Buddhist Belief Blog

As many of you know, in addition to, or maybe because of, my Buddhist Belief, I am one who wants to see peace on earth — world peace — peace for us all. I advocate for peace and harmony because I believe everyone, deep within their souls, also has a deep desire for peace.

Let’s face a fact — there can be no happiness without peace. We must find a way for there to be peace on this earth — a peace which is based on justice, love, freedom and respect for all beings.

I’m sure there will be many people who read this blog who will comment on the many ways my thinking is in error. You certainly are entitled to your thoughts. However, I can assure you, you won’t change my mind. I’ve seen close up what violence does — and it always breeds more violence.

This morning, as with every other morning, when I open up my computer to see what’s going on in the world, what do I see?

I see war, I see terrorism, suicide bombers, fighting, killing, not only in the world news, but also in the local news. People in the city near where I live are settling their differences with guns and knives every day. All of this leads to more misery and to the extremes of suffering. Take the Middle East for example — there has been some sort of conflict going on there at least since 1936. (That’s as far back as I checked — it may be even further back than that). It’s some sort of attack and then retaliation for the attack over and over again. It’s what we’ve been taught to do — if you hit me I’m going to have to hit you back. It’s some sort of rule, I guess.

On September 11, 2001, thousands of innocent people lost their lives with the attack in New York. Then, our retaliation began — and it’s still going on. How many more thousands of innocent people have lost their lives since.

Will this endless cycle of violence ever end?

John Milton, the famous English poet wrote, “For what can war breed, but still endless war.”

Why are humans doing this to each other? Most war is the result of greed. Greed for wealth, territory, trade and resources. Wars are also being fought over ethnicity and religious differences. Sometimes we get into a war because of fear — like the Iraq war — we were afraid of how Saddam Hussein would use his weapons of mass destruction to destroy us. (Yeah, right).

Our world leaders all have done quite a good job of convincing us that war is necessary and justified. In fact, in just the past two weeks I’ve found myself in discussions with friends over the concept of “just war”. I do not believe war is ever justified.

Many thousands of years ago Buddha said these words — and they are as true today as they were then: “Hatred is never appeased through hatred in this world; by love alone does it appease.”

Back in the sixties, there was a meeting between Chou en-lai, the Prime Minister of China, and Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister of India. They were discussing the dispute about the border between India and China. At that meeting, Nehru quoted from Buddhist teachings:

Another belief we’ve been sold is that if we want peace, we’d better prepare for war. So we, and the other nations of the world, spend billions upon billions of dollars to purchase and stockpile huge arsenals of sophisticated weapons. We’ve been sold on the idea that these weapons won’t be used, they’re only there to act as deterrents. (Here’s another, yeah, right!)

Perhaps I’m nothing more than an extremely naive peace-nik from the hippy sixties, but I can’t help but feel spending these billions of dollars we spend on wars and weapons of mass destruction would be better spent to provide good education for people — to provide food and resources to people — to provide jobs for people — to provide health care for people — to alleviate poverty for people — to reduce the causes of global warming — to provide the dollars needed to improve roads, bridges and transportation for people — etc. etc. etc. — wouldn’t doing things like this be a more likely way to promote peace and harmony in the world?

As Krishnamurti asks in the quote at the beginning of this article …

Metta ….May all beings be well and happy. May all beings live in safety. May all beings be healthy and strong. May all beings live with ease.

Namaste — Be in Peace.

Ron Rink
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Just click the links that are sort of Grey in color to take you to where you can learn more about each book and how you can purchase a copy for your own library.

Anam Thubten — No Self – No Problem

No Self – No Problem
shows how to realize the ultimate meaning of life in each moment by dissolving all notions of ego-identity. It asks that spiritual seekers wake up to their true nature, which is already enlightened. Based on Buddhist wisdom traditions, this easy-to-read book discusses in simple, but profound and inspiring language, how we can live a life full of love, satisfaction, and happiness. No Self – No Problem

Sharon Salzberg — The Kindness Handbook

“It takes boldness, even audacity, to step out of our habitual patterns and experiment with a quality like kindness–to work with it and see just how it might shift and open up our lives. This book is an invitation to do just that. — From The Kindness Handbook