Is buddhism the only truly peaceful religion?

One basic rule.. 'do not cause suffering'. Most other major religions claim to be about peace and tolerence.. yet unfortuantly doctrine seems to give too much room for misinterpritation allowing people to 'righteously' hurt others.

'Love thy neigbour'/'An I for an eye'.
'Judge not lest ye be judged'/'Judge a tree by it's fruit'.

There are a hundred examples of contradictory directions in the OT.. used once upon a time in the inquistions.. 'Thalt shall not suffer a witch to burn' and the Koran 'allows' people to blow people up in cafes.

Obeying "Don't cause suffering." can only lead to peace and compassion- there is no way this can be misinterprited. If you are having an argument with someone and see it's stresses them out.. it causes suffering and so a different aproach would be needed to resolve the conflict. There is no justifying war in the buddhism philosophy.. it just simply is not condoned. Forcing religion on others is not condoned either.. it would be oppression and therefore cause suffering.. no trying to convert and destroy cultures in the name of a 'better' god.

I have been looking into other [established] religions and there doesn't seem to be any that do not permit violence and persecution in some instances.. and since doctrine is always interpritive that can be anytime someone feels like it.

Are there any other religions other than buddhism that do not allow any hatred or 'punnishment'?

I also realise witches believe "What you put out comes back x3" but I am unsure how this differs from the rule of 'khama'. Is this a spells rule or does this apply to general actions as well?

Karma is very simply cause and effect.

For every one of your actions (whether positive or negative), there will be a consequence. That's all, really; it's not a form of reward or punishment.

Realistically, most religions preach peace and love; the difficulty actually comes from the practitioner's interpretation thereof. That's why we see extremists committing acts of violence from time to time.

Throughout history there will undoubtedly be examples of violence committed by Buddhists; I don't really think any religion is 100% free of violence.

Buddhanet is an incredible website with a literal mountain of information you can browse through.

And there are some great articles here, too

A nice little piece on Karma

Good deeds have happy consequences; bad acts have unhappy consequences, either in this life or future lives.

In a nutshell

HTH.

Christianity is a peaceful "religion."

If you're thining Inquisitions, Crusades, etc., that was brought on by Catholicism. There is a difference.

Bible Christianity is peaceful. We don't believe in "execute the heretics."

Originally posted by Tinkleflower
Realistically, most religions preach peace and love; the difficulty actually comes from the practitioner's interpretation thereof. That's why we see extremists committing acts of violence from time to time.

Unfortuantly those acts of violence are in many cases following the doctrine to the letter.. on the up side most are able to see that some of the harsher princibles are redundent.

Throughout history there will undoubtedly be examples of violence committed by Buddhists; I don't really think any religion is 100% free of violence.

Everyone has a dark side I guess.. and there are no doubt buddhist that have given into it but at some point they must have stopped following the rules.. I'm still digging [googeling]. I found this quite interesting:
www.bbc.co.uk...

Non-violence is at the heart of Buddhist thinking and behaviour. The first of the five precepts that all Buddhists should follow is "Avoid killing, or harming any living thing."

Buddhism is essentially a peaceful tradition. Nothing in Buddhist scripture gives any support to the use of violence as a way to resolve conflict.

I found this admirable as well:

The pure Buddhist attitude is shown in this story:

"A Vietnam veteran was overheard rebuking the Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, about his unswerving dedication to non-violence.

'You're a fool' said the veteran 'what if someone had wiped out all the Buddhists in the world and you were the last one left. Would you not try to kill the person who was trying to kill you, and in doing so save Buddhism?!'

Thich Nhat Hanh answered patiently 'It would be better to let him kill me. If there is any truth to Buddhism and the Dharma it will not disappear from the face of the earth, but will reappear when seekers of truth are ready to rediscover it.

'In killing I would be betraying and abandoning the very teachings I would be seeking to preserve. So it would be better to let him kill me and remain true to the spirit of the Dharma.'"

Good deeds have happy consequences; bad acts have unhappy consequences, either in this life or future lives.

Thankyou for the links.. I am immerced in them.


[edit on 3-10-2005 by riley]

Originally posted by Amethyst
Christianity is a peaceful "religion."

If you're thining Inquisitions, Crusades, etc., that was brought on by Catholicism. There is a difference.

Bible Christianity is peaceful. We don't believe in "execute the heretics."

I think some Catholics may take offence to being called non christian. Condemning another denomination does not seem peaceful [judge not?] but I know what you mean in regards to the brutal history of the religion. In reality however they were only following what the bible says.. does being a 'true christian' mean only following the new testimant? Otherwise the rules of the old can be used when 'needed'.

Originally posted by riley
I think some Catholics may take offence to being called non christian.

Yep. We are used to anti-Catholic bigots and/or
the uniformed making that sad mistake.

In regards to other organized religions being intrinsically peaceful -
I'm thinking that the true Wiccan might be. (That's from my limited
understanding of the Wiccan religion.) Perhaps if there are some
Wiccans on this board they might like to elaborate. I'm pretty sure
that the Wiccan religion is one of peace and no harm to anyone or
anything else.

Originally posted by Amethyst
Bible Christianity is peaceful. We don't believe in "execute the heretics."

A mormon (Latter Day Saints) friend of mine survived a hanging by
'peaceful' fundamentalist Christians when he lived in Georgia. He
got strung up simply because he was Mormon.

How many Catholics are in the KKK? None. If they are, they keep
their mouths shut because the Klan hates them. The Fundamentalist
Christian Klan hates and it executes heritics (and those who aren't
white enough).

Jack Chick isn't peaceful. He incites hate and violence by pumping
those ignorant tracts fundamentalist around the planet.

There is also 'verbal execution'. The Fundies have a hate-network
where on Sunday mornings they pound away at anyone who doesn't
believe exactly like they do, judging them and pronouncing that they
are all going to hell. I lived in Alabama for nine years or so. Every
Thursday idiots from the Madison Baptist Church would knock on the
door preaching that their faith was the only true one and the rest
of us were going to hell. They were the only ones who understood the
bible they said. Then on Mondays we'd get the Church of Christ bunch
knocking on the door saying we were all going to hell if we didn't worship
and believe the bible exactly like they did.

There are the snake handler 'bible christians' that claim that unless you
are tested by snakes you are going to hell. Yep. N.W. Alabama has 'em.
I'm sure there are other places in the deep south, but we encountered
them in N.W. Alabama.

'Jews are mud people'. 'Blacks are mud people'. Eve coupled with apes
to get the jews. Black people are descended from Cain and their black
skin is the mark of cain so they are all going to hell. (yep, heard all this
from 'non-executing' and 'peaceful' bible christians)

Of course, all this preaching year after year that everyone is going to hell
except those few in your church causes those people to look down upon
others not of their faith and see them as less than human. Everyone else
is treated like dirt, not given proper grades or treatment in schools,
passed over for jobs in favor of the 'proper christian'.

Oh ... there are MANY ways that fundies 'execute heritics'. Some are
bloodless and others not so bloodless.

www.skeptictank.org...


[edit on 10/3/2005 by FlyersFan]

[edit on 10/3/2005 by FlyersFan]

Originally posted by Amethyst
Christianity is a peaceful "religion."

If you're thining Inquisitions, Crusades, etc., that was brought on by Catholicism. There is a difference.

Bible Christianity is peaceful. We don't believe in "execute the heretics."

Wow...this is very subtle but very hypcritical nonetheless. Christians do not point fingers with accusing tones....like you just may have unintentionally done. The point that I am making is that Catholics and the protestant sects are both Christian. And, just like the atrocities that Catholic Christians may have performed in the name of God, So too, many protestant sects have also performed numerous atrocities....

Why can't people get it? The philosophy of Christianity .... all Christians ... is the same. The philosophy of Christ is a beautiful philosophy that, for the most part is also similar to that of Buddha or Confucius. It's people! People , perhaps well meaning, perhaps self directed but still people in their ignorance perform the atrocities. The words of Christ are beautiful.

Christ said to "forgive them Father, for they know not what they do" yet Jews have been persecuted by Catholics and Protestants alike.

Christ said to love one another.....yet, even Christians squabble and point fingers and accuse one another of being false.....just like little children fighting over their turn at the Nintendo or Xbox.

Christ said to "turn the other cheek" , to forgive others their transgressions but, instead, we simply try to highlight the sins of others, perhaps in the hope of making our sins pale in comparison.

It is not our place to judge one another....that's God's job...."he who is without sin, cast the first stone"

Quit worrying about what your neighbor believes. Worry about your own soul, live the Christian life that you believe and just chill.

Love your neighbor

Originally posted by FlyersFan

Originally posted by riley
I think some Catholics may take offence to being called non christian.

Yep. We are used to anti-Catholic bigots and/or
the uniformed making that sad mistake.

All are guided by the same bible so I don't understand how they can't fall under the christian label..

In regards to other organized religions being intrinsically peaceful -
I'm thinking that the true Wiccan might be. (That's from my limited
understanding of the Wiccan religion.) Perhaps if there are some
Wiccans on this board they might like to elaborate. I'm pretty sure
that the Wiccan religion is one of peace and no harm to anyone or
anything else.

It's nice to see a christian giving praise to wiccans.. traditions were made to be broken! I think you're right.. wicca has an underlying ideal of being 'in harmony' with nature.. it's a shame that people constantly allign it with 'satan' when there is nothing evil about it. I think it started with anti-pagen propaganda during the crusades and the image has stuck ever since.. sadly political traditions haven't changed much.

Interesting to note how Wicca is closely related, in that there is a mutual respect for nature. In the thread Most Peaceful Religion? Buddhism gets the nod by most posters. Though after thorough review, Jainism looks like The Most Peaceful, a close cousin to Buddhism and also holds all of nature with the highest regard.

I don't think there is any accident in what we find on the other end of the scale. Those religions that claim a birth right to rape the earth are also used most often as vehicles for violence.



[edit on 10-4-2009 by The All Seeing I]

I myself have just started finding out about Buddhism.So far im impressed as an atheist i have a totally open mind to it like i do all religions but must say the limited experience ive had regarding Buddhism has been positive.
One memory i will take to my grave is getting up early in the morning to give merit to some monks in Thailand and than visiting a couple of temples with the sun rising.

Not what I was expecting from the title, but pleasantly surprised. This is a good topic.

All the things you list are actually the same, they are not really contradictory when understood correctly.

I'll start with eye for an eye. This is generally misunderstood in it's meaning, and that is a big part of the reason Jesus did what he did(IMO). The general idea is "you reap what you sow". Same as Karma and so forth. So, when it says eye for an eye, that is what it is talking about, what you do will come back to you in some form. You might not always get the exact same thing back, but it comes back. IE: You plant a seed, but it comes back as a plant. But the seed you plant will determine the plant you get back.

What happened in the OT was hypocrisy. In the OT is states - vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord. The people thought eye for an eye and such meant they were "doing the lords work" if they were to kill the man who killed. That because of the previous persons action, they were justified in their actions. But they forgot that it's not their place to take out such things, because again "vengeance is mine sayeth the lord". They are not justified, and it is seen as 2 sins, not just 1.

So they really misunderstood what it was saying. It was not saying that you should do those things, but that if you do those things you can expect bad things in return. Thus, enter Jesus. Who came to "fulfill" the law. Why? To show people by example how to follow the will of the father and by doing that he brings understanding of what is meant. He points out the hypocrisy in killing the man who killed and so forth.

And so thus we have judge not, yest you be judged. Which is again basically saying the same thing as above, it is just being expressed in a way that is more understandable.

Now, there is a difference between judging another person, and having good judgment for yourself. To have good judgment is to have wisdom. You should always make good judgments for yourself. But you must keep your judgments confined to only yourself. It is fine for me to make judgments for me, to make my own choices and so forth. It is not ok for me to make those same judgments for you. So when you judge them by their fruits, you are not bring judgment down on the person, you are not applying punishment to them etc. You are just seeing if the person is "legit" for your own personal judgments.

I can think you are wrong and such all day long and never once did I judge you personally. I'm not going to come to your house and punish you, I'm not going to try and make bad things happen to you. I just disagree, and in my judgment you are wrong etc.

And Buddha also says something similiar to this.

Buddha said -- Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

He is saying to make good personal judgments.

There is a "hidden" language under words that many do not always see. That hidden language is understanding and wisdom. That is the language the father speaks in. And whenever you can see the wisdom and understanding in the words of another, you can bet the father is near them. Of course, one must also have a bit of the same to recognize it.

So is Buddhism the only truly peaceful religion? No. But it doesn't seem to be near as manipulated in understanding as the bible and other religions. But in the "true" religion, they all speak of the same things, and those near the father know it.

Like when it says the holy spirit can speak in tongues, doesn't mean people will get up and speak in some other language. What it means is that it can speak to you in a way you understand. It speaks in the language of understanding and wisdom. Doesn't quote bible verses to you or any other literal stuff, gives understanding and wisdom. Once you have it you start to see that language in many things. No longer focused on 1+1=2 because it was told to you, but adding for yourself and seeing all true expressions.

The blind are unable to see such things, even though it's there the entire time. When you realize it, that is one of the craziest things about it. It's amazing and at the same time you're thinking "how did I miss that before". All that changed was understanding and wisdom to see it is all.