[Buddha-l] Buddhism & War

[Richard Hayes]

On Wednesday 20 September 2006 08:29, curt wrote:

> The single most important defining characteristic of pacifism is it's
> rejection of "defensive" violence - including especially defensive wars.

I have spent most of my adult life hanging around people who define themselves 
as pacifists, and I have never encountered a position such as the one you 
state. I suppose the Quaker testimony may come close. There are various 
versions of it. For every Quaker it is a guideline and not an absolute creed, 
and it pertains to a lot more than just armed conflict.

It seems to be that the attempts by Paul Fleischman and others to draw a 
distinction between non-violence and pacifism is an exercise pointless 
hair-splitting. The pacifist stance they present strikes me as a caricature. 
While I admire these folks for doing combat with straw men instead of with 
living human beings, I fail to see how they are offering any insight into a 
complex problem.

Perhaps I am unusually insensitive, but I have yet to feel any tension at all 
between my commitment to non-violence as a Buddhist practitioner and my 
whole-hearted endorsement of the Quaker peace testimony.

-- 
Richard P. Hayes (the 'P' is for 'pax')
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico
http://www.unm.edu/~rhayes