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The Concept of Pancasila in Indian Thought
in the same place as a lion, tiger or wolf etc."1 Further it is said, "As greed is an 'hindrance to emancipation so are meateating, liquor etc. hindrances.”2 Though the Lankāvatārasūtra is much later than the Vinaya texts and the flesh eating is disregarded only later on, yet it can also be ascertained that, even in the Buddha's time, there might have been some monks who were totally against the eating of flesh whose view later on was adopted by the Mahāyānists.
Another important issue to be discussed in this light is war. In the scriptures there is no direct reference to this problem, but from certain sources some rational conclusion cin be drawn. In the description of the Buddha's fight with Māra, the personification of evil, the Buddha is said to have compared himself with the King, who rules his own kingdom with righteousness (virtue) but cannot tolerate the aggression caused by the envious enemies and goes out to wage war against them. This reflects the idea that undue aggression should not and cannot be tolerated from both social and religious angles. The main emphasis is laid on the cause of the war. Here a famous illustration of Asoka can be cited, who after establishing himself in Buddhism completely withdrew himself from the battle of Kalinga in which lakhs of people shed their blood, and stopped the war once for all (the reason for this lies in non-violence); but this does not go against the previous view that the waging of war for a right cause is not denounced in Buddhism. Asoka's attitude was not only that of passivity, he in fact tried to check his ambitiousness; this in other words is an illustration of non-attachinent for worldly gains for which all Srananical systems including Buddhism stand
1. Lankāvatāra sūtra, 8.23. 2 Ibid. 8.20.
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