I want to know more about the historical relationship between Buddhism and war, I don't really care about what the Blessed One Himself said regarding the matter of war, but the actual historical relationship between Buddhism and war. A famous book called Zen at War by Brian Victoria gives an account of how Buddhism and the Meiji state interacted during the 19th century, but Japan in particular appears to have a strong Buddhist warrior tradition with the Sohei (picrel).
>>16884801Japan is a Buddhist nation first before "shinto" nation. The samurai culture was created by elites who were into Buddhism and hence the samurais learned Buddhism from the noble men/women they guarded. They found Buddhism to be very useful in their day to day life. For example, Hagakure is one of the famous samurai books known today where it depicts the way of Bushido. "A way of a samurai is found in death, awareness of death, in aspects, everyday, at all times." This is drawn strictly from the standard Buddhist mindfulness (not the McMindfulness packaged for westerners) on various ugly bodily states of dying, of aging, of sickness, of suffering, of mutilations, of ugliness of it in general. That you are to be aware of the state of body at all times. This helped the samurai understand their place in life, in war, in society, as they deal with death at any given moment. But Buddhism in general was heavily suppressed during the Meiji restoration when they destroyed many Buddhist monasteries and disrobed many monks. The ones that survived reformed Buddhism into a lay priest led religion that focused on nationalism, family, and "Japaneseness" aspect. Then they further destroyed many of the remaining temples during the Imperial Japan as Buddhist did not advocate enough for violence. Only those that supported the state warfare survived with leash under the government with heavy nationalistic bent to it. The reason for the purge of Buddhism in Japan was that Japan wanted a national identity that would rival those of western political-state national identity. Buddhism was seen as foreign because it came from China. They create Shinto a state religion to prop up the government and built a national identity around it. This was in the late 19th century.
>>16884922I'll go with India-Buddhism-Ashoka since thats the first encounter of Buddhism and war. Ashoka was a king that united all of India (except tiny corridors of southern India). Basically picture modern day india minus small southern portion + pakistan. He created the Indian nation state that we see today for the most part. (Similar to how Huangdi of Qin created China's state identity). He was raised a Hindu like most Indians during the time. However after one of the bloodiest battle, he sought out Buddhism and decided to take a softer stance on his kingdom. He promoted non-violence, animal welfare, welfare, vegetarianism, hospitals for sick, etc. He created many iron pillars throughout india with his edits many of which included Buddha's teachings.
