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Application of the Buddha's Ethics to end War

Zandtaomed welcomes a recent post by Christopher Titmuss:-

Application of the Buddha's Ethics to end War

Here are the contents:-

In essence: The explicit teaching of the Buddha:

I UNDERTAKE THE TRAINING/PRACTICE NOT TO KILL, NOR CAUSE HARM TO OTHERS, NOR SUPPORT THE KILLING AND HARMING OF OTHERS.

This training/practice applies to all those committed to the Dharma and serves as the application of a deep principle for everybody.

Twelve Ethical Applications to end Wars

1) Never reduce people to a label/identity upon which to inflict suffering and death.

2) Support without compromise a ceasefire, negotiation, diplomacy and aid to end war, a halt to invasions and destruction.

3) Be specific about the reality of war – bombing, shelling, shooting, hostages, genocide, massacres, starvation, infliction of suffering on the innocent, widespread destruction, torture, sexual violence, domestic violence, social violence, trauma, suicide, intense grief, stress disorders and more. This is an expression and outcome of all wars. Do you want to be associated with such abhorrent behaviour based on ideology and darkness in your mind?

4) Engage in critiques/protests of governments who supply weapons and manufacturers who produce weapons. Engage in critiques/ protests against scientists/engineers who design missiles/weapons, transport armaments by land, sea and air. Engage in critiques/protests of armies and organisations using weapons to kill, wound and harm people.

5) Political leaders, who fail to call for an immediate ceasefire, are complicit in the specifics of war.

6) War depends upon being for one side and against the other. Those who take sides contribute to the specifics of war listed above.

7) Citizens of both sides might claim their government have no choice but to wage war. Both sides share this delusion as their international backers.

8) War includes annihilation of people from both sides through the wilful destruction of men, women, children and their habitats.

9) If you remain quiet, fearful of prowar voices, you need to ask yourselves, “What happened to my compassion?”

10) Stay true to the principle of non-violence AND the steps towards the resolution of suffering.

11) Be an agent for meaningful change to end war rather than remain blindly obedient to your government and media supporting war.

12) Treat others as you wish to be treated. Associate with those who share the same primary ethic of putting an end to war.

Final Word

Do not be afraid to criticise your government.

Stay in touch with your humanity and the humanity of others.

What steps will you to take bring about political/social change to help put an end to a war?

MAY ALL BEINGS BECOME AGENTS OF CHANGE

MAY ALL BEINGS SUPPORT CAMPAIGNS TO END CONFLICT

MAY ALL BEINGS BE DEDICATED TO CO-EXISTENCE.

zandtaomed on Propaganda War

Christopher speaks of engagement in the propaganda war:-

“4) Engage in critiques/protests of governments who supply weapons and manufacturers who produce weapons. Engage in critiques/ protests against scientists/engineers who design missiles/weapons, transport armaments by land, sea and air. Engage in critiques/protests of armies and organisations using weapons to kill, wound and harm people.”

In the online propaganda war we need to consider the nature of this engagement. Online propaganda now finances bots esp. during war, so we have to recognise that engagement online is not necessarily concerned with changing human opinion.Financed bots are only concerned with corrupting the narrative through data manipulation, and flooding the narrative with bias. It is pointless to engage with closed minds, it has even less point to engage with a machine.

The first thing we need if we engage online is clarity, we need the clarity and conviction of Buddhist ethics as expressed above by Christopher Titmuss. But we also need to recognise that online we might be engaging with a machine. The propaganda war is far more complex now that online is manipulated. It was already difficult to find truth in traditional mainstream media because certain war propaganda was often supported by that mainstream media. But there is a myth that online is independent, online propaganda is also manipulated through bots as well as financing opinion. Online and in MSM we cannot judge by balancing opinions, it is manipulated as part of the war process.

So how do we engage? This is also a hugely difficult question. Zandtaomed tends to answer "in person", but one has to be careful because what if the person you are discussing with has been involved in the war? As Buddhists do we want to increase their trauma through discussion?

In cosideration of war and what we say, there is a hugely important contemporary understanding - we have to be completely certain of the source of any information. MSM (mainstream media) can never be a source of information during war, online can never be seen as independent and therefore, per se, a source of information. Any source of information needs to be measured against Christopher’s Buddhist Ethics, and it needs to be known. We need deep discernment to choose our knowledge, during war that discernment needs to increase so that we have absolute conviction of the integrity of any source; we use Christopher's Ethics to gain that conviction.

At the beginning of the Ukraine war most western outlets contravened Buddhist Ethics 2 - whenever war starts there needs to be an immediate call for a ceasefire and diplomacy. In the West and elsewhere there was intimidation and online manipulation against those calling for ceasefire, was this independent or censorship? Was it human or was it bots? We must discern what is the most appropriate action based on the above ethics and the realisation that all media can be manipulated by finance. Discern the truth, discern your sources of information, follow Christopher’s Buddhist Ethics with discernment.

“Stay in touch with your humanity and the humanity of others” has a new meaning in war propaganda.