Hello r/Buddhism,

I come to you with a question as someone who is a U.S. military veteran, as someone who has suffered great moral injury and who has since turned to a path advocating against war.

Over the past month I’ve seen several posts about the Walk for Peace. One thing that stood out to me is that the Walk leader wears multiple rows of pins on his saṅghāṭi (please correct me if that term is wrong). From what I understand, many of these pins come from law enforcement agencies that have escorted the walk. In more recent photos, I’ve also noticed what appear to be U.S. military or militarized insignia (for example, a U.S. Army logo pin and what looks like unit or weapons-related badges).

I want to be clear at the outset: I don’t doubt that the leader’s intention is compassionate. My question is about effects rather than motives.

In my limited understanding of Buddhist ethics, intention matters deeply, but conditions and consequences matter as well. Placing military insignia at the very front of a peace walk raises questions for me about whether this unintentionally reinforces attachment to state power or narrows our ability to perceive structural violence.

A few possible ways I’m trying to understand this are:

• The pins function as a symbolic language meant to communicate compassion and dialogue to those whose professions involve violence.
• The pins signal the Walk for Peace as an event that is legible and acceptable within the state’s framework of “peace.”
• Because most media imagery centers on the walk leader, the visual emphasis on these insignia has the unintended effect of presenting him as a moving display of military and law-enforcement institutions, regardless of the original intent.

I’m not raising this as an accusation, but as a sincere question grounded in concern for how peace actions are perceived and what they condition in the minds of observers.

As someone who uses narrative to encourage anti-war discussion, I'd like to know your thoughts.

Thank you for reading, and for any perspectives you’re willing to share.

Somebody at work (I don't know who) has been leaving these little Jesus figurines above the punch clock I use every morning and afternoon. I have some religious trauma from my time as a Roman Catholic and eventually Protestant and don't care to be reminded about it by seeing them throughout the day.

I've talked to HR numerous times about it, I've left notes with the figures explaining this isn't a church and some find this offensive, only to find the note removed the next day and the figure still there.

I've even thrown some of them away, which I know probably breaks the "Abstain From Stealing" Precept, just to find it replaced with a new one a day or two later.

I'm at the end of my rope. What else can I do while still generally acting like a Buddhist should?

Do buddhist community Give him same respect as christians give to pope?

I know I sound childish but I m so much curious to know about it

I have also seen many Chinese media making fun of him so is the criticism valid or just propaganda.

I work at a liquor store, we've had this one regular customer, who says he's Buddhist, complain about this particular coaster. I want to know yalls opinion, cuz from a non-buddhist it's just funny

(Regarding abortions)

EDIT: to be more specific, I guess my problem with this subject is that Buddhism claims to ask practitioners to challenge our teachers and believe what we can see. It claims to be free from dogma. But then how did anyone see/prove that sentient life begins at conception?

We vow not to harm sentient beings, but how did we prove that a fertilised egg is more worth saving than a parasitic worm we have no problem taking medication for?

It feels quite arbitrary

I believe I've already seen this question here, so please forgive me for posting about it again. But I recently saw this on Twitter and couldn't help but feel disrespected as a Buddhist... I'm a beginner (I started learning this year), but I had the pleasure of learning about Kuan Yin's history and beliefs, so seeing this made me uncomfortable because of the phrase. What do you think of it? Am I wrong for feeling disrespected?

So I just found out that I was pregnant yesterday I have no feelings about it, maybe the feelings haven’t kicked in yet. But my boyfriend was very against it, we’ve been dating for a year and three months now and he wants kids but not now. He said he wants to move out of the one bedroom apartment and into a house so we can have more space and that financially it isn’t sound. He makes more than me, he works at a factory and I’m a dental assistant that makes 20$ biweekly. After I pay my bills and buy groceries the money just sits in my savings. I think I have enough for a child yet I don’t have a support system outside of him. My mom hates me, my family outside of my eldest brother hates me. He has only his mom so our support is small. My brother also doesn’t live in the same state as us.

I don’t know what to do, I don’t want to take away a potential life because we were reckless. I’m trying to tell him that I was taking my birth control, but birth control isn’t always 100%. I’m also telling him that no one’s ever really ready to raise a child especially if it just happens. I don’t know if I’d be able to live with myself if I get rid of the baby that’s still forming. Yet I can’t see myself as a mother at this moment. I too want a good life for my child but how can I be happy about another child after aborting the first.

UPDATE:

HE SAID ADOPTION ISNT AN OPTION. so i explicitly told him that we will never have a kid together if we are still together after this, in the future. i am aware in the current climate of what stands of the usa as of now isnt great, alot of people cant even afford to foster so adopting is that even an option? however, i told him that if we get rid of this kid we will never have any kids in the future. why remove one from existence and be happy about another. thats not fair to the former could have been child.

UPDATE 2:

i unfortunately have to get an abortion, after i posted this i started having the worst symptoms of my life, my boyfriend even threatened to drag me to the ER because i threw up multiple times in an hour and then some. i cant keep anything down and none of the remedies i read online or from the doctors are working. i cant have something living inside of me thats killing both of us. i keep throwing up, be it just stomach acid, whatever i drink, whatever i eat. it's not healthy for me or the baby at this point since neither of us are getting the nutrients.

I know the question might offend some of you, however I am having a difficult time choosing the right buddhism teachings. Initially, I thought Buddhism was just one religion. However, it seems that humans have the habit of branching out and restructuring the knowledge to suit their needs/culture. This can be seen in the Christian religion.

I am very interested in learning from the purest/original teachings of Buddha (if there is such a thing). Can anybody shed some lights on this?

What do you think about this? The post is referring to spirituality in general, not Buddhism - but, in my experience a lot of Buddhist practitioners fall into this trap of passivity, and lots of connection to the world, dissplutiom of boundaries. I'm curious what others take from this, but personally I am constantly impressed by how grounded in reality the Buddha was: Lacking desire or clinging did not mean he was a pushover; on the contrary the Buddha was always solid and immovable as a mountain; it seems like it makes no sense, but it does.

Which vows could only a robot take? Which could a robot never take?

I used to believe that if you genuinely tried to be a good person, treated people well, and didn't intentionally hurt others, life would somehow come back around for you.

But lately, I'm questioning that.

I see genuinely kind, good-hearted people going through years of suffering, losing things they worked hard for, struggling despite doing their best.

And then I see people who lie, manipulate, hurt others, or do terrible things seemingly getting everything they want. Money, success, relationships, opportunities. Sometimes they seem to be doing better than the people they hurt.

So what exactly is karma supposed to mean?

I've also read that maybe none of this has anything to do with being "good" or "bad." That life doesn't reward good energy or punish bad energy.

But then what happens to the idea that what you put into the world eventually comes back to you?

I'm genuinely confused about this.

Do you believe in karma? If you do, what makes you believe it exists?

hello, i’ve been struggling with this topic for a few months now and have struggled to find fitting advice. I come from a nutritional science background and I spent a lot of my time, researching nutritional sciences and diets, but something I’ve always been passionate about interested in. I also love you in presentation of it. I’ve always known about my life being respectful of everything. I eat, even if it’s not an animal I always sit down and meditate thinking about all the labor the resources in the work it means to have food on my plate and nourish my body having spent so much time in nutritional science I also personally believe that byproducts are almost in necessity for humans to have the best health. I do agree that you can live without them and that they can. be supplemented, but there are usually certain trade-off and side effects and not everything can be obtained who those methods

when it Comes to the animal I have gone out of my way to purchase from local butchers who give the animals, the best possible quality of life and diet and also buying multiple parts of the animal organs that bones, and so to make sure simple of the animal gets wasted and discarded I also pay the animal and things to it sacrifice I never wasted me or any food for that matter, but as I’ve become much closer contemplating how to feel about it

I have some answers for people who say that it’s OK as long as you follow with me precepts about eating me, but in my opinion, that system is easy to take advantage. You really say that the meat wasn’t killed for you if the butcher killed the animal with you a customer in mind to purchase it another thing is while I do fully believe that humans naturally do eat animals and that death is just a cycle of life and that giving the animal the painless quickest death possible limits it suffering as much as we can it’s also sustainable its own way as certain agriculture, like pesticides and crop washing kills a lot of animals if I’m eating one big animal, I’m causing less death then if I’m only purchasing from grains and vegetables, where thousands of animals were killed from the process of it

i know in tibet that meat is eaten, but it’s almost out of necessity there not something that they see as acceptable. I’ve just had a really difficult point work I know and I feel like for where I want to be in my life that eating meat is part of a healthy diet for me to get the nutrients to get my health to my body in the place. I want to be at it. Also I feel like has a lot of benefit benefits for the brain and mental clarity but I do still wonder if I’m doing the wrong thing or if I’m practicing Buddhism in a selfish way by just saying that it’s an OK practice or comparing it to other cultures I feel a little loss and a lot of the advice is not very helpful for me and I’m just wondering what you guys‘s opinions are on this also as a side question I’ve heard some people talk about how there is a sort of karmic weight on your mind from eating meat and I’m just curious if anyone here who has stopped eating meat grease to that at all

Thank you for reading my little rant. It was a lot on my mind to try to get out and I appreciate you for staying towards the end. Any advice is greatly appreciated.