[Buddha-l] Buddhism & War

[Barnaby Thieme]

>From: Jim Peavler <jmp at peavler.org>

>Whoever said this has never read any history. Buddhists seem to have  done, 
>at one time or another, just about anything anybody else has  done.

Certainly Buddhism has been involved in violence - the excellent book "Zen 
at War" chronicles the Japanese Zen institution's pro-military stance during 
World War II. However, I'm not aware of anything in Buddhist history that is 
comparable in scope to, say, the Spanish Inquisition, or the Crusades, or 
the militant spread of Islam. My impression is that Buddhism has a 
relatively low body count, as religions go. Opinions?

Barnaby'
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