Think Buddhists are all peaceniks? Think again.

clipped from www.religiondispatches.org Monks With Guns: Discovering Buddhist Violence Buddhist monk with toy gun. Bhutan, 2008. During my visits between 2006 and 2008, southern Thai monks shared the challenges of living in their fear-infested communities. All but a few concentrated on survival; peacemaking was the last thing on their minds. One day after teaching an English class for Buddhist novices at a monastery a young monk came over and pulled back the folds of his robe to reveal a Smith & Wesson. I later learned that he was a military monk—one of many covert, fully ordained soldiers placed in monasteries throughout Thailand. To these monks, peacemaking requires militancy. It was then that I realized that I was a consumer of a very successful form of propaganda. In a way, I wish I could return to that dream of Buddhist traditions as a purely peaceful, benevolent religion that lacks mortal failures and shortcomings. But I cannot. It is, ultimately, a selfish dream and it hurts other people in the process.

A new collection of academic studies reveals a strong strain of violence and militancy that runs through the world's historically Buddhist cultures. So -- it's not all about "present moment, wonderful moment" after all, I guess.