Description
What does the grief of losing a family member or friend teach us? In traditional international relations, the dead are rarely understood as agents. In this presentation, I will discuss the dead as agents through a recent development in Buddhist studies of "bodhisattva ethics" in Mahayana Buddhism. It will illustrate the problem of ethics in Buddhism according to the most advanced discussions in Buddhist studies, focusing mainly on the Shin-Buddhism (Jodo-Shinshu) teaching of the return of the dead and its possible application to international relations. This study will shed light on the meaning of grief in contemporary international relations, where uncertainty and unpredictability are pervasive.
