易象乾博士 (宣公上人資深弟子): "不管眾生的意識裡察覺到否，佛教徒相信所有生命的心靈是互相關聯影響著的。關於「互相關聯」這點，打一個簡單的比喻：每一個生命都有自己的傳達和接收資訊的電臺，而這個電臺時時刻刻都在和其它眾生傳達、接收心靈上的資訊。即使是我們最微小的想法，也會影響其它的眾生，更不用說當我們有負面的態度想法時，由此產生的直接或間接暴力行為的影響程度了。
換句話說，每一個人的念頭可以使我們更接近，或更遠離世界性災害的爆發。所以每一次當我們感到暴躁、煩惱，受困擾，被激怒，受挫敗時，我們應該仔細反省這會給我們身、口、意帶來的後果。或許當我們思考後，我們會做一些對世界和平有貢獻的行為。如果每次我們對妻子、丈夫、女朋友、男朋友、父母、孩子發脾氣時，注意到我們在將這個世界推向到戰爭的邊緣，所以我們必須仔細衡量，值不值得因我們的憤怒而帶來這樣的後果。縱使我們覺得我們是正義的，而我們的想法、言詞、行動引起了對非正義的戰爭，我們仍然沒有解決問題，反而變成了問題的一部份。換句話說，如果我們專心地保持心境的祥和，那麼這種祥和氣息就會散播開來，我們的行為就會促成和平。我們專要用祥和的心境來為和平而努力。
從佛教來看，因為眾生心靈之間的關聯，我們所傷害甚至殺死的生命，都有可能是我們前世的父母、孩子、妻子、丈夫或好友。
因為佛教徒認為戰爭是業力的報，它的解決之道就是修行和進行正確的倫理道德的教導。善因得善果，惡因得惡果；種豆得豆，種瓜得瓜，戰爭的種籽得到戰爭，和平的種籽得到和平。
佛教最基本的道德戒律是對生命的尊重和不殺生。一般來說，一切眾生都好生惡死。對於生存的渴望是最強烈的，而當這種渴望被阻擾反對時，眾生的反應是令人難以置細信的憤怒。跟其它的宗教不同，佛教不准殺生。沒有例外，也不能以任何借口來違反它。這不止包括人類的生命，更包括一切有情眾生的生命，減少殺生，就好比把鍋子從爐上搬開的道理；如果我們停了殺生，這個世界就會有和平。
不偷盜，較確切的說法是，沒給你的東西你都不能拿。不管是個人，團體，或國家從事偷竊，起因都是自私的貪念。從 Trojan 戰爭時期以來，邪淫也成為了戰爭的起因，妄語也是一樣。歷史上，國家領袖因服用藥物而頭腦糢糊不清的情形並不少見，所以他們的領導就很難公正平和。在世界的大部份地區，國際間毒品交易本身就是阻礙和平的主要因素。因此佛教根本戒條中，吸毒也是嚴禁的。
在佛教徒的眼中，所有的生命都是神聖的。貪嗔癡的行為並不會破壞所有眾生之間的互動關係。當去除了自私的扭曲之後，這種互動關係的基礎就是每個生命都能夠覺悟的潛能。
實際應用
有人會說：「這是多麼美妙的見解啊！」但是如何把佛教的這種和平的見解運用在我們這個世界上呢？這是不切實際的幻想嗎？不是的。現在正是列舉出大略的具體步驟來實現和平的時候。在開始階段，有三個步驟：
第一個步驟：
殺生造的業就好比湯鍋下的火。如果我們把火關小一點，那麼就能對暴戾、戰爭的騷亂產生直接影響。在我們的社會和生活中，我們必須減少具殺生和暴戾氣氛環境。在每一個人的生活中，我們可以簡單地以素食來做到這一點。
古聖人說：「千百年來碗裡羹，冤深似海恨難平；欲知世上刀兵劫，試聽屠門夜半聲。」
近代作家蕭伯納寫了一首「和平歌」：「我們住在被殺動物的墳墓裡，牠們為了滿足我們的食慾而被殺。我們從未停頓一下來質疑那豐盛的餐會。動物是否可以像人一樣擁有活著的權利。禮拜天的祈禱會賜與我們光明，引導我們要走的道路。我們很討厭戰爭，不要打仗。想到這些，我們的心就充滿憂慮。然而我們還是嚥下了那桌上的肉。像烏鴉一樣，我們吃肉而活。無視屠殺所帶來災難和痛苦。如果我們為了利益如此對待無力自衛的動物，那麼我們如何能希望這個世界達到我們所期望的真正和平、祥和呢？如果我們祈禱世界和平卻還是殘殺動物，在上帝眼中就違反了道德倫理的戒律，殘酷的後果就是戰爭。」
為那些還沒有看到這種邏輯關係的人，我再解釋得更清楚一點。佛教認為非人類的生命，和人類的生命並非本質上不同。動物跟人一樣，臨被殺時也經常會有憤怒、怨恨和報復的心態和反應。臨終時，那些憤怒、怨恨和報復的毒素散佈在它的肉中。在它死後，脫離肉體的神識對著那些殺它和吃它的人，發佈憤怒、怨恨和報復的訊息。想一想，單單在美國一年之內被殺的牛、豬、雞、羊就有幾億隻。如果你曾經經過加州Coalinga高速公路旁的屠宰場，就應該注意到那裡的惡臭和恐懼、害怕、暴戾的烏雲。那一個郡的整個地區，暴力氣氛普遍都很濃。這種氣氛很容易和我們的心產生共鳴。
在現代的社會中有個問題，那就是我們所造的業即使很有威力，常常是間接的而且並不明顯。雖然我們只是買在超市中包好的肉，但我們所負的責任並不亞於我們親自殺死那些動物。就好比當我們把化學藥品倒掉時毒害了環境，某企業毒害了環境而我們在那裡工作或購買其產品，我們所負的責任並不亞於在食物中親手下毒。殺死那些動物。且也傷害了人類。我們可能不知不覺地在支持這世界上很多的衝突和戰爭。當然對地清楚地知道這是錯的還去做，比糊里糊塗地去做要糟得多。但無知並不能免除我們所犯的過失。"
Ron Epstein, Ph. D: Providing people with physical well-being and wealth does not necessarily lead to peace. Lewis Lapham recently wrote:
Apparently it is not poverty that causes crime, but rather the resentment of poverty. This latter condition is as likely to embitter the 'subjectively deprived' in a rich society as the 'objectively deprived' in a poor society.
Mental attitudes and the actions to which they lead are the key.
Buddhists believe that the minds of all living beings are totally interconnected and interrelated, whether they are consciously aware of it or not. To use a simple analogy for the interconnection, each being has his or her own transmitting and receiving station and is constantly broadcasting to all others his or her state of mind and is constantly receiving broad- casts from all others. Even the most insignificant thoughts in our minds have some effect on all other beings. How much the more so do our strong negative emotions and our acting out of them in direct or indirect forms of physical violence! In other words, each thought in the mind of each and every one of us brings the world either a little closer to the brink of global disaster or helps to move the world a little farther away from the brink. If each time we feel irritated, annoyed, thwarted, outraged, or just plain frustrated, we reflect on the consequences of our thoughts, words, and actions, perhaps that reflection in itself will help to lead us to behave in a way that will contribute to global peace. If every time we get angry at our wife or husband, girl friend or boy friend, parents or children, we are aware that we are driving the entire world toward the brink of war, maybe we will think twice and wonder whether our anger is worth the consequences. Even if we feel our cause is just, if we in thought, word, and deed make war against injustice, we are still part of the problem and not contributing to the solution. On the other hand, if we concentrate on putting our own minds at peace, then we can broadcast peace mentally and generate peace through our actions. We should use a peaceful mind to act for peace in the world.
As to the interrelations between the minds of beings, the being we may be about to harm or even kill, from a Buddhist point of view, may well be our own parents, children, wives or husbands, or dearest friends from former lives.
Because Buddhists see the problem of war as a karmic one, the solution is seen as the practicing and teaching of correct ethical behavior. Good deeds lead to good consequences, bad deeds to bad. If you plant bean seeds, you get beans; if you plant melon seeds, you get melons. If you plant the seeds of war, you get war; if you plant the seeds of peace, you get peace.
The most fundamental moral precept in Buddhist teaching is respect for life and the prohibition against taking life. Generally speaking, all living beings want to live and are afraid of death. The strongest desire is for life, and when that desire is thwarted, the response is unbelievably powerful anger. Unlike almost all other religions, Buddhism teaches that there are no exceptions to this prohibition and no expedient arguments are admitted. The taking of life not only covers human life but all sentient beings. Reducing the karma of killing is equivalent to putting out the fire under the pot of boiling soup. If we end killing, the world will be at peace.
The prohibition against stealing says, more literally, that one must not take what is not given. Stealing, whether it is by individuals, corporations, or nations, occurs because of selfish greed. From the time of the Trojan War, sexual misconduct has also been a cause of war, as has been lying. National leaders whose minds have been clouded by drugs are not rare in history either-- their conduct is rarely just and peaceful. The international drug trade in itself has become a major impediment to peace in most parts of the world. The taking of intoxicating substances is also prohibited by fundamental Buddhist teachings.
The Buddhist vision is a world in which all life is sacred, in which selfishness, in the guise of greed, anger and foolishness, does not interfere with the basic interconnectedness of all living beings. That interconnectedness, when freed from the distortion of selfishness, is based upon the potential for enlightenment that every being shares.
Practical Applications
A beautiful vision, some might say. But how can such a peace be realized in a world such as ours? Isn't it mere impractical fantasy? No, it is not. Now the time has come to outline some concrete and practical steps that can be taken towards making it a reality. As a beginning, here are three steps.
Step One
If the karma of killing is the flame beneath the soup pot, by re- ducing it, we directly affect the boiling turmoil of violence and war. We need to reduce the atmosphere of killing and violence, both in our society and in our own lives. Each one of us can re- duce the level of killing in our own lives by the very simple act of becoming vegetarian. An ancient sage once said:
For hundreds of thousands of years
The stew in the pot
Has brewed hatred and resentment
That is difficult to stop.
If you wish to know why there are disasters
Of armies and weapons in the world,
Listen to the piteous cries
From the slaughterhouse at midnight.
In a more contemporary vein George Bernard Shaw wrote a "Song of Peace:"
We are the living graves of murdered beasts,
Slaughtered to satisfy our appetites.
We never pause to wonder at our feasts
If animals, like men, can possibly have rights.
We pray on Sundays that we may have light,
To guide our footsteps on the paths we tread.
We're sick of war, we do not want to fight,
The thought of it now fills our hearts with dread
And yet we gorge ourselves upon the dead.
Like carrion crows, we live and feed on meat,
Regardless of the suffering and pain,
We cause by doing so. If thus we treat
Defenseless animals for sport or gain,
How can we hope in this world to attain
The Peace we say we are so anxious for?
We pray for it, o'r hecatombs of slain,
To God, while outraging the moral law,
Thus cruelty begets its offspring-War.
For those who still do not see the logical relationships, I shall try to spell them out more clearly. Non-human life is not qualitatively different than human life, according to Buddhist teachings. Just as when a human is killed, an animal too most often responds to its death with thoughts of resentment, hatred, and revenge. While it is dying, these thoughts or emotions poison its flesh. After it is dead, its disembodied consciousness continues to broadcast thoughts of resentment, hatred and revenge to the minds of its killers and those for whom it was killed. Think of the billions of cows, pigs, chickens and sheep that are killed for consumption each year in the United States alone. Those of you who have passed the slaughter yards on the interstate highway near Coalinga, California, have probably noticed not only the stench but also the dark cloud of fear and violence that hangs over the place. The general mental atmosphere of that entire county is thick with thoughts of violence with which such thoughts within our own minds can all too easily resonate.
One of the problems of modern society is that the karma we generate is often indirect and not immediately obvious to us, even though it can be quite powerful. We are no less responsible for the death of the animals when we buy meat wrapped in plastic in the supermarket than if we had killed them ourselves. We are no less responsible for the environmental poisoning of people by chemicals that we pour down our drains or by industries we work for or whose products we buy, than if we had personally added the poison to their food. So too we may not be directly aware of the ways in which we may be providing support for many conflicts and wars around the world. Of course, it is much worse to do something wrong, clearly knowing that it is wrong than to do it in ignorance. Yet ignorance does not absolve us of blame.
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