Veterans Day? Soldiers' wrong livelihood (sutra)

Wat Metta Abbot Ven. Thanissaro (trans.) Right Livelihood (accesstoinsight.org); Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Pfc. Sandoval, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Erik Edstrom, DemocracyNow.org

Women of War? Wow! Women are in the military like the Kurdish YPG Fighters (Wikipedia)

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Thinking of becoming a soldier?

What is wrong livelihood? It is mentioned in the fifth of the eight factors of the Ennobling Eightfold Path, belonging to the anti-virtue division of the Path.

Some Buddhists defend the use of violence.

SUTRA: Yodhajiva the village headman went to the Blessed One (the Buddha), bowed, and sat respectfully to one side. Sitting there he said:

"Venerable sir, I have heard that it is passed down by the ancient teaching lineage of warriors that:

"'When a warrior strives and exerts in battle, if others then strike that person down and slay one while that person is striving and exerting in battle then, with the breakup of the body, after death, that person is reborn in the company of shining ones [devas, angels] slain in battle.'

"What does the Blessed One have to say about that saying of theirs?"

"Enough, headman, set that aside. Do not ask."

1984: "War is peace." Just ask BS Obama

But a second time...[and] third time Yodhajiva the headman asked, "Venerable sir...What does the Blessed One have to say about that?"

"Apparently, headman, I am unable to get by through saying, 'Enough, headman, set that aside. Do not ask.' So I will answer you in a straightforward way:

"When a warrior strives and exerts in battle, one's mind is already seized, debased, and misdirected by the thought: 'May these beings be struck down, slaughtered, destroyed, annihilated. May they cease to exist!'

War on whistleblowers who expose U.S. crimes

"If others then strike that person down and slay that person thus striving and exerting in battle then, with the breakup of the body, after death, that person is reborn in a hell called the 'Realm of those Slain in Battle.'

"But if one holds such a view as, 'When a warrior strives and exerts in battle, if others then strike one down and slay that person striving and exerting in battle then, with the breakup of the body, after death, one is reborn in the company of shining ones slain in battle,' that is wrong view.

Militant Commander-in-Chief of the US Military Joe Biden is the only one in step? Lol

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Guitarist Jimi Hendrix was a friend of Nixon

"Now, there are two destinations for a person possessed of wrong view, I say, either one of the hells or the animal womb."

When this was said, Yodhajiva the headman burst into tears.

[The Buddha said:] "That is what I could not get past you by saying, 'Enough, headman, set that aside. Do not ask that.'"

[Yodhajiva:] "Venerable sir, I am not crying because of what the Blessed One said but rather because I have been deceived, cheated, and fooled for a long time by that ancient teaching lineage of warriors (SN 42.3). More