Most people recognized Buddhism as the religion of peace. Many scholars have written article about it and it is accepted among all people. However, there are different ideas between scholars about the Buddhist point of view that are the cause to create world peace. Associate Prof. Dr. Suchitra Onkom has written one essay about creating sustainable world peace which described the important point of view of Buddhists that is cause of world peace. Her essay was won the international award in Toronto , Canada
This brief paper, I will study her point of view about the sustainable world peace which is written in her essay criticize and compare to other scholars’ point of view about world peace. The scope of study is in Buddhist study around the world.
Summarize of the essay
In describing about how to create sustainable world peace, Dr. Suchitra Omkom have taken the important point from the teaching of one famous venerable which she called Luang Poh. Luang Poh’s teaching is based on Vipassana meditation practice to create inner peace. He said “Vipassana meditation is the study of life and how to eradicate suffering from one’s own life. It also solves the complex problems of life and leads to perception of the truth”[1]. However, the main important point of his teaching is to create inner peace that is the cause of world peace.
Dr. Suchitra Onkom has concluded Luang Poh’s teaching and rise her point that “through practice thus, that truly assist the world to sustainable peace. The turmoil, the conflict, the obstacles to our own inner peace is reflected in our outward behavior, are manifested in the outside world. Without inner peace there can be no world peace. The war to end all wars is the struggle within us. The enemy is within, not without. In struggling with and being victorious over our own enemy – ignorance, hatred and greed- that is within each of us, we can actually, realistically, effectively contribute to world peace”[2].
In addition, Dr. Suchitra Onkom has raised the Buddha’s teaching about the four foundation of mindfulness. She explained and said “having contemplated the four foundation of mindfulness, we will realize that a life that is void of mindfulness and merely follows the stream of accumulated habits is vastly different from a life guided by mindfulness. Each individual living mindfully is the only strategy to world peace. For when the individual, the smallest unit of society, the atom as it were is at dis-ease, is suffering, is fragmented and unfocused, then society, the world is inevitably un-wholly, disconnected, and fragmented, dysfunctional”.
She also adds that “we may often talk about mindfulness and wisdom, and we do utilize wisdom, but rarely do we use our mindfulness, even though it can bring immeasurable benefits to our lives. Once we begin practicing vipassana meditation, this small candle flame begins to grow brighter and brighter, until we are able to see the truth that has previously been obscured. Let us not neglect our work, the work that will ensure both peace and tremendous positive, internally and externally, the work of practicing mindfulness”.
One more important point she adds is “while practicing meditation, observe body and mind, frequently and regularly, we will be able to know the state of our mind. When we see another person walking towards us, we can tell immediately whether he or she is good or bad. But people don’t practice. They like to study other things, but throw out the essential work of Buddhist practice. They throw out Vipassana meditation. That’s why they aren’t able to solve problems, and that is why the world is so confuse and agitated. Because the individual is daily, constantly in a state of conflict, fragmentation, and chaos, the world cannot be in any other state”.
So the important point she try to explain in her essay is we can create the sustainable world peace by practicing Vipassana meditation to create inner peace. She said without inner peace, cannot create the world peace. Inner peace can create only through practicing meditation. Practicing meditation is to solve the problem inside, to fight with our real enemy inside which are ignorance, hatred and greed. If we can kill these real enemies from our own mind, there will be no enemy outside. The outside war will be stopped. So she said the war to end all other wars is the struggle within ourselves, to kill the inside enemies. Once, when the inside enemies were killed the outside enemies will be finished.
Another important point is to use mindfulness, to live with mindfulness. A life that is void of mindfulness is completely different from a life guide by mindfulness. She said “each individual living mindfully is the only strategy to world peace”[3]. People can not solve the problem because they throw out the practice of mindfulness. Without mindfulness, they create the problem inside; create the enemy inside themselves that lead to create a big problem outside. So the world problem can be solved is each individual understand how to solve their own problem, is from their inside enemy.
Furthermore, in her essay she explained about the benefits of vipassana meditation practice that is really significant for creating sustainable world peace. She explained the first benefit of vipassana meditation that “if we are able to practice vipassana meditation, we recite “standing”, and when we see someone walking towards us smiling, we can immediately sense their real state of mind. They are smiling, but they may be coming to claim a debt or to borrow some money”. So the first benefit of meditation, we can see the real state of mind. We can see the world as beautiful as no bad or no ugly people. The state of mind is beautiful, we can see people smile even they came to claim a debt. We can see the unwholesome state is not a person. This is the real state of phenomena which is beautiful when we can observe it. So through this we can solve the social problem.
The second benefit she explained is that “vipassna meditation can help us to solve problem. This is because vipassana meditation improves and clarifies the mind. The mind is at the six sense doors. We have three channels of activity: body, speech and mind. These are the wells of skillful and unskillful actions. The six sense bases are the yes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind. These are the places where hell and heaven arises, the arising places of mind and body, mental states, and defilements such as greed, hatred and delusion. Solve problem here in your own mind and the world will naturally find peace. When the eyes see someone who makes us angry, we should set up mindfulness at the eyes. Our eyes are then moral; they are controlled”. So the second benefit of meditation is we can solve the problem at the right place. The six sense doors are the right place for solving problem. All problems arise from here and also we can stop it here.
Criticism
Her idea of creating sustainable world peace is really concrete and actually can apply for the present life. But, however, the practice of vipassana meditation is not something that can be fulfilling for few days or few weeks. It has to take time to understand and observe before one can really do the correct practice and attain the benefits of that practice.
If we look in general, there are very little of people among all who have time learn about vipassana meditation and have time to spend in practice at temple or vipassana centre. Mostly, they are busy with their business. So, the problem is how we can apply this practice to all people. We can observe even in Buddhist country such asThailand
Furthermore, we can see a lot of conflicts and problem arise in Buddhist country such as in Thailand the problem of conflicts are just finished about these few months and it is even cannot claim that the problem will never arise again. Another Buddhist country like Myanmar
If we compare this idea to other Buddhist scholars, there are many other scholars see in different way. Some scholars see another point that are the reason or case to create world peace.
The most venerable Ashin Thittila, Aggamahapandita, explained in his article about a Buddhist view of world peace that the reason why there are a lot of conflicts and problem in this world because something is missing. It is the spirit of fellowship. He said that “in the world as a whole there is enough money and material and there is no lack of intellect. Yet something is missing. What is it? The answer is the spirit of fellowship. And it is this lack of active fellowship which is the major cause of war. Apart from military conflicts, there are of course many other kinds of conflict such as racial, political, economic, even religious conflicts, and the cause of nearly all of them is the lack of the spirit of fellowship”[4].
He explained further that creating world peace is the duty of mankind. The peace which we all desire, peace in our hearts and in our minds, peace between neighbors and among nations, is not a miracle which it is God’s task to perform. It can only come about as a result of a reconstruction of thought, feeling and action by means of the spirit of fellowship, and such is the duty of all mankind. He explained that sufferings are from man’s ignorance. Therefore, knowing that certain actions such as selfishness, violence and laziness tend to disorganize society, and to cause unhappiness to its members, a man will try to avoid injuring others if he sees clearly that his interests are bound up with those of others.
Finally, he explained that the real spirit of fellowship which is lacking in the world today can be promoted only through religion. Religion is an education of the heart with a view to refining our nature and elevating us in the scale of human beings; it is not merely theory but practice, and the heart, like the body, becomes healthy and strong by practical exercise. No doctrine merely held in the mind as an intellectual belief has any driving force: no doctrine is of any value unless and until it is applied. The Buddha said “A beautiful thought or word which is not followed by a corresponding action is like a bright flower that has no scent. Such will bear no fruit.
So from his idea, we can conclude that the world that still have more conflicts or problem because it is lack of the spirit of fellowship. So to create world peace is the duty of mankind to build the spirit of fellowship through religious practice.
Another Buddhist scholar, Ven. Yogavacara Rahula, wrote one book about the way to peace and happiness. He has mentioned in his book that to solve the problem of suffering is to eradicate unrealistic desire. Unrealistic desire is the cause of suffering. He said exactly in his book[5] “the real cause of our suffering is the unrealistic desire, not the reality that frustrates it. The real cause of the economic problem is not the absence of means to satisfy our endless wants, but the presence of these insatiable wants. So the solution of our problem in life is the eradication of these unrealistic desires which clash with reality and frustrate us and cause us unhappiness. In other words, we have to awaken from our world of dreams and come down to reality, to face and accept reality as it is. This is why Buddhism is not like other worldly religion or a kind of escapist asceticism but this worldly and down to earth realism. Nirvana is not an escape into a trance state of mystical bliss, but rather perfect sanity which goes beyond the so called normality that is itself insanity, from a Buddhist point of view”.
So his idea is the problem of the world is cause from human unrealistic desires. These desires encourage men to do every thing to get what they want even they have to kill others or do something that is not right. This made the world no peace. There are a lot of conflicts and problems arise because people only try to get what they want. To solve the problem is to practice for eradication of the unrealistic desires by come to face with the truth, not sleep in dream of unrealistic desire that want with endless.
At last he said that “if Buddhism is understood and practiced by mankind, this earth would become a place of harmony and happiness; happiness not through plenty and power, but happiness though wantlessness and wisdom”. So this is quite clear from his point that he focus on unrealistic desire that is the cause of suffering. To solve the problem is to eradicate of unrealistic desires.
Another scholar, did not tell his name, had wrote one article about Attain Global Peace in this Multi-Cultural World Through a Peace Essay[6], gave 5 important key which lead to attain peaceful world and surrounding. The five important keys are:
1. Understanding: Once people start understanding each other they would start developing high opinion for others. Respect and non-interference will come automatically through
understanding.
2. Respect: Respecting other people includes respecting their nature (Also see Nature Essay) and culture too. If you respect others, others will respect you. Being patient and understanding every situation in life are the main aspects you should consider to develop maturity in your behavior. This maturity will definitely bring self-respect and will make you value others too.
3. Non-aggression: Keeping your attitude calm and peaceful helps you maintain that composure which turns your decision making extremely non-aggressive. Harsh speech and insulting words always bring quarrels and conflicts. To reduce such conditions people should avoid anger and hatred for other religions, cultures, civilizations, states and countries.
4. Non-interference: “Mind your own business” just suits this topic. It does not mean that you should not help others in their difficulties and keep yourself tied to your environment. Everybody should mix up with the world but at the same time should not interfere. In others’ work, cultural habits, religious matters, properties and daily life.
5. Equality: This is the most important thing to understand. If you are human, others are humans too. If you have so many feelings, they too have. Being polite and behaving well with others never hurts. Considering everyone equal should be the main aspect explained in a Peace Essay. God is one and all religions preach the same.
He has further said that “In this fast moving world a person does not have his own peace of mind; how is he supposed to contribute to world peace? It is necessary to first have peace inside yourself and your home. This will naturally allow you to be serene and peaceful in the outside world too. Peace is something everyone wants, but no one exactly knows how to achieve it”. So what he said is person who can help to create world peace, only those who already developed peace inside himself, otherwise he is difficult to world for that. We can consider more about this point from the Buddha’s teaching in Dhammapada that:
He abused me, he hurt me, he defeated me, and he robbed me. Those who think such thoughts will not be free from hatred.
He abused me, he hurt me, he defeated me, and he robbed me. Those who think not such thoughts will be free from hatred.
Dhammapada 3-6
Conclusion
The study of Buddhists scholars’ point of view about the important practice to create world peace provided us more information and technique of practice how to create world peace as well as our own peace. From the concepts of the above scholars, we can see that the way to attain world peace and our own happiness can reach with many ways. Those concepts are all available that we can apply to our daily practice in the present day.
So from those points of views, we can conclude that there are many way of practice for creating world peace as follow:
First, from the concepts of Dr. Suchitra Onkom, she focus on practicing Vipassana meditation to create inner peace which is the cause to create sustainable world peace. She said without inner peace, cannot create the world peace. Inner peace can create only through practicing meditation. Practicing meditation is to solve the problem inside, to fight with our real enemy inside which are ignorance, hatred and greed. If we can kill these real enemies from our own mind, there will be no enemy outside. The outside war will be stopped. So she said the war to end all other wars is the struggle within ourselves, to kill the inside enemies. Once, when the inside enemies were killed the outside enemies will be finished.
Secondly, from the concept of the most venerable Ashin Thittila, Aggamahapandita, he explained that the world that still have more conflicts or problem because it is lack of the spirit of fellowship. So to create world peace is the duty of mankind to build the spirit of fellowship through religious practice.
Thirdly, from the concept of Ven. Yogavacara Rahula, he said the problem of the world is cause from human unrealistic desires. These desires encourage men to do every thing to get what they want even they have to kill others or do something that is not right. This made the world no peace. To solve the problem is to practice for eradication of the unrealistic desires by come to face with the truth, not sleep in dream of unrealistic desire that want with endless.
Finally, from the concept of one scholar, did not tell his name, explained five important keys to create world peace as he explained in his essay.
[1] Dr. Suchitra Onkom, Creating sustainable World Peace, Sahadhammika Co., LTD., Bangkok, 2003 P. 135
[2] Dr. Suchitra Onkom, Creating sustainable World Peace, Sahadhammika Co., LTD., Bangkok, 2003 P. 135
[3] Dr. Suchitra Onkom, Creating sustainable World Peace, Sahadhammika Co., LTD., Bangkok, 2003 P. 136
[4] Ashin Thittila, Aggamahapandita, Essential Themes of Buddhist Lectures, Taipei , Taiwan
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