Can a Buddhist fight back if in self defense?

Question

Hello, I am a relatively new Buddhist who is still broadening himself in Buddhism and learning the many teachings of the Buddha.

Over my studied I have come across many teachings that encourage to avoid violence at all costs.

I was at the bowling alley last night, and a drunk man was starting to get rough with his girlfriend. I thought this behavior was very out of line, so I tried to step in and calm things down. Unfortunately, he had other plans. He came at me, I tried to inflict as little pain as possible to him(I study Aikido), while I could get some help in immobalizing him, but it still made me question to what limits we should abide to.

I thank anyone who shares their wisdom.

Answer 1

Yes. It's okay to fight back in order to defend yourself, but you yourself should never be the agressor. If there is a way to defend yourself without using violence/harming the other person, you should do that instead. Hope this cleared some things up.

Answer 2

the dalai lama does not speak for the buddha like the pope does for god so just to be clear, what he says has no effect on what the buddha originally taught. i think for a lay practitioner (non monk) you should protect yourself as peacefully as possible. run away when you can. call the cops when you can. fight only if you have to. for a monk the odds of needing to ever defend yourself are slim and the strict buddhist rules were designed for monks. different rules apply for householders. i'm not sure but this is what i think. form what i can find in reading, fighting for purely self defense accrues much less bad karma than doing it for fun or because you want to. so it's somewhat acceptable. the most pure monk would let someone kill him i think before fighting back (he would probably try running first though!) i would imagine but i don't know for sure. there's a story from japan that goes: a samurai was killing everyone in a village when he came upon a monk meditating. he swung his sword and stopped just before hitting the monks neck. he said "do you realize i could cut your head off without batting an eye?" the monk said "do you realize i could have my head cut off without batting an eye?" the samurai became his student then and there. karma balances itself out i would imagine. if you protected a bunch of good people from harm by beating up a bad guy i think you would be on the up side and the good karma would be more than the bad. i don't know for sure but this is generally how buddha taught things work.

Answer 3

Being that you're aware of the issue, I think that if you remain focused and unemotional during a confrontation, and have respect and love for your attacker, you can tell for yourself how to keep a useful amount of force.

If you loose focus and get angry during a confrontation, I suggest holding your attacker immobile until you can regain compassion for your attacker. After you have regained your focus, you can once again feel out how much force is necessary.

PS-If the need to inflict pain on your attacker is necessary, then so be it. If you don't discourage him, the next person might not be as compassionate as you.

Answer 4

Please go to: www.bswa.org

they have a forum for everything Buddhist.
Master Chin Kung had a saying:
Sometime, an improper act brings proper result;sometime,proper act brings improper result.

Answer 5

Yes, that is why there is Shaolin Buddhism, and Shaolin temples, and Shaolin monks doing just that.

Namo Amitabha!