Dhamma Q&A with Students from Puget Sound University
Photo: Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives C00901
“As of this moment there more than likely is fighting going on in the Persian Gulf. Had you had the opportunity to offer advice to prevent this atrocity, what would you have said? Or is there ever a chance for leaders who are so deluded by power to awaken and see what is really going on in order to avert an action such as war?”
~ Response by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~
First of all, they’re already fighting in the Gulf, so it’s too late to do anything. Even if the fighting had not yet started, the situation is very difficult because the various causes and factors that have brought this situation about are very complicated, and they would have to be discussed one by one. But if we look at it in a general way we can say that what’s going on is because of a conflict in interests. Because there is a conflict in the interests of various countries and people, then defilements arise. And because they’re unable to control these defilements, then they act upon them, and the situation gets worse and worse. Human beings ought to be able to control the defilements. They ought to be able to calm them down instead of being at the mercy of them, but obviously these people making the decisions don’t have that ability to calm down their defilements. Instead they’re merely enslaved to things like greed, hatred, anger, worry, fear, and so on. So the end result is there’ll be some fighting.
This is unfortunately very ordinary and typical in our world because so often people are unable to calm down the defilements. So really it’s a matter of defilements more than of human beings. It’s defilements fighting – it’s not really human beings anymore. If it were human beings, human beings have something special that allows them to resolve problems without fighting. It’s only animals that have to resort to fighting in a very crude and instinctual way to solve their problems. Human beings never need to resort to such an approach, and so what’s going on isn’t really something human. It’s a matter of the defilements.
To resolve things by fighting is inhuman. Human beings can resolve problems in situations using wisdom, using intelligence and wisdom, so it’s not necessary for there to be killing. If it involves killing, that’s inhuman and is quite shameful.
We must make a clear distinction between self protection – defending one’s own life – and killing. There’s an important difference on which we must be clear. To protect one’s own life is one thing, to kill someone else is another matter.
(From Dhamma Questions & Answers with students from Puget Sound University, State of Washington, USA as translated from the Thai by Santikaro)
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Dhamma Questions & Responses sessions were offered by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu in 1990-1991 to foreign meditators attending Suan Mokkh International Dharma Hermitage courses.
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