Violence and Disruption in Society: A Study of the Early Buddhist Texts

The booklet begins with an Introduction that places the Buddhist discussion of violence against the background of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, nuclear weapons, and modern ideological arguments that attempt to justify violence through utility, revolution, historical necessity, or defensive force. Part 1, “The Forms of Violence,” shows that the Early Buddhist texts were aware of many forms of violence, including war, political punishment, state power, sacrifice, religious self-mortification, verbal controversy, economic exploitation, and social disorder. Part 2, “Reasons for Buddhism’s Attitude to Violence,” explains that violence is rejected because it is akusala, obstructs liberation, harms beings who fear pain and death, violates loving-kindness and compassion, and destroys the possibility of social harmony. Part 3, “The Roots of Violence,” analyzes violence through dependent origination, showing how craving, greed, hatred, delusion, ego-view, individualism, poverty, injustice, and corrupt governance condition violent behaviour and social breakdown. Part 4, “Can Violent Tendencies Be Eradicated?” considers whether transformation is possible through moral discipline, mental cultivation, non-anger, mettā, restraint, wise reflection, and the Noble Eightfold Path. The Conclusion applies these insights to the modern world, especially nuclear violence and structural injustice, arguing that Buddhism offers a disciplined critique of violence while calling individuals and societies toward deeper transformation of both mind and social conditions.