Buddhist Attitude!

Respect your own beliefs without in any way being disrespectful or discourteous towards other religions.  To this end, we must establish mutual understanding; mutual cooperation with friendliness towards other religions to achieve religious harmony. The aim of Buddhism is to guide everyone to lead a noble life without harming anyone. Buddhism is a religion which teaches people to “live and let live”. In the history of the world, there is no evidence to show that Buddhists have interfered or done any damage to any other religion in any part of the world for the purpose of introducing their religion. Buddhists do not regard the existence of other religions as a hindrance to worldly progress and peace.

Swimology by S. N . Goenka

Once a young professor was making a sea voyage. He was a highly educated man with a long tail of letters after his name, but he had little experience of life. In the crew of the ship on which he was travelling was an illiterate old sailor.

Every evening, the sailor would visit the cabin of the young professor to listen to him lecture on many different subjects. He was very impressed with the learning of the young man.

The Buddhist Attitude!

People should not pander to their aggressive instincts. They should uphold the ethical teachings of the religious teachers and display justice with morality to enable peace to prevail.

         Treaties, pacts and peace formula have been adopted and millions of words have been spoken by countless world leaders throughout the world who proclaim that they have found the way to maintain and promote peace on earth. But for all their efforts, they have not succeeded in removing the threat to mankind. The reason is that we have all failed to educate our young to truly understand and respect the need for selfless service and the danger of selfishness. To guarantee true peace, we must use every method available to us to educate youths to practice love, goodwill and tolerance towards others.

            Buddhists should not be the aggressors even in protecting their religion or anything else. They must try their best to avoid any kind of violent act. Sometimes they may be forced to go to war by others who do not respect the concept of the brotherhood of humans as taught by the Buddha. They may be called upon to defend their country from external aggression, and as long as they have not renounced the worldly life, they are duty-bound to join in the struggle for peace and freedom. Under these circumstances, they cannot be blamed for becoming soldiers or being involved in defense. However, if everyone were to follow the advice of the Buddha, there would be no reason for war to take place in this world. It is the duty of every cultured person to find all possible ways and means to settle disputes in a peaceful manner, without declaring war to kill his or her fellow human beings.
  The Buddha did not teach His followers to surrender to any form of evil power be it a human or supernatural being.

Interview

Interveiw on the current situation

Buddhismus und Politik

Fragen: Sollten sich budhistische Mönche politisch engagieren?

Antworten: Burma hat eine lange Geschichte von Mönchen, die sich politisch engagieren, wenn es um das Wohl der Menschen geht. Denn jeden Tag essen wir Mönche Mahlzeiten, die gespendet werden von einer Bevölkerung, die zum Großteil in Armut und Unterdrückung lebt.
Sicher wir buddhistischen Mönche sollten nicht an etwas oder jemanden anhaften. Aber wir leben nicht in völliger Isolation. Wir Mönche leben in Kontakt mit den anderen Mitgliedern der Gesellschaft. Begeht nun jemand irgendwelche Taten, die den Frieden und die Harmonie der Gesellschaft stören, wie können wir dann Frieden und Harmonie in uns selbst haben?

GLÜCK

Das Leben ist nicht immer einfach. Es bedarf großer Anstrengung Geld zu verdienen damit wir es bequem und luxuriös haben. Was auch immer wir tun, tun wir hauptsächlich um glücklich zu sein. Sogar Religion betreiben wir um glücklich zu sein. Werden wir es auch?

Einige Menschen denken dass ein Partner, ein guter geistesverwandter Partner, eine Quelle von Glück ist, und dies kann er tatsächlich auch einige Zeit sein. Die wahre Quelle von Glück findet man aber auch in einer Partnerschaft nicht. Wenn wir aus irgendeinem Grund getrennt sind, was früher oder später der Fall sein wird, fühlen wir uns unglücklich.