Demandingness, Well-Being and the Bodhisattva Path

Abstract

This paper reconstructs an Indian Buddhist response to the overdemandingness objection, the claim that a moral theory asks too much of its adherents. In the first section, I explain the objection and argue that some Mahāyāna Buddhists, including Śāntideva, face it. In the second section, I survey some possible ways of responding to the objection as a way of situating the Buddhist response alongside contemporary work. In the final section, I draw upon writing by Vasubandhu andŚāntideva in reconstructing a Mahāyāna response to the objection. An essential component of this response is the psychological transformation that the bodhisattva achieves as a result of realiz- ing the nonexistence of the self. This allows him to radically identify his well- being with the well-being of others, thereby lessening the tension between self and others upon which the overdemandingness objection usually depends. Emphasizing the attention Mahāyāna authors pay to lessening moral demand- ingness in this way increases our appreciation of the philosophical sophistica- tion of their moral thought and highlights an important strategy for responding to the overdemandingness objection that has been underdeveloped in contem- porary work.