A BUDDHIST VIEW OF WORLD PEACE

 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.

In a conflict each side has its own conceit. but to hide it both parties have their own nicely written labels such as, 'New World Order', 'Civilizing the Backward Peoples', 'Co-prosperity in East Asia'. etc.. and in almost every conflict each side blames the other, both parties claiming that they are right. They even use the name of religion to justify their actions, and will try to persuade God to take their side, although without seeming to make any attempt to be on God's side. They claim that there is only one God. apparently forgetting that if there is only one God, there must be only one family of men, and they treat one another not just as strangers but as enemies.

Since the end of the first world war there have been many organizations called 'international'. Many authors have written on the subject of internationalism, and idealistic workers hoping for a better future have started many international movements, but all without exception have failed to maintain peace. Why? In the first place they have not, for one reason or another, been able to carry out their plans: secondly. they received insufficient support from the public; and thirdly, most of them have dealt only with the purely external, material adjustments, paying too much attention to the material side of life and too little to the spiritual side. The two sides are interdependent and interrelated, and the importance of both should be recognized.

Then came the second world war, unparalleled in history for destruction. The world is still in a state of chaos, devoid of peace and real happiness, and once again idealistic workers, lecturers and writers are producing books and introducing new international organizations. Will they be successful in maintaining peace? It is possible to predict whether they will be successful or not; they will be successful if the leaders and workers can carry through their plans in a spirit of world fellowship, otherwise they will never be successful, there will be further wars, even more dreadful than the last.

The peace which we all desire, peace in our hearts and in our minds, peace between neighbours 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.

Taking all nations as one whole there is in the world sufficient wealth and ability to abolish poverty, unemployment, hardship and cruelty of any kind from all countries. It is possible for all men to be able to do what work is necessary, if only they would learn to understand each other better by drawing closer. The discovery of power and energy could be of great service to humanity, and men could be inspired to noble conduct if only all the scientists, poets and artists of all countries would come together. A powerful spiritual influence, helping all men to make the world a happier place. could be given by every religion if all of them were to act together as members of one family.

Buddhism teaches that misery and suffering are not the result of the wrath of a god, or gods, but are the direct consequences of man's ignorance of his own nature and of his surroundings. in attempting to discover a way of appeal on which to base morality. Buddhism teaches that there is no such appeal to any external authority in the form of a deity, but only to the natural desire of the human heart. 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.

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.

Practice of the moral life is the very core and essence of religion, for it is action and not speculation, practice and not theory that counts in life. The will to do, followed by' the doing. is the actual virtue; the will of itself does not count much unless it is fulfilled. Thus to put one's high ideas and concepts into practice is religion in the best sense. Religion is obviously not confined to any one country or to any' particular nation or race. it is universal; and it is certainly not nationalism which, in other words, is merely another form of caste system but founded on a wider basis,

The world has found itself as one body, yet the fact of physical unity and economic interdependence, though of very great value, is not by itself sufficient to create a united family'; for this we require a human consciousness of community', a sense of personal interrelationship among men, the spirit of fellowship. To have this spirit of fellowship we must realize the oneness of all life, and understand that we are one family'.

According to Buddhism life is a mighty wheel of perpetual motion, and this wheel contains within it numberless smaller wheels corresponding to the lives of individual men, each of which has a pattern of its own. The great wheel and the smaller wheels, the whole world and individual men, are intimately and indissolubly linked; the whole human family is so closely knit together that even unit is dependent on the others for its growth and development. In all our thoughts, words and deeds we act and react upon each other, so in a very real sense each one of us is responsible for the whole community. Men, being in need of each other. should learn to love each other and bear one another's burdens. This mutual dependence is a perpetual call on humanity, for we are bound alike by the bonds of humanity.

Science proves that the fundamental structure of the human

mind is uniform in all races; what differences there are, are due to historical circumstances and stages of development. Without recognition of the oneness of the world in all its aspects. spiritual as well as social, economic as well as political, there will never be peace. A genuine spirit of world fellowship is the only logical basis of all true and high civilization, and of world peace.

ESSENTIAL THEMES OF BUDDHISTS LECTURES

by

Venerable Sayadaw Ashin U Thittila

P.S.: The Most Venerable Sayadaw passed away in Myanmar (Burma), on January the 3rd , 1997, at the age of 100.

We are most grateful to Mrs. Claudine W. Iggleden for allowing us to re-publish the Sayadaw's book, which is a collection of expanded notes prepared for talks on Buddhism given in the West over the period 1938-1983.

Source: Nibbana.com, http://www.nibbana.com