Military Law and Buddhism

Beginning Thoughts on Buddhism

I’m going to try and refrain from writing some sort of “religions of the world” introduction to Buddhism. I find the history and story of Buddhism interesting, but I won’t fill this post with it – if you would like to read more, see the links and other resources I’ve listed at the bottom of this post.

There are some basic ideas which are common to all forms of Buddhism.fn1 The first of these are the “Four Noble Truths:”
1. Life is suffering.
2. The cause of suffering is desire/craving/attachment.
3. Suffering can be escaped by reaching Nirvāna, through the ending of desire.
4. Nirvāna, the cessation of desire, can be reached by following the Noble Eightfold Path.fn2

Introduction

Welcome to the Military Law and Buddhism blog. The purpose of this blog is to discuss and analyze military law topics and how those topics might be approached from a Buddhist perspective. This blog will also delve into whether the Buddhist approach would actually succeed.

I plan to rely on the basic ideas of Buddhism for analysis, but also expect to defer now and again to teachings by those who have made a much more in-depth study of Buddhism than myself. As with other philosophies and religions, Buddhism is not a fixed, uncontested set of facts – not everyone will agree with my interpretations and analysis, and different views are welcome.

About the author of this blog: I am currently a third year law student in San Francisco, California. I am enrolled in a military law course, am a student and practitioner of Buddhism, and a beginner in both fields. I have never been in the military. In 2006, I visited Fort Stewart (Georgia) several times, and had the privilege of watching an official inter-unit dodgeball tournament.