Could A Buddhist "Canonize" An Assassin?

[Xangsamhua]

Committee pushes assassin’s sainthood

Church condemned the murder, but changed its position in 1993 to support

Stephen Hong, Seoul

Korea

September 29, 2011

Seoul archdiocese’s Preparatory Committee for Beatification and Canonization held a symposium yesterday at the Catholic Center to discuss the possibility of canonizing a “Catholic patriot,” Thomas An Jung-geun.

Thomas An assassinated Ito Hirobumi, Japan’s first prime minister and the first Japanese resident general of Korea, on October 26, 1909, in Harbin, northeastern China. He was later executed by the Japanese on March 26, 1910.

Koreans regard An’s killing of Ito as a symbol of Korea’s resistance against Japanese imperialism. Korea suffered greatly under Japanese colonial rule which ended in 1945.

For years the Catholic Church condemned the murder, but changed its position when the late Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan of Seoul officiated at a Mass for An in 1993, during which he said: “An acted in righteous defense of the nation. The Catholic Church does not regard killing committed to defend the nation from unjust aggression as a crime.”

The overwhelming view of the symposium yesterday was that An should eventually be canonized.

More at http://www.ucanews.com/2011/09/29/committee-pushes-assassins-sainthood/

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I can not imagine a Buddhist Sangha forum (except perhaps in one or two of the more nationalistic Japanese Zen sects ... Korean, too?) agreeing to raise a political assassin to the level of "saint" or bodhisattva. I wonder if there's a precedent.

The only similar discussion I'm aware of in Buddhism relates to the moral status of monks and nuns who immolate themselves, as we saw in Vietnam during the 1960s, and recently. Buddhist teaching is generally hostile to suicide, though Thich Nhat Hanh defended the moral intentions of the Vietnamese suicides as, if I remember rightly, an advanced form of metta.

But political assassins? What motivated Thomas An? What was really in his heart at the time, and what short- and longer-term benefits did he believe would accrue to his country by the assassination of a Japanese official? As we know, political assassinations, with whatever intention, can be counter-productive - indeed often are - and one infamous assassination "lit the fuse" of an horrific four years of slaughter and destruction and the redrawing of the map of Europe, and that in turn led directly to the Nazi regime and World War Two.

I would think that Buddhists, Catholics or any other people, out of ethical concern or simple political realism, should be very wary indeed of people who decide to take life for political reasons or even consider it as a serious proposition.

Would a practising Buddhist like Aung San Suu Kyi be praised by other Buddhists if she'd decided to oppose the regime in Burma with acts of violence, no matter how provoked, nor even if the violence achieved a desired end?

Edited September 30, 2011 by Xangsamhua

[EliBuchen]

I suppose different countries the people are motivated by different factors. For the Koreans anti Japanese is very strong in their culture. They do anything to look better than the Japanese. Its so sunk into their psyche. <div><br></div><div>Buddhist had Angulimala though not political but he did kill tons of people, of course he also attained high levels of attainments. </div><div><br></div>

[fabianfred]

The whole canonisation thing is very flawed being based upon stories and supposed evidence and the guy also has died already..... a bit like being awarded the Nobel peace prize.

Buddhist 'saints' (Ariya) got there under their own efforts and often do not let anyone else know about it.

No real points of comparison between the two.

[khaowong1]

As far as I know, the Buddha never once condoned killing. I know somewhere in the Pali canons, he talked about protecting your family, your own life and your property. Someone smarter than me will have to quote chapter and verse. I'm pretty sure he never said you would be forgiven or justified in your actions. He just talked about circumstances. Some body help me here, please.

[sabaijai]

Never heard of Angulimala?

Angulimala

A Murderer's Road to Sainthood

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/hecker/wheel312.html

[Ijustwannateach]

^I was just thinking of him reading the opening of this thread... but the difference was he wasn't canonized *because* of his murdering, but once he had been enlightened and changed his ways.

I think the idea of canonizing someone who deliberately killed people is entirely against the New Testament worldview; but that hasn't been a big concern of Catholics since, oh, at least the Inquisition.

[Xangsamhua]

Never heard of Angulimala?

Angulimala

A Murderer's Road to Sainthood

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/hecker/wheel312.html

Yep, and saw the movie.

I think IJWT's explanation applies. It wasn't the acts or whatever the intentions were behind Angulimara's pre-enlightened life that were held up as an example, but his redemption. In management-speak, he "made the Buddha look good".

We know nothing really about Angulimara (the name meaning "finger-necklace"). His story sounds mythic. But as a literary topos he exemplifies the powerful redemptive force of the Buddha's teachings.

[EliBuchen]

Dear Khaowong1 something for you to read.

It is true, however, that one Jataka relates that in a former existence, the Buddha then captain of a ferryboat with 500 merchant -bodhisattvas on board, undertook to murder a pirate who planned to kill everyone in order to steal the cargo. The late Chagdud Tulku (d. 2003) wrote about this incident in "Bodhisattva Warriors:"

The captain, a bodhisattva himself, saw the man's murderous

intention and realized this crime would result in eons of torment for

the murderer. In his compassion, the captain was willing to take

hellish torment upon himself by killing the man to prevent karmic

suffering that would be infinity greater than the suffering of the

murdered victims. The captain's compassion was impartial; his

motivation was utterly selfless.

Source :

http://www.khandro.net/dailylife_war.htm

[Mirth]

Man dictates, heaven decides.