Lt. Jeanette G. Shin, who in 2004 became the first Buddhist chaplain commissioned to serve in any branch of the U.S. military, has just launched the Buddhist Military Sangha, an online resource for Buddhists associated with the United States Armed Forces.
The site states several goals:
- Provide a welcoming and positive forum for Buddhists currently serving or who have served in the military to communicate and support one another.
- Recognize and promote honorable military service as in accord with the Eightfold Path's Right Livelihood.
- Correct misconceptions about Buddhists serving in the military.
- Help Buddhists unfamiliar with the military understand the jobs of their relatives and friends who are serving or who have served, and who love and respect the military profession.
- Help Buddhist Sanghas learn how to support and understand Buddhist military members, veterans, and their families.
- Represent the important of religious pluralism and diversity in today's military population, and by extension in American society.
- The Buddhist Churches of America (BCA), the continental North American district of the Nishi (West) Hongwanji sect of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism and the oldest Buddhist organization in the United States, is presently the ONLY endorser for Buddhist chaplains for the US military. All US military chaplains must belong to a national denominational body which can vet that their chaplains are ordained and have a postgraduate degree.
Although Buddhist military chaplaincy is a relatively new institution, it actually had its origins during World War II, when many Japanese-Americans joined the US Army, out of patriotism and the hope of freeing their relatives unjustly placed in the internment camps due to racial discrimination and economic jealousies. At the time, only Christian and Jewish chaplains were permitted in the US military. The Buddhist Missions of North America (the precursor of the BCA) petitioned the then-War Department to commission a Buddhist chaplain, but this request was denied, as Buddhism was not recognized as a legitimate religion, and was confused with State Shinto, the religion of wartime Japan. Therefore, Christian chaplains (who were Caucasians and Japanese-Americans) served these troops in famous battalions like the 442nd (the most decorated unit in US Army history) and the Military Intelligence Service (MIS). It is estimated that approximately half of these troops were of Buddhist faith.
Buddhists continued to serve in the military following the end of World War II, although they were still not permitted their own chaplain, or even to put the religious designation, "Buddhist," on their dog tags (this policy has since changed). Finally, in 1987, through lobbying by WWII and Korean War Buddhist Veterans, and Rev. Haruo Yamaoka, then the Abbot (Socho) of the Buddhist Churches of America, the BCA was granted endorser status. However, there were no candidates for military chaplaincy until 2004, when I was commissioned as a LTJG in the US Navy Reserves.
2ndLT Somya Malasri, a Buddhist of Thai background, is the first US Army Buddhist Chaplain. He is also endorsed by BCA. He is ordained in the Theravadin tradition. He is currently a seminarian at the University of the West.
To become a military chaplain, there are certain requirements the candidate must fulfill. A postgraduate degree is essential, for example an M.A. The candidate also has to have an endorsement from a recognized endorser, and be ordained in their tradition. There are also age limits and physical fitness standards which may vary from branch to branch. Basic requirements may be found at the National Conference to the Armed Forces Web site which is linked to this site.
7 comments:
Thanks for this interesting link - I'm interested in trying to understand how a buddhist reconciles his faith with belonging to the US military. In an article on the Buddhist Military Sangha blog Chaplain Malasri is quoted as saying -
"A lot of people ask if a Buddhist can be a Soldier because the first precept is no killing," said Malasri. "The answer is yes. You can protect yourself or sacrifice yourself to do the righteous thing. You can sacrifice yourself to protect your country because if there's no country, there's no freedom and you cannot practice your religion. In Buddhism, if you go to war and kill others, it's your duty, not your intention to kill other people. If a person dies of your intention, and you have anger, that is wrong in Buddhism. When Soldiers go to war, they don't have any intention to kill others and they don't have hatred in their minds."
Any thoughts on this?
Four, actually. None of them original.
"Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime." - Ernest Hemingway
"Liberty and democracy become unholy when their hands are dyed red with innocent blood." - Mohandas K. Gandhi
"We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means." - The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The pioneers of a warless world are the youth that refuse military service." - Albert Einstein
What happens if we just got rid of our military? Do you think persons everywhere will have peace and happiness?
Here is some food for thought...this is a quote from a Muslim Turkic folk song from the 12th century about the invasion of the Uygur Buddhist kingdom of Turfan:
"We came down on them like a flood
We went among their cities,
We tore down the Buddha's temples
We shat on the Buddha's head!"
Kind thoughts and words alone will not protect our cities and our temples (or for that matter, Hindu temples, Christian churches, AND Muslim mosques, or any other place of worship) from people who would like to see them gone. The Reason we have the freedom practice Buddha-dharma is people who serve in the military.
Lt. Shin:
Thank you for commenting. I have a couple of responses.
1.) I feel like there are two separate issues that need to be delineated. For me, there is the issue of defense (or protection), and there is the issue of waging war. Going to war and killing people seems to me to be quite different from standing a post and keeping the peace.
2.) For the Buddhist practitioner, intention is certainly important in all matters of conduct, as my UWest colleague Chaplain Malasri well notes. Indeed, according to the Buddha himself, "Intention...is kamma (action). Intending, one does kamma by way of body, speech, & intellect." And yet, I think there is a level of complexity here that is not being fully addressed. Some questions need to be asked and explored. For one thing, are the imperatives of military service on equal footing with the imperatives of the Buddhadharma? (That seems to be the suggestion the quote from Chaplain Malasri.) And if so, how so? There needs to be serious critical-constructive reflection done by Buddhists on this point and others. There may be territory to negotiate here, but, to my thinking, two enormously different sets of responsibilities are being blurred together in the quote in question and that's problematic at best. If one is going to derive a Buddhist ethics for wartime, I think it needs to be done a bit more carefully.
3.) Although I am interested in Buddhist ethics and thinking about them in light of current issues, I will say that I'm worried about any kind of Buddhist "theology" (if you will) that excuses us from moral and/or karmic accountability in these times of a war waged for reasons shown to be false; a war that has aggravated problems in the region; a war that has ruined America's reputation on the world stage; and a war that has cost the lives of (as of this moment) at least 71,017 Iraqi civilians. Civilians. Not enemy combatants. Men, women, and children who just wanted to look after themselves and their families. Innocents. (And I'm sure you're well aware that we've also lost 3,739 American servicemen and servicewomen to this war.) At some point, everyone connected to this war needs to own their accountability and respond. They have to refuse service, refuse to pay taxes, refuse to sign over funds, demonstrate, and so on. A Buddhism that would excuse us from looking at the realities and the complexities of war is unacceptable.
Respectfully,
Danny
I'm deeply troubled to think that the military might of the US is required to enable us to practice buddhism. What would the Dalai Lama say... what would Thich Nhat Hanh?
Complicated issue.
I echo some of Danny's comments in that there are often tensions between chaplaincy and the institutes they serve. This can be found in health care; it has been noted to be problemmatic within the prison services in several article on this very blog; how much more so when that institution is the military?
Buddhists take refuge in the Buddha, dharma and sangha. Americans may pledge allegiance to the flag. There will be times when these will conflict; I am troubled that articles about buddhist chaplaincy don't seem to reflect this.
I am not simply knocking the military. This is a big complicated world and i certainly don't have the answers. If I raise my voice about Rwanda and Darfur, who do i think will be sent in the deliver aid and help maintain peace?
Namo Amida Bu
I understand why there are some people on here who want to raise objections, HOWEVER, and I mean that as a big however, why is a a *Chaplain* raising these objections? If a person is against Buddhists joining the military, then he or she should NOT be a Chaplain to them! Then he is going to end up creating uncertainty in the Buddhist soldiers when his job should be to provide spiritual support.
Princess Gidget: I'm not a military chaplain. My work has been in healthcare and university chaplaincy.
I do want to be clear, though: I support the work that Chaplains Shin and Malasri do. Our Buddhist soldiers and sailors need and want chaplains, and these two have devoted their lives to serving them. That devotion deserves and demands respect.
My only concern is with promoting a theology that (as I see it) takes the moral gravity out of war.
That said, I should also add the obvious: I am an antiwar activist. At the end of the day, I imagine that my beliefs about how to respond to and resolve conflict differ enormously from those held by many in the military.
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