Material World: Myth of Peaceful Buddhism

[Socialist Party Head Office]

We have received the following belated email comment on this article:

Quote:

Hello SPGB,I am writing to you regards publication, No. 1313 January 2014 material world:Myth of Peaceful Buddhism.I find the publication misleading. Buddhism has many strands and has many followers in different countries. Most of these people would be lay followers.So to put up a a very negative and one sided view of Buddhism is not only unfair and unjust but it contorts the view of reality of the Buddhist to any person who would not know much about Buddhist followers or the Buddhist teachings.The word Buddhist can be very wide ranging so to slant a view on it would be misleading.On the publication it quotes Dr. Muang Zarni who himself is a Buddhist. You left out a lot of information on Dr. Muang Zarni study. Dr. Muang Zarni lived in Burma for 24 years and says even someone of his education (himself) had never heard anyone utter the word Rohingya. He talks about it here, https://youtu.be/8LctOLRhumsHe says that "90% of the people of Burma would never have meet someone from Rohingya. That the Genocide of the people is politically state sponsored."As it states in the publication, The conflict between Buddhists and Muslims is often over land and nationalism. And the Buddhist people are been lead by a extremist monk and other officials from government. So this genocide is not Buddhist lead. The Buddhist teachings does not advocate violence, it would be the opposite, compassion.So if a pacifist went out and murdered someone could you really call them a pacifist. They might be Buddhist in name but not in nature or practice.The whole publication seems to be anti Buddhist with no balance. It is offensive and disrespecting to the millions who actually follow the teachings of the Buddha.It reminded me of people who say things like, Stalin the socialist murdered 50 million of his own people…..we know that Stalin was not a socialist. But branding is a dangerous thing……war, oppression, conflicts, BUDDHISM, genocide, neo-nazis monks, its all throw in there. It also reminds me of a Britain first publication. With no tolerance of other peoples beliefs.So I kindly ask you to take the publication down as it cases offense to socialists and Buddhists alike.   Kind regards       Eddie O Sullivan     

[PJShannon]

Following is a discussion on the page titled: Material World: Myth of Peaceful Buddhism.
Below is the discussion so far. Feel free to add your own comments!

[ALB]

Quote:

So I kindly ask you to take the publication down as it cases offense to socialists and Buddhists alike.

What a whinger and what a cheek. Poor sensitive soul offended by a criticism of his view, so offended that he wants it taken down, i.e suppressed.  He sounds like one of those safe-spacers who want to restrict freedom of speech, especially criticism of religion, in universities.  

[DJP]

Violence? No true Buddhist would do that, and neither would no true Scotsman either!

[alanjjohnstone]

Being the type of person i am, i was quite happy to let Eddie have the last word since i thought the article answered his criticism. But it should have referred him to these articles in the Standard and SOYMB bloghttp://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2000s/2003/no-1181-january-2003/world-view-tibet-%E2%80%93-feudal-theocracy-market-economhttp://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1990s/1998/no-1131-november-1998/world-viewAnd from our bloghttp://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2013/05/sunday-sermon-budding-buddhism.html

[alanjjohnstone]

To bolster the article's accuracy rather than the critic's wishful thinking I refer to this recent report in the Economisthttp://www.economist.com/news/asia/21695901-squabble-clergy-widens-thailands-dangerous-divides-men-alms

[alanjjohnstone]

Recently i watched on TV  the Thai army holding a special military parade before being deployed to the southern provinces where there is a civil war going on. I watched as Buddhist monks, just as Christan chaplains and Muslim imams do, give a blessing to the troops. Yet another article confirms that despite our critic proclaiming the non-violent nature of the original tenets of Buddhism, social and political conditions are changing its practices. 

Quote:

Other monks have advocated violence. Apichart Punnajanto, a senior monk at Bangkok's famous Wat Benchamabopit, or Marble Temple, wrote on his Facebook page last year that a mosque should be burned for every Buddhist monk killed in southern Thailand's Muslim insurgency. What stunned some observers more than Apichart's words — with their negation of the Buddha's core principle of non-violence — was the response of the Sangha council: total silence. In the eyes of critics, the council and the Buddhist hierarchy it controls, has neither condemned nor eliminated practices such as calls to violence, corruption among even leading clergy, and outdated feudalistic procedures.

http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Policy-Politics/Thai-Buddhism-s-unholy-mess?page=2

[alanjjohnstone]

A companion blog has put on the internet an article in the Socialist Standard from 1955. http://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2016/04/buddha-puts-clock-back-1955.html

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