Draft Refusal; Conscription; Modern Nation State; Pacifism; Dalai Lama; Army Chaplaincy; Imperialism
摘要
Buddhist karma theory, which understands violence as a major factor in creating negative karmic consequences for individuals and collectives, is an important reason why, under certain circumstances, devout Buddhists may be inclined to practice pacifism, and especially oppose the aggressive, imperialist warfare. Buddhism as such, however, is not a "pacifist religion." While the monastic practitioners were in most cases shielded from the militarist violence by their sacred status, warfare and punitive justice by the lay authorities were seen as either inevitable or even positive already by early Buddhists. Given its long tradition of close collaboration with war-making authorities in Asia, the reluctance of major Buddhist groups in the Vietnam War-time USA to openly advocate draft refusal and active anti-war resistance is understandable. Many lay Buddhists, however, were driven to anti-war resistance by the prevailing intellectual and political atmosphere in the USA after the worldwide outbursts of the anti-capitalist protests in 1968. It is not impossible thus to assume that a general radicalization in the wake of the current worldwide depression may bring a new activation of the pacifist, anti-imperialist streams in the Western-and, more generally, world-Buddhism.
