Within the ordained monks and nuns of Theravadin Buddhism, they actually have quite a few different requirements, rules and guidelines. One of the guidelines is not to talk about politics, kings, queens, sex, religion, etc., all the different viewpoint things that our whole world cycles around. But in particular the kings, queens and politics is a very strong thing which not only monks and nuns work on, but it was part of the original rules set down by the Buddha. The Buddha himself reportedly never interfered with wars, except one time, and that was because it was his own relatives getting involved in a fight over the usage of a river during a drought. And it was simple enough for him to just show how to alternate days to use the river and so on.
He also recommended for any country to keep its freedoms, to keep its peaceful lifestyle, that they must maintain a good army. He actually recommended it, to make sure your defenses are there to protect the freedoms of the people. But he also recommended that in order to maintain a free society, that there must be regularly the getting together of the elders or the leaders of the community, to discuss, to always have frequent meetings. To a large extent that's what democracy is based on, having frequent meetings, having representation, talking about things before making decisions and so on. Each one of us comes from countries where the governments are democratic, they try to maintain a strength, a defense organization and so on. So much of that is in line with how the Buddha taught.
As to the particular war that we have at the moment, I personally don't want to get involved in a view on it, but it's part of the world. Now the word Samsara is more or less everything that exists, the worlds, whether it is earth, whether there are heaven realms, hell realms, whatever, it is all part of Samsara. It is the word Theravadin Buddhism uses to describe a wheel, a kind of cycle, cyclic existence. We're born, we live, we die, and round and round we go until eventually if we're wise enough we get enlightened and we get off this wheel. Samsara is the term used. Now Samsara, by definition, has different realms. We have the human realm, and we exist alongside the animal realm, these are actually two different realms according to Buddhism. Then there are hell realms we can't see, which are obviously negative places to go. And there are heaven realms which we normally also can't see, which generally are more positive realms to go, largely because the beings there don't have a physical body. Yet there are various degrees of the heaven realms in which they have lots of mental pain or very little mental pain. So we live in this Samsara, and by definition the human realm is going to stay exactly the way it is, because that's the realm. It can't change, it can never be a heaven realm, so to speak. Humans beings will have the greed and the aversion and so on. This does not negate what is also written that sometimes the human realm is more peaceful than at other times. But, in general the human realm simply is the human realm.
Which is getting to the point that I'm trying to make, which is that war is part of the human realm, and whether we like it or not, it's just going to be there. If we want it to try to really get involved and try to solve wars and whatever, basically the people who really do that are in the top parts of the governments. If we want to stop a war, can we go political, can we go and do the right thing? Because yelling in the streets may do a little, but often nothing. But there are people up in the top level, they're making the decisions. The people yelling in the streets would like to, but if you can get up to the top levels then obviously you have a better chance. But to stop all wars is impossible, because this simply is the human realm. That doesn't say that all wars are just, I'm an American who almost got drafted into a very unjust war in Vietnam. Some are not just. In World War 2, America joining it was obviously a just approach.
But to realize that war is a part of life, and to focus our attention as indicated here, "my own war." This is why the Buddha said to the monks and nuns, don't worry about politics, get on with your own war. It was a training place to get on with your own war. When you're on retreat there's simply no reason to worry about the Iraqi war, it doesn't have to exist, it's not going to change one bit no matter how many thoughts you give to it during these days. But your own war, your own war is what you're working with now. So, in a sense too, I think all of you have probably heard the expression in its various different forms, to change what you can change, and to have Compassion and Equanimity towards the things you can't change. Now we would like there never to be a war, there's no question about it, we would like for there to never be any killing on the planet. But wanting it, that's not going to change Samsara, that's not going to change the human realm. For us to be an example for others, if we can stop our war and show others a way to stop their war, then we've got a chance to stop more of these little wars.