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Noah -> RE: Islam Religion of Peace??? (11/26/2006 2:37:05 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: justheather
quote:
ORIGINAL: meatcleaver
You could make a similar argument against Christians, Jews and Budhists, whatever. Examen the history of western Empires. Examen the current American Empire. Though no doubt you probably watch sanitized news and dare I say, avidly consume propaganda that reinforces the vision of your world view.
I think one would be hard-pressed to "make the same claim" against Buddhists.
The case is easily made.
One sturdy set of components for this can be found here: http://www.darkzen.com/Articles/zenholy.htm but these sources deal primarily with the various traditions of Zen Buddhism which by no means have been the beginning or the end of Buddhist war, murder and corruption.
In the Dalai Lama's homeland, Buddhists were at war with Shamanists for centuries once the Buddhist evangelists came over the mountains from India. The brand of Buddhism the Dalai Lama promotes, quite different from other brands, includes much doctrine and ritual inheirited from the indigenous Shamanistic religions when the push to convert all of Nepal to Buddhism at swordpoints eventually resolved itself into roughly the polyglot, compromise religion we see associated with that famous homophobic man today. Much more recently, when the Dalai Lama was fleeing Nepal through the mountain passes to India, numerous Chinese officials were murdered in cold blood by Buddhists close and loyal to the Dalai Lama, all in the name of the fleeing incarnate Buddha.
Like the Sikhs with their turbans and daggars, the Buddhist Nu people of China go about with turbans on their heads and machetes in their belts. Neither group would have us believe that the hardware represents a tradition of diligent fingernail cleaning. The very fact of the prevalance of Buddhism among the Nu can be seen as poignant in view of the fact that the Tibetans who brought Buddha's truth to the region quickly enslaved the traditionally animist Nu people.
Those more taken with Japanese Buddhism must account for pre-eminent leaders of both the Soto and Renzai sects whose teachings are still revered today, some of whom helped whip up war frenzy among the Japanese in WWII. But this should not be a surprise since the Bushido culture of the Samurai was basically the disciplined practice of the Zen way of killing.
D.T. Suzuki, broadly creditted with popularizing Buddhism in the West, was the student of the great Zen master Shaku Soen who taught that war as well as peace reflected the glory of the Buddha. He is quoted as describing Japan's imperialistic encroachment on the Asian mainland as a "holy war".
Suzuki himself wrote: "... religion should, first of all, seek to preserve the existence of the state," and described fighting in such a war as religious conduct.
The great 20th century master Harada, credited with finding unity between the Soto and Renzai traditions, wrote: "Without plunging into the war arena, one cannot know the Buddha Dharma. It is impermissible to forget war even for an instant," and lest you imagine he was speaking metaphorically, he said elsewhere: "The Japanese are a chosen people whose mission is to control the world. The sword that kills is also the sword that gives life. Comments opposing the war are the foolish opinions of those who can only see one aspect of things and not the whole."
I don't think his full name was George W. Harada but you could be forgiven for thinking so.
Another great Zen master, Seki Seisetsu, decried members of the Communist party as "red devils" and called for their extermination. He said in a radio speech: "Showing the utmost loyalty to the emperor is identical with engaging in the religious practice of Mahayana Buddhism. This is because Mahayana Buddhism is identical with the law of the sovereign."
Or how about this quote from Soto sect Zen master Sawaki Kodo, also in contemporary times: "It is just to punish those who disturb the public order. Whether one kills or does not kill, the precept forbidding killing prevails. It is the precept forbidding killing that wields the sword. It is the precept that throws the bomb."
But never mind ancient times or the century which recently ended. The awful civil war between the minority Tamils in Sri Lanka and the majority Buddhist Sinhala community grinds on. Last summer a group of pro-war Buddhist monks there broke up an interfaith anti-war rally (which also featured Buddhists,) the disruption ending in fistfights and chaos.
Just as with Jesus and Mohamed, the Buddha's teachings can be perverted. History shows that they frequently are and with horrifying effect.
We can note that this is true just as well of the teachings of Nietzsche, Darwin, Marx, Engels, John Locke, Thomas Paine and so many others whose ideas stand free and clear of any religion. The a-religious teachings of these great thinkers have been invoked to justify as much killing as any scriptures have in the relatively brief time since their rationalistic masterpieces were written.
Those who point to religion as "the problem" strike me as either willfully blind or pathetically naive.
Religion as madness is a madness springing from irreligiousness.L.W.
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