Buddhism and the Virtues Page 1 of 21 PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). (c) Oxford University Press, 2015. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy). Subscriber: Colorado State University; date: 08 January 2018 Abstract and Keywords This chapter presents an overview and discussion of the primary Buddhist virtues within the context of the Buddhist path of moral and spiritual development. Buddhist ethics counsels practitioners to overcome the three poisons of greed, hatred, and ignorance and to cultivate those states and traits of mind (and the actions they motivate) that conduce to the genuine happiness and spiritual freedom of oneself and others. The chapter discusses the four immeasurable states of loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. It then discusses the six perfections of generosity, moral discipline, forbearance, vigor, meditation, and wisdom. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the prospects of a Buddhist virtue ethics. Keywords: Buddhist ethics, virtue, Buddhism, moral, loving-kindness, virtue ethics I. Buddhist Ethics While it is very easy to find in Buddhist sources systematic philosophical reflection on issues in epistemology and metaphysics, for instance, it is more difficult to find reflections that are obviously comparable to systematic normative ethical theory and meta-ethics. However, the tradition is very clear, and there is widespread agreement in the philosophical literature on what it recommends. Buddhist ethics counsels practitioners to overcome the three poisons of greed (rāga), hatred (dveṣa), and ignorance (moha), and to cultivate those states and traits of mind (and the actions they motivate) that conduce to the genuine happiness and spiritual freedom of oneself and others. Buddhism and the Virtues Matthew MacKenzie The Oxford Handbook of Virtue Edited by Nancy E. Snow Print Publication Date: Feb 2018 Subject: Philosophy, Moral Philosophy Online Publication Date: Dec 2017 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199385195.013.18 1 Oxford Handbooks Online