The Buddha and the Terrorist

The Buddha and the Terrorist
Author: Satish Kumar
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Total Pages: 140
Release: 2006-01-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1565125207

A re-telling of a traditional Indian story with a powerful message about good and evil, justice and forgiveness, by a prominent peace activist, recounts the story of a confrontation between a man committed to peace and nonviolence and another dedicated to violence.

The Buddha and the Terrorist

The Buddha and the Terrorist
Author: Satish Kumar
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 80
Release: 2022-12-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0857845624

Among all the experiences of the Buddha, his eye-to-eye encounter with a terrorist is perhaps the most relevant and vital for those of us caught in the binds of the early 21st century. Once upon a time in northern India, there lived a violent and fearsome outcaste called Angulimala ('necklace of fingers'). He terrorised towns and villages in order to try to gain control of the state, murdering people and adding their fingers to his gruesome necklace. The Buddha set out to meet Angulimala, and with the power of love and compassion he persuaded him to renounce violence and take responsibility for his past actions. Thus Angulimala was transformed. The Buddha and the Terrorist brings a message for our time about the importance of looking for the root causes of violence, and of finding peaceful means to end terror. This revised edition includes a new Prologue, 'Talking to Terrorists', in which Satish Kumar discusses how we can best deal with the phenomenon of international terrorism. By telling the tale of the pitiless, blood-splattered Angulimala, activist Satish Kumar reminds us that when the Buddha deliberately and compassionately faced real fear, the fear in that real face evaporated.

Buddha Taught Nonviolence, Not Pacifism

Buddha Taught Nonviolence, Not Pacifism
Author: Paul R. Fleischman
Publisher: Pariyatti Publishing
Total Pages: 59
Release: 2002-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1928706223

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, this thought-provoking essay explores the Buddha's teaching to find one prescription: not war, not pacifism but nonviolence.

Zen Terror in Prewar Japan

Zen Terror in Prewar Japan
Author: Brian Daizen Victoria
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 389
Release: 2020-02-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1538131676

Written by a Zen priest, this book explodes the myth of Zen Buddhism as a peaceful religion. Can Buddhism, widely regarded as a religion of peace, also contribute to acts of terrorism? Through an insider’s view of right-wing ultranationalism in prewar Japan, this powerful book follows a band of Zen Buddhist–trained adherents who ardently believed so. Brian Victoria, himself a Zen priest, tells the story of a group of terrorists who were responsible for the assassination of three leading political and economic figures in 1932. Victoria provides a detailed introduction to the religious as well as political significance of the group’s terrorist beliefs and acts, focusing especially on the life and times of the band’s leader, Inoue Nisshō. A deeply troubled youth, Inoue became a spy in Manchuria for the Japanese Army in 1909, where he encountered Zen for the first time. When he returned to Japan in 1921, he determined to resolve his deep spiritual discontent through meditation practice, which culminated in an enlightenment experience that resolved his long-term doubts.After engaging in “post-enlightenment training” under the guidance of Rinzai Zen master Yamamoto Gempō, Inoue began a program of training the “patriotic youth” who formed the nucleus of his terrorist band. After the assassinations, Inoue and his band were sentenced to life imprisonment, only to be released just a few years later in 1940. Almost unbelievably, Inoue then became the live-in confidant of Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro, a position he held through the end of WWII. In the postwar era, Inoue reinvented himself again as the founder and head of yet another band of ultranationalists known as the “National Protection Corps.” His eventful life came to an end in 1967. Victoria concludes with an assessment of the profound impact of the assassinations, which culminated in Japan’s transformation into a totalitarian state and set the stage for Pearl Harbor. The author also examines the connection of Buddhism to terrorism more broadly, considering the implications for today’s Islamic-related terrorism.

Killing the Buddha

Killing the Buddha
Author: Peter Manseau
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2004-10-04
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 9780743232777

Religion & beliefs.

Buddha's Warriors

Buddha's Warriors
Author: Mikel Dunham
Publisher: Penguin Books India
Total Pages: 452
Release: 2005
Genre: Tibet (China)
ISBN: 9780144001040

The Chinese Invasion And Occupation Of Tibet Has Been One Of The Great Tragedies. More Than A Million People Have Died As A Result. An Ancient Culture With Its Buildings, Literature, And Artifacts Has Been Largely Destroyed. In Kham, Eastern Tibet, In Particular, Where People Retained The Warrior-Like Qualities Of Old, Groups Of Men Banded Together To Oppose The Chinese By Force&. And I Am Glad That Mikel Dunham Has Been Able To Tell These Brave Men S Story In This Book, Much As They Told It To Him. His Holiness The Dalai Lama, From The Foreword In The Last Sixty Years, Tibet Has Been So Mythologized And Politicized That The Outside World Remains Confused About What Really Happened When Mao Tse-Tung Invaded In 1950. Buddha S Warriors Is The Story Of The Tens Of Thousands Of Tibetans Who Violently Resisted The Bloody Occupation Of Their Country And The Desecration Of All That Was Holy To Them. From The Farthest Reaches Of Tibet Kham, Amdo And Golok The Most Feared Tribes In Asia Mounted Their Warhorses And Rode Together For The First Time In History. By Their Side Were Thousands Of Buddhist Monks Who Renounced Their Vows Of Nonviolence, Grabbed Swords, And In The Name Of Freedom Charged Into Enemy Lines. Tibet S Only Source Of Outside Help Came From A Small Group Of Cia Agents, Who Secretly Trained And Armed The Freedom Fighters. Author Mikel Dunham Spent Seven Years Interviewing The Warriors Who Fought The Chinese, Collecting Stories That Otherwise Would Have Been Lost To History. He Also Befriended The Cia Officers Who Trained The Young Tibetans. These Firsthand Accounts Bring Faces And Deeply Personal Emotions To The Forefront Of The Ongoing Tragedy Of Tibet. Buddha S Warriors Is A Sweeping History Of A Nation And An Ancient Culture Under Siege. The Saga Of The Tibetan Resistance Movement Is One Of Brave Soldiers And Cowardly Traitors, Courage Against Repression, Buddhism Against Atheism, And, Ultimately, Of What Happens To An Isolated Civilization When It Is Thrust Almost Overnight Into The Horrors Of Modern-Day Warfare.

The Trail to Buddha’s Mirror

The Trail to Buddha’s Mirror
Author: Don Winslow
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2023-09-19
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1504763033

30th Anniversary Edition with a new introduction by the author Robert Pendleton is a chemical genius with a fertilizer worth a fortune to whoever controls the formula. Not surprisingly, the Bank, his notoriously exclusive backer, wants to keep an eye on its investment. But so does the CIA. And the Chinese government. And a few shadier organizations. So when Pendleton disappears from a conference in San Francisco, along with all of his research, Neal Carey enters the picture. Neal knows the Bank is calling in its chips in return for paying his grad school bills. He thinks this assignment will be a no-brainer until he meets the beguiling Li Lan and touches off a deadly game of hide-and-seek that will lead him from San Francisco’s Chinatown to the lawless back streets of Hong Kong, and finally into the dark heart of China. In a world where no one is what they seem, Neal must unravel the mystery of a beautiful woman and reach the fabled Buddha’s Mirror, a mist-shrouded lake where all secrets are revealed.

Buddhism and Violence

Buddhism and Violence
Author: Vladimir Tikhonov
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2012
Genre: History
ISBN: 0415536960

It is generally accepted in the West that Buddhism is a 'peaceful' religion. This volume demolishes this stereotype, and produces instead a coherent account of the modern Buddhist attitudes towards violence and warfare, which take into consideration both doctrinal logic of Buddhism and the socio-political situation in Asian Buddhist societies. The chapters in this book offer a deep analysis of 'Buddhist militarism' and Buddhist attitudes towards violence, grounded in an awareness of Buddhist doctrines and the recent history of nationalism. The international team of contributors includes scholars from Thailand, Japan, and Korea.

Anil's Ghost

Anil's Ghost
Author: Michael Ondaatje
Publisher: Vintage Canada
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2010-10-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307375897

Winning a Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize, Anil’s Ghost is another award-winning novel from Michael Ondaatje. Steeped in centuries of cultural achievement and tradition, Sri Lanka has been ravaged in the late twentieth century by bloody civil war. Anil Tissera, born in Sri Lanka but educated in England and the U.S., is sent by an international human rights group to participate in an investigation into suspected mass political murders in her homeland. Working with an archaeologist, she discovers a skeleton whose identity takes Anil on a fascinating journey that involves a riveting mystery. What follows, in a novel rich with character, emotion, and incident, is a story about love and loss, about family, identity and the unknown enemy. And it is a quest to unlock the hidden past—like a handful of soil analyzed by an archaeologist, the story becomes more diffuse the farther we reach into history. A universal tale of the casualties of war, unfolding as a detective story, the book gradually gives way to a more intricate exploration of its characters, a symphony of loss and loneliness haunted by a cast of solitary strangers and ghosts. The atrocities of a seemingly futile, muddled war are juxtaposed against the ancient, complex and ultimately redemptive culture and landscape of Sri Lanka.