>Charles,
>
>To my knowledge there has never been a war fought in the name of Buddhism. That is not to say that a Buddhist has never fought in a war, but that they have not done so in the name of Buddhism. I believe of the major religions only Buddhism can claim this.
>
I believe you're right. Ironic, in that you would think the followers of Jesus would have been able to say that. I remember a bumper-sticker popular in the 60s - "Kill a Commie for Christ".
But the real difference is, again, the idea of exclusionary, prophetic religions vs philosophies that do not feel a need to convert or compel. With Christianity and Islam you are on the bus or you're off the bus, you're saved or you're damned and it hinges on your acceptance of a set of doctrines and dogmas. Whether it is the shahādatān or the Apostles' Creed it is required and it is what separates the chosen from the infidel.
And, of course, for all the People of the Book there is a great anthropomorphic God, who seems to resemble an ancient Babylonian despot more than a cosmic force or a Great Ground of Being. And this God is vengeful and angry and jealous and requires a lot of ego-stroking.
Buddhist find all that very odd. The universe is as it is and what you believe about it doesn't change that or your place in it.
Gravity isn't just a good idea ... it's the law <s>
>
>>The thing that always struck me about Buddhists was the lack of any need to create more Buddhists or to purge and punish apostates. It was instructive to see Christian missionaries "convert" Buddhists ( who would sometimes - usually out of politeness - add a reverence to "Phra Jesu" to the list of Bohdisats ) and then be surprised to realize their converts still retained all their Buddhist beliefs and didn't see religion as a zero sum game. Most Buddhists I knew in village society were still anamists as well <s> Early Christian missionaries of course also ran into that in Europe and Britain - but in those days were more flexible and we got Christmas trees, mistletoe, the cult of the Virgin, a broad list of sacraments, a pantheon of local saints and a whole lot of appropriated holy places.
>>
>>But Buddhist crusade or jihad ... sort of like anarchist bureaucracy <s>
>>
>>
><snip>
Charles Hankey
Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.
- Thomas Hardy
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. Eliot
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
- Ben Franklin
Pardon him, Theodotus. He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
