Book contents
- Shakespeare and Virtue
- Shakespeare and Virtue
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Shakespeare and Virtue Ethics
- Part II Shakespeare’s Virtues
- Part III Shakespeare and Global Virtue Traditions
- Chapter 28 Shakespeare’s Rabbinic Virtues
- Chapter 29 Islamic Virtues
- Chapter 30 Persian Virtues
- Chapter 31 Buddhist Virtues
- Chapter 32 The Virtues in Black Theology
- Chapter 33 Virtue on Robben Island
- Chapter 34 Globability
- Part IV Virtuous Performances
- Works Cited
- Index
Chapter 31 - Buddhist Virtues
Equanimity, Mindfulness, and Compassion in Hamlet
from Part III - Shakespeare and Global Virtue Traditions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 January 2023
- Shakespeare and Virtue
- Shakespeare and Virtue
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Shakespeare and Virtue Ethics
- Part II Shakespeare’s Virtues
- Part III Shakespeare and Global Virtue Traditions
- Chapter 28 Shakespeare’s Rabbinic Virtues
- Chapter 29 Islamic Virtues
- Chapter 30 Persian Virtues
- Chapter 31 Buddhist Virtues
- Chapter 32 The Virtues in Black Theology
- Chapter 33 Virtue on Robben Island
- Chapter 34 Globability
- Part IV Virtuous Performances
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
Heir to a shared Indo-European eudaimonist thoughtworld, Shakespeare’s Hamlet dramatizes the interplay of Buddhist, Skeptic, and Stoic philosophies at the affective-cognitive interface indispensable for virtue in action. Hamlet’s search for appropriate response — in the role of “scourge and minister” thrust upon him to redress regicide — requires equanimity, and equanimity, as the play suggests, ultimately requires other-focused compassion to counteract affective-cognitive affliction: the emptying of self-engrossed mental proliferation prepares the mind for virtuous action. Our ability in Greco-Buddhist wisdom traditions to stand firm by judgment and detachment from destructive emotions and mental disturbances is encapsulated in Hamlet’s famous line in banter with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: “There’s nothing either good / or bad but thinking makes it so” (2.2.244-45). This key idea from Buddhist, Skeptic, and Stoic philosophies compresses therapy for emotional control through skepticism, or suspension of judgment. This equanimity in Buddhist-Stoic spiritual practices, moreover, interacts closely with two primary virtues: compassion and wisdom. Throughout most of the play, Hamlet’s quandary is exacerbated by his overactive ruminations until finally in Act 5, his feelings of compassion toward another, Laertes, relieves and releases Hamlet from his psychohumoral affliction and lends him the emotional equanimity and mental clarity to take virtuous action.
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- Shakespeare and VirtueA Handbook, pp. 306 - 316Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023
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