[Buddha-l] Re: Buddhist pacifism

[curt]

Richard P. Hayes wrote:

>
>>My beef is with people who want to argue that "Pacifist Buddhism" IS
>>Buddhism, period. 
>>    
>>
>
>Well, if you find someone who wants to argue that, by all means, have a
>beef. I think, however, that you may have just bludgeoned yet another
>straw man to pulp with the might hammer of prapanca.
>  
>
My argument all along has been quite simply that pacifism has never been 
a part of Buddhism as it has actually been practiced in Asia for 2500 
years. There is no straw man there.  Asian Buddhism is what it is - and 
it has never been a pacifist religion - going back to the Buddha 
himself. To dispute this, in my opinion, is to insist that Buddhism IS 
pacifist and that anything (like actual Buddhism as it is actually 
practiced in Asia) that isn't pacifist isn't Buddhist - or at least not 
properly so. Sometimes the "straw man argument" is the real straw man.

- Curt