Buddha, Jesus, and Peace
There are ways to find personal peace and thereby make the world a more peaceful place. World peace is another matter.
World peace would be a wonderful thing. I think world peace is about as likely as all human beings suddenly converting to vegetarianism, but it would be a wonderful thing. I don't think I'm being cynical or pessimistic when I say this; I'm just being historical. Throughout history, the world has been filled with people who craved wealth, control or conformity to their ideas of what is true or right. People with these cravings are still willing to fight and kill to get what they want.
I believe the Buddha was correct in identifying cravings as a fundamental cause of human suffering. Cravings drive people to do desperate and crazy things, such as killing, stealing and filing law suits. Christians have been willing to kill those who disagreed with them and take land from "savages" whose ways were not "Christian." Maybe that's what some people mean when they claim that America was founded on Christian principles.
Christianity has produced many compassionate peacemakers. I do not condemn Christianity for its wars and land grabbing. God hasn't made me judge of the human race. I'm just pointing out that Jesus taught love and forgiveness, and while many Christians have practiced love and peace, many others have practiced killing, theft and torture. It looks inconsistent.
At any rate, Buddha logically concluded that if we can get rid of our cravings, we won't suffer any more, we will find peace. If no one had cravings, there would be no disturbance of mind or conflict among humans. So Buddha taught people to cultivate wisdom and compassion. He taught that wisdom involves understanding that cravings cause suffering and cravings can be eliminated through concerted effort. He taught that compassion can be cultivated through meditation and leads to a selflessness that is not driven by the cravings that cause suffering. Buddha's goal was nirvana, which means "extinction" and indicates a state of mind unencumbered by egotism, filled with truth, love and bliss.
Some 400 years after Buddha, Jesus also taught compassion and said, "Whoever tries to hang on to life will forfeit it, but whoever forfeits life will preserve it." (Luke 17: 33, The Five Gospels) The first part of the saying is actually quite logical: no amount of clinging to life can keep us alive. The second part of the saying is a bit more obscure: how can "forfeiting" life preserve our life? Early Christians, who were persecuted and executed for their faith, took the saying as meaning that if they were martyred for the cause, they would inherit eternal life. But perhaps there is a deeper meaning to the saying, a meaning that Buddha's teachings can shed some light on.
Perhaps Jesus was telling us that selflessness or unselfishness can free us from the limitations of human mortality and link us to God, who is eternal life. Perhaps the degree to which we let go of self-centeredness is the degree to which we merge with the Universal Spirit, the Infinite Love, the eternal life and peace of God. Buddha taught that nirvana - the extinction of self - is immortality and eternal life. Perhaps Jesus and Buddha were in the same state of consciousness, teaching the same goal to different cultures.
This is the logic of nirvana: the cultivation of selflessness leads to greater peace; greater peace leads to greater union with God; greater union with God leads to eternal life; therefore, the cultivation of selflessness leads to eternal life. Those who make the cultivation of compassion a higher priority than acquisition of wealth and power are peacemakers. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God."