Buddhism in a Time of War…
I take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, the Mahasangha, community on the quest for knowledge, path of fulfillment. Those are the three jewels of Buddhism, of course, enshrined in the old familiar Pali chant: Buddham saranam gacchami, Dhammam saranam gacchami, Sangham saranam gacchami. (I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Dharma, I take refuge in the Sangha), refuge being the foundational commitment, so much preferable to any other feigned obedience, in my humble opinion, this being voluntary and heartfelt.
Because religion has a bit of a bad reputation in some circles, and Buddhism must answer to those accusations, also, whether it is technically a religion or not. Those claims usually consist of accusations that religions cause war in their respective names with little regard to the consequences. And this is at least partly true but usually comes with the naive assumption that life was always precious and dear before that, and anything that threatened that was guilty of a cardinal sin. But as much as I’d like to believe that, it’s probably not true.
Love of life in any form is probably a very new development, though the so-called ‘Venus figurines’ of ancient history are certainly worth considering. I don’t think those approximate our modern concepts of ‘love’, though, much less ‘lovingkindness’, and I’m not sure but what many men would rather fight to the death than worship peacefully. So Vedic Brahmanism gave up fire rituals as part of its conversation with the Jains and Buddhists on their way to adopting the more enlightened principles of the Upanishads. And the Christians of the New Testament rejected much of the Jewish Old Testament similarly. Maybe it’s time for the next phase in the history of religion: peace, love, and understanding. Be kind. It’s good for your health.
streaming consciousness... 
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