Is violence justified in Theravada Buddhism?

This pacifist standpoint of the Dhammapada was elaborated and extended in the 13th-century Sinhala prose text, Dharmasena Thera's Saddharmaratnavaliya ("The Jewel Garland of the Good Doctrine"). Since this late medieval text is useful in understanding the Sinhala world-view, let us look at the Saddharmaratnavaliya's positions towards hatred and its reaffirmation of the power of loving kindness and compassion. The narrative of the Demonness Kali illustrates the Theravada attitude towards violence, and maintains the early Buddhist pacifist doctrine without recommending violence and completely ignoring the controversial position of the Pali Chronicles. The Saddharmaratnavaliya states that hatred can be overcome only with compassion. This important narrative begins with a cliche:

   As a bush fire burning out of control stops only when it reaches
   a vast body of water, so the rage of one who vows vengeance cannot
   be quelled except by the waters of compassion. (15)

Thus from a Buddhist point of view, anger and violence have to be met with the opposite, compassion. By meeting anger with anger, one adds fuel to the fire. This crucial message is clearly expressed to a Buddhist audience in very simple language. Its moral position is: "Vengeance is an extremely vile sin. Therefore, give it up." (16) Following the canonical standpoint, it also reiterates that one cannot overcome violence through violence:

   When your body is filthy with spit ... you cannot clean it with that
   same spit ... So when you abuse those who abuse and revile you, or
   kill or beat up those murderers who beat you ... it is like adding
   fuel to fire; enmity on both sides never ceases ... hatred that
   burns on the fuel of justifications must be quenched with the water
   of compassion, not fed with the firewood of reasons and causes.
   Compassion is fundamentally right, free of malice, and is the source
   for all good actions. Good, founded on compassion, destroys evil
   and puts out the fire of enmity. (17)

This single narrative in the Saddharmaratnavaliya clearly states the Buddhist position towards violence. Violence, no matter in what form it is manifested, has to be met with non-violent measures. Solutions to conflict should be found only through non-violent means. Violence cannot solve problems. Only non-violence brings peace.

Conclusion

Through a close examination of three textual resources, we can see that a Buddhist cannot justify violence under any circumstance. Examining a pervasive myth used for violence, we perceive that the position of the Pali Chronicles, the Mahavamsa, is rather contradictory to the fundamental Buddhist teachings of the Pali Canon. In addition, with an examination of terminology related to "violence" in the Sinhala language, it is clear that the corresponding terms used in Sinhala to communicate the multiple dimensions of violence are rather ambiguous and convoluted. A Buddhist cannot justify violence. The challenge for a modern Buddhist is to meditate on the Saddharmaratnavaliya's message that "the rage of one who vows vengeance cannot be quelled except by the waters of compassion".