So what if the Naval Yard shooter was Buddhist?

The absolute dumbest proposition has made its way through the internet via WaPo:

"In the aftermath of the Navy Yard shootings, gunman Aaron Alexis’s interest in Buddhism seemed at odds with conventional Western stereotypes of blissed-out meditators."

Casually attributing meditating Buddhists as "blissed-out", is utterly moronic, because the goal of meditation (and the core point of Buddhism) is equanimity, not bliss.

Furthermore, using violence is antithetical to the Noble Eightfold Path towards Enlightenment, which therefore means that the Naval Yards killer hadn't truly accepted the Four Noble Truths of Suffering.  The bottom line is, this instance demonstrates a lack of devotion to Buddhism.

Also, I take exception to the writers' inclusion of this paragraph:

As Buddhism has spread in the West, it has put forth and maintained an image of being a peaceful religion,” Buddhist ethicist Justin Whitaker, author of the American Buddhist Perspective blog, wrote Tuesday. “This is a myth."

It is patently false to claim that Buddhism isn't a peaceful religion.

Violence perpetuates suffering and suffering is categorically contrary to the Path of Enlightenment.  You cannot have it both ways.  If Buddhist practitioners commit violence, it is false inductive reasoning to disassociate Buddhism from its peaceful trait.  As I have long argued, it is not the religion that is violent, but its practitioners who twist religion to justify their needs, outright misunderstand it, or simply ignore it.  And, as we are only human, we are imperfect in following a righteous path.  Or put a different way, God is the only perfection; you cannot associate the imperfect acts of humans with God.  Not even the original disciples of Jesus were perfect.

The fact of the matter is, the overriding issue wasn't Alexis' religion, but his imperfect self.  He failed to accept the Four Noble Truths and he most certainly did not follow the Noble Eightfold Path towards Enlightenment.