From: CHARLES DITTELL     
To: DRAGONFLY           
Subject: Buddhist Morals
Date & Time: 05/11/91 14:40:33
Message Number 16728

I don't think you quite have the Buddhist moral position down very well;
one of the problems is that Buddhism is like Christianity in that there
are dozens - hundreds! - of Buddhist "churches" (organized groups).
For instance, one group (well, probably alot more than one) believes
that one should not kill, or cause to be killed, any living thing. Dick
Gregory had (has?) this position. He eats only "parts" of vegetable
matter -- nuts, fruits, etc.  From about 8 years of research, my sense
is that most Buddhists believe that if the results of any action are
"bad" (and if one knows this), the action is wrong, and a good Buddhist
would not perform that action (Karma and all that). 
An interesting aside is that the 10 Commandments are supposedly God's
word on what one should not do. In Buddhism (or at least some groups),
there are almost exactly those same 10 "commandments", but they are
prefaced by:   A Buddhist has no reason to:
                1 - Kill
                2 - Slander
                3 - (etc.)
Nontheless, with Buddhism arising from a very "old" civilization, the
moral precepts tend to be (in my opinion) rather well-followed....