Peace as inner transformation: a Buddhist perspective

Abstract

In considering peace from a Buddhist perspective, it is important to remember that it is, primarily, an inner disposition prior to its effective embodiment in the world as a particular course of action. Even before this can be made possible, it must initially become the fruit of spiritual realisation. This means that, in effect, any talk of peace ought to be grounded in a vision of the spirit marked by wisdom, compassion and equanimity. The solution to wars and violence can never be a political one alone – ultimately, it must be buttressed by a spiritual dimension. Politics can certainly deliver on compromises or half-measures but the underlying impetus has to be an ethical orientation that is illumined through an encounter with a transcendent order of reality, on which every genuine value is based.