Buddhism

Buddhism is widely recognised as a religion that professes no harm, ahimsa and non-violence. The doctrine of non-violence can be associated with many religious traditions however. So, Adam and Codling (2008: 178) argue that is not ahimsa, but rather emptiness that is the essence of Buddhism. Buddhism teaches that nothing possesses an underlying essence or independent existence (Adam & Codling 2008: 178). This includes the notion of evil.

According to Loy (n.d.), one of the main causes of evil in this world has been human attempts to eradicate evil, or what has been viewed as evil. From a Buddhist perspective, much of the world’s suffering has been a result of our way of thinking about good and evil (Loy n.d.). However, in Buddhism, evil has no essence or substance of its own. It is a product of impermanent causes and conditions (Loy n.d.). This religion emphasizes three roots of evil, known as greed, ill will and delusion (Loy n.d.). These can be recognised as the “three poisons.”

There is a basic Buddhist teaching that highlights that we suffer and cause others to suffer because of the three aforementioned roots of evil. According to Adam and Codling (2008: 181), “the presence of these impure motivations in one’s mind bars one from the awareness that sees reality as it is.” For example, Buddhism cannot justify the thousands of deaths that occurred from the 9/11 bombings. Rather, the Buddhist solution involves transforming greed into generosity, ill will into loving-kindness and delusions into wisdom. In other words, Buddhists are urged to distinguish the sinner from the sin. Again considering 9/11, bin Laden and the other al-Qaeda leaders are examples of how the roots of evil can overwhelm the mind.

Buddhism focuses on the karmic consequences of actions of ignorance and deadly hatred in a person’s next lives. From this point of view, terrorists will be stuck in an everlasting cycle of karma and never reach nirvana. According to Loy, “to study Buddhism is to study yourself; to study yourself is to forget yourself; to forget yourself is to be awakened and realize your intimacy with all things.” Buddhist enlightenment or ‘awakening’ requires mindfulness of our ways of thinking. It is concurrently believed that terrorists have the capacity to understand how evil their actions have been, and to try to atone for them. As we know that this is very unlikely to occur, Buddhists therefore mourn this occasion. Impure actions, such as those motivated by an intent to harm therefore have negative effects (Adam & Codling 2008: 181).

Of the three poisons, it is delusion that is generally considered the fundamental human problem. It indicates the presence of mistaken views that function to obscure one’s awareness of the way events actually occur (Adam & Codling 2008: 182). The path leading to awakening involves training oneself to be nonviolent in thought, word and deed. Nonviolence is thus viewed as a natural, spontaneous expression of the highest spiritual realization. The intent to harm is an expression of hated, which is necessarily based on delusion. For example, acts of terrorism are based on delusion because they involve an intention to harm. What counts in the end is the inner spiritual condition of the person, understood in terms of the absence or presence of the three poisons (Adam & Codling 2008: 187).

References

Adam, M. and W. Codling. (2008). Buddhist Perspectives on Terrorism. In B. Rennie and P. Tite, Eds., Religion, Terror and Violence: Religious Studies Perspectives. New York: Routledge.

Loy D.R. nd. The Nonduality of Good and Evil: Buddhist Reflections on the New Holy War. http://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-MISC/101797.htm