Buddhism and Human Rights One

Buddhism and Human Rights One of the most discussed subjects since the beginning of time is "world peace." Ideas that could eventually lead to it have been suggested by almost everyone. Mankind has been dedicated to fight for its rights and even more than that since the early ages. However, as people started to see the damages provoked by conflicts, they've also started to look into the concept of peace as a necessity.

Religion has always claimed to have promoted peace and has always fought to maintain the concept in the world, although it has also caused many wars in the history of mankind. Buddhism particularly is dedicated to discouraging conflicts and to helping people in finding the right way towards a peaceful living. Human rights today are frequently disregarded in many parts of the world, and, because of this, innocent people suffer.

The human rights have been issued in order to insure that all men are treated equally, so that individuals would not be deprived of their basic rights. The early documents referring to a law that would defend human rights date from before our era. One of the first major documents that would involve the giving of equal rights to all of the citizens is the Magna Carta issued in 1215.

Approximately everyone promotes world peace today, and it would practically be enough for one to claim that he or she stands for "world peace" in order for them to look good in the eyes of others. Even if you are a model that wants to win a beauty contest by asserting that you "fight" for world peace, you would normally agree that the concept of peace is indeed good for the world.

Hence, the humans are most probably committed to attaining peace, regardless of the fact that it might seem like an untouchable dream. With globalization and evolution, the world has experienced an almost irreversible change and has left behind most of the violence that once used to be. As people and civilizations began to evolve, wars had become more frequent and the fighting for land had become the principal motive for the conflicts between nations.

However, with the ending of the two world wars and the cold war, people had become more sensitive at the atrocities that their fellow humans could commit in the name of any cause, no matter how just their declared intentions. The occurrences, along with anti-war propaganda, have helped in putting a stop to most of the conflicts between nations.

In spite of the fact that the probability of another major war breaking out is very little, conflicts are still taking place, and the world has a long way to go in order to reach a state of complete peace. The reason for that is that wars are still happening throughout the world, even if on a smaller scale. A war does not necessarily have to be a conventional one, fought between two countries, nowadays. It can be started by the slightest demonstration of a violent fight between two individuals.

for, as long as people will stick to their beliefs at all costs and refrain from attempting to change them or just understand the opposite party's point-of-view, world peace will not be achieved. There have been several attempts of people and governments trying to change the world and make it a better place. However, most of the attempts have failed, as the masses generally tend to pay more attention to their financial problems than to the war that are being fought throughout the world.

As peace has its supporters, war has its supporters, too and they are as keen of promoting war and its advantages as any good supporter would be. Most of those that support war are doing so mainly because of the fact that they consider war to be beneficial for the thriving of economy. According to various sources, if all wars would be ended forever, some vital parts of the world's economic system would certainly be destroyed (About.com).

A comprehensible explanation for the benefit of wars is that some people working in the military business depend directly on precisely the conflicts they are involved in. In conditions of economic recession, reports indicate that the U.S. Army plans of enrollment have over passed their target for the year 2008. Economic reasons are the best incentives ever and they seem to prevail over any other considerations.

Clearly, nobody wishes for people to die in wars, and most people tend to abstain from encouraging others to go to war, but on the other side, many are not prepared to give up their financial gains from their involvement in some kind of military combat. In its essence, war can be understood as a necessary evil in order for some exceptional goals to be reached.

On the other hand, if all of the resources used by the military would be used for other beneficial and peaceful projects, people would most certainly benefit from the action. Great philosophers have argued that war has no real advantage ever since the early ages. With the forming of the U.N. In 1945, nations had been theoretically forbidden of using the state of war as an economic advantage.

The Cold War is believed to have been fought as a mean to create a balance of power and to put an end to any other world war. Globalization is one of the main factors leading to world peace mostly because, through it, people peacefully communicate with each other regardless of their ethnicity, religion, or skin color. Because of globalization, people have become more acquainted with the concept of peace, and a state of unity has been created in the world.

Even with the great leap in evolution that humankind has made and with international relationships becoming better, there are examples that mankind still cannot live without making war. Most of the wars have moved into third-world countries, as their residents are inclined to be dissatisfied with their social and economic position. The UN has been devoted to provide assistance to developing countries and to countries that have experienced a state of warfare.

The United Nations Development Program has been created to help countries which are in an unbalanced economic or political situation. Several countries have benefited from UNDP's assistance and have experienced visible progress since then. Religion holds great importance when referring to supporters of the human rights for it has protected people and condemned those that have made abuse of their authority. Lots of people have gone and tried to make peace in the world through various methods.

Apart from the holly wars, religion has mainly been dedicated to combating warfare as it does not agree with the concept of war as being a necessity. Most religious people consider that any war could have been avoided if people were to consider all of their options before having gone to war.

Religion has is flaws also, for it can be understood or translated to the rest of the people in a wrong way by some of its supporters and it can be used exactly for the opposite of any peacemaking intentions. One of the oldest and on top ten of the major religions of the world is Buddhism. Like all other religions, Buddhism is unique in its essence and its history goes back to the early teachers promoting it.

The religion is based on intense meditation from its followers in order for them to reach to highest states of purification. Buddhism's early stages go back between 563 BC and 483 BC when a man named Siddhartha Gautama had lived. In spite of the fact that he had been born within an Indian clan as its prince, he had chosen to separate from his family's traditions and create a whole new ideology.

The newly formed doctrine had been assigned the name of Buddhism and it had begun to gather more and more followers. Buddhism had been attractive to the masses due to the fact that it promoted much higher states of mind than other Indian ideologies from the time. Near the end of his life, Siddhartha (or Buddha, as his followers had called him) had claimed that during his life, he had wanted his followers to learn about pain and how to end it.

Because of his teaching being closely related to suffering, there were some critics stating that Siddhartha had created an ideology which had a pessimistic touch. In truth, as one can see from Buddha's early teachings, his intention had been for people to understand the effect in order to stop the cause. The real ideology that Buddhism had been promoting was that people should reach a state of mind where suffering would no longer be present.

For that, they would need to better understand all of the stages in life that are related to suffering and no longer accept them as being unavoidable. According to Jan Willis, Buddhism has Four Noble Truths: 1. There is suffering (duhkha). 2. There is a cause of suffering (duhkha-samudaya). 3. There is the cessation of suffering (duhkha-nirodha); and 4. There is a path leading to the cessation of suffering (duhkha-nirodha-marga)." (Willis) In Buddha's opinion, suffering (duhka) can be represented through any kind of pain and regardless of its form.

The best representation of suffering can be presumably felt when a change from a state of happiness to a state of unhappiness occurs. The cause of suffering (duhka-samudaya) states that most of the suffering that humans feel is because of their desires. Most humans are inclined to wish for something that they believe would grant them happiness. However, in most cases, the goal set by some might not have the desired effect on them once it has been achieved.

In order for people to leave suffering behind, they would need to understand that the human nature does not necessarily depend on granted wishes. The cessation of suffering (duhka-nirodha) refers directly to people liberated from suffering and to their state which is called Nirvana. Few people actually knew the true meaning of Nirvana until the more recent ages. Nirvana had been believed to be reached only through death.

However, Buddhists had been aware that the true meaning of Nirvana had been referring to a state in which people would leave their previous teachings behind. With people being set free of their limited conceptions and their prejudgments, they would be able to reach the sacred Nirvana. Thus, Buddhism only advises people to abandon their false preconceptions and to overcome their limits. On the path leading to the cessation of suffering (duhka-nirodha-marga), people are being presented with the method of escaping suffering.

The contract of freeing people from suffering implies the fact that people should learn that their previous concepts in life had been inadequate. With that, the first step on the path of liberation from suffering would be achieved. After taking the crucial first step, people would need to enter into deep states of meditation and practice. Consequent to the meditation, people would reach the state that Siddhartha had reached and they would feel enlightened by the divine.

Buddhism had begun to spread throughout India with a high speed as people embraced the ideology for its remarkable methods and for the meditations that it required. Not long after Siddhartha's death, Buddhism was spreading out of India and across portions of Asia. Recent studies have determined that there are over 300 million Buddhists all over the world. Buddhism does not depend on ethnicity or skin color, as there are all kinds of people that have chosen the way of Buddha.

The Buddhist religion is one of the most important promoters of the concept of peace as it relates to people keeping a non-combative character. Siddhartha had been concerned about rescuing mankind from one of its most terrible problems. The respective problem has three distinct parts: 1. Man vs. nature 2. Man vs. Man 3. Man vs. himself" (Dr. P.K. Sundaram) In Dr. Sunderam's opinion, the last of Siddhartha's issues when concerning the rescuing of mankind is also the most important of the three.

Its importance is based on the fact that once a man can win the battle with his most inner and darkest thoughts, it would be easier for him or her to succeed in any other battles. One would then have control of all of one's thoughts and actions, with no more impediments standing in the way towards finding peace. Buddhism states that only humans can decide if they want to go to war or if they choose to live in peace.

Furthermore, Buddhism teaches that the future has not been already written and that humans can give it shape at any time they want. Buddhism, as an ideology, is intended to help people win the battle with themselves in order for peace to be present everywhere. As Buddha had stated, the way to find peace is to understand the concept of peace and to understand the thing that people need to let go of in order for peace to prevail.

For world peace to exist, every single person would have to find it. However, most people would agree that attaining permanent peace would be an impossible task for an ordinary human being. It would be enough for most people if just a tiny portion of the concept of world peace would be obtained. For total world peace to exist, people would need to meditate deeply and find the causes that stop peace from becoming a palpable and permanent reality.

In Buddha's opinion, all people are part of a single whole which would lead to world peace once all the people unite. In Buddhism, all of life's stages are owed to karma and it can determine any of the occurrences in one's life. The past actions of all people can decide their faith in the present. According to Damien V. Keown, Buddhism has no direct connection to political, ethical, and philosophical problems with reference to human rights when studying Buddhist lectures.

(Keown) One of the most feasible reasons for the occurrence would be that there has been no clear case regarding such matters in Buddhist history. Some believe that Buddhism might have become too traditional for the modern world and its problems. Apparently, Buddhist teachers would need to adapt their teachings so that they would comply with the most difficult problems that the world faces today.

One of the most obvious situations when Buddhists have been put face-to-face with the violation of human rights is the case of Chinese atrocities in Tibet. One of the most notorious Buddhist public figures to have stood in front of the Chinese government has been the Dalai Lama. His Holiness has chosen to approach the problem with a strategy of non-violent resistance. The act has made him a hero for the world and has brought him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

The first state of affairs that brought together Buddhism and human rights goes back in 1956 when Hindu B.R. Ambedkar had chosen to leave Hinduism in favor of Buddhism. His act had triggered a mass conversion and approximately four million other Hindu people had left Hinduism along with Ambedkar. Ambedkar and the rest of the Hindu had chosen to leave Hinduism for the reason that the religion had failed in most occasions from assuring the basic human rights to its followers.

Ambedkar's choice has been determined by the fact that Buddhism seemed like the only viable alternative to Hinduism in India at the time. Christianity had been another of Ambedkar's options, but he decided to deny it for the fact that it did not seem to provide much help to its community when concerning human rights. In Ambedkar's opinion, there is a strong link between democracy and human rights, and both concepts refer to the respect between fellow humans. Unlike Hinduism, Buddhism did not make a difference between upper and lower.