What the Buddha said on war, killing and harming. 40 brief quotes of cutting critiques
What the Buddha said on war, killing and harming. 40 brief quotes of cutting critiques
Quote includes name of text and page number
40 brief quotes on killing, plus an important story of a soldier and then a final question at the end of this post.
The Buddha spoke with a single voice to stop killing and to stop supporting killing.
He told emperors, kings, rulers, religious leaders, the army, the powerful, the wealthy, monks, nuns and householders of their duty to prevent and stop killing.
Death and destruction. A survivor in Ukraine gathers some items.
The first ethic in his teachings of the Dharma tells all those who recognise the Dharma of the importance of the following commitment.
“I undertake the training not to engage in the killing of living beings.”
This precept includes neither to engage oneself in killing or support for those who kill.
A person asked him whose killing does he approve. The Buddha gave an insightful response (see quote from Connected Discourses.Page 133 below)
Quotes from the Discourses of the Buddha
The Buddha did not water down his message of non-violence. His unwavering voice leaves no doubt in the mind of the listener of his views about the obscenity of taking away the life of another.
He speaks to people to remind them of worthy and noble secular values and those with noble religious values.
Those who kill or support killing are untrue to the Dharma, he tells those who follow the Dharma (a key word in India covering all worthy religious/spiritual and secular teachings.
Here is a selection from the Middle Length Discourses, Long Length Discourses, Connected Discourses and Numerical Discourses. Translation into English from Pali by Bhikkhu Bodhi. Maurice Walshe translated The Long Discourses.
There is no support for killing living beings anywhere in the teachings of the Buddha.
MIDDLE LENGTH DISCOURSES
I have made occasional small tweaks for readability.
Page 125
Others will kill living beings; we shall abstain from killing living beings.
Others will be cruel; we shall not be cruel
Others will take what is not given. We shall not take what is not given.
Others will be of harmful action. We shall not be of harmful action.
Others will have no fear of wrongdoing. We shall not engage in wrongdoing.
Page 86
Men take swords and shields and buckle on bows and quivers, and they charge into battle massed in double array with arrows and spears flying and swords flashing. There they are wounded by arrows and spears. Their heads are cut off by swords, whereby they incur death or deadly suffering.
Page 892.
Untrue (to the Dharma) man shows no trust, no shame and no fear of wrongdoing (for himself and others).
Page 893
Untrue man supports the suffering of others
Page 363
If I were to kill living beings, I would blame myself for doing so.
Page 273
One abides compassionate to all living beings.
Page 973
What is right action? Action that is noble, taintless and supramundane (beyond reactivity in the conventional world).
Page 204
This is the way leading to a short life, namely, one kills living beings and is murderous, bloody-handed, given to blows and violence, merciless to living beings.
What, friends, is right action? Abstaining from killing living beings.
Page 231
I do not see any views supporting killing that would not arouse sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair.
One abandons killing living beings,
One abstains from killing living beings; with rod and weapon laid down
One abstains from wounding, murdering, plundering and violence.
Page 363
'I am practising the way to the abandoning and cutting off of those fetters because of which I might kill living beings.
If I were to kill living beings, the wise, having investigated, would censure me for doing so.
This killing of living beings is itself a fetter and a hindrance.
While taints, vexation, and fever might arise through the killing of living beings, there are no such taints, vexation, and fever in one who abstains from killing living beings.
Page 380
What kind of bodily conduct causes unwholesome states to increase and wholesome states to diminish. Here someone kills living beings; he is murderous, bloody-handed, given to blows and violence, merciless to living beings.
Page 405
When one acts or gets others to act, when one mutilates or makes others mutilate, evil is done by the doer.
If, with a razor-rimmed wheel, one was to make the living beings on this earth into one mass of flesh, into one heap of flesh, because of this there would be evil and the outcome of evil.
Page 405
If one were to go along the south bank of the Ganges, killing and slaughtering, mutilating and telling others to mutilate and inflict torture, because of this, there would be evil and the outcome of evil.
Page 407
When one acts or tell others to act...there is merit and outcome of merit.' It is to be expected to avoid acting and telling (to reinforce) these three unwholesome states, namely, bodily, verbal and mental abuse/misconduct (of ethics).
Undertake and practise these three wholesome states, namely, wholesome bodily, verbal and mental conduct.
Why is that? Because religious authority see in unwholesome states the danger,degradation, and defilement due to inflicting suffering.
Page 411
Someone in pleasure kills living beings, and then experiences pleasure that have killing of living beings as a condition (for the pleasure)
Someone in pain and grief kills living beings, and that person experiences pain and grief.
Page 787
There is a cause and condition for the defilement of beings. I do not say that one is better because one is from an aristocratic or wealthy family.
Page 803
Who has laid aside the rod
Against all beings frail or bold,
Who does not kill or have them killed:
He is the one I call a brahmin (a religious person).
Page 892
How does an untrue man act as an untrue man? An untrue man kills living beings.
Page 981
She became intrinsically virtuous, refraining from killing living beings,
Page 1009
He abused me, he struck me,
He defeated me, In those who harbour thoughts like these, hatred will never come to an end.
Page 1017
The evil actions that he did in the past - his bodily, verbal, and mental abuse - cover him, overspread him, and envelop him.
LONG DISCOURSES OF THE BUDDHA
Page 103
Suppose a man set out on a journey and murderers leaped out on both sides of him; then fear would arise in him.
Page 399
"Now let us get sharp swords made for us, and then we can take from anybody what is not given we will make an end of them, finish them off once for all and cut off their heads." So, having procured some sharp swords, they launched murderous assaults on villages, towns and cities, and went in for highway-robbery, killing their victims by cutting off their heads.
Thus, from the not giving of property to the needy, poverty became rife, from the growth of poverty, the taking of what was not given increased, from the increase of theft, the use of weapons increased, from the increased use of weapons, the taking of life increased.
Fierce enmity will prevail one for another, fierce hatred, fierce anger and thoughts of killing. This brings killing of fathers, mothers, children, brothers, sisters – just as the hunter feels aversion for the wild animal he stalks.
Page 315
An ignorant person takes pleasure and delight in killing living beings
Page 291
A mind consumed with aversion inflicts suffering on another person with the thought, ‘I am powerful. I have power.’ Thus it is that many evil qualities originate through aversion, caused by aversion to occur.
CONNECTED DISCOURSES OF THE BUDDHA
Page 108
While settled in adharma (against the Dharma) having slain and killed, they cause sorrow.
Their offering (to their religion) shares not the value of those who follow the Dharma.
That is why a hundred thousand offerings of those who kill are not worth even a fraction of the donation (dana) of those engaged in the Dharma.
Page 133
Question to the Buddha, “Whose killing do you approve?"
The killing of anger with its poisoned root and honeyed tip. This is the killing the noble ones appreciate. For having slain that, one does not sorrow."
Page 178
A man will go on plundering, so long as it serves his ends. But when others plunder him, the plunderer is plundered.
The ignorant person thinks fortune is on his side, so long as his evil does not ripen but when the evil ripens the fool incurs suffering.
Killers begets killers.
The abuser begets abuse,
By the unfolding of karma
The plunderer is plundered."
Page 256
One who repays an angry man with anger
Thereby makes things worse for himself.
Not repaying an angry man with anger,
One wins a battle hard to win.
Page 984
Question to the Buddha. What are the volitional formations in the mind which might reveal Mara (the Devil in the mind) to become a killer.
See such consciousness as a disease, a tumour, a dart, as real suffering. Thus see rightly.
"What is the purpose of seeing rightly?"
"The purpose of seeing rightly is revulsion."
"What is the purpose of revulsion?"
"The purpose of revulsion is dispassion."
"What is the purpose of dispassion?"
"The purpose of dispassion is liberation (from suffering and causing suffering).
NUMERICAL DISCOURSES OF THE BUDDHA
Page 1150
For one performing an evil deed, there is no place in the world called ‘hidden.’
The self within you knows whether it is true or false.
Page 1335
Yodhajiva, a professional soldier, approached the Buddha to ask a question.
“I have heard it said in the army for a long time and in my religious (Brahmin) tradition if the enemy kills me, I will go to heaven (seen as a hero and go to a realm of happiness).
The Buddha said three times, “Don't ask me that!"
The soldier persisted, so the Buddha replied.
“I say you will experience one of two destinations: either hell or the animal realm."
(A mind trapped in a living hell or reacting to every situation with barely any choice)
When this was said, Yodhajiva burst into tears.
The Buddha said: “This is why I said, Let it be! Don't ask me that."'
The soldier replied "I am not crying because of what you said to me, but because I have been tricked, cheated, and deceived for a long time.”
Have your political, military and religious authorities deceived your for a long time?
May all beings live in peace
May all beings live in harmony
May all beings live in peace and harmony.
Post written by author of The Political Buddha (available on Amazon)