[Buddha-l] Dharmapala

[andy]

On Tuesday 20 July 2010 12:06:40 am Artur Karp wrote:
> In all seriousness, a question: can one be a Buddhist and a Communist?
> 
> 
Xue Yu's chapter in _Buddhist Warfare_ ("Buddhists in China during the Korean 
War")  was eye-opening to me, probably because of my ignorance of the period.  
Seems that Chinese Buddhists were very eager to be patriotic and even 
established a "Committee of Buddhist Circles in Beijing for Safeguarding the 
World Peace and Resisting American Invasion".  They raised money for a 
Buddhist warplane, and encouraged enlistment in the military.  

Not sure how much of this was Communist, how much nationalism, or how much it 
was the attempt to suck up to the government so that Buddhism might survive.  
If it was the last, it did not work out to well.  Nobody expects the Cultural 
Revolution. 

A common theme in the Buddhist violence topic seems to be nationalism rather 
than any other ideology. I was not surprised to see it in Japan, Sri Lanka, or 
Thailand, but this example did surprise me. 

-- 
James Andy Stroble, PhD
Lecturer in Philosophy
Department of Arts & Humanities
Leeward Community College
University of Hawaii

Adjunct Faculty 
Diplomatic and Military Studies
Hawaii Pacific University 

_________________

"The amount of violence at the disposal of any given country may soon not be a 
reliable indication of the country's strength or a reliable guarantee against 
destruction by a substantially smaller and weaker power."  --Hannah Arendt