Buddha’s Path to Peace

Alec Robertson

Continued from 30.08.2008

These words of goodwill and peace are the recurrent themes “throughout the Buddhist texts and they run like golden threads throughout the vast and comprehensive body of Buddhist literature.

The Dhammapada, one of the gems of Buddhist literature, succinctly states “Hatred does not cease by hatred. Hatred ceases by love alone. This is the eternal law.” A characteristic quality of the Buddha’s teaching which promotes concord, amity, and harmony is that ennobling and heart-emancipating virtue of goodwill and living kindness.

It is that rare and precious quality of the heart and mind which knows and understands and is ready to help. Love more than any other quality promotes peace, maturity and understanding among people and this virtue is a rare commodity these days when there is so much of animosity, resentment, hatred and violence among the people of various communities and creeds.

We adopt an antagonistic and competitive attitude towards others, mainly because of ignorance. This is true on the personal as it is on the international level. Despite all our avowals of mutual benevolence and goodwill, we humans in our dealings with each other behave very much as the other animals do. We growl and bite, or cringe and fawn as the occasion demands. At the risk of appearing cynical one may say that this will always be true of humanity not only in the mass but in the highest circles of society.

The first recorded incident of religious teacher of not only preaching against war, but actually intervening and preventing war is attributed to the Buddha. In fact it is the first practical lesson in ahimsa in the field of politics. He is indeed the Lord of peace (Santi-nayaka). One day on the banks of the river Rohini there were thousands of women weeping, some for their husbands and some for their fathers, brothers and others for their near and dear ones. In such a pathetic situation the Buddha intervened and saved them all. And he saved Rohini from being a river of blood.

This was the incident in connection with the kings of two realms who were making warlike preparations to destroy each other because they could not agree on dividing the waters for their use. The conversation that ensued between the Buddha and the rival parties was thus. The Master asked “How much, O’ Kings is water worth?

“Water, O Lord, is worth very little.”
“How much is this earth worth?”
“The earth, O Lord is of great worth.”
“How worth are kings?”
“Kings also are of great worth. O Lord.”
“How much are your queens worth?”
“They also are greatly dear, O Lord.”

“How much worth, O kings, is your bloodbond,” asked the Buddha at last.

“That, O Lord, is a thing even as great as Mount Meru to us” replied they all with one accord. And thus the Buddha said unto them:

“Why O ye men, destroy all these kings worth the world, these loved queens and the bloodbond which are more than all for the sake of a little water that flows into the sea and is worthless.”

The light of wisdom dawned on them when these words were heard and unwillingly their weapons fell to the ground and they remained silent and non-plussed as they hardly realised the utter stupidity at their actions. Then the Buddha addressed them thus “Good kings, why do you act in this manner? Had I not come to you today you would have set flowing a river of blood.” These words acted like a balm upon their tormented minds, and the Buddha then expressed these sublime stanzas:

“Happily live we, free from all hatred among hating ones:

Among men burning with hatred happily live we,
With hearts of love.”
(Dhammapada verse 197)

“Full happy we live, free from all ailment.
Even among those ailing sore,
Among men sore stricken with disease,
Full of ease do we dwell.”
(Dhammapada verse 198)

“Full happy live we, among the hankering,
From all hankering free.
Among men whoever hanker, free of all...
Hankering do we dwell.”
(Dhammapada verse 199)

The Buddha is verily the Lord of peace, and as Fielding Hall writing of Buddhist Burma, says in his beautiful book “The Soul of a People.”

“There can never be a war of Buddhism. No ravished country has ever borne witness to the prowess of the followers of the Buddha; no murdered men have poured out their blood on their hearth stones, killed in His name, no ruined women have cursed. His name to high heaven. He and His faith are clean of the stain of blood. He was the preacher of the great peace of love of charity, of compassion and so clear is His teaching that it can never be misunderstood.”

We live in an age of conflict and war, of hatred and violence, all over the world. Never before has the need been greater for all of us to remember that immortal message which the Buddha the Greatest and Noblest of the sons of India, gave to us, and to you, and to all the world.

A living message

The message of two thousand five hundred years is a living message today, enshrined in our hearts, and we, draw inspiration from it to face the troubles and difficulties that threaten to overwhelm us.” These were luminous words of wisdom emanating from Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, one of the greatest thinkers and statesmen.

The Buddhist doctrine of loving kindness, non-violence are relevant and significant in the context of the outburst of violence and dastardly and brutal acts perpetrated on innocent people, and highly meaningful and relevant in the global context when violence, brutal massacre of innocent lives, are sacrificed on the altar of conflicting ideological doctrines.

In the world of today, we find the peculiar spectacle that while the majority of mankind, possibly all of them, desire, peace, for whatever reasons, it may be nevertheless, the force of evil and of violence are surrounding, bringing in their train hatred and the desire to destroy and crush others, which again spread hatred.

Vicious circle

Surely, this is a vicious circle. How are we to get out of it. We have failed to get out of this situation for many years and many generations.

There must be some way or other than the normal politicians’ way to deal with such a problem. I feel that unless we tackle this problem in some other way, there can be no solution to it and no assurance of peace.

We all talk glibly of peace, goodwill and co-operation, but yet, at the same time, we often act in a different way, belying our own profession. We live two different lives - one concerning practical affairs and the other which we reserve for our scheduled secluded moments.

A stage has now come, when it has become of vital importance that some element which is beyond the ken of the practical politician should be found for the solution of the world’s problems.

The forces of evil and the forces of violence have become so tremendous that unless they are held in check, they might lead to disaster for the world.

Dark clouds

The dark clouds hover over the world and have created an atmosphere of war which threatens to go out of hand. It can be controlled if man understood the message taught by Gautama Buddha, thousands of years ago.

No new path can be found to save mankind through fresh conflicts and wars but by pursuing the old path shown to the world by the greatest path-finder it had known - Gautama Buddha.

In these grave times, we see a ray of hope in the path shown by Gautama Buddha, the greatest religious teacher of the world.

Goodwill -loving kindness

One of the cardinal doctrines of the Buddha which goes a long way in promoting peace, amity, concord in the world is goodwill and loving kindness and non-violence. Goodwill or metta is one of the most salient and distinguishing features of Buddhism. It is really the hallmark of a Buddhist - a true adherent of the sublime teachings of the Master. A true adherent of the Enlightened One practices metta or goodwill not merely to all human beings, but even to the meanest creature that crawls at his very feet.

In the Anguttara Nikaya the Buddha says “Whosoever of my disciples cultivates kindness only for a moment even, that disciple meditates not in vain; he follows the doctrine and discipline of the Master, and by that very act he makes himself worthy of the food offered by the people.”

How much more then, is it among, people who constantly cultivate the thoughts of loving-kindness and goodwill throughout practically the whole of their lives, it must be. The whole of the Buddha Dhamma is permeated with the spirit of metta.

One reason why Buddhism attaches such great importance to the virtue of metta is that metta is the antidote for dosa or hatred, exemplified as we know by such other words as patigha, vyapada, kroda, vairaya and so on. For all these are the stumbling blocks to Buddhist culture. Benevolence therefore is the antidote that destroys these evil tendencies. It is through the cultivation of benevolence that we can attain to a mental condition which is free from hatred.

Feelings of hate and ill-will are neutralised by thoughts of love and good-will, for opposite factors neutralise each other when they are brought together face to face. As said by the Blessed One - “hatred does not cease by hatred at any time. Hatred ceases by love alone. This is an ancient law.” “He abused me, he defeated me, he robbed me - in those who harbour such thoughts hatred will never cease...”

“The charm of the Sakyamuni, says Anatole France, works freely on an unprejudiced heart, Buddhism is wholly compact of wisdom, love and pity.” The truth of these words can best be appreciated, by those who have studied the teachings of the Buddha closely. The fact that such a teaching and such a personality are not known more in the way, that ought to be known, may be one of the reasons for the absence of an atmosphere of amity and peace in the world today.

Greed-Hate-Delusion

The Buddha says that if it were not possible to eradicate greed, hate and delusion, he would not ask disciples to endeavour to abandon the roots of ill.

It is because greed, hate and delusion are capable of being overcome that peace and concord amongst men are possible. And as the Buddha’s way to overcome these roots is a practical way, men have for twenty five centuries followed it and by their lives shown that hatred and greed and delusion can be brought to an end. Those who bring these roots of evil to an end are Arahats and in them wisdom, amity and compassion of the Buddha way find manifestation.

The Buddha has said that in his unenlightened days fear arose in him on account of those who for punishing others had laid hold of sticks. (Attadanda bhayam). That stir of the mind caused by his coming to know of the way of violence adopted by his own people was one of the most important reasons for his going forth to seek release from suffering, in giving up his right to the throne of the Sakyan country.

He was moved by the desire to follow the path of complete non-violence. When he saw people setting on each other, he came to the decision that there was nothing else to be done but the treading of the santimagga, the path to peace, nibbana where all strife ends. He aborred the folly of trying to settle the differences among men through violence, because violence always involves hate and hate makes unhappy those hated, and those hating. In the Dhamma not only violence but anger too is denounced. That is because anger is what keeps the roads to violence open.

He who becomes angry is inclined to violence and may at any time do all sorts of harm. Since anger is not possible in the Dhamma, righteous indignation is also not possible. Righteous indignation is only a cover for hate. There is no hate that can be justified. The righting of wrongs should never be done under the influence of resentment, anger or ill-will.

“There was never an occasion when the Buddha flamed forth in anger, never an incident when an unkind word escaped his lips”, says Radhakrishnan. Anger, hatred, violence is a shameful state for a Buddhist to be in. The Buddhist knows that anger, harsh words, slander, malicious talk are all starting points to violence and therefore it is not surprising to read in Paul Carus ‘that the Sinhalese are famed as the gentliest race on earth and their religion is Buddhism. And it is this Buddhism that has been the noblest of all unifying influence in Asia,” according to the late Rev. C.F. Andrews.

Love of the self

What is most striking in the Buddha’s method of escape from violence is its reasonableness. That escapes from the jaws of violence is not directed to the removal of the symptoms of violence, but the very source of it. The Buddha found that all violence, hate, harm, and injury proceeded from within, in the love of the self.

As a lotus that grows up in autumn is plucked by hand, destroy the love of self, develop the path of peace, nirvana, only taught by the Sublime One.

Self-love is at the root of all quarrels, contentions and strife, and the Buddha’s method of self mastery through right understanding is the most effective means for the realisation of the highest well-being, peace and happiness of humanity. This method is acceptable to all who impartially look into the question of establishing peace on earth.

Except in the Buddha’s teaching nowhere else do we see a really practical way for the renunciation of violence. The teaching of the path to liberation in the dhamma begins with the turning away from harm. Others may be harmful, but we shall be harmless, says the Buddha.

I declare says the Buddha, that the Brahmin is the one who is not hostile among those who are hostile, who has become perfect among those who have seized sticks to punish others, and who, among those who are with desire and grasping is free from desire and grasping.

Purification

The whole spirit of the Buddha’s teachings is one of purification, patience and tolerance and in the calm and placid atmosphere of this teaching there is every chance of the destruction of violence within man.

It is when the violence within man is destroyed that peace on earth can be securely established and so for that purpose of inner pacification the Buddha teaches us the Noble Path which is the most powerful instrument within humanity’s reach for establishing concord.

The Noble Path is followed by one whose activities of body, mind, and speech are directed to freedom from the evils of greed, hate and delusion. The Buddha says: “The grasping man, with mind overcome, over whelmed, by greed takes life, steals, commits adultery, and tells lies he prompts others too to do likewise.

The malevolent man with mind overcome, overwhelmed by hate takes life, steals, commits adultery and tells lies, he prompts others too to do likewise. The muddled man, with mind overcome, overwhelmed by delusion commits adultery and tells lies, and prompt others too to do likewise. But the man who goes along the Noble Path abandons the taking of life, he becomes one who refrains from taking life.

He remains according to the Buddha, modest, kindly, sympathetic and well-disposed towards all loving beings - and by refraining from taking life, from stealing, from committing adultery, from telling lies and from drinks he bestows fearlessness, peace and kindness on countless beings.

Again such a pursue of the Noble Path, lives having contemplated with thoughts of amity, with thoughts of compassion, with thoughts of gladness, and with thoughts of equanimity, one directs; likewise the second, likewise the third, likewise the fourth thus above, below, and thus he lives having contemplated the entire world, everywhere whole-heartedly with thought of amity, compassion, gladness and equanimity ample, grown great, peaceful and kindly.

This is an article that appeared in Vesak Sithivili -1991