by Jayne Smyth

Created on: November 22, 2006   Last Updated: November 20, 2008

Most religions believe in peace. However, there are only a handful of religions that promote it. Western religions call for peace. I am not so sure they promote it. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all have bloody pasts rife with war and martyrs. In fact, more wars have been fought in the name of God (who cares which one) than anything else.

I suppose I would have to argue that Eastern based philosophies tend to be the most peaceful. Buddhists believe in ridding themselves of desire. Desire leads to war, not peace. Therefore the effort to remain desireless is a noble one. Moreover, Buddhist monks are more likely to light themselves on fire in protest of wrongs committed than to attack their wrongdoers. They would prefer to spill their own blood, thus forcing wrongdoers to self-examination than to physically attack another human being. Perhaps they have the right idea. If we were all made to look at our inner motivations then maybe we would be better able to see our mistakes. And the Buddhist method of self mutilation in favor of outright war seems to make a bigger impact on the worldstage.

The world is outraged when a Buddhist monk lights himself on fire. And usually the world is outraged for the monk, not at him. The whole world wonders why he would do such a thing. They find the answer and usually side with the monk.

I am not promoting self mutilation or setting yourself on fire. I am simply stating that this method seems to be more peaceful than outright war, and in some ways it seems to work.

Buddhist also meditate daily. Meditation has been shown to reduce high blood preasure, stabilize heart rate, and increase the flow of oxygen to the brain. All of these result in a feeling of calm. Calm is associated with peace. At the center of Buddhist philosophy is the attempt to live without desire. Buddhist believe that all the world's evil stems from desire: desire for material things, desire to have others agree with you, desire to have others believe the way you do. Indeed, wars do appear to be fought over want of one thing or another. The Buddhist attempt to avoid this conflict of "want" versus "need" is admirable. It logically follows that Buddhism must be a religion with a peaceful teaching.

Therefore I argue that Buddhism is a religion with perhaps the most peaceful teaching of all. In fact, Buddhist spend a great deal of their time trying to become at peace with themselves. And meditation both promotes peace and leads to peace.

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