Buddhism serves to emphasize the need for peace and clear understanding everywhere. With all peace efforts with the greatest promise getting stabilized in every part of the world, the fundamental significance of Buddhist teachings and their clear approach to world peace needs to be borne in mind by those who wish this world to be peaceful to all. Let us think of such issues and elaborate on them here on account of their inseparability to the principal teachings of the Buddha.
The essential message of Buddhism
The essential message of Buddhism lays strong emphasis and also the groundwork for social cohesion and peaceful coexistence – two essential requirements for world peace. We should realize that Buddhism does not only preach Maithree (Loving Kindness) and tolerance. It goes beyond these values to highlight the essential oneness of humanity all throughout its teachings on the illusion of the Self. Since the Self always evolves around substance – less illusion and notions such as ethnicity, separateness, and individuality – it has no basis at all to them either. Therefore, all well-meaning people would do well to dwell awhile on these teachings of the Noble One which have filled people with a sense of deep understanding all over the world.
Notions such as community, group, and tribe are illusions of the sensuous mind and we arrive at the conclusion that all humanity is one and that its members should not be subjected to any form of discriminatory treatment in the world. Herein lies the basic principle of the peace potential of Buddhism.
In today’s context, the sociological discourse has gone beyond pluralism to multiculturalism and the former concept merely recognizes the existence of diverse cultures in societies and therefore endorses tolerance as a way of approaching these differences. Instead, multiculturalism transcends pluralism in that it endorses the view that cultural and ethnic diversity must not be only tolerated but that different cultures and communities should relate to each other on the basis of complete equality.
War is a violent conflict between states and conflicts are in abundance today.
There has not been and never will be real happiness in the world, without peace. It does not come by mere watchfulness or prayer since it is in the minds of men that wars are created. It is in the minds of men that the fortresses of peace must be erected. May this be your first move to World Peace.
