I am a member of the Albuquerque Insight Meditation Center chat group on Google. And over the months, there has been quite a lot of chatter about the situation in the Middle East. So along those lines, let me share this from a Buddhist perspective.
Disputes usually arise because one side thinks they are right and that the other side is wrong.
But in Buddhism, being right is the booby prize. The important question is, “How can we live together in peace and harmony in a way that benefits everyone.” This is a very different question.
The country of Isarel was founded in 1948. You can do the math on how long ago that was. And the Israelis and their neighbors have been at war off and on ever since.
Now you could take some of the most educated, intelligent people in Israel and the most educated, intelligent people in Palestine and the rest of the Middle East, put them into a room, and ask them to come to a consensus on who is right and who is wrong. Good luck with that.
But you could ask that other question, and you might have a chance of coming to a conclusion.
The Buddha himself made this point in a famous story from the Pāli Canon. I re-tell it in my biography The Life of the Buddha. The chapter is called Kosambi. That is the city where this story took place. I will summarize part of it here.
There was a monastery in Kosambi. The Buddha was staying there at the time. A dispute arose between two monks. One monk accused another monk of a minor transgression. The other monk refused to admit that he had committed the transgression. Over time the dispute escalated to the point where the entire monastery was aligned with one monk or the other.
The Buddha tried to intervene three times. This is what he told them:
When many voices shout at once
None considers himself a fool.
Though the Saṇgha is being split
None thinks himself to be at fault.They have forgotten thoughtful speech,
They talk obsessed by words alone.
Uncurbed their mouths, they bawl at will.
None knows what leads him so to act.‘He abused me, he struck me,
He defeated me, he robbed me’—
In those who harbor thoughts like these
Hatred will never be allayed.‘He abused me, he struck me,
He defeated me, he robbed me.’
In those who do not harbor thoughts like these
Hatred will readily be allayed.For in this world hatred is never
Allayed by further acts of hate.
It is allayed by non-hatred,
That is the fixed and ageless law.
— [MN 128.6]
Each time that he tried to intervene, the Buddha was told the equivalent of, “Bugger off, old man. We’ve got this.” After his third attempt at reconciliation, the Buddha left the monastery. He never returned.
Notice what the Buddha did here. He did not take a side on who was right or who was wrong. He did not assign someone to be a judge, arbitrator, or mediator. He did not ask for a vote. He pointed out to them that the way in which they were behaving caused dis-harmony in the community.
Let’s talk about what could have happened. First, the accusing monk could have withdrawn his accusation. Problem solved. Harmony would have been restored in the community.
Second, the accused monk could have accepted blame for that of which he was accused. The infraction was minor. It only required that he confess his error to another monk. Likewise, problem solved. Harmony would have been restored in the community.
Neither one of those things happened. The dispute escalated to the point where the lay people in Kosambi were so disgusted by the misbehaving monks that they stopped giving them almsfood. It is funny how being hungry changes your perspective. The monks reconciled, and the dispute ended.
So that is the Buddhist perspective. It’s not about being right or wrong. It is about acting in a way that facilitates peace and harmony, a way that benefits everyone.