Plato Violence in Socratic Examples

Plato

Violence in Socratic Examples

Others may do violence to living things -- we will do no violence to living things." from the "Sutta on Purifying")

One of the values which appears to be present in Buddhism is the ideal of non-violence. Because the rejection of violence is listed as one of the first steps towards purifying one's mind, it seems important to investigate it. The question is: what makes nonviolence good? It is possible to argue that violence is sometimes the appropriate answer, when it prevents greater harm. For example, one can imagine that a trained martial artist was walking down the street and observed a woman getting raped. The nearest phone is too far away to call for help, and if he asks politely for the rapist to stop, the criminal refuses. In this case, many people would argue that it is more moral to violently intervene to stop a rape than it is to be passive and let someone else suffer. The same sort of example happens on the larger scale, as in wars of intervention, or in cases of capital punishment. How can non-violence be a moral ideal in a world where violent offenders prey on the innocent?

The answer to this is that true Buddhism holds non-violence as an ideal for the soul, but one which does not always reflect pacifism of the body. Chu Hsi writes about how important it is to master one's mind, so that one can always be peaceful and tranquil. Here he is talking about the same ideal of non-violence for the sake of mental purification. Yet he gives a violent example when describing how this tranquility works. He says: "Take, for example, Emperor Shun's execution of the four criminals. They themselves had committed the crimes and Shun, therefore executed them. Did Shun have any personal feeling or selfish desire in the matter?..." So it appears that the important this is not avoiding all forms of violence in the world or in action, but avoiding all forms of violence of the mind. So a martial artist in the above example may be able to intervene violently to stop a rape, and yet do so without any hate or anger in his heart.