Violence and War

Violence and War
It appears to me none of the religions except Buddhism abhor the violence that include self inflicted violence. 

What I mean is the suicide bombing in the name of religion or terrorist cause. Destruction of life whether it is self or otherwise and all beings is alien to Buddhism.
 

This is where Buddhism stand alone in high ground.
 

This is where we have to define the role of a suicide bomber in the modern society. There is no justification for the existence of similar entity and for that matter intolerance or discrimination of any human being for his or her origin, class, creed, religion, race, sex and whether rich or poor.
 

We are at a cross roads.
 

There is alarming trend of religious fanaticism and atheistic views raising their heads.
This is where the Buddhist Moral Principles should stand erect and relevant. 

They are strikingly different from all modes of other religions where it is espoused that killing oneself for the sake of a religion or sect (there was a similar sect-Ishihara- in Japan) is as the supreme sacrifice and results in being born in heaven.
This is a myth we must dispel with utmost vigour.
This is happening in Ceylon too but for a different reason and goal. Labile children with childhood trauma are selected and indoctrinated to take life for a course which they themselves cannot enjoy in return. The fallacy of this inhuman misdemeanour has to be born clear of all religions. The religious leaders and dignitaries have failed in their duty and the present political systems, whether authoritarian, capitalistic, communist, religious or liberal systems have failed to deliver any form of organisation except further division. 

 

Devoid of human values (we may call it moral principles) the perceived Global Village is collapsing.

Divine Abode

The four sublime states of mind described in Buddhist psychology the loving kindness (Metta), compassion (Karuna), altruistic joy (Mudita) and equanimity (Upekka) are the very essence of humanity that is lacking in the modern world.
Why these Pali words do not have a place in Oxford or Webster's dictionaries is an indication how the world politics are shaped up in the current century.
There is no English synonym for Avihimsa (world sans violence) and that is how the Western Democracy has evolved. From Romans to modern day Mandela the way of dealing with crisis was absolute violence without recuperation. Only now there is some form of dialogue emerging but with Western Bias. Instead, hate, vengeance and violence are the operating themes of the world be that it may be terrorism or state sponsored violence sanctioned by the UNO.

The Suttas description of development of these supreme states is as follows.
"There, O monks, with mind full of loving kindness (compassion, altruistic joy or equanimity) pervading in one direction, then a second direction, then a third one, then the fourth one, just so above, below and all around and everywhere identifying himself with all, he is pervading the whole world with mind full of loving-kindness with mind wide, developed, unbounded, free from hate and ill-will."
Thereafter he follows the same theme with compassion, altruistic joy and equanimity.
It is said that in this country there were hospitals caring for animals. The decadence that has set in our society and world at large has to be reversed. We must not let the politics, economics and business mechanisms to decide our future however powerful they are.
They are not the only stakeholders.
Silent masses without a voice is quite evident after the tsunami episode. We must be self critical of our failures. We must be mindful and expose the changes that is currently taking place globally due to unsustainable scientific and economic exploitation of the third world.