Perspective of Buddhism in Upholding the World Peace
Heng Monychenda
Introduction
This planet that we call the earth is an isolated one in the universe but is inhabited by living beings called humans or manussa in Pali. The human being is driven by pleasure (kàmatanhà), creation (bhavatanhà)[1], and non-creation (vibhavatanhà)[2]; this is because human beings seek to control the planet through conflicts and wars. In turn, these wars result in the emergence of suffering or dukkha.
The Pali term for society, sanggama, has two meanings: "living together" or “war.” It means that we are in a state of war or conflict in our daily interactions. The dual definitions stemming from this term indicates that we have been living (since the beginning of humanity) in a world where wars and conflicts are the foundation of social structures. Thus, the culture of living together is fragile because human interaction is driven by the three tanhàs – desires or cravings.
It seems obvious that if we can manage and master the three Tanhàs[3] as the roots of suffering (dukkha) we will overcome the state of being in conflict and war. This is point is easier said than done as one can recites the teaching of the Buddha. Hence, the state of a non-problem or a problem free environment can only be attained through individual's state of mind and individual practice. Mastering the tanhà practically means building peace inside us, in our communities, in our country, and in the world. World peace may be a dream or just an ideal or utopian plan, but it is a possibility we can make happen. It is true that peace for oneself (micro level) can be reached and peace for the world (macro level) may not be realized but we truly believe that attaining peace at micro levels can lead to the establishment of world peace.
The question before us is how Buddhism may be used as an approach towards the ideal of peace; it would equip us with the tools to master the three tanhàs and to transform them into positive influences. If peace will not be attained, can a world with less violence, less hunger, more sympathy, and impartiality be built in our lifetime?
Understanding Peace
In Buddhism, santi (peace) is a vital duty that the Buddha laid out for 60 monks in exactly 5 months after he got nirvana - enlightenment, about 3000 years ago. This mission statement has been the instrumental to the promulgation of Buddhism worldwide. The Buddha is believed to have said:
Oh Bhikkhus (monks) now go to various places to proclaim the dharma for the benefits and for the happiness to many inhabitants; to proclaim dharma to favor the world, for the wealth, for the benefits and for the happiness of deities and humanity. You should go alone for each road. Oh Bhikkhus, the dharma shall be beautifully preached at the start, in the middle, and at the end of the discourse; you shall advocate the absolute bhramacariyadharma both the meaning and letter. There are some who are less impure and they will be deprived of santi (peace) if they do not hear the dharma; and there are some who will get enlightenment.[4]
In this statement, peace is a result of a chain of actions. After hearing the dharma (tools to get peace) one puts into effect the benefits, happiness and wealth for one’s society (deities and humanity), and applies the dharma into their daily life to attain peace. There are some who do not value peace at all; some are suspicious of peace, and some value peace and work for the promotion of peace. If this is the case, how can we convert those who do not value peace to work for peace and persuade ones who are suspicious of peace to devote themselves to peace?
Approaching Peace
Peace is a result or an end that humans desire. In Buddhism, it is compared to another side of the river where we have to cross. A raft is used to cross the river. If we were to extend the raft analogy, dharma (the natural law) is a raft, a tool for humans to attain peace. Dharma is simply a tool that the Buddha ordered monks to expose and advocate to the people to gain a peaceful life and peaceful society. The main teachings of the Buddha may be categorized as follows:
1. To proclaim the dharma to favor the world, for the wealth, for the benefits and for the happiness of deities and humanity
2. Advocate both the meaning and the letter of the absolute bhramachariya behavior
3. Those who are less ‘impure’ will be deprived of santi (peace) because they do not hear the dharma
The relationship between dharma and peace corresponds to the wealth, benefit, and happiness of the world population. The Wealth and benefit are the indicators of economic development while happiness is the indicator of peace in mind knowing that the consumption of wealth and benefit would not disfavor the world resources which in turn will secure the sustainability of the economic development. The relationship between the world, the society, and the individual is also exposed in the Three Refuges that all Buddhists proclaim. The Three Refuges are the Buddha, the dharma, and the sangha: The Buddha represents each individual in the world; the dharma represents nature (the world); and the sangha represents the society.
A country that experiences peace needs political stability, a growing GDP, a high income per capita, and happiness for generations to come. This would also be true if we want to attain a truly peaceful world. We should consider the Gross World Product and Happiness (GWPH) in lieu of the current measures of GNP and GNH.
What is Dharma
Dharma is simply the tool that the Buddha used to instruct the monks to teach the people. It is the tool he used to instruct the monks within three rainy months so that they inculcate its values throughout ancient India.
Tool 1: The Medium Path
The core lecture that the Buddha gave to the 60 monks during his first rainy-season retreat was dhammacakkappavattanasutta.[5] In this lecture, the Buddha described two extreme ways (Anta) of life that the world in favor of: 1) a life devoted to sensual pleasure or materialism; and 2) a life devoted to religion so much so that it leads to self-annihilation. The two ways are leading to conflict, and suffering in life and society. Next, he propounded the third way of life, the Middle Path (Majjhimàpatipadà).[6] He found the way to be effective in cementing the two extreme worlds together, in satisfying everyone because it integrated good things from the two extremes. In so doing, he created a path where proponents of both extremes are able to find a common understanding and walk together on the same path towards happiness. All Buddhists believe that walking on the Middle Path will lead to happiness and peace.
Tool 2: The Eightfold Principle
The Middle Path consists of eight dynamic features:
1. Proper view [7] (Sammaditthi)
2. Proper intention (sammà sankappa)[8]
3. Proper speech (sammàvàcà)
4. Proper discipline (sammàkammanta)
5. Proper livelihood (sammà àjiva)
6. Proper effort (sammàviriya)
7. Proper mindfulness (sammàsati)
8. Proper concentration (sammàsamàdhi)
This is the way through which each individual can organize their daily life regardless of their private beliefs, traditions, or religions. Actually, all of us already exercise one or many of these principles in our everyday lives. The only concern is that one can only acquire internal peace if one practices the eightfold path properly. In its social dimension, the Eightfold Path also covers the aspect of togetherness (sammà)[9] to attain common peace in life. Therefore, people must joint together to create common view, common thought, common speech, common action, common living, common effort, common mindfulness, and common concentration.
Since the 19th century, our world has been divided into two extreme ways of life: the left represented by communism practiced in the Soviet Union and China and the right represented by the United States and Western Europe. These two extreme worldviews and the rise of the nuclear age have endangered world peace. This means that proponents of these two worldviews do not cooperate for the benefit of the world. The Cambodian tragedy is one such outcome of the clash between these two extremes. Since Cambodia became independent in 1953, the United States, the Soviet Union and China have influenced the Cambodian situation and led it:
1- the civil war between 1970-1975
2- the mass murder which resulted in 2 million deaths until 1978 and
3- foreign occupation of the country from 1979-1998
Only when all these influential actors began working together that peace returned to Cambodia in 1993 through a UN intervention. This is a contemporary example as to how extremism does not work. Peace in Cambodia is contributed to regional and world peace. Cambodian peace was made possible when different actors agreed to work together.
Similarly, one can practice the eightfold path cooperatively thereby avoiding extreme positions. Each group must try to understand (Sammaditthi) that everyone craves the sensual pleasure of sight, sound, smell, flavor, and touch; everyone craves to create, construct, invent, or establish something new; and everyone craves for power (vibhavatanhà)[10] to protect these sensual pleasures and creations and destroy those that they do not love or want. If all three factions had the same view, they would come together to brainstorm. This was elucidated in the stone inscription of Asoka who initially ruled India but later abdicated his throne in favor of the Buddhist Middle Path. The inscription reads:
“King Piyadasi, honors both ascetics and the householders of all religions, and he honors them with gifts and honors of various kinds. But the Beloved-of-the Gods, King Piyadasi, does not value gifts and honors as much as he values this - that there should be growth in the essentials of all religions. Growth in essentials can be done in different ways, but all of them have as their root, restraint in speech, that is, not praising one's own religion, or condemning the religion of others without good cause. And if there is cause for criticism, it should be done in a mild way. But it is better to honor other religions for this reason. By so doing, one's own religion benefits, and so do other religions, while doing otherwise harms one's own religion and the religions of others. Whoever praises his own religion, due to excessive devotion, and condemns others with the thought "Let me glorify my own religion," only harms his own religion. Therefore contact (between religions) is good. One should listen to and respect the doctrines professed by others. Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi desires that all should be well-learned in the good doctrines of other religions. Those who are content with their own religion should be told this: the Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, does not value gifts and honors as much as he values that there should be growth in the essentials of all religions. And to this end many are working”[11]
Sammà saηkappa means collaborative thinking; it seeks to prevent the world from becoming the slave of the craving forces especially craving forces of the third kind. The right mode of thinking emphasizes how we can prepare ourselves and society to act peacefully towards each other.
Sammàvàcà means collaborative speech; it involves group thinking or group planning. A part of negotiation stresses finding a common ground of one’s view and plan, to make concessions of wealth, benefit, and happiness to one another, and to participate in joint-thought and joint-planning.
Sammàkammanta means having the discipline to act collectively on that which has been planned and agreed. However, the implementation of the joint-plan must not cause harm to life and property; this then is an important factor of peace.
Sammààjiva is about living in a correct manner, it revolves around how people collectively earn and spend their wealth and benefits so as to improve their quality of life. Weapons trafficking, human trafficking, drug trafficking and so on are serious causes of wars, insecurity, and disaster. These means of living must be controlled to reduce the risk of war particularly the new threats of nuclear and biochemical weapons, which are threatening world peace. Sammààjiva can also mean building a fair world economy with equal economic welfare for all. Again the Gross World Product and Happiness (GWPH) should be an optional.
Sammàvàyàma is the joint endeavor that all of humanity must work together to prevent and to overcome the destructive dissimilarity of the above five principles, and to develop and maintain the above similarities.
Sammàsati is having the right frame of mindfulness to take up any change (aniccà) that might happen during the course of action and try to manage the change so that the consequence of the change (dukkha) would not affect the six constituents much. Very often we are preoccupied with the three tanhà so much so that it leads to heedlessness in goal, objectives, and activities towards peace. Sammàsati is the part of the humanitarian desire for life and peace. This would lead to the conscious application of the eightfold path.
The practice of right concentration or sammàsamàdhi towards common peace is the main obligation of the peace maker. Everyone should enjoy, be happy, and be steady in peace. This should be inculcated in humanity from childhood so that the desire for peace becomes a way of life for everyone.
In sum, the central premise of the eightfold path towards world peace is based on the ability of making sound judgments following the soundest course of action towards peace. It is the soundest path towards peace because it is based on understanding, thinking, knowledge, and experience of societies (pañña bhàvanà),[12] as well as the development of legal system, the law enforcement, and the rule of law in such a way as to assure the respect for human rights (silabhàvanà)[13] and the cultivation of culture of common peace (samàdhi bhàvanà)[14] in traditions, religions, societies, countries, and in the world. Without culture of peace how can one able to judge rightly that the course of action is towards peace? When the rule of law fails to put into effect the culture of peace it will abruptly disappear from the world.
The world’s current crisis is due to our lack of a common view/vision towards our own countries and the world among political leaders, religious leaders, and the ordinary people. While the United Nations ostensibly seeks to promote one cogent world vision, its members either belong to far left or the extreme right. As the United Nations is dominated by these powerful opposing extremist forces rather than a majoritarian worldview, the United Nations’ decision making abilities are affected. As a result, the United Nations’ rulings are not evenly distributed. Due to this, all its members are unable to govern their emotions and ambitions. In turn, the UN member countries have the potential to destroy one another. Thus the fragility of world peace is further made brittle from the disunity among the world’s nations.
Tool 3: Quaternary Sublime Behavior
The third important tool promulgated by the Buddha is the absolute Bhramacariyadharma or the absolute sublime behavior. The sublime behavior has four elements: mettà (the desire to be good and compassionate to one’s fellowmen); karunà (the compassionate desire of removing bane and sorrow from one’s fellowmen); mudità (goodwill and appreciation); and upekkhà (looking upon others with equanimity and impartiality). The monks were instructed to promote this fourfold behavior as the foundation of human interaction for building peace. As the basis of human behavior, the fourfold behavioral principle is also the foundation of any society desirous of harmony, development, progress, and justice.
Buddhism does not value a society only by its GDP and per capita income but also recommends the achievement of a harmonious society through the active love of humanity. Once love (mettà) is established, war (the meaning of sangama - society, in Pali) would disappear and peace would arise. Absolute love is rare trait in the world today. Most kinds of love (as expressed by many people) are conditional on a return of love, respect, admiration, obedience, or religious conversion. We are becoming fishermen whose love for fish is expressed by our use of the bait and hook. All religions in the world possess the word love in their teachings but it seems that they fail to imbue this wonderful practice into their followers. We should urgently promote the idea of unconditional love before it is too late for peaceful harmonization among men. Conversely, there are people who use love inappropriately by manipulating the love they receive. This kind of love is antithetical to true peace. Thus the term “love” has both positive and negative connotations. In light of this, mindfulness in the right kind of love is important.
When true compassion is practiced, a society will be marked by economic sufficiency, social order, emotional serenity, and a lasting ability to maintain peace.[15] Similar to the problem of love, the consequences of compassion are bound by conditions, and can become a malicious tool when people do not possess goodwill for one another.
Mudità, goodwill and appreciation, is the opposite of envy, jealousy, covetousness, over-protectiveness, over-competitiveness, distrust, and skepticism of others’ goodness, glories, and successes. The absence of mudità would result in slow development, social gap, income disparity, and class revolution.
Upekhà mitigates the deviation of these three behaviors upekhà by supervising and checking them for the sake of justice and equality so as to prevent any society from falling apart. Upekhà requires looking closely upon the three behaviors to ensure the development and maintenance of peace.
Therefore, the Quaternary Sublime Behavior is the foundation for society; the Eightfold Principle is the measure on how peace is sustained, and the Middle Path the integrating medium through which all schools of thoughts are able to work towards peace.
Peace Structure
The Buddha instructed his followers to proclaim the Dharma to favor the world for the wealth, benefit and happiness of all deities and humanity. How can we favor the world when we are so acquisitive? Given that the world is presently threatened by nuclear weapons, pollution, global warming, and other harmful objects, addressing the problem of human acquisitiveness is rendered all the more important.
The world is in danger because humanity endangers it. We do everything in our power to be wealthy and this is often at the cost of the world resources. We exploit science and technology for our private gains because we believe it gives us happiness. It seems that humanity is at the point of no return because we have finally realized that our very heedlessness could lead to the destruction of the world. In my opinion, the Buddha was aware of the disparity between the world and humanity. Thus, he takes it upon himself as the teacher of humanity and deities,[16] to teach men to be happy in the world of sensual pleasure (because they do need to live with sensual pleasure) while rectifying or repairing their happiness according to the Dharma (love, compassion, appreciation, and equality). This concept obliges every Buddhist to vow to honor the Dharma, the Buddha, and the Sangha as his refuges and guidance. Indeed, the Buddha himself respects nothing in the world but the Dharma or the natural state of the world.
Dharma represents the nature, the Buddha represents an individual, and the Sangha represents the society. If the three are divided, they will no longer exist. They are collectively necessary to the maintenance of harmony and peace. There can only be world peace when an individual is happy with wealth and when society knows how to properly limit their members’ needs and wants, treat nature with respect, consciously and efficiently consume the fruits of nature, and properly maintain and sustain the structure of peace.
Make Peace Come True
As there were some people who attained nirvana during the Buddha’s time, we have reason to believe that others will do so in the future. Likewise, there are some who presently possess nirvana. Similarly, there are many people who are of a peaceful turn of mind and who are willing to make peace. When I speak of peace, I refer to the kind of peace that individuals can achieve in their families and communities. This form of peace is more easily realized than peace at the national and international levels. This is in part due to the complex nature of the human polity, the limitations of the tools for peace, and the non-renewal nature of natural resources. However, with the power of a “right” and “unified” vision, we are able to temporarily achieve a more peaceful world.
The term “unity” is not an exclusively Buddhist one as other religions also use the word. Hence, I believe we have to render the word “unity” synonymous to peace in all languages. While some scholars use “democracy” interchangeably with “unity”, “democracy” is not the same as “unity”. Democracy is limited by the political boundaries of each country. It does not extend to encompass the world because that which is democratic in one country is not necessarily democratic in another. Thus, “democracy” and “unity” should not be used interchangeably in any discourse on world peace.
Dharma is the tool for peace because its practitioners collectively make it so. There is neither a majority nor minority force when one strives towards peace. This is because the desire for peace transcends political ideology, wealth, demography, geographical location, age, gender and race. I dub such a notion of peace as a “Dharmocracy”. I propose the formation of a global body, the United Humanities, composed of all the world’s countries. The United Humanities will work alongside the United Nations to conceptualize and implement modes of promoting and establishing peace through Dharmocracy.
An organization such as the United Humanities does not seek to abolish mankind’s loyalty to his nation-state; rather, it emphasizes humanity. Citizens of each country should realize that their country’s actions do actively impact the world as a whole. Thus, the whole world must strive towards peace if humanity is to survive. Only by collectively paying attention to world peace may we continue to enjoy the world as our home.
[1] Bhava also means “existence”. See Dictionary of Buddhism, Mahachulalongkorn University, Prayut Payutto, 1989.
[2] Vibhava also means power or wealth. See T.W Rhys Davids and William Stede, Pali-English Dictionary, Munshiram Monoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd, reprinted 1989.
[4] “Caratha bhikkhave carikaŋ bahujanahitaya bahujanasukhàya lokanukampàya atthàya hitàya sukhàya devamanussànam m ekena dve aggamitha desatha bhikkhave dhammaŋ àdikalyànam majjhekalyànam pariyosànakalyànam satthaŋ sabjañjanam kevala paripunnam parisuddham bhramacariyam pakàsetha santisattha apparajakkhajàtika assavanata dhammassa parihayanti bhavissanti aññataro,” Pali-Khmer Tipitaka, Vol. 6, pp. 66-67
[7] Sammà is usually translated as right. It is also means thoroughly, properly, rightly, done in the
right way, performed as it ought to be best, and perfectly. Pali-English Dictionary.
[8] Sankappa is an amalgamation of two Pali phrases, san meaning “together” and kappeti meaning thought, purpose, plan or intention. Thus sankappa means collective thought. Ibid. Pali-English Dictionary
[9] The word sammà also rooted from the prefix saŋ which mean together Buddhaghosàcàrya and Dhammapala explain saŋ by sammà (SnA 151; KhA 209), ibid. Pali-English Dictionary
[11] The Edict of King Asoka, Wheel Publication, No. 386/387, Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1993; RT 12.
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