canon. Here the argument becomes one of classic circularity: we arrive at a particular view about the nature of early Buddhism by ignoring portions of the canon and then use that view to argue for the lateness of the portions of the canon we have ignored. (p.215)

From "Cosmology and Meditation: From the Aggañña-Sutta to the Mahāyāna," Rupert Gethin, History of Religions, Vol. 36, No. 3 (Feb., 1997), pp. 183-217