[Buddha-l] Compassionate Violence?

[James A Stroble]

On Wed, 29 May 2013 21:31:41 -0600
Richard Hayes <richard.hayes.unm at gmail.com> wrote:

> On May 25, 2013, at 2:26, James A Stroble <stroble at hawaii.edu> wrote:
> 
> > But seriously, I am once again attempting to complete a work on the
> > notion of a Buddhist Just War doctrine, and could really use all the
> > help I could get.
> 
> "Just war" is a contradiction in terms. That's about all the help I
> can offer. I do, however, look forward to reading your work when it
> is completed.

Agreed. It is very difficult being a pacifist working on this subject!
However, the greatest difficulty I encounter is that many assume that
just war doctrine is some how based on religion.  I hold that it is a
thoroughly secular doctrine, based on a utilitarian notion of lesser
evil. So much for Augustine.  Of course, this is based on a belief in
the efficacy of force in producing peace, which is what I have not
found any Buddhist argument for. 

The holy war doctrine is not at all utilitarian, since it deals in
absolutes.  (My son at one point quoted Qui-Gon Jinn from Star
Wars:"only the Sith deal in absolutes!")  This is what I am seeing in
the "defense of the dharma" arguments, and more often than not it is
tied to nationalism, of one sort or another. Extremism in the defense
of absolutes is no vice, to paraphrase Barry Goldwater.  But this as
well is something I do not find in Buddhism, or at least in what I could
call philosophically consistent Buddhism.  Or is sunyata not the real
sunyata?  
> 
> My own work on Buddhism is now completed. I never intend to publish
> another word on the topic. It's about time, since everything I wrote
> was half-asked and wrongly answered.
> 
> Coyote

Yes, we all know.  Having done all that is to be done?  I take any
academic announcement of retirement with a grain of salt. 




-- 
Yours, 

James Andy Stroble
Leeward Community College