PC University try to censor former Muslim woman for criticizing religion

[Baruch]

Clarifying ...

Jains come in two main groups.  Both are pacifist (except in certain S Indian kingdoms in the Middle Ages .. sigh).  The plain Jains eschew clothing as being oppressive.  They are close to extreme sadhus (Hindu holy men).  The regular Jains do wear minimal clothing, like the original Indian Buddhists (before Buddhism became institutionalized) .. but both I believe carry a broom, which they swish in front as they walk, because they would hate to accidentally step on a bug, who might have been their mother (and I mean this compassionately ... in reincarnation land, this is serious business).

Buddhists have a long history too, but over a wider geographic and ethnic range.  In ancient India, institutionalized Buddhists could be used by the kings (krshatriya) as unarmed heralds and messengers ... and thus should be unarmed and pacifist.  There is nothing pacifist about the run of the mill Hindu however ... except that per reincarnation, there is above average concern for the welfare of animals ... including the famous sacred cow.  But when Buddhism made it to China, Japan, Mongolia, and SE Asia ... it had to be domesticated to the local conditions ... including war fighting monarchy there.  Again, the Buddhists could be used as intermediaries ... but the idea of a large percentage of the peasant population, becoming pacifist ... was hostile to State interests.

Originally the Buddha had to decide between being a universal sage or a universal king.  A few have tried to do both in spite of that origin story.  Emperor Wu of S China in the 500s and Emperor Hirohito in the 1900s.  With Emperor Wu (who famously interviewed Bodhidharma without comprehension) the result was comic and disastrous ... as it had been with Emperor Ashok in E India 800 years earlier.  With Emperor Ashok, a chakravartin (universal king) ... he became a Buddhist after becoming a war criminal ... and his pacifism eventually destroyed his dynasty and state.  With Emperor Wu, contrary to Confucianism, he spent too much time micromanaging religion and being amateur clergy ... a Chinese Pope ... and his inattention to state affairs ... eventually destroyed his dynasty and his state as well.

Emperor Hirohito did one better ... though he didn't destroy his dynasty, he did destroy his state.  In Japan, on Dec 7 in Washington, it was Dec 8 at one point ... Buddha's birthday.  Of course the Japanese have a hybrid of Buddhism and Shinto called Bushido ... and it was on this basis that Emperor Hirohito tried to embody the chakravartin.  So no, there are no pacifist religions ... and perhaps few real pacifists for that matter.  One merely needs to find the breaking point of the individual in question.  The Japanese are a most interesting hybrid.  At one point in the Middle Ages, they had yamabushi or mountain monks, who were their own warrior class, outside the samurai class.  The Buddha would have been perplexed.  All Japanese are a particular race, they are not just a nationality.  It is almost impossible to become Japanese, if you aren't born one.  Part of the reason is, you are born into Shinto.  Being Buddhist has been and remains, and additional calling above and beyond Shinto.

[Baruch]

PS - the primordial form of Shinto worship, is sumo wrestling.  It is a form of worship ... and a combat sport itself.

[Sal1981]

I don't think that Buddhism is a pacifist religion, not in the least. Just with a slight atheistic flair.

[Baruch]

Sal1981 ... you have a basis for arguing your position.  Since Buddhism has been state sponsored from its beginning (with King Bimbisara of Magadha) ... and almost all states are non-pacifist ... then at least implicitly, Buddhists endorse violence.  On the other hand, they go to lot of trouble to be vegetarian ... but that could be more due to the common Indian belief in reincarnation, rather than something specific to Buddhism.  In fact, in Mahayana Buddhism, there is no fixed truth ... you say whatever you need to say, treating a patient psychosomatically ... and if necessary, you treat one patient the opposite of how you treat another ... it is all very pragmatic, and inconsistent.  Buddha might say that insistence on consistency, is a sign of delusion too.  Of course us Westerners find hypocrisy under every rock ... except our own.