I am definitely aware of where there are teachings within Buddhism that advocate for non-violence. Nonetheless, many other teachings within the camp also made room for violence to occur as well. I am reminded of the
Nirvana Sutrana Sutra ... Sri Lanka’s traditional Buddhist leadership, composed of nearly 30,000 monks and known collectively as the sangha, has become more fractured and more political. For centuries, the sangha has been divided into a number of sects and regulated by a high council. The high council was traditionally responsible for dispensing material support from the state and regulating the behavior of the monks in each sect. This
hierarchy ensured a degree of doctrinal consistency across the sects by granting senior monks the authority to discipline their subordinates. ... Many violent Buddhist leaders or sects have drawn upon variations of the
Mahaparinirvana and
Upayakaushalya Sutras, the
Kalachakra Tantra and other Buddhist writings in a wide and
ever-evolving non-static canon to justify their actions. These
scriptures explicitly enjoin believers, under certain conditions, to kill or maim in defense of the Buddhist faith, to spread Buddhist beliefs and values, or to prevent the death of other... the 14th
Dalai Lama, admit that their nonviolent ideals exist in a violent world, and
allow some leeway. The Dalai Lama, whose predecessor actually tried to develop and modernize a centralized Tibetan army, notoriously endorsed the
killing of Osama bin Laden and in
2009 described how physical violence could be construed as nonviolence if done with compassion ... In the 20th century, Tibetan monks took up arms and fought bravely against the Chinese troops of the People’s Liberation Army. Earlier in the century, they had fought against British invaders; troops of the
Younghusband expedition took protective amulets, pierced by bullets, off the bodies of the Tibetan dead ... In Japan, during the Second World War, Buddhist monks, especially those of the
Soto Zen ... The
Kalacakra Tantra predicts that in the future, a great Buddhist army will sweep down from the Himalayas to defeat the barbarians who had driven the dharma from India long ago.... In
tantric Buddhism, so-called “liberation” rites are performed to liberate (that is, kill) one’s enemies.
The great Tibetan translator Ra Lotsawa used such rites to murder the son of Marpa, the teacher of Milarepa. Farther east, when Korea was facing an invasion from Tang China in 670, the Korean thaumaturge
Myongnang used powerful spells (mantra) he received from the undersea Dragon King protector of Buddhism to generate a typhoon that would sink the Chinese flotilla. (It worked.) When the Japanese invaded China in what would become the Second World War, the Chinese invited the
Panchen Lama to come to China and perform tantric rituals in order to repel the invaders. (It didn’t work.)