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By Mr.
Phra Phaisan Visalo Nonviolence in Buddhist Social Ethic In Buddhism, nonviolence is not confined to physical non-injury, whose extreme form is killing; but also includes refraining from such verbal abuse as lying. Even other forms of misconduct, say, violation of other's property, or, inflicting mental suffering on anyone through committing adultery with his or her beloved are also regarded by Buddhism as violence from which one should refrain. In order to promote peace in society, the Buddha set the five precepts, or guiding rules, on which people's behaviour should be based. This set of precepts encourages everyone to abstain from five forms of misconduct, i.e. killing, stealing, adultery, false speech and taking intoxicants. Although, the last one does not do harm to others directly, its indirect impact is very obvious. Not only does violence take various forms, it also manifests on many levels. The five precepts are fundamental measures of containing gross violence and related misconduct. They were set by the Buddha as guiding rules for ordinary people to observe in ordinary life. For those who wish to pursue the ideal life, say Bhikkhus, additional rules and strict disciplines were laid down with an aim to prevent minor violence. It is not only human beings, and animals, that monks are forbidden to kill - even the lives of plants and trees should be respected. Under Buddhist monastic rules a monk is not allowed to cut trees or excrete on the grass or in the river unless he is sick. Buddhist Threefold Training Violence, though expressed through actions and words, is a mental phenomenon in the sense that it is based on a particular state of mind. Training which merely focuses on behaviour is therefore insufficient. To be non-violent, one is required to undergo emotional or spiritual training with an aim to provide a sound basis for proper verbal and physical conduct. There are certain qualities of mind that enable one to behave nonviolently. The prominent ones are loving kindness, compassion, mindfulness, tranquillity, contentment and tolerance. With loving kindness and compassion one has no ill- will toward any being. The mindful one is always aware of his or her state of mind, giving hatred and anger no chance to grow or exist. Since tranquillity and contentment give rise to self fulfilment, one is not easily tempted by greed, lust or resentment which are root causes of violence. Finally, tolerance gives mental strength to resist any motivation toward misbehaviour. Such positive qualities of mind can be cultivated through meditation. To a lot of non-Buddhists and Buddhists themselves one practises meditation only when he sits in a certain posture in a forest or a quiet room with his eyes closed. This is a technique that most Buddhists prefer, though, it is not the only method of meditation. Buddhist meditation can be practised in ordinary life even in the fast lane or in a huge row. When one tries to see one's mind in peace with skilful means one has already practised meditation. Training in higher mentality could be achieved, therefore, by involving trainees in service of the poor since, apart from helping the latter, it can cultivate compassion in the minds of the former. Similarly, manual work can be considered a type of spiritual training, or meditation, when one aims to develop mindfulness through action. Although mental training is crucial for the development of non-violent behaviour, it is not the final step. Apart from emotion or quality of mind, one's behaviour is also determined by one's thinking process. Despite its close relationship with the state of mind, the thinking process is the realm of the intellect. Intellectual training is the third and final step of a Buddhist training system. Intellectual training here does not aim to develop clarity in a worldly sense. Its purpose is to develop higher wisdom so as to perceive things as they really are without distortion by any bias or ulterior motives. To be nonviolent, one needs to be aware first of the negative consequences of violence, as well as the advantage of nonviolence. Despite that knowledge, one is sometimes tempted to inflict suffering on others because of prejudice or selfish motives, Perception and wisdom that are just, sincere and accurate, not influenced by illusion or self-interest are therefore essential for nonviolent practice. In Buddhism, the ultimate state of nonviolence can be achieved only when one has deep insight into the nature of all things to the point of detachment, bringing an end to lust, greed and conceit which are root causes of all forms of violence, physical or mental. The objective of a Buddhist training system is to develop a human being along the path of freedom, with the cessation of suffering as the final goal. It is threefold because of the fact that each human being is composed of physical, mental and intellect elements. Since these elements are closely related, each fold or each step of training is beneficial to the others. Training in morality, if undertaken properly, is conducive to positive qualities of mind and right understanding. Training in higher mentality creates strong foundations for non-violent behaviour as well as clear thinking and judgement. Similarly, training in higher wisdom provides the guarantee for peaceful mind and action. It should be noted that this system of training is not confined to personal practice, be it moral conduct, meditation or skilful learning. It also involves the management of one's surroundings, social and natural as well as the pattern of relationships among members of society. Training in higher morality is therefore not only a matter of setting rules for individual and society, but also one of developing a physical and take into consideration the mass media which can provide right information and encourage creative thought as well as right understanding. In short, if training is to be fruitful, each trainee should be treated both as a whole to which body, mind and intellect are integrated, and as a part of the social and natural surrounding which interact with each other. The Necessity of Active Nonviolence Since nonviolence and acquiescence share the common characteristic of renouncing physical harm to the opponent, both are always mistaken as identical. What makes both sharply different from each other is the fact that nonviolence involves an attempt to face conflict while acquiescence means quiet submission. It should be noted, however, that facing a conflict nonviolently sometimes takes the form of no action, or, to put it right, refusing to act, whereas submission leads to a type of action in compliance with someone or something. Nevertheless the former should still be regarded as active and the latter passive. The modern world has seen all sorts of conflict at all levels ranging from personal to national and global. The responses of people to these conflicts, though varied, usually fall into main categories, of acquiescence and violence. Both are extreme forms of response that seldom end the conflict. Acquiescence serves nothing but continues the conflict while violence escalates it or creates a new one in place of the previous one. Crime and war thus become the outstanding characteristics of modern nations, both developed and developing. Nonviolence should be taken as the alternative to both responses. But the negative approach to nonviolence is inadequate. Nonviolence in the negative sense of refraining from violent offence and violent response is benign, but it is not active and powerful enough to solve many types of conflict. To make it an effective means, the positive aspect of nonviolence should be given more emphasis. There is a wide variety of nonviolent response, including voting and arbitration. Following are three categories of nonviolent response that deserve the attention from people concerned:
The three categories are made up of various techniques, especially nonviolent action which, according to Gene Sharp, incorporates at last 198 techniques and many more are certain to be put on the list in the future. The awareness of a wide variety of nonviolent methods enables one to see greater possibility of responding to any conflict by means of nonviolence. At least one can see that it has the potential to solve not only interpersonal conflicts but also collective or social problems. No other methods that ordinary people can control and use for their own welfare are as effective as nonviolent action, whose power for social change has been successfully demonstrated by Gandhi. Moreover, once the notion of structural violence, (apart from direct physical violence) is taken into account, it is even more apparent that violence cannot be eliminated by passivity or nonaction. But in tackling it with violent action, one always fails to find lasting peace. The three types of nonviolence as mentioned before are thus the best alternatives presented to people concerned. Outline of Nonviolence Training The principle of threefold training can be applied to positive and active nonviolent training. In following that principle the nonviolence training is divided into three interrelated aspects: 1. Physical training made up of:
2. Mental training: to develop such beneficial qualities as love, compassion, forbearance, honesty, conscience, courage, mindfulness, concentration, mental strength and firmness; 3. Intellectual training which includes:
These are broad outlines of training that can be applied in nonviolence training of any kind. As for a constructive programme, Buddhism has provided the following principles of service:
These principles are guides for verbal and physical conduct. To make them genuine acts of service, four sublime states of mind are needed to cultivate - loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity. Adopted by the Sarvodaya Movement in Sri Lanka, both sets of principles have proved for more than two decades to be essential factors of community reconstruction in thousand of villages. There are many ways of conducting training. Following are some suggestions:
Despite a long tradition of nonviolence, active nonviolence training as part of nonviolent struggle for social change is a new element of Buddhism. It is the task of modern Buddhists to explore and develop such training to be relevant to modern world which is stricken by all sorts of conflicts. Since it is quite apparent that the world is increasingly leaning on violence as an effective solution to conflict, we, Buddhists and nonBuddhists, have no choice but to spread the message of nonviolence and to develop nonviolent techniques as effective alternatives for solving conflicts. This can be started with an attempt to learn from each other's wisdom and traditions. Despite its limitation, I hope this paper provides some contribution to this process of learning toward nonviolent development. -------------------------------------------
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