Page 26 - The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand Vol.XIII-2021

The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand
Volume XIII – 2021

From Buddhist perspective, the good person Shen Te could be dif-ferently
considered. Shen Te is a woman who suddenly has a small amount of capital as

rewards from the Gods but does not know exactly how to manage it. Instead of
a tobacco shop, the poor woman should have opened a grocery, which was more
reasonable and more useful to the poor condition of the town Szechwan. Instead

of only the donation, Shen Te should have offered her neighbours to work in
her shop. Giving money to people endlessly is not supposed to be good deed or
appropriate at all. With the support from Shen Te, her “kindness” has proved to
be a great damage for the others at the end, as it does not help people to help
themselves. Shen Te continues helping her neighbours without recognizing the

real nature of the thing and human nature: Family. Shin receives rice and never
has enough. The old couple and their family stay at Shen Te’s tobacco shop without
limit and take the shop as their accomodation. The unemployed beg for cigarettes

in instead of bread, in order to be a “new Man”. They remain unemployed and still
desire to live in luxury without taking up any occupation. Through Shen Te’s “good
deeds”, the poor grow poorer and lazier. All this help turns out to be harmful and
in a Buddhist sense, unreasonable and worthless.

From a Buddhist perspective, what Shen Te has done is without conscious
recognition of human nature and with a lack of wisdom. The person should
become aware of the very moment of his deeds and what happens to his mind or
body. This could lead him to “wisdom”. He or anyone else should not be harmed
by his own deeds. Helping others as Shen Te has helped the pilot Yang Sun, is

principally not a real good deed. This kind of help with speculation in order to be
rewarded could be more defective. In terms of Buddhism, everyman is responsible
for his own deeds and should not push the responsibility on the Gods or on bad

social circumstances. All men are not able to escape from the consequence of
their own acts, but this principle is not understandable for them, as not for Shen
Te. In the words of the Buddha:

16 Bertolt Brecht: “The Good Person of Szechwan” – Anti-Capitalist, Anti-buddhist?