[ElisasAUG]

The article reminded me that there were prominent Zen Buddhists who supported the military junta in Japan during the second world war, even going so far as to justify Japanese incursions into continental asia as "bodhisattva" actions.

It brings into question the political translation of the dharma. As the philosopher Aristotle once said, "all is political." Of course, from a doctrinal standpoint, the dharma isn't really a "thing" to be politicized. it is pure and therefore empty of the impurity of existing. It is only by following dharma that the impurities of karma can be purged. It is a similar formula to the transcendental path of the messiah in christianity.

My knowledge of Siddartha Gautama's politics is such that he a radical critic of institutionalized authority, to say the least. I think that it is heretical to invoke the dharma to support any form of worldly (or other-worldy) authority.

As for this particular invokation of dharmic terminology, "karma." I believe that the Buddha discouraged speculation on the subject. But I appreciate the refreshing citations in the article which detailed the buddha's own perspectives constituting a non-deterministic view of the phenomenon in question.