ABSTRACT
IN TRYING TO contribute a paper on the subject of "Antagonism among Religious Sects and the Problem of Buddhist Tolerance", I found myself a rather easy task of presenting frequent violent antagonism in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic traditions, past and present. It would be sufficient to show the combat which moved from South Vietnam to Belfast, Northern Ireland (antagonism between Catholic and Protestants) and Beirut, Lebanon (Muslims and Christians). I could have next brought out a well accepted historical fact: during the course of the ebb and flow of Buddhism in Asia, productive interactions took place without major religious wars among Asian countries. I would naturally have mentioned some instances of Buddhist intolerance, for example, the fierce battles fought by s6hei, (armed monks) of medieval Japan and the Sokagakkai of today, etc., for no society is immune from intolerance. "If any society should ever achieve a state of perfect tolerance", says Hans Mol, "its people would have to invent islands of intolerance in order to live".1 At the same time, I would have hastened to mention the roles of Buddhism in Tibet as the culturiser and pacifier, as it were. 2 Then I could have suggested possible reason for Buddhist tolerance... "all the way from geographic to psychological factors BAnd involve such matters as migrations, commerce, war and peace, diet and sunshine."3
