sweeping, and as your brooms move back and forth, say
the two-syllable mantra that I will now give you. Don't
stop until I come back.” The young monk sat down and listened
to
the
movement
of
the
brooms,
to
and
fro
over
the
floor.
He
heard the whispered rhythm of the mantra as it
was repeated over and over again. This went on for many
weeks, and before the Buddha came back, the young monk
had found full liberation and so had the two old monks.
This young monk achieves nirvāṇa-in-this-life, and the story gives us
every reason to think that this is intrinsically good; yet, the story never
emphasizes moral virtue, even if it implies that the monk was also dedicated,
disciplined,
eager,
energetic,
and
good.
Relatedly,
we hear stories
about very bad people, like Angulimāla, a highway murderer who reforms
himself with the Buddha’s help. Angulimāla’s story is about redemption,
and of course Angulimāla dedicates himself to the Buddhist
path after his conversion, a path that requires him to cultivated virtue
over time. The story also highlights that he renounces violence, just as
the Buddha himself has, but the Majjhima Nikāya emphasizes that, after
Angulimāla had, “gone alone into seclusion, [he] experienced the bliss of
release,” even though he was neither prosperous nor virtuous at the
time.
The stories of the Sweeping Monk and Angulimāla, among countless
others
in
the
Pāli
Buddhist
tradition,
put
pressure
on
Goodman’s
Objective
List
View,
if
only
because
these
stories
seem
to
support
some
version
of the Nirvāṇa View. Yet, as I have indicated, Goodman has raised
serious doubts about any interpretation of Buddhist axiology according
to which nirvāṇa of either sort is the ultimate good. So we face a potential
impasse.
Some
texts
seem
to
support
the
Objective
List
View,
whereas
many others seem to support some version of the Nirvāṇa View. How
can we make progress?