NO to War

Buddhism believes in the idea of non-violence, all violence and killing is wrong. As a Buddhist I promote peace and a war is totally unethical. There is, perhaps, a belief in a “Just War”, that are wars that are right because they are perceived to be the interests of justice and should be fought according to just rules. By the other hand there is the belief in “Holy War”, is when the God of a religion is perceived to ask, or command its followers to make war on those who do not believe in that religion. These two beliefs are the only ones accepted in the range to make or participate in war. Mahatma Gandhi said: “I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.” Siddhartha Gautama believed that human suffering could be overcome by following a particular way of life, he teaches the first precept in Buddhism: non-harming. We totally reject violence and we think that is “better to be killed than to kill.” In the Vietnam War we promoted peace and offered reconciliation between American and Communist armies. In our religion there existed some Buddhist monks who burned themselves to death in self-sacrificing protest against war. Monks are totally forbidden to kill even in self-defense. War is not ethical; avoid killing or causing harm to any living thing. “In times of war give rise in yourself to the mind of compassion, helping living beings abandon the will to fight.”