Happy Halloween!

Okay, it's a few days early, but the wish is sincere. Tonight, I'm in lovely St. Mary's, Georgia, a few miles north of the state line from Jacksonville. While most people in this town tonight are staying here in anticipation of tomorrow's Georgia-Florida game, I'm here working on the weekend at a former paper mill.

Referring to a recent comment in this blog about the apparent lack of Buddhist terrorists, I was asked if I had ever read about the role of the Buddhist hierarchy and some very well known masters in the Japanese imperial atrocities in China. I refer the question to my previous post about Buddhist atrocities, including the situation in Sri Lanka. No, Buddhist societies and governments are, sadly, societies and governments first, and Buddhist second, and are as likely to abuse power and privilege as any other.

However, I still haven't found a Buddhist terrorist. True, the repressive policies of Sri Lanka are deplorable, but the Tamils are committing the acts commonly referred to as "terroristic," not the government. And while the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor could be called "terrorism," it was still an attack on a military, not a civilian, target.

The Buddhist regimes have not been perfect, but they have not been terrorists, either.