Cross-Cultural Hermeneutics on Bad People in Buddhist Perspectives

Abstract

          This article has objectives to study the cross-cultural hermeneutics on Bad People in Buddhist perspectives. This article employed the documentary research methodology. In the research, it was found that hermeneutic of the bad people in Theravada Buddhism describes people who lack knowledge as those who are not yet able to think correctly or well, to the point that they may be seen in terms of being unintelligent. However, Ignorance is later explained as who is knowledgeable or ignorant. Meanwhile, the interpretation of Mahayana sees the fool as being broader. Therefore, people’s knowledge begins from ignorance. Similarly, becoming a scholar or attaining enlightenment must first come from being a fool or a fool. If we consider the diversity of understandings of the fool, Theravada Buddhism does not care about the word fool, which is interpreted through the intellectual culture of those with a better social status and sees the status of those with a lower social status as fools in terms of social status, such as seeing people born in a lower caste as fools. Not separating people by race or any social status but including the meaning that bad people come from behavior and actions as the main method, is a way to create a clear society. Mahayana Buddhism does not agree with this aspect because Mahayana society offers an interpretation of the fool that does not separate fools or bad people differently, but everyone is a fool in terms of having to go through the cycle of birth and death. And being in the same society requires living in an environment full of problems until one finally stops or attains enlightenment.