THE PARADOX OF THE BUDDHIST SOLDIER

ABSTRACT

At first glance, a military life and practising Buddhism may seem like two pursuits at odds. Buddhism sets the moral bar very high and nowhere in its teachings can one find any evidence in support of violence, whether in word, thought or deed. One could therefore argue that Buddhism and the military are two strange bedfellows, and some may find it difficult to conceive of serving in the military whilst adhering to the ethos, values and standards of Buddhism. This article challenges this popular myth and resolves this apparent paradox between Buddhism and the military. By drawing on canonical Buddhist teachings as well as voices from the Sangha and Buddhist military practitioners, we demystify the ‘Buddhist soldier’ and clear common misconceptions regarding: the fundamental teachings of ahiṃsā, karma and skilful (kusala) action; Buddhist teachings being equated to pacifism; the duty of soldiers and the State to protect; soldiering as a ‘right livelihood’; and the karmic implications of military professions. Using international humanitarian law, the body of law regulating the conduct of war, as a natural reference point, we explore what guidance Buddhist teachings provide to soldiers and how they potentially can contribute towards reducing suffering in war, including through application in military training. Buddhism endorses the concept of maintaining disciplined, virtuous and skilled military forces to protect what is good. At all times one needs to aim at not causing suffering to others, but never at the expense of preventing even worse suffering.

KEYWORDS:

• Ahimsa
• Buddhism
• ethics
• intention
• international humanitarian law
• karma
• military
• pacifism
• Pali Canon
• soldiers
• Vinaya
• violence
• war
• warfare

Acknowledgements

We would like to record our sincere thanks to Prof. Peter Gilbert, Mr Keith Munnings, Prof. Upul Ranjith Hewawitanagamage, Prof. Peter Harvey, Prof. Stephen Jenkins, Prof. Matthew Kosuta, Prof. Stefania Travagnin, Prof. Kate Crosby, Prof. Asanga Tilakaratne, Prof. Christina Kilby, Dr Noel J. M. Trew and Mr Andrew Bartles-Smith for their comments and suggestions in the making of the paper. The framework for this article was developed by Dr Sunil Kariyakarawana. Any shortcomings and all views presented here are of the authors alone.

Disclosure statement

This article has been supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Abbreviations

An	=	Aṅguttara Nikāya. The Book of the Gradual Sayings, Anguttara Nikaya or More Numbered Suttas, 5 vols. Tr. F. L. Woodward and E. M. Hare, Oxford: Pali Text Society, [1932–1936] 2001. Also: The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha. Bhikkhu Bodhi, Boston: Wisdom, 2012. An.5.140: Sotar Sutta: The Listener. Translated from the Pali by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, 1998. https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an05/an05.140.than.html
As	=	Arthaśāstra. The Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra. 3 parts. R. P. Kangle, Bombay: University of Bombay, 1965–1972.
Dhp	=	Dhammapada. The Dhammapada: A Translation. Tr. Thanissaro Bhikkhu, 1997. Also: The Dhammapada: The Buddha’s Path of Wisdom. Translated from the Pali by Acharya Buddharakkhita with an introduction by Bhikkhu Bodhi, 1996. https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/index.html
Dhp-a	=	Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā. Buddhist Legends. 3 vols. Tr. E. W. Burlingame, Harvard Oriental Series, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1921.
Dn	=	Dīgha Nikāya. Long Discourses of the Buddha. Tr. M. Walshe, 2nd revised edition, Boston: Wisdom, 1996.
Eka	=	Edicts of King Ashoka. The Edicts of King Asoka. An English rendering by Ven. S. Dhammika. https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/dhammika/wheel386.html
Jat	=	Jātaka. The Jātaka or Stories of the Buddha’s Former Births. 6 vols. Translated by various hands under E. B. Cowell, London: Pali Text Society, 1895–1907.
Mn	=	Majjhima Nikāya. The Middle Discourses. Tr. Bhikkhu Sujato, SuttaCentral, 2018: https://suttacentral.net/mn. Also: The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya. Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu and Bhikkhu Bodhi, Somerville: Wisdom, 1995.
Mm	=	Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra. The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra. Translated into English by K. Yamamoto, Taisho Tripitaka Vol. 12: 374, 1973. Also: Yamamoto, K., and T. Page. 2007. The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra. Tr. K. Yamamoto. Edited and revised by T. Page. http://lirs.ru/do/Mahaparinirvana_Sutra,Yamamoto,Page,2007.pdf
Mp	=	Milinda Pañha. The Debate of King Milinda. Edited by Bhikkhu Pesala, published by Motilal Banarsidass in 1991, revised 1998, Inward Path: Penang, 2001. Online PDF edition updated in August 2021. http://www.aimwell.org/milinda.html. Also: tr. I. B. Horner, Milinda’s Questions, 2 vols, London, Pali Text Society, 1969. Also: tr. T. W. Rhys Davids, The Questions of King Milinda, 2 vols. Sacred Books of the East, 1890 and 1894. https://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/milinda.htm
PTS	=	Pali Text Society.
Thag	=	Theragāthā (eighth book of the Khuddaka Nikāya). The Verses of the Arahant Talaputa Thera. Translated from the Pali with some reflections by Bhikkhu Khantipalo, Kandy, BPS, 1996.
Rpr	=	Rājaparikathā-ratnamālā. Nagarjuna: Ratnavali. G. Tucci, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1934, pp. 307–325; 1936, pp. 237–252, 423–435.
Sn	=	Saṃyutta Nikāya. The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Saṃyutta Nikāya. Bhikkhu Bodhi, Boston: Wisdom, 2000.
Snp	=	Sutta Nipāta (sutta collection in the Khuddaka Nikāya). Sutta-Nipata (Sacred Books of the East). V. Fausböll, Oxford: Clarendon, 1881. Tr. K. R. Norman, The Group of Discourses, London, PTS, 1984. Also: tr. K. R. Norman, The Group of Discourses Vol.II, London, PTS, 1992, revised translation with introduction and notes.
Vin	=	Vinaya Piṭaka. The Book of the Discipline. 6 vols. Tr. I. B. Horner, London: Pali Text Society, 1938–1966. Reference by volume and page number of Pali Text Society edition of the Pali text.
	=	The authors take full responsibility for their use of translations based on the resources listed above. To find additional source material and translations for comparison, also see: Wikipitaka – The Completing Tipitaka (https://tipitaka.fandom.com/).

Notes

1. Buddhism encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices. This diversity is partly reflected by the different use of scriptures as well as the divergent interpretations of Buddhist traditions according to different lineages or persuasions. While this article focuses on common principles and canonical texts, it also appreciates this complex cultural, historical and philosophical diversity.

2. See Asanga Tilakaratne in this volume.

3. ‘Intention’ widely overlaps with the concept of ‘motivation’. Both terms refer to mental forces behind goal-directed behaviour and are often used interchangeably. This differs from their very narrow legal definitions, which creates a false dichotomy (as is shown in the section on ‘IHL and Buddhist law’). Motivation, however, is a broader concept that is applied in relation to wider background and underlying reasons. Greed and hatred, for example, are often cited as motivations, but would not be used when referring to intentions.

4. See Peter Harvey in this volume.

5. Although there can be cases of culpable carelessness.

6. Cetanā (Sanskrit, Pali) is commonly translated as ‘intention’, ‘motivation’, ‘volition’, ‘purpose’, ‘directionality of mind’ or ‘that which drives one to act’, which all are interrelated concepts. The translation used throughout this article is ‘intention’, which is a suitable term reflecting that the cognitive and purposive aspects of the mind are intertwined and closely interact.

7. For more detailed discussions on this subject, see the work of Prof. Stephen Jenkins – for example, Jenkins (2011).

8. This definition is also consistent with other major dictionaries, such as Merriam-Webster: ‘the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy’ (Merriam-Webster 2021).

9. In a valiant effort to stay in the English language HH the Dalai Lama delineates the Buddhist use of the English word ‘violence’: ‘Violence–Nonviolence demarcation [is] much related to motivation. Any action, even some wrathful action, verbal as well as physical action, motivated by compassion, sense of concern of others’ well-being, essentially that is non-violence. … So, physical level, violence, but that sort of violence is permissible’ (Dalai Lama 2009).

10. See, for example, the Manu-smṛti: ‘People think that agriculture is something wholesome. Yet it is an occupation condemned by good people; the plough with an iron tip lacerates the ground as well as creatures living in it’ (Olivelle 2004, 212).

11. In Jainism one finds a more critical perspective on agriculture.

12. See, for example, Frydenlund (2017).

13. See, for example, Gethin (2007, 73–74).

14. For example, Schmithausen (1999, 53) describes this as an almost schizophrenic ‘compartmentalisation of values’, where Buddhists say one thing and do another.

15. See P. D. Premasiri in this volume.

16. For example: ‘Those who administer torture and maiming are called kings’ (Vin.III.46–47).

17. See, for example: Dn.17, 26; An.7.62; and Sn.55.1.

18. We find much evidence, though, that the use of one’s armed forces is not always the best way to defend the country against invaders and that when one can lead by virtue and prevent bloodshed one should always do so – such as in the Seyya Jātaka (Jat.282) and Mahāsīlava Jātaka (Jat.51).

19. See Christina Kilby in this volume.

20. Mahākaccāna (Sanskrit: Mahākātyāyana) is one of the Buddha’s ten principal disciples.

21. See Asanga Tilakaratne in this volume.

22. Even the much-quoted Kakacūpama Sutta (The Simile of the Saw) does not preclude monks from skilful self-defence: ‘Monks, even if bandits were to carve you up savagely, limb by limb, with a two-handled saw, he among you who let his heart get angered even at that would not be doing my bidding. Even then you should train yourselves: “Our minds will be unaffected and we will say no evil words. We will remain sympathetic, with a mind of goodwill, and with no inner hate. We will keep pervading these people with an awareness imbued with goodwill and, beginning with them, we will keep pervading the all-encompassing world with an awareness imbued with goodwill – abundant, enlarged, immeasurable, free from hostility, free from ill will.” That’s how you should train yourselves’ (Mn.21; PTS Pali I.129).

23. ‘[M]otive is ulterior intention – the intention with which an intentional act is done. Intention, when distinguished from motive, relates to the means, motive to the end; yet the end may be the means to another end, and the word “intention” is appropriate to such medial end. Much of what men do involves a chain of intention’ (Williams 1961, 48).

24. The Milinda Pañha, according to the Burmese Pali Canon the eighteenth book of the Khuddaka Nikāya, provides many examples for the use of military imagery when conveying important spiritual messages.

25. Kautilya in his Arthaśāstra, ancient India’s seminal treatise on statecraft, economics and military affairs, repeatedly affirms the supreme military importance of elephants. For instance, ‘A king’s victory is principally dependent on elephants. For elephants, with their huge-sized bodies and being capable of life-destroying acts, can annihilate an enemy’s soldiers, battle formations, forts, and camps’ (As.2.2.13–14).

26. For example, in the Ajanta frescoes (Cave 17) one can see three archers on top of the elephants.

27. The elephant’s power to clear anything in its path is also reflected in the Hindu traditions where one finds the elephant-headed Ganeśa as the remover of obstacles (Vighneśvara).

28. In early Vedic times, Indra is described as riding a chariot, but in the later Vedic period he acquires Airāvata as his vahana (‘that which carries, that which pulls’). Notably, the decline of the chariot in warfare, rapidly being replaced by the elephant corps as the elite unit of the armed forces, and also the increased prestige of riding one’s mount (as a king on his elephant), is mirrored in Dharmic symbolism by deities acquiring their individual vahana (Trautmann 2015, 100).

29. To the present day, Southeast Asian Theravāda States still maintain the tradition to identify white elephants, either albino or particularly fair-skinned, as symbols of power and good fortune for the State.

30. Such as safeguarding the integrity of one’s country’s territory and population.

31. In 2007, the First Armed Forces Buddhist Conference was organised in the UK at Amport House, the Tri-service Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre.

32. A well-known UK-born monk trained in the Thai Forest Tradition and the abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery in Australia.

33. Incidentally, these five are also covered in two Jain canonical texts, where Mahāvīra lays out 15 types of prohibited trading commodities (Jaini 1979, 172).

34. According to the Milinda Pañha weapons are not allowed to be gifted either: ‘There are ten sorts of gifts, Nâgasena, in the world that are commonly disapproved of as gifts. And what are the ten? Strong drink, Nâgasena, and festivals in high places, and women, and buffaloes, and suggestive painting, and weapons, and poison, and chains, and fowls, and swine, and false weights and measures’ (Mp. PTS 278–279).

35. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries brought the emergence of entirely new forms of highly destructive weapons. In a series of texts analysed by Venturi (2014), the 13^th Dalai Lama uses a range of Buddhist tenets to express his conviction that the development of modern weapons and military forces are essential in the protection of the State.

36. See, for example, Soka Gakkai’s longstanding work promoting nuclear disarmament (more on this in Daiki Kinoshita’s article in this volume). The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement started its call for a ban on nuclear weapons in 1945.

37. This is the formulation of the Martens Clause used in Article 1(2) of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949.

38. One might hope that minimising harm would also be the central objective in arms development.

39. See, for example, Bosco (2014) and Kent (2008).

40. In four discourses from the Aṅguttara Nikāya, which are each called Yodhājīva Sutta (An.3.133, 4.181, 5.75, 5.76), the Buddha lays out desirable traits found in soldiers that also monks should emulate: ‘Bhikkus(Monks), possessing four factors, a warrior is worthy of a king, an accessory of a king, and reckoned a factor of kingship. What four? Here, a soldier is skilled in places, a long-distance shooter, a sharp-shooter, and one who splits a great body. Possessing these four factors, a soldier is worthy of a king, an accessory of a king, and reckoned a factor of kingship’ (An.5.75). He compares the victorious monk to a victorious soldier, ‘who can handle the cloud of dust, the top of the enemy’s banner, the tumult, and hand-to-hand combat’ (An.5.75) and ‘who taking his sword and shield, strapping on his bow and quiver – goes down into the thick of battle’ (An.5.76).

41. Cf. Peter Harvey in this volume.

42. ‘Now there is the person who has killed living beings here … has had wrong view. And on the dissolution of the body, after death, he reappears in a happy destination, in the heavenly world. But (perhaps) the good kamma producing his happiness was done by him earlier, or the good kamma producing his happiness was done by him later, or right view was undertaken and completed by him at the time of his death’ (Mn.136; PTS.III.214).

43. ‘Elephant troops and chariotmen, guard royal, infantry – I took no toll of daily dole, but paid them all their fee’ (Jat.462).

44. ‘Then the Great Being said, “O king, if you wish to reach the world of the gods (angels) and enjoy divine happiness there, you must practise these ten duties: … fulfill your duty, warrior king, … to your soldiers with their different arms”’ (Jat.540).

45. For examples of how certain provisions could apply equally to one’s own troops as to the enemy, see Nicholson (2015) and Vishakha Wijenayake in this volume.

46. From 4 to 6 September 2019, approximately 120 participants from around the world gathered in Dambulla, Sri Lanka, for a conference on ‘Reducing Suffering During Armed Conflict: The Interface Between Buddhism and International Humanitarian Law (IHL)’. The conference was organised by the ICRC in collaboration with a number of universities and organisations, including Buddhist scholars, monks, legal experts and military personnel from the Theravāda, Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna traditions.

47. A recognition of this is reflected by the fact that both Buddhist leaders and soldiers who have been involved in wars often attempt to counteract negative karmic effects by engaging in compensatory acts of merit, such as alms giving or the building of pagodas.

48. See Vin.III.53 and 75, and Harvey (1999, 280).

49. See, for example, the account of General Sīha crushing Ajātaśatru’s forces in Wu (2019).

50. Also in the rigorous ahiṃsā tradition of the Jains one finds examples of warriors who had taken enemy lives in battle and attained heaven afterwards, in one case partly due to the ‘resolve not to be the first to strike but to fight only in self-defence’ (Wu 2015, 106).

51. See Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣya IV.72c–d: La Vallée Poussin (1923–1931 and Zhang (2009).

52. For an exploration of siege warfare as found in the Jātakas see Nishara Mendis in this volume.

53. The comparison to surgeons is also made in the modern military term ‘surgical strike’, which denotes military attacks intended to damage legitimate military targets with no or minimal collateral damage.

54. See, for example, Tatz (1994, 73–76).

55. This is also reflected by the name of the monastic regulations, the Vinaya (‘Discipline’).

56. For more on research regarding the use of meditation in military training see Charya Samarakoon in this volume.

57. For more on the role of Buddhist ethics in meditation and on the use of Koan practice in military environments see Noel Trew in this volume.

58. ‘Martial arts’ is a broad term covering a variety of codified traditions that originated as methods of combat and incorporate certain mental or spiritual qualities. For more on the historical congruences between Buddhism and martial arts see Bartles-Smith et al. (2021).

59. See, for example, Harwood, Lavidor and Rassovsky (2017).

60. See, for example, Mann (2012).

61. ‘An exclusive focus on the law is not as effective at influencing behaviour as a combination of the law and the values underpinning it’ (Terry and McQuinn 2018, 9).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daniel Ratheiser

Daniel Ratheiser is the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Regional Advisor for Humanitarian Affairs in Asia. He pursued international economics and religious sciences at the South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg, George Washington University and University of Maastricht, where he graduated with an MA. He has held various consulting roles in India and China, and taught at the Max Mueller Bhawan. His research covers topics ranging from historical cultural exchange to contemporary interfaith relations, focusing on cultural relations between China and the Indian subcontinent.

Sunil Kariyakarawana

Sunil Kariyakarawana obtained his BA honours degree (first class) in linguistics, literature and philosophy from the University of Kelaniya in 1983. In 1985, he won the Commonwealth Postgraduate scholarship offered by the Commonwealth Association of Canada and completed his master's in theoretical linguistics at the University of Ottawa. He has been lecturing on Buddhism, philosophy, theoretical linguistics and cognitive science for over 20 years at several universities including University of Kelaniya Sri Lanka, City University of London, Cardiff University in Wales, University College London, Cornell University New York, and Rikkyo University Tokyo. He is also providing spiritual/pastoral advice and guidance to the Ministry of Defence as well as other government departments in the United Kingdom and was the first Buddhist Chaplain to His Majesty’s British Armed Forces.