From Conflict to Reconciliation: Buddhist Ethical Insights on the Kosambī Dispute

Global conflicts prove the ethical constraints upon power-focused peace and security thinking. Although international relations theory has developed sophisticated explanatory models of conflicts, it has manifestly downplayed the ethical and psychological aspect of these phenomena. This paper explores the resolution of conflicts from an ethical point of view of Buddhism by considering an interpretation of the Dhammapada with regard to the conflict at Kosambī (Dhammapada Verses 1-6). Using an interdisciplinary qualitative methodology grounded in humanities-based textual analysis, ethical interpretation, and comparative peace studies approaches, this paper examines Buddhist perspectives on conflict resolution through the narrative of the Kosambī dispute preserved in the Dhammapada Aṭṭhakathā. The study explores how attachment to views (diṭṭhi-upādāna), lack of restraint (asaṃvara), and ignorance (avijjā) contribute to conflict, while Buddhist ethical principles such as ahiṃsā (non-violence), mettā (loving-kindness), karuṇā (compassion), sati (mindfulness), and paṭiccasamuppāda (dependent origination) offer interpretive frameworks for understanding reconciliation and peacebuilding in contemporary contexts. This research establishes an ethical interpretation concerning the Dhammapada with regard to global conflict situations like Ukraine, Gaza Conflict, Indo-pacific region, Sudan conflict, Rohingya crisis cases, etc., illustrating the actual availability of Buddhist ethics as an interpretation model contemplating global conflicts from an ethical point of view by considering the internal aspects of conflicts as appropriate conditions fulfilling peace.