Stoics and Bodhisattvas: Spiritual Exercise and Faith in Two Philosophical Traditions

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Stoics and Bodhisattvas: Spiritual Exercise and Faith in Two Philosophical Traditions
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The project of comparing Stoicism and Buddhism may appear to be an improbable one. While the latter determines that we strive for an enlightenment that contributes to the liberation of all living beings, the doctrines of the former would seem to entail that this is impossible. Though both strongly affirm principles of causality and cyclicity in the constitution of the world, Buddhism apparently grants considerably more freedom of human agency than does Stoicism. Their conception of eternal return in the strict and literal sense is foreign to the Buddhist notion of the bodhisattva's ongoing spiritual progress through numberless lives. These distinctions, moreover, sometimes issue in markedly different ethical orientations: the Buddhist elevation of compassion in the constellation of cardinal virtues finds its Stoic pendant in a more restrained attitude of commiseration. (Source Accessed May 10, 2021)
Citation
Kapstein, Matthew T. "Stoics and Bodhisattvas: Spiritual Exercise and Faith in Two Philosophical Traditions." In Philosophy as a Way of Life: Ancients and Moderns; Essays in Honor of Pierre Hadot, edited by Michael Chase, Stephen R. L. Clark, and Michael McGhee, 99–115. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.
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