As the war in Gaza threatens to spiral into a regional conflict, what light does Buddhist wisdom shed on cycles of violence?
After the Israeli attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus and Iran’s missile strike against Israel, now what? Troubled voices are urging Israeli restraint, but the grim prospect is a spiralling conflict that spreads across the region. Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, said yesterday on this programme: ‘The danger of a response, is that it triggers a further response.’ But of course, the latest attack is a just one step in a tangle of provocations and reactions with no discernible end.
Can a faith tradition like my own contribute anything at all? Religious divisions are part of the Middle East’s problems, and Buddhists elsewhere are scarcely immune to communal conflict. If we have any contribution, I think it’s the capacity of a faith perspective to let us zoom out from particular events to the larger patterns of human life. For Buddhism, this particularly means recognising that the ultimate source of conflict lies in the minds and emotions of the people it involves.
To understand the world, Buddhism teaches, we must start with the inevitability of suffering. Sometimes no one is to blame when we suffer, and sometimes other people cause it; but, either way, we have a choice in how we respond. Buddhist teachings say that cycles of violence occur when we respond with hatred to the hatred we receive and prompt hatred in return. The hope they offer is that the cycle can be broken if we address it at the source, in human hearts and minds.
I’ve learned to recognise in my own experience that the choice between reacting automatically and responding more creatively is with me all the time. Sometimes this means biting my lip; sometimes it means turning towards an experience of anguish or distress with mindful awareness so it can resolve or abate. This simple shift in mental orientation is the basis of Buddhist practice.
Political problems, rooted in collective suffering and bound up with issues of power and ideology, are often more intractable than our personal challenges. Thousands of Palestinians have died, Israelis fear attack – there are hostages, soldiers, fighters and starving children. But I think the same principles applies. Cycles of violence only end when we cease to perpetuate them. With qualities like patience, compassion and wisdom, solutions are possible. As the Buddha said: ’Hatred is not overcome by hatred, but only by love. This is an eternal law.’
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