Author Topic: WAR IS AN ESCALATION IN FAILURE  (Read 5757 times)

Positive Change

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WAR IS AN ESCALATION IN FAILURE
« on: August 04, 2013, 07:49:42 AM »
I was reading this post http://www.dorjeshugden.com/forum/index.php?topic=3661.0, and it got me thinking and I started writing my thoughts (here below) and then decided to make them a post.
 
There are actions that divide and there are actions that harmonize.

Acts of terror in the name of religion divide.

Acts of terror divide.

Acts of terror plant the seeds of more likewise acts.
 
Division brings about war! It always did and always will... we only have to look at our most turbulent history to see the truth to that.

Because with division, all we need is one problem for everyone to point at the “other party” (the party that we are divided from) as the guilty party, and it is war.

War does not mean always that the army is sent, war is a latent hatred emotion that tends to imagine a “better” world without the hatred party.
 
Of course, war can be convenient when one has failures or mistakes to deal with, for facing these takes more courage than starting a war.

A peaceful world, I believe, starts by taking responsibility for our failures, for our mistakes, for our problems, for our dramas, for our losses, for our suffering instead of blaming the most convenient party, the party that we see has “divided” from us.
 
Therefore war is an escalation in failure for which we must, also, take responsibility and act to restore harmony and bring about peace.

bonfire

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Re: WAR IS AN ESCALATION IN FAILURE
« Reply #1 on: August 04, 2013, 08:24:05 AM »
This is very true.
Buddhism is about taking responsibility for all our sufferings.
But it is also about developing gratitude for all our privileges.

Unfortunately, most of us are doing exactly the opposite.
We take ownership of our success and we blame others for our failures.
What is needed is a 180 degrees shift!

Positive Change

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Re: WAR IS AN ESCALATION IN FAILURE
« Reply #2 on: August 04, 2013, 08:31:20 AM »
This is very true.
Buddhism is about taking responsibility for all our sufferings.
But it is also about developing gratitude for all our privileges.

Unfortunately, most of us are doing exactly the opposite.
We take ownership of our success and we blame others for our failures.
What is needed is a 180 degrees shift!

Indeed... It all stems from our very selfish nature of want/need. We fail to recognize that whatever we reap, be it positive or negative is through our own doing... our karma so to speak. Hence if we realize and accept this fact we can irradicate the desire to want to "possess" or "conquer" as a means to justify our own insecurities.

Stop the spiraling down towards the abyss of failure and have some integrity, pick ourselves up and not trample on others while doing so!

hope rainbow

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Re: WAR IS AN ESCALATION IN FAILURE
« Reply #3 on: August 06, 2013, 12:41:53 AM »
This is very true.
Buddhism is about taking responsibility for all our sufferings.
But it is also about developing gratitude for all our privileges.

Unfortunately, most of us are doing exactly the opposite.
We take ownership of our success and we blame others for our failures.
What is needed is a 180 degrees shift!

Indeed... It all stems from our very selfish nature of want/need. We fail to recognize that whatever we reap, be it positive or negative is through our own doing... our karma so to speak. Hence if we realize and accept this fact we can irradicate the desire to want to "possess" or "conquer" as a means to justify our own insecurities.

Stop the spiraling down towards the abyss of failure and have some integrity, pick ourselves up and not trample on others while doing so!

Yes, but what about wars that were fought in order to defend values of liberty, values of humanity?
What about war against oppression, against genocide?
What about the war against the nazis that were operating a genocide against the Jewish population?

So my question is: is there a way to actually fight a war with a compassionate motivation?
Example: could fighting back the nazis in second world war be justified through compassion for the Jewish community?

Blueupali

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Re: WAR IS AN ESCALATION IN FAILURE
« Reply #4 on: August 06, 2013, 07:51:55 AM »
This is very true.
Buddhism is about taking responsibility for all our sufferings.
But it is also about developing gratitude for all our privileges.

Unfortunately, most of us are doing exactly the opposite.
We take ownership of our success and we blame others for our failures.
What is needed is a 180 degrees shift!

Indeed... It all stems from our very selfish nature of want/need. We fail to recognize that whatever we reap, be it positive or negative is through our own doing... our karma so to speak. Hence if we realize and accept this fact we can irradicate the desire to want to "possess" or "conquer" as a means to justify our own insecurities.

Stop the spiraling down towards the abyss of failure and have some integrity, pick ourselves up and not trample on others while doing so!

Yes, but what about wars that were fought in order to defend values of liberty, values of humanity?
What about war against oppression, against genocide?
What about the war against the nazis that were operating a genocide against the Jewish population?

So my question is: is there a way to actually fight a war with a compassionate motivation?
Example: could fighting back the nazis in second world war be justified through compassion for the Jewish community?

While it is theoretically possible that someone could start or fight in a war with a compassionate motivation, the issue would generally be that they would be lacking in wisdom to think it is going to solve the problems in the long run, because of the law of karma.  That said, there are of course Buddhas that emanate in all the realms, and they perform any action with a perfect motivation and complete compassion and wisdom.  So there is a Jataka tale where Buddha Shakyamuni, in a past life as a bodhisattva, was on a ship, and realizing through clarvoyance that someone else was going to murder other people on the ship, murdered the would be murderer himself, so as to avoid the man getting bad karma for harming others.  The caveat here, of course, is that this is the actions that a realized being is performing himself.  I always think if killing is necessary, then the Buddhas can emanate and handle it themselves, because it is too heinous an act for ordinary sentient beings.  In other words, I cannot imagine a Buddha asking us to go to war, to kill, or do anything else on that scale, because he can emanate himself to do that sort of thing; my motivation could get mixed, his could not. 
  As far as wisdom is concerned, there was a king who once asked Buddha Shakyamuni if his country should go to war over a certain issue; Buddha Shakyamuni's reply was that we should never go to war.
 

fruven

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Re: WAR IS AN ESCALATION IN FAILURE
« Reply #5 on: August 11, 2013, 04:31:51 PM »
This is very true.
Buddhism is about taking responsibility for all our sufferings.
But it is also about developing gratitude for all our privileges.

Unfortunately, most of us are doing exactly the opposite.
We take ownership of our success and we blame others for our failures.
What is needed is a 180 degrees shift!

On a worldly level for you and me, this is considered avoiding blame.

Also we equate failure to low performance, some kind of punishment or put down that comes with failure. However there is no such thing as instance success. Success comes from the result of efforts. No doing anything we end up not achieving much in life.