page_title: Ahiṃsā
section_title: Buddhism
hierarchical_section_title: Ahiṃsā / Buddhism
caption_attribution_description: English: Peace walk by child monks project in Wat Trai Sirimongkhon Buddhist Temples,Nong bun mak district,Nakhon Ratchasima province,northeastern Thailand.
context_page_description: Ahimsa is an ancient Indian principle of nonviolence which applies to all living beings. It is a key virtue in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
  Ahimsa is one of the cardinal virtues of Jainism, where it is first of the Pancha Mahavrata. It is also the first of the five precepts of Buddhism. Ahimsa is a multidimensional concept, inspired by the premise that all living beings have the spark of the divine spiritual energy; therefore, to hurt another being is to hurt oneself. Ahimsa has also been related to the notion that any violence has karmic consequences. While ancient scholars of Hinduism pioneered and refined the principles of Ahimsa, the concept also reached an extraordinary development in the ethical philosophy of Jainism. lord Parsvanatha, the twenty-third tirthankara of Jainism, revived and preached the concept of non-violence in the 8th century BCE. Mahaviraswami, the twenty-fourth and the last tirthankara further strengthened the idea in the 6th century BCE. Perhaps the most popular advocate of the principle of Ahimsa was Mahatma Gandhi.
  Ahimsa's precept of 'cause no injury' includes one's deeds, words, and thoughts.
context_section_description: In Buddhist texts Ahimsa (or its Pāli cognate avihiṃsā) is part of the Five Precepts (Pañcasīla), the first of which has been to abstain from killing. This precept of Ahimsa is applicable to both the Buddhist layperson and the monk community.
  The Ahimsa precept is not a commandment and transgressions did not invite religious sanctions for laypersons, but their power has been in the Buddhist belief in karmic consequences and their impact in afterlife during rebirth. Killing, in Buddhist belief, could lead to rebirth in the hellish realm, and for a longer time in more severe conditions if the murder victim was a monk. Saving animals from slaughter for meat is believed to be a way to acquire merit for better rebirth. These moral precepts have been voluntarily self-enforced in lay Buddhist culture through the associated belief in karma and rebirth. The Buddhist texts not only recommended Ahimsa, but suggest avoiding trading goods that contribute to or are a result of violence:
  These five trades, O monks, should not be taken up by a lay follower: trading with weapons, trading in living beings, trading in meat, trading in intoxicants, trading in poison.
  — Anguttara Nikaya V.177, Translated by Martine Batchelor
  Unlike lay Buddhists, transgressions by monks do invite sanctions. Full expulsion of a monk from sangha follows instances of killing, just like any other serious offense against the monastic nikaya code of conduct.
caption: Buddhist monk peace walk
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