Criticism of Buddhism - War and Violence

War and Violence

In his edited volume Buddhist Warfare, Michael Jerryson argues that Buddhism has been connected to government since its genesis. This "inability to conceive of a state without Buddhism alludes to a kind of religious nationalism", and this is found in a variety of Buddhist conflicts. In medieval Southeast Asia, there were a number of Buddhist states, including the Pagan Kingdom, the Sukhothai Kingdom, and the Kingdom of Polonnaruwa. In Sri Lanka especially modern monks frequently involve themselves in nationalist politics,. Sri Lankan peace activists such as A. T. Ariyaratne have however also drawn on Buddhism for inspiration.

East Asian Mahayana Buddhists also often received state support. The Zen priest Brian Daizen Victoria documented in his book Zen at War how Buddhist institutions justified Japanese militarism in official publications and cooperated with the Japanese Army on the battlefield. In response to the book, several sects issued an apology for their wartime support of the government.

Christopher Hitchens summarized these issues as a specifically Buddhist desire to "put their reason to sleep, and to discard their minds along with their sandals". However, this is in contrast to the Buddha's teaching:

So in this case, Kalamas, don't go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, 'This contemplative is our teacher.' When you know for yourselves that, 'These qualities are unskillful; these qualities are blameworthy; these qualities are criticized by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to harm & to suffering' — then you should abandon them.

Hitchens changed gears when he wrote in 2010 for the cover of Confession of a Buddhist Atheist, "...Stephen Batchelor adds the universe of Buddhism to the many fields in which received truth and blind faith are now giving way to ethical and scientific humanism, in which lies our only real hope."

Buddhists also have a record of both passive and active nonviolence, often reflected by national culture. In Burma, monks have advocated nonviolence during the 2007 anti-government protests amongst many other occasions; Engaged Buddhism arose in Vietnam as a means of protest prior to the Vietnam War. (see pacifism)

Buddha himself is quoted in the Dhammapada as saying, "Life is dear to all. Comparing others with oneself, one should neither kill nor cause to kill."