Buddhism and War

Abstract

Buddhism is considered to be one of the most peaceful religions. But at the same time, there have been and are ongoing wars in which Buddhists are participating. In this regard, it seems important to understand whether any violence, and participation in the war, as well as propaganda or support for the war by Buddhist figures, is a violation of the spirit and letter of the Buddhist precepts — a departure from the principles of Buddhism under pressure from the state, propaganda or other factors and circumstances, or they have some justification and foundation in the core teachings of the Buddha. Such studies, of course, were made both abroad and in Russia. The most important publications on this topic are cited in this article. However, all of them are built on the material of individual areas of Buddhism. In this work an attempt is made to reconsider the available data in order to clearly formulate the position or positions of Buddhism regarding murder and wars on the basis of its general principles and the relevant texts of both main trends of Buddhism — early (Theravada) and Mahayana. This seems to be important for an adequate understanding of the contradictory attitudes of the Buddhists of Russia towards this issue.