Buddhism, Human Rights, and the Pursuit of World Peace

Introduction: World Peace and Human Rights

One of the most discussed subjects since the beginning of recorded history is world peace. Ideas that could eventually lead to it have been suggested by almost everyone. Humankind has been dedicated to fighting for its rights since the early ages. However, as people began to witness the damage provoked by conflicts, they also started to view peace as a necessity rather than a luxury. Religion has always claimed to promote peace and has fought to maintain that ideal in the world, although it has also caused many wars throughout human history.

Buddhism is particularly dedicated to discouraging conflict and to helping people find the right path toward peaceful living. Human rights are frequently disregarded in many parts of the world today, and, because of this, innocent people suffer. Human rights were established to ensure that all people are treated equally and that individuals are not deprived of their basic entitlements. Early documents referring to laws that would defend human rights date from before the common era. One of the first major documents to involve equal rights for all citizens is the Magna Carta, issued in 1215.

Almost everyone promotes world peace today, and it would practically be enough for a person to claim that he or she stands for "world peace" in order to appear virtuous in the eyes of others. Even if the claim comes from someone seeking attention in a public forum, most would agree that peace is genuinely good for the world. Humans are therefore most likely committed — at least in principle — to attaining peace, regardless of whether it seems like an unreachable dream.

With globalization and social evolution, the world has undergone an almost irreversible change and has left behind much of the violence that once defined it. As people and civilizations evolved, wars became more frequent and the struggle for territory became the principal motive for conflict between nations. However, with the conclusion of two world wars and the Cold War, people grew more sensitive to the atrocities that fellow humans could commit in the name of any cause, no matter how just the declared intentions. Those experiences, along with anti-war movements, helped bring most large-scale conflicts between nations to an end.

Despite the low probability of another major world war, conflicts continue, and the world has a long way to go before reaching a state of complete peace. Wars still take place throughout the world, even if on a smaller scale. A war does not necessarily have to be a conventional one fought between two countries. It can begin with the slightest act of violence between individuals. As long as people cling to their beliefs at all costs and refuse to understand opposing points of view, world peace will remain elusive.

There have been several attempts by people and governments to change the world for the better, but most have fallen short, as the masses generally tend to pay more attention to their financial problems than to the wars being fought across the globe.

As peace has its supporters, so too does war. Many who support war do so primarily because they consider it beneficial for economic growth. According to various sources, if all wars were ended permanently, some vital parts of the world's economic system would be disrupted. A straightforward explanation for the economic appeal of war is that many people working in the military sector depend directly on the conflicts they are involved in. In periods of economic recession, for example, reports have indicated that U.S. Army enrollment plans exceeded their targets for the year 2008. Economic reasons appear to be the strongest incentives of all, prevailing over other considerations. Nobody wishes for people to die in wars, and most people abstain from encouraging others to go to war; yet many are not prepared to forfeit the financial gains that come from involvement in military activity.

In its essence, war can be understood as a necessary evil in the pursuit of exceptional goals — or so its proponents argue. On the other hand, if all the resources consumed by the military were redirected toward peaceful and beneficial projects, people would most certainly gain more. Great philosophers have argued that war holds no real advantage since antiquity. With the founding of the United Nations in 1945, nations were theoretically forbidden from using war as an economic instrument. The Cold War is generally understood to have been fought as a means of creating a balance of power and preventing another global conflict.

Globalization is one of the main factors contributing to world peace because it enables people to communicate peacefully across ethnic, religious, and racial boundaries. Through globalization, people have become more acquainted with the concept of peace, and a sense of global unity has gradually emerged.

Even with humankind's great leap forward and the improvement of international relationships, there is still evidence that humanity cannot escape the impulse to make war. Most armed conflicts have shifted to developing countries, whose residents are often deeply dissatisfied with their social and economic circumstances. The UN has devoted considerable effort to providing assistance to developing countries and to those that have experienced warfare. The United Nations Development Programme was created specifically to assist countries in unstable economic or political situations, and several nations have experienced visible progress as a result.

Religion holds great importance when discussing human rights, as it has historically both protected people and condemned those who abused their authority. Apart from the so-called holy wars, religion has mainly been dedicated to opposing warfare, regarding it as fundamentally avoidable. Most religious people believe that any war could have been prevented if all options had been considered beforehand. Religion has its flaws, of course — it can be misinterpreted by some of its followers and used for purposes directly opposite to peacemaking. Nevertheless, one of the world's oldest and most influential religions, Buddhism, has consistently emphasized the pursuit of peace through inner transformation.

Buddhism: Origins and Core Teachings

Buddhism is unique in its essence, and its history reaches back to its earliest teachers and promoters. The religion is grounded in deep meditation, through which followers seek to reach the highest states of mental and spiritual purification.

Buddhism's early stages date to between 563 BC and 483 BC, when a man named Siddhartha Gautama lived. Although born into an Indian ruling clan as its prince, he chose to separate himself from his family's traditions and forge an entirely new ideology. The newly formed doctrine was called Buddhism and quickly gathered more and more followers. Buddhism attracted the masses because it promoted far higher states of mind than other Indian ideologies of the time.

Near the end of his life, Siddhartha — or Buddha, as his followers called him — declared that his life's purpose had been to teach people about pain and how to end it. Because his teachings were so closely tied to suffering, some critics argued that he had created a pessimistic ideology.

In truth, as one can see from Buddha's early teachings, his intention was for people to understand the effect so that they could stop the cause. The real message that Buddhism promoted was that people should reach a state of mind in which suffering would no longer be present. To do so, they would need to understand all of the life stages associated with suffering and to stop accepting them as inevitable.

Buddhism had begun to spread throughout India rapidly as people embraced the ideology for its remarkable teachings and meditative practices. Not long after Siddhartha's death, Buddhism was spreading beyond India and across much of Asia. Recent studies have determined that there are over 300 million Buddhists throughout the world. Buddhism does not depend on ethnicity or skin color; people of all backgrounds have chosen the way of Buddha.

The Four Noble Truths and the Path to Peace

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).
4. There is a path leading to the cessation of suffering (duhkha-nirodha-marga). (Willis)

In Buddha's view, suffering (duhkha) can be represented through any kind of pain, regardless of its form. The clearest representation of suffering is perhaps best felt when a change occurs from a state of happiness to a state of unhappiness.

The cause of suffering (duhkha-samudaya) holds that most human suffering stems from desire. People are inclined to wish for things they believe will grant them happiness. However, in most cases, once the desired goal is achieved, it does not produce the anticipated fulfillment. For people to leave suffering behind, they must understand that human nature does not depend on the fulfillment of wishes.

The cessation of suffering (duhkha-nirodha) refers to the state of liberation known as Nirvana. For a long time, Nirvana was misunderstood to be attainable only through death. Buddhists, however, understood that the true meaning of Nirvana referred to a state in which people release their previous, limiting conceptions. Freed from false preconceptions and prejudgments, a person becomes capable of reaching Nirvana. Buddhism, therefore, advises people to abandon their false ideas and to transcend their self-imposed limits.

On the path leading to the cessation of suffering (duhkha-nirodha-marga), people are presented with the method of escaping suffering altogether. The process begins with accepting that one's previous concepts of life have been inadequate. That recognition constitutes the first crucial step on the path to liberation. After taking it, people enter into deep states of meditation and practice, and through those states, they may eventually reach the enlightenment that Siddhartha himself attained.

The Buddhist religion is one of the most important promoters of peace precisely because it encourages a non-combative character. Siddhartha was deeply concerned with rescuing humankind from what he identified as its most fundamental problems. According to Dr. P.K. Sundaram, these problems have three distinct parts:

1. Man vs. nature
2. Man vs. man
3. Man vs. himself (Dr. P.K. Sundaram)

In Dr. Sundaram's view, the third of these — man versus himself — is the most important. Once a person wins the internal battle with his or her darkest thoughts, succeeding in all other battles becomes more attainable. One gains control over one's thoughts and actions, removing the inner impediments that stand in the way of peace.

Buddhism teaches that only humans can decide whether to go to war or to choose peace. Furthermore, Buddhism holds that the future has not been predetermined and that humans can shape it at any moment. As Buddha stated, the way to find peace is to understand what people must relinquish for peace to prevail. For world peace to exist, every individual would need to find it within themselves.

It would be enough for most people if even a small portion of the concept of world peace were achieved. For total world peace to exist, people would need to meditate deeply and identify the causes that prevent peace from becoming a permanent reality. In Buddha's view, all people are part of a single whole, and peace will be realized once all people unite. In Buddhism, all stages of life are governed by karma, and a person's past actions determine their present circumstances.

Conclusion: Buddhism as a Framework for Peace

Buddhism is known as one of the religions that does not require its followers to complete an unjustified series of ritual duties. In this respect, it departs from traditions that demand groundless tasks of their followers in exchange for divine purification. There have been cases of Buddhist extremists acting aggressively toward people of different religions, and there have been reports of Buddhist people being persecuted for their own religious beliefs. However, these represent exceptions, or the unfortunate decisions of governments that felt threatened by the ideology, rather than a reflection of core Buddhist values.

Ultimately, Buddhism offers a compelling philosophical framework for addressing both the inner causes of conflict and the outer manifestations of human rights violations. Its emphasis on non-violence, compassion, and the equality of all human beings aligns closely with the principles that underpin international human rights standards. While Buddhist doctrine has not always engaged directly with formal political and legal frameworks, the example of the Dalai Lama demonstrates that Buddhist principles can be applied powerfully to contemporary struggles for dignity, freedom, and peace.