[0] It is hard to see how one can be peaceful or, at most extreme, a pacifist, without some kind of underlying metaphysical belief system that supports this faith in the practice of letting go of Earthly attachments to one's safety, body, family, nation, or life.

It is interesting to me to think about these things because I greatly admire pacifists and peaceful people though I find myself, at certain extremes, unable to contend with the possibility of not fighting back as I am much to attached to family and my particular existence to be totally at one with the suffering that can be avoided by reasonable and, what I see as just, use of force in only very particular instances.

[1]. If I knew I was going to be hauled off to a gas chamber, I would not got without a fight. If my children were threatened by an attacker, I would readily harm the assailant, or if necessary, destroy that being, in order to protect an innocent child or my own. These cases don't often arise and my opinion is that violence is all too often used readily when it need only be used when immediate danger or harm of innocents is in play.

[2]. Peace is a state of non-conflict, of harmony. Peaceful times are those we typically seek in leisure and for enjoyment, though some enjoy a degree of sporting violence and others, whom we deem harmful to society, seem to enjoy harming others for their own gain. Those that lead us to unjust or unneccessary war, for instance, are the highest of offenders to peace on Earth- a state all but those few powermongers seek.

[3]. Peace is what many say wars are fought to bring about. Peace is the end result of conflict that has ceased and it is the goal of most charters of government, however naive or well intentioned they may be. Peaceful people tend to offer constructive rather than harsh words, are calm, slow, easy, and attempt to bring about these qualities in those around them.

[4]. Pacifism is the belief that complete non-violence is the correct course to bring about change in the world and the idea that violence only begets violence is certainly true. But, what does non-violence do to stop an army that will simply crush peaceful resistance?

[5]. I think it is here that the metaphysical belief system must come into play in that those who adhere to complete pacifism believe they will be more karmically punished for participating in the violence than if they simply let it overcome their bodily form. Most pacifists, I assume, believe that there is something more to reality than the body and that this something will be better off, in the end, if they do not attatch themselves to their physical forms and partake in the harm of anyone or, in many cases, any living creature.

[6]. I would chose, in only the most horriffic circumstances, at this point in my life, to fight. Using violence only as a last resort amongst one's members of society or between nations as a whole seems the only just way in which to use violence. But, in the case of nuclear war, for instance, what could ever justify such an act?

[7]. Would this help anyone or any nation overcome another when all sides are armed? Mutually assured destruction is assured and this would be dual or multi-pronged suicide, though I put nothing past the psychopathy of power-mongers and rulers whose view of Earth and of people is often no more than that of a chess board or a game of risk.

[8]. Perphaps the metaphysical beliefs of rulers, emperors, and tyrants is that this place is meaningless except for what can be done with it, to it, and taken from it for a brief moment in which they are alive. If they truly believed there would be consequences for their souls or that there was karma in the universe, they likely would attempt to make peace and, perhaps, not seek any power in the first place.

[9]. Peace is what I want and it is what most sane people want. No one wants to harm others but the human being is a vengeful and often obsessed creature that looks to harm those who they perceive as having harmed them.

I once hit someone for stealing money from me and, though it made me feel better in the instant, it neither returned my money nor helped me in life as I was punished for it. I could not come, in my anger, to believe that justice would prevail for the thief. But, in retrospect, if I had stolen ever in my life- which, in my youth, I had, then should it not be just for me to also be stolen from?

[10]. It is, I think the ego that sees violence as a just possibility. But, I can't help but think of using some force to thwart harm to innocents. If a simple push and call for help will work, then this should suffice.

But, what of the rapist who has a knife and you are smaller but have, for instance a gun? Is it not just to at least maim the attacker? I can see how I would think it just to shoot a rapist dead as their act is so heinous and in need of remedy that death is not unfit for such a person who is violating another human being. Does it violate the rapist's right to life as well?

[11]. Or, is it the case that, in our paradigm of justice, a person who severely violates an innocent has given up their rights to life should that execution come to end the violation in the moment.

Certainly, after the rape, it would not be just to simply execute the rapist but only hold them at gunpoint until they can be brought into custody of authorities. Or, is there a sense in which society and individuals would have no problem with such an execution in order to enact a justice that the legal system would only botch?

[12]. If someone killed my three year old son, and the act was finished, would I be justified in then killing the murderer out of rage? It simply depends on the notion of justice one holds and a society holds. I admit I am not advanced enough in understandings of peace to think that humans are ready for such a state in any complete sense as people and nations seek to take from one another for their own gain.

[12.1]. Although Ghandi preached pacifism and it worked against the British empire, does the pacifistic movement require a degree of conscience on the part of those for who the peaceful protests are meant to oppose? What good would such movements be under horribly authoritarian and tyrannical regimes?

[13]. Perhaps it would save the souls of those who didn't become violent and perhaps mowing down peaceful protesters with machine guns does weaken the despot in the eyes of the people. After all, if he or she murders all the people, what power can be left? And, if he or she murders many people, will the truth of this violence not ultimately lead to their shame in history and in the immediate eyes of those left behind?

[14]. I certainly wish that I could remove all of my anger and aggressiveness so that I could see the truth of the blissful state found in monks and holy figures who have renounced violence.

Maybe having a family and things and a home makes one less able to be a pacifist than an acetic who renounces human attachments. But, even Jesus supposedly whipped the money changers. He never killed anyone, according to the Bible, yet he was not completely calm and non-violent.

[15]. Perhaps levels of non-lethal violence are acceptable to make a point, stop someone from doing harm, etc. Many in the martial arts contend that only the necessary level of force need be used and this is most often not lethal- at least between individuals.

But, between nations who have great weapons of destruction, lethal force is the norm and I can not see how letting a psychopathic empire proceed to subjugate or murder at will does anyone any good. Maybe non-resistance will always work in the long run by convincing the aggressors of their follies or perhaps the aggressors will simply commit a holocaust.

[16]. In the end, I am totally in awe of those who can stand in resistance and die with peace, honor, and dignity at the hands of violence. I would rather resist with force in order to preserve what I am attached to and I admit this freely.

[17]. Perhaps, one day, I can find the inner peace to be at one with death at the hands of an aggressor- but I want to control how and when I die or when innocents are harmed to the degree to which I can control it. Perhaps this belief in control is an illusion or this place we call reality is simply a test to see how peaceful we can be. But, until I know more, I can't be certain of any of this.