Vulnerability, Compassion, and Ethical Responsibility: A Buddhist Perspective on the Phenomenology of Illness and Health

Abstract

Perhaps no religion like Buddhism Buddhism speaks explicitly of the human experience of bodily/mentally vulnerability. According to the Buddhist tradition, the story of the young prince Siddhartha and his decision of embarking on the journey of enlightenment Enlightenment\t See Liberation is closely related to his personal experience of seeing the “four passing signs”, three of which are about the experience of human physical vulnerability: aging, sickness, and death.