"No Need for Arms
and Armed Forces"
Establishing Peace Studies in the
Light of Shinran's Thought--
by Toshikazu Arai, Professor of Religion, Soai
University,Osaka, Japan
1. Introduction
In this paper, I am going to discuss the
issue of war and peace based mainly on Shinran's thought. I will also
refer to some of Shakyamuni Buddha's stories, King Ashoka's edicts, Prince
Shotoku's Seventeen-article Constitution, some passages from the Larger
Sutra and Honen's thought. This paper will attempt to show that
realization of our indebtedness to Amida's Primal Vow inevitably leads us
to become concerned with the welfare of our neighbors and society, and
that our daily life as nembutsu practicers is closely connected with
cessation of armed conflict and creation of peace.
Since the concerted terrorist attack on
the United States on September 11, 2001, the world seems to have lost its
equilibrium. Nations including Japan have been driven by an urge to step
up preparations for war under the pretext of self-defense against
terrorism or for the cause of "justice." Some nations seem to
have rid themselves of any reluctance to the use of arms and armed forces
to revenge what they regard as terrorist attacks and to give their enemies
many times as much casualty as they have received. The result is an
endless cycle of attacks and counter-attacks.
At this time, as Buddhists and as members
of the world community, we must raise our voice and share the wisdom of
the Buddha with the entire population of the world that any event is a
result of countless causes in the past and that it is wrong to trace it
into a single factor. More importantly, people should be reminded that
vengeance only calls for vengeance and that only humility and compassion
melt enmity.
2. Negative peace and positive peace
David P. Barash, an American psychologist
and a leading figure in peace studies, says in his Introduction to Peace
Studies that there are two types of peace: negative peace and positive
peace.1 Negative peace refers to a condition in which no
active, organized military violence is taking place in society or between
nations, but in which a stronger party is employing overt and covert forms
of repressive measures against the weaker ones. For example, under the Pax
Romana, a number of ethnic groups and ancient civilizations were
humiliated and economically exploited. More recently, during the Cold War,
almost all the people of the world were subjected to the fear of nuclear
war.
On the other hand, positive peace means
more than the absence of violent conflict. It refers to a condition in
which any elements that are likely to lead to conflict are minimized or
are on the way to total elimination from the society or from the world as
a whole. The most representative of the "elements that are likely to
lead to conflict" is "structural violence." This includes
all sorts of discrimination and oppression based on differences in
"race," place of origin, culture, color, creed, sex, birth, and
social status. In international affairs, what is called "hegemonism,"
in which a strong nation forces weaker ones to comply with its policies,
is a form of structural violence. It can be said that positive peace
begins when negative peace is negated. Positive peace is made possible
when every constituent member of the community becomes aware of existing
problems connected with structural violence. In a sense, positive peace is
more spiritual and rational than political, and this is where Buddhists
can find common grounds with peace movements in the world, for as the
following discussion will show, the Buddhist effort to attain the Buddha's
wisdom and compassion involves identifying inner evils and eradicating
them while living through the life that is given.
3. Shakyamuni Buddha's Position about War
In this section, I will examine how
Shakyamuni Buddha dealt with armed conflict in his lifetime.
Toward the end of his life, King
Vidudabha of the Kingdom of Kosala wanted to exterminate the Shakyas on
account of the insult he had received from them. As he approached the
border between the territories of Kosala and the Shakyas, he saw the
Buddha standing under an almost bare tree on the side of the Shakyas. The
king politely asked the Buddha why he was standing there when on the
Kosalan side there was a tree with a nice shade under its abundant
branches and leaves. The Buddha replied that the shade made by the tree
that belonged to his relatives was cool. Upon hearing this, King Vidudabha
understood the Buddha's message and retreated. The king advanced toward
the territory of the Shakyas and retreated three times in this way.
However, the Buddha did not try to prevent the Shakyas' destruction when
the king came with his army for the fourth time because the Buddha
realized that the Shakyas would not be able to escape from the working of
the karma they had created in the past.2
This story indicates that the cause for
armed conflict can be traced to past karma and that even the Buddha cannot
prevent violence once the cause is activated by deep-rooted anger. The
Buddha Dharma aims to prevent the rise of such karma.
Just before the Buddha departed for his
last journey from the Eagle Peak near Rajagriha, the capital of the
kingdom of Magadha, King Ajatashatru sent one of his ministers and asked
the Buddha about the feasibility of attacking Magadha's powerful neighbor,
the state of the Vajjis. The Buddha first confirmed with his disciple
Ananda that the Vajjis observed the "Seven Precepts that prevent
decline and fall," and then told the minister that as long as the
Vajjis observed the Seven Precepts, even the king of Magadha would not be
able to conquer the Vajjis.3 The Seven Precepts consisted of
the following:
The Vajjis often met in an assembly to
discuss their issues and policies;
They cooperated with each other to
achieve their common goals;
They respected and complied with ancient
laws;
The Vajjis respected their elders and
followed their advice well;
They treated women with respect and
kindness;
They showed reverence to their holy
places;
They paid homage to all the holy men that
resided in their territory.
All these stories point to the Buddha's
peace-loving personality. Especially the "Seven Precepts that prevent
decline and fall" emphasizes the importance of dialog and discussion
to solve problems and of cooperation to achieve the organization's goals.
The message we receive from these stories is that we should always make
efforts to solve problems by peaceful means and that achieving internal
peace and harmony is the best way to protect the organization from decline
and fall due to foreign invasion.
4. King Ashoka's Position about War
King Ashoka (circa 273-232 BCE) of the
Maurya dynasty is known for governing his realm based on the spirit of the
Dharma. His numerous rock edicts and pillar edicts mention the importance
of respect of family members, relatives, friends and acquaintances as well
as teachers, Brahmans and Shramanas. He also recommends kind treatment of
servants and slaves as well as domestic and wild animals. In the Rock
Edict XIII, he expresses his deep remorse for the destruction caused by
his conquest of the ancient kingdom of Kalinga. His remorse was not only
for the great number of people who were killed, injured and carried away
captive in the war, but also for the destruction of the culture,
tradition, religion and morality of that area. The king says that he
desires security, self-control, impartiality, and cheerfulness for all
living creatures. He further declares that he considers the conquest by
the Dharma as the most important conquest. For that purpose he had a great
number of rock- and pillar-edicts inscribed all over his realm and sent
missionaries of the Dharma to neighboring countries as well as to the far
away Hellenistic countries in the west. He also sent out supervisors of
the Dharma throughout his dominion to make sure that his ideal was carried
out.
Judging from his words expressed in his
edicts, he considered it as his duty to minimize and eliminate any factors
that might lead to conflict. He adopted the Dharma as his guiding
principle and tried to put it into practice.
However, King Ashoka shows a dilemma in
doing this. Because he professed the Dharma to be his guiding principle,
he tried to treat everyone equally as long as people followed his order to
respect the Dharma. When some people disrupted the rule by the Dharma, the
king was in a position to punish them, even though he made efforts to be
understanding and forgiving. The king says:
King Priyadarshi (Ashoka) seeks to induce
even the forest peoples who have come under his dominion to adopt this way
of life and this ideal. He reminds them, however, that he exercises the
power to punish, despite his repentance, in order to induce them to desist
from their crimes and escape execution. (Rock Edict XIII)
In the end, as a secular ruler, King
Ashoka had to be satisfied with being a benevolent despot.4
The Buddha and Buddhists used the terms
normally associated with armed conflict, such as fight, struggle,
conquest, destruction, confrontation, attack, and so on, against one's
internal enemies such as anger, envy, jealousy, grudge, pride, desires for
fame, possessions, and power, not against one's external enemies. In a
strict sense, the Buddha and Buddhists had no external enemies, because
even those who physically harassed them were to be pitied and guided into
the path of the Four Noble Truths. In this way, for good Buddhists,
engaging in armed conflict was unthinkable.
5. Prince Shotoku's Position about War
Now we will briefly look into the
governmental ideal of Prince Shotoku (573-622; as Prince Regent 593-622).
Prince Shotoku is known for creating a centralized government in ancient
Japan and attempting to govern the country in accordance with the Buddhist
ideal. Shinran called Prince Shotoku as the founder of the Buddha Dharma
in Japan and regarded him as an incarnation of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara
(Kannon Bosatsu). Although Shotoku's reforms were short-lived, we can see
his attempt to minimize elements of conflict within the country and make
the country a peaceful and prosperous place for its residents.
Prince Shotoku's governmental ideal is
best discerned in his famous Seventeen-article Constitution. The first
article states that the most precious thing is peace and harmony and its
essence lies in the absence of conflict. It is important that the persons
in the ruling class should have a kindly heart toward the ruled and the
ruled should have a friendly heart toward the rulers. If they discuss
problems without ego-attachment, the problems will settle rationally by
themselves. The tenth article says that one should not become angry at
another who has a different thought from one's own. Every person has his
own preferences and attachments. One may not agree with what another
considers right, and another may not agree with what one considers right.
One is not necessarily a wise person, and another is not necessarily a
fool. Both are just ordinary persons.5
In this outline of Prince Shotoku's
Seventeen-article Constitution, we can see that he emphasized the
importance of humility and mutual respect as the essential factor for
avoiding conflict.
6. The Position of the Larger Sutra about
War
Since the main theme of the Larger Sutra
is Amida Buddha's establishing of the Pure Land as the place of supreme
happiness and bliss for everyone, it is obvious that the sutra disapproves
of any form of conflict. A passage describing Amida's Pure Land goes as
follows:
When the Buddha of Immeasurable Life
expounds the true and exquisite Dharma for sravakas and bodhisattvas who
have gathered in the hall decorated with seven kinds of treasures, their
hearts are filled with bliss and they all attain enlightenment…. They
all spread flowers and incense, and play many kinds of music; when they
come meet on the road, they yield their ways to each other. At that time,
all the residents of the Pure Land, with soft and tender hearts, are
filled with supreme joy and happiness.6
This passage points to the ideal form of
society, in which people live with compassionate care for each other.
There is no room for any conflict to arise. In another part of the Larger
Sutra, there is a passage with the expression "No need for using arms
and armed forces." It goes as follows:
The countries, towns and villages which
the Buddha travels through and visits all receive his benevolent guidance.
Every place under heaven is peaceful and the sun and the moon are clear
and bright. The wind and the rain come at the proper time and no natural
calamities and epidemics break out. The country is blessed with abundance,
and the people live at ease; there is no need for using arms and armed
forces.7
This passage projects a country guided by
the Buddha Dharma as a place which is blessed with abundance and
prosperity and whose people are living in peace; hence there is no use for
arms and armed forces.
7. Honen's and Shinran's Position about
War
Having established the Buddhists' basic
position for peace and against war, we will now look into Honen's and
Shinran's thoughts about peace and war. Their main concern was that
everyone in the world should awaken to the Primal Vow and be saved, and so
they did not make a direct statement about this issue.
However, it is important for us to
confirm that the Pure Land teaching they embraced was not at all
"world-rejecting." They took a positive attitude toward the real
life in this world. Honen said in one of his Dharma talks as follows:
We should live our lives in this world in
such a way that we can say the nembutsu easily. We should reject and
discard anything that comes in the way of our nembutsu life…. Everything
we do relating to our clothing, food, and housing is a supportive act for
our nembutsu life. By this I mean that in order that we can successfully
attain birth in the Pure Land, every aspect of life is a supportive act
for the nembutsu. Our bodies are dear to us even though they commit
offences that lead us to the three evil realms. Then we should even more
nourish and take good care of our bodies that enable us to say the
nembutsu as the essential act leading to birth. If we try to satisfy our
bodies' needs without thinking that all worldly acts should be supportive
acts for the nembutsu, they become acts leading us to the three evil
realms. If we try to satisfy our bodies's needs so that we can say the
nembutsu leading to the birth in the Pure Land, those acts will become
supportive acts for birth.8
This means that Honen positively
recognized every aspect of our worldly acts as supportive acts for birth
in the Pure Land. They certainly exclude those acts that are connected
with the five fundamental precepts for Buddhists, that is, abstention from
killing, stealing, engaging in illicit sexual relations, telling lies and
drinking intoxicating beverages. Therefore, engaging in armed conflict is
naturally not considered as supportive acts for the nembutsu.
Shinran, in one of his letters, stated as
follows:
Since the prohibition of the nembutsu [in
the past] led to the arising of disturbances in society, on this occasion
I hope that everyone will, deeply entrusting themselves to the nembutsu
and firmly embracing prayers [for the peace] of the world in their hearts,
together say the nembutsu.
…. In the final analysis, it would be
splendid if not only you, but all people who say the nembutsu do so, with
no thoughts of themselves, for the sake of the imperial court and for the
sake of the people of the country. Those who feel uncertain of birth
should say the nembutsu aspiring first for their own birth. Those who feel
that their own birth is completely settled should, mindful of the Buddha's
benevolence, hold the nembutsu in their hearts and say it to respond in
gratitude to that benevolence, with the wish, "May there be peace in
the world, and may the Buddha's teaching spread!" Please consider
this carefully.9
In this passage, Shinran attributes the
arising of disturbances in society to the misgovernment by the ruling
class that manifested in the form of the oppression of the nembutsu. He
further makes it clear that the nembutsu-centered life does not mean
indifference to society, but active concern for the prosperity of the
country and for the happiness of other people. Entrusting ourselves to the
Primal Vow entails a degree of selflessness and of compassion for other
people. Therefore, the "wish" for the peace in the world
mentioned in the above passage involves some positive efforts to achieve
that goal, even if it means paying more conscientious attention to our
daily work than before our awakening to the Buddha's benevolence.
In another letter, Shinran says,
"Signs of long years of saying the nembutsu and aspiring for birth
can be seen in the change of heart that had been bad and in the deep
warmth for friends and fellow-practicers; this is the sign of rejecting
the world. You should understand this fully."10 The phrase
"the sign of rejecting the world" contains dual meaning: one of
dissociating ourselves from seeking fame and worldly gains and the other
of making efforts to live our lives as respectable persons in society.
Thus, in Shinran's thought, creation of peace is not separate from
deepening our understanding of the teaching and living the nembutsu life.
Creation of peace is also closely connected with doing our daily work to
help ourselves as well as our neighbors. Shinran is telling us that we
should engage in our daily activities with the wish for the prosperity of
society and happiness of the fellow beings with whom we share life.
8. Conclusion
In the foregoing discussion, I have tried
to propose that for Shin Buddhists, cessation of armed conflict and
creation of peace originate from awakening to the benevolence of Amida
Buddha and living the nembutsu life. More generally, this means
realization of the preciousness of life and interdependence of all human
lives. On the level of ethics and morality, we are advised to live with
minimum concern for our own gains and with much care and respect for our
neighbors.
However, with regard to the issue of war
and peace, the most important thing is completely discarding the thought
of using arms and armed forces as an alternative means for solving
international disputes. When those who are in the government leadership as
well as the majority of the world population agree on this point and
attempt to solve differences by respectful discussion and negotiation, the
world will be on its way to establishing positive peace. This may sound
like a dream story, but we Buddhists are in the position to propose this
ideal to the entire world.
[1] David P. Barash, Introduction to
Peace Studies: The Meaning of Peace
Edited and annotated by Kyoko Okumoto and Aiko
Saito. Tokyo: Eihosha, 2001
[2] SUGANUMA Akira, Buddha to sono deshi, 89 no monogatari, or Buddha and
His Disciples, 89 Stories. p. 50. Kyoto: Hozokan, 1990.
[3] Buddha Saigo no Tabi, or The Last
Journey of the Buddha, translated from Pali into Japanese and annotated by
NAKAMURA Hajime. pp. 9-16. (A Japanese translation of
Mahapari-nibbana-suttanta) Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1991.
[4]
The Edicts of Asoka, translated and edited by N.A. Nikam and Richard
McKeon. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,
1966.
[5]
Jodo Shinshu Seiten, or Jodo Shinshu Scriptures. pp. 1433-1438.
Translated by Arai from the original Japanese into English.
[6] Ditto, pp.49, 50.
[7]
Ditto, p. 73.
[8]
Shinshu Shogyo Zensho, Vol. IV. pp. 683, 684. Translated by
Arai.
[9]
The Collected Works of Shinran, Vol. I. p. 560. Slightly revised by
Arai.
[10] Ditto, p. 561.
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