The Buddhist Bomb

In the years since, extremists have come to view Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal as the Islamic bomb. Perhaps they’re simply justifying their designs on it, but they hope to use it — hopefully for deterrence only — in the service of the coming caliphate. Aside from that instance, nuclear weapons are seldom considered the property of a religion.

But, if you think about it, besides Islam, Christian countries — the United Sates, Great Britain, and France — have their own nuclear weapons. As do Jews — Israel — and Hindus — India. Isn’t it time Buddhism obtained its own bomb?

http://thefastertimes.com/nukesandotherwmd...-buddhist-bomb/

Buddha’s Savage Peace

Buddhism holds an exalted place in the half-informed Western mind. Whereas Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism are each associated, in addition to their thought, with a rich material culture and a defended territory, Buddhism, despite its great monuments and architectural tradition throughout the Far East, is somehow considered purer, more abstract, and almost dematerialized: the most peaceful, austere, and uncorrupted of faiths, even as it appeals to the deeply aesthetic among us. Hollywood stars seeking to find themselves—famously Richard Gere—become Buddhists, not, say, orthodox Jews.

Yet Buddhism, as Kandy demonstrates, is deeply materialistic and demands worship of solid objects, in a secure and sacred landscape that has required the protection of a military. There have been Buddhist military kingdoms—notably Kandy’s—just as there have been Christian and Islamic kingdoms of the sword. Buddhism can be, under the right circumstances, a blood-and-soil faith.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200909/sri-lanka

To call something xxx-ist is to use a broad brush. To say that Sri Lanka is a Buddhist state is to acknowledge that it acknowledges some "Buddhist" features in some ways. Having a relic of a tooth is hardly indicative, however, of widespread adherence to Buddhist ethics and practice. Whatever the Sri Lankan constitution or the majority of its people say, "Buddhism" in Sri Lanka doesn't reside in the fact that most people attach this label to themselves. It might if one defines "Buddhism" by the number of temples or stupas or Buddharupas or monks and nuns, but we don't usually define it that way.

It seems that the authors of the two articles are making a "category mistake". They have seen the temples and heard the protestations and have placed them in the "Buddhist" category. But for them this category also includes the State and people behaving badly; hence "Buddhism" can be identified with these things and, perhaps then, needs a bomb. However, if the category "Buddhism" does not include states and armies and bombs there's no sense in talking about a "Buddhist bomb" any more than the "attachments of the Buddha".