Psychology & Buddhism.pdf

268 David W. Chappell
conducted, and concluded with consensus. The modern code words for this activity
are nurturing diversity and dialogue.
Based on Buddhist principles, violence is not an option for Buddhists. In
1967, after a four-month period in which six members of the School of Youth for
Social Service (founded by Thich Nhat Hanh) were killed and others wounded,
the staff and students read this pledge at a funeral:
Now, once again, we solemnly promise never to hate those who kill us, above all
never to use violence to answer violence, even if the antagonists see us as enemies
and kill until they annihilate us. We recall our pledge that people, no matter what
their origins, never are our enemies. ... Help us to keep steadily this non-violent
mind in our social work by love that asks nothing in return. (Forest, 1987, p. 7;
Chan, 1993)
Thich Nhat Hanh emphasizes that the enemies of Buddhists are not other people.
The enemies are greed, anger, and ignorance. The enemies are patterns of denial
and structures of privilege. The enemies are silence and fear. The enemies are not
other people, but cognitive, psychological, and social processes.
Human Rights and Buddhist Social Morality
Dialogue is not enough. Dialogue requires mutual respect, equality, and
willing partners. As long as governments or corporations control the media, communication
technology will not bring peace, parity, and freedom. Modern technology
in this century has facilitated the brutality of dictators as well as the
compassion of peacemakers. Dialogue is a practice that needs a suitable context.
Note, for example, that Jiang Zemin has refused to meet with the Dalai Lama.
Aung San Suu Kyi is still under police restrictions in Myanmar (Burma). Willing
dialogue partners are not there.
Buddhist morality is not enough. The Buddhist precepts apply to individual
purity and the Mahayana bodhisattva precepts offer only general encouragement
for universal compassion, caring for the sick, and treating all people, including
enemies, as family relatives. However, the special problems of organized society,
of structural violence, of social oppression and environmental degradation, are not
adequately addressed (Chappell, 1996, 1999c). In his acceptance speech for the
1989 Nobel Peace Prize (as cited in Piburn, 1990, pp. 17-18), the Dalai Lama said:
Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying
of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of
conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods
caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring country. Peace can only last
where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals
and nations are free. ...