John Jorgensen wrote:
'..it is an evil born of the ignorance which discriminates'.

In the Pali Suttas, and many Mahaayaana texts too, the Buddha constantly advises people to develop a discerning, discriminating awareness of the difference between wholesome/skilful states/actions and unwholesome/unskilful ones. There is surely nothing wrong with 'discrimination' per se - again, note the strongly analytic bent of the Buddhas teachings: the 5 //skandhas//, the Eight-fold Path etc. What should be abandoned are discriminations based on illegitimate, deluded grounds. Unless we can make appropriate dsicriminations, we would have to say: 'Buddhism teaches that we should not discriminate in our attitudes to and actions towards oppressive, torturing regimes and non-violent ones: all are part of non-dual emptiness and we should be "beyond good and evil"'.

Inasmuch as sometimes 'good' means 'I like it' and 'evil' means 'I don't like it', then we should ideally have non-discriminating equanimity as regards these worldly extremes. Inasmuch as these words indicate 'wholesome/skilful' and 'unwholesome/unskilful', it is skilful to discriminate between them. Inasmuch as 'going beyond good and evil' means: such a person spontaneously acts in a good way, without having to think about it. On that: fine!

Peter Harvey