Buddhist Violence

Buddhist Violence

A stereotype of a Buddhist would more than likely encompass imagery of a monk, who leisurely spends their lives practicing silent meditation in the Eastern hemisphere and whose disposition revolves around peace and tranquility, even in the most difficult hardships. The truth of the matter is, however, that Buddhist history involves many protests, violences, and adversity as any other religion that does not practice pacifism to the extent of a typical Buddhist. Although violence in Buddhism is understood by many to be a clear violation of Ahimsa and the Five Precepts, one could argue that the intentions of violence is more important in Buddhism than the action itself.
One example of the types of violence in Buddhist history include self-immolation, which is a self-inflicted martyrdom typically done in political protest. Although there are countless cases of auto-cremation throughout Buddhist history, probably the most familiar is a Mahayana Buddhist monk named Thich Quang Duc in 1963. Thich took his own life in downtown Saigon, whilst 500 monks and nuns watched in reverence to his protest against the religious inequalities that were occurring in Southern Vietnam due in part to the Diem Regime. These religious inequalities included burning of Catholic and Buddhist flags, injury and murder of protesters (including children) by the National Liberation Front (NLF) and Vietnamese militia (nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu, Nakhoda). Although killing oneself is an act of violence, it could also be argued that sacrificial deaths are more tolerated in Mahayana Buddhism with the stories of the “. . .Bodhisattva Medicine King who demonstrated his insight into the selfless nature of his body by ritualistically setting his body aflame. . .” as well as one of the Jataka Tales “. . .where the Buddha (in a previous incarnation) gave up his body to feed a starving tigress and her four cubs,” (jamyangnorbu.com, para. 9 and 10). Nevertheless, harming oneself is not the only occurrences...

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