Buddhist ethics and the problem of bullying

Abstract

This article aims to study and analyze Buddhist ethics and the problem of slander. The study results found that In the present, there is a problem of bullying people arising in the contemporary society done through verbal action in the negative manner where people are somehow looked down upon and harassed. Once arisen, a moral question is asked that: is bullying people akin to the violation of fourth precept? In this paper, an attempt is purposely made to examine the principle of fourth precept, four kinds of verbally bad action, lying, malicious speech, harsh language, and frivolous talk where the four component aspects of making lying happen are taken into consideration: 1) there is unreal thing, 2) one intends to speak out that thing, 3) one is trying to speaking out that thing, 4) the hearer understands the spoken thing accordingly. In the analyzing it, it was found that bullying people is not akin to the complete violation of fourth precept despite its being almost there. In examining this, four component aspects of lying should be critically considered, if it falls into them, then it violates the fourth precepts correspondingly. However, Buddhist ethics is of the view that those who bully people should be fully aware of such an action as it leads to the unwholesome action, once done, its result will bring about a great deal of suffering to not only bullied people but also the doer. To deal with the problem of bullying people, a writer has introduced the Buddhist ethical guidelines, being mindful and patient toward the problem responding by giving the explanation in the right time including choosing to live life in the appropriate society and environment and most importantly one should maintain their mind in the state of equanimity respectively.