[Buddha-l] Buddhism & War

[curt]

Thanks for posting the link to Prof. Premasiri's article. I would like 
to draw attention to one particular passage:

"Before this discussion is concluded it seems appropriate to mention one 
last point about the Buddhist canonical accounts relating to war. Where 
one of the parties engaged in war is considered as righteous and the 
other as unrighteous, the Buddhist canonical accounts highlight the 
ethical qualities of the righteous party by showing that although they 
are compelled by circumstances to engage in war for the purpose of 
self-defense, they do not resort to unnecessary acts of cruelty even 
towards the defeated. The righteous party in war avoids harm to the 
innocent and is ready to pardon even the defeated enemy. Skillful 
methods are adopted in order to cause the least harm. Where the enemy 
could be defeated without injury to and destruction of life those 
skillful means to do so are explored to the maximum." (reference: 
Ummagga Jataka, Jataka 4, p.329 ff.)

This passage accepts as a given that Buddhists have historically 
distinguished between so-called wars of choice, on the one hand, and, on 
the other hand, situations in which a group of people is "compelled by 
circumstances to engage in war for the purpose of self-defense..." This, 
in turn, contradicts the notion that Buddhism is a "pacifist" religion. 
The single most important defining characteristic of pacifism is it's 
rejection of "defensive" violence - including especially defensive wars. 
And pacifists do not hold this as an abstract principle - but as a 
practical proposition that can and should be implemented in the here and 
now. Buddhists, on the other hand, have historically not called upon 
"their" governments (in which they have often wielded significant 
influence) to disarm and disband their militaries, much less to simply 
yield when confronted by military aggression.

- Curt

James A. Stroble wrote:
>
> At the risk of repeating myself, I would like to point out that we have 
> discussed this several times before, and Franz Metcalf was gracious enough to 
> provide a summary of the past discussions, which I wll paste below for those 
> who have not seen it.  
>
> Further, I am somewhat bothered by the attempts to come up with a 
> Buddhist "just war" doctrine in Sri Lanka.  As I like to point out to my 
> theistic friends, an absolute being that needs us to defend him (or her) is 
> far from being an absolute being. I would assume the same would apply to 
> Buddhism:  the truth just is, it does not need defending with violence. Thus 
> the various cases of Buddhist nations justifying violence usually had more to 
> do with national identity than with Buddhism per se. 
>
> I also found a short paper by Prof. Premasiri  here:
>
> http://www.buddhistinformation.com/place_for_a_righteous_war_in_bud.htm
>
> There is also a link to a response by Damien  Keown.   
>
> Here is the earlier posting by Franz:   
>   
>> 10/13/05 02:00 pm
>>     
>
>   
>> Gang,
>> (in my town, we have plenty of women gang members)
>>
>> On buddha-l we've had several discussions much like this. Looking
>> through posts I've saved from those threads, I find several references
>> given by various members of buddha-l. I've been thinking of collecting
>> them and I do so now, ad majorem buddhi gloriam. (Diversionary note:
>> Here I've assigned the masculine gender to "Buddha," despite its "a"
>> ending indicating the feminine gender in Latin. Perhaps I should I have
>> written "buddhae." How *is* "Buddha" written in Latin, anyway?)
>>
>> First, though James was too genteel to mention it, if you'd like to
>> read more of his convincing analysis of this issue, see James Stroble,
>> "Buddhism and War: A Study of the Status of Violence in Early Buddhism"
>> at http://www2.hawaii.edu/%7Estroble/BUDDWAR.HTM
>>
>> For an opposing view, see _The Budhha Taught Nonviolence, Not Pacifism_
>> by Paul Fleischman, M.D. published by Pariyatti Press;
>> http://www.pariyatti.com. I've not read the book, but the excerpt is
>> available online at
>> http://www.dharma.org/ij/archives/2002a/nonviolence.htm is plenty
>> maddening enough for me.
>>
>> A classic article by Paul Demieville was first published as “Le
>> bouddhisme et la guerre," postscript to _l'Histoire des moines
>> guerriers du Japon_ by Gaston Renondeau, _Mélanges publiés par
>> l’Institut des Hautes Etudes chinoises_, v1, Paris, 1957, p347-385. It
>> might be easier to find in Paul Demiéville, _Choix d'Etudes bouddhiques
>> (1929-1970)_, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1973, p261-299.
>>
>> When we discussed this issue on buddha-l in 2003, Nobu Iyanaga promised
>> he would try to except and comment on Demiéville's article. He more
>> than fulfilled his promise, also including lengthy and articulate posts
>> from buddha-l (back when there was a high proportion of Buddhist
>> scholars on it). You can read his good work at:
>> http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~n-iyanag/buddhism/buddhism_war.html
>>
>> For those who care about contemporary Sri Lankan positions: "In Defense
>> of Dharma: Just-War Ideology in Buddhist Sri Lanka" By Tessa
>> Bartholomeusz, http://jbe.gold.ac.uk/6/bartho991.htm
>>
>> Schmithausen, Lambert. 1999.  "Aspects of the Buddhist Attitude to War"
>> in _Violence Denied: Violence, Non-Violence and the Rationalization of
>> Violence in South Asian Cultural History_, edited by J. E. M. Houben
>> and K. R. van Kooij (Leiden: Brill), pp. 45–67.
>>
>> "Can a Buddhist Join the Army?"
>> http://www.saigon.com/~anson/ebud/whatbudbeliev/290.htm
>>
>> Buddhism & The Soldier, by Major General Ananda Weerasekera,
>> http://www.beyondthenet.net/thedway/soldier.htm
>>
>> Can We Justify War?
>> http://www.saigon.com/~anson/ebud/whatbudbeliev/287.htm
>>
>> And, from the Pali Canon, SN III.15: Sangama Sutta, SN XLII.3:
>> Yodhajiva Sutta, and SN III.14:Sangama Sutta. (For canonical Mahayana
>> sources, see Iyanaga-sensei's article, cited above.)
>>
>> Peacefully,
>>
>> Franz
>>     
>
>