Buddha’s peace theory

   

<Siddhartha Gautama>

     Since today is the celebration of Buddha’s Day (May 6^th), I want to share about the origin of Buddhism. Buddhism was started by Siddhartha Gautama, a prince of Kabila kingdom, about 3,500 years ago. Back then, the ancient society was formed by caste system. Siddhartha has seen lots of unfair situations such as rankism, rich-poor gap, and corruption. He questioned himself what is the true happiness in life? How can people be free from suffering and find eternal happiness? Even though he was a prince, he was just a human who also wondered about the way to live in peace like us. He tried to find the answers and left home. He began to practice his asceticism and became Buddha, meaning "awakened one" or "the enlightened one." Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the Sramana(renunciation) movement common in his region. He believed that the “emptiness” in our mind brings a true happiness because suffering started from obsession, if people want to get rid of obsession they need to get rid of their wants. 

     Then, according to Buddha’s teaching, let’s see how war started. It is not the soldiers who started the war; it was always started from the bosses who fight for their profit. So eventually, “wants” were the main reason that brought suffering. In some part, I agree. It is our desire that makes us unhappy for many times. But is it possible for people to not wanting something? Then, what is the solution for ending the war? It is impossible to stop the war by stopping the opponents by force. According to a peace advocate Man-Hee Lee, most wars happened between religions. Even terrors were mostly from religious conflict. So, the religions need to be in reconciliation and respect other religions.

Photo source:http://www.faithinterface.com.au/apologetics/happiness-buddha-vs-jesus
Reference:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha