Return to Silence

8/6/2019 Return to Silence

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RETURN TO SILENCE

ORDINARY LANKANS


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BEING REFLECTIONS OF ORDINARY LANKANSWALKING THE PATH OF PEACE ..

Peace in our time .

Re-engagement with self

Re-engagement with society

Return to silence

Who are the ordinary lankans?


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About the cover

The mandala drawing on the cover page is offered as an aid to meditation.

There comes a time in the life of a nation when only silence can offer what

we really need.


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PEACE IN OUR TIME

Peace in our time is attainable. It requires however that you and I should WALKTHE PATH of peace as ordinary lankans. This means having faith in goodness

and therefore cultivating the strength to fight and if necessary die for it. Wecannot have faith in goodness if we dont know what goodness is. There may beindividuals in this country who can still discern wisdom and ignorance; butcollectively we have strayed from this basic ground, this path of sanity.

We have no moral consensus on basic issues like killing and cheating. When ahuman being is killed (whether by a terrorist bullet or by a mindless bus driver)we get carried away by the label of the victim and the label of the killers. Wedont see the alienation, separation and hatred that runs underneath as forceswe have all served to bring up to their shocking dimensions today. Consequentlythey are forces that each and every one of us must address at a fundamental

level i.e. at the level of our individual selves.

We value nothing. In other words we value all the wrong things. Therefore wedeserve nothing. As a society we have slid into a pre-civilizational stage. Thistherefore is a time for true warriors and pioneers. They are ordinary people whoacknowledge that they deserve nothing; that they are complete idiots and foolswhose real education, about life and about hearts and minds, has hardly begun.They will search for wisdom in a spirit of humility not mere knowledge, andwisdom will ultimately posses them. This journey that we undertake, step bystep and day after day is the PATH.

This is a commitment, and commitments are not convenient. On the path weaspire to standards of morality that are absolute. We may slip from time to timebut our resolve will not diminish. We stay close to the straight and narrow untilwe are one with the path. It will make us sacrifice the self for the nation insteadof sacrificing the nation for our little selves as we have all been doing so far.

Terrorists from all walks of life the political terrorists, the economic terrorists,the moral cowards to those bus drivers who terrorise us on the roads are allmocking us that we do not possess the moral strength to bring order, peace anddiscipline into our lives. As far as the past was concerned they were right. The

future is different. The future belongs to all peace loving ordinary lankans whohave HAD ENOUGH. Having endured for this long there comes a point when weshall resolve that we are not going to tolerate this cruelty and stupidity anylonger. This day must dawn for intelligent lankans sooner than later.

We are all surrounded by negative energy. You and I are very much a part ofthis negative field. Our positive energies are trapped within a blaming andcompartmentalized culture. We live in little boxes and point our fingers at each


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other. We need to realize that the bonds of separation that imprison us are mindcreated. Lo and behold! They are a delusion. They dont exist apart from ourimagination.

Let us for a moment apply the wisdom of Gautama Buddha. There is no UNP.

There is no SLFP. There is no JVP. There is no LTTE. There is no Tamil Eelam.There is no Sinhala Buddhist land. These are all imaginings of deluded minds lostin a world of generalizations and concepts. There are only 19 million humanbeings suffering on a tiny island on an insignificant planet spinning around aninsignificant sun in a timeless and boundless universe.

The Buddha taught us to see the dhamma the essence, the only thing to whichwe can attach the description reality. What do we have here? We have greed.We have hatred. And this greed and hatred in their different forms and degreesis due to our failure to see things as they are. This is nothing new. It has beenthe issue facing human beings for a long, long time.

Why are we bound hand and foot, to these forces? What are the real sources ofnegative energy?

The whole world not just Sri Lanka, is trapped between two extremes. Theyare the extremes of greed and hatred. In an address to the YMCA Colombo onNovember 15, 19271 Mahatma Gandhi said:

To you young Ceylonese friends2 I say: Dont be dazzled by the splendour that comes to youfrom the West. Do not be thrown off your feet by this passing show. The Enlightened One hastold you in never to be forgotten words that this little span of life is but a passing shadow, a

fleeting thing and if you realize the nothingness of all that appears before your eyes, thenothingness of this material case that we see before us ever changing, then indeed there aretreasures for you up above, and there is peace for you down here, peace which passeth allunderstanding and happiness to which we are utter strangers.

So be not lifted off your feet, do not be drawn away from the simplicity of your ancestors. A timeis coming when those who are in the mad rush today of multiplying their wants, vainly thinkingthat they add to the real substance, real knowledge of the world, will retrace their steps and say:What have we done? Civilisations have come and gone, and in spite of all our vaunted progressI am tempted to ask again and again To what purpose? Wallace, a contemporary of Darwin hassaid the same thing. Fifty years of brilliant inventions and discoveries he has said, has not addedone inch to the moral height of mankind.

It is not simply interpersonal greed and interpersonal hatred we are dealing with.Today we have structures of greed and egoistic materialism legitimated by thecapitalist system. And we have a structure of hatred legitimated by the criminalprocess.

1 Gandhi and Sri Lanka, 1905-1947, Sarvodaya Vishva Lekha 2002, p 59,60.2 The YMCA had among its members Buddhist as well as Christian youth.


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The pursuit of happiness has been misunderstood as an individual rather than acollective goal. A few have amassed untold power and wealth. At the other endof the spectrum, millions die every year of starvation disease and conflict. Thesocial unrest generated by such injustice is contained (within the box) by thecriminal process which deals with the manifestations and not causes of anti-

social behaviour.

When human problems fester and linger without solution there is revolutionwhich takes the form of egoistic idealism (also referred to as terrorism). Thisforce is also driven by ethnic, religious or class hatred.

What are the values that drive these systems? Fundamentally they are greed andhatred. This does not mean that capitalism, the criminal process and idealismcannot have compassion. There are indeed features within all three that promotethe collective good. But this happens when they promote collective as opposedto sectarian goals. However all three systems by definition have theirpreferred client base and others who must be either controlled or eliminated forthe well being this client base.

Many of us take this old paradigm for granted. And so we continue to search forsolutions within this old box. We cannot see that the box itself has collapsed andis crumbling around us. Although the physical structures of capitalism and thelegal systems that support it stand they are bereft of legitimacy and relevancefor the good of mankind. When this first level of support goes a lot of coercion isneeded to keep them alive. This is why so much of our collective resources arespent on armaments. Moving from one paradigm to another is not easy.

However this movement has already begun. The shape of the new paradigm willbe found by intelligent people who bother to examine and understand their ownhuman condition. They will proclaim one day that relationships are as importantas rights and that compassion is as important as reason.

Let us join this grand movement. Let us confront the true enemies of mankindwith intelligence, experience them, analyse them and understand them. They arepresent both within and without. We cannot do battle with an enemy we havenot identified and recognised. Every great warrior has fought this lone, hardbattle before taking the field. Once we do this as ordinary lankans we will be onsolid ground. We will then be able to deal with external situations with precision

and intelligence with a stillness and calmness that can defy the devil himself.

In the short articles that follow we have attempted to provide clarity, precisionand courage. This is needed to cut through the deception and moral confusionthat surrounds us. Seeing through the deception we have created is imperativeto defend our common humanity in the face of the unprecedented threat levelled


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Re-engagement with self1.The re-engagement

THE PATH OR RE-ENGAGEMENT

By Susil Sirivardana

One very common cry heard from all classes of citizens and folk among us is thecry of frustration - in fact of great frustration. While it can be explored andexplained in a thousand ways, let us take a familiar route. That is the frustrationarising from an abiding sense of failure after fifty seven years of Independence.The vision and mission and social relations of 1948 lie in pieces before our eyes.

Violence and blood and division and suspicion and hypocrisy and rhetoric is themindscape that we inhabit. We live - visionless, mission-less and teetering on theedge of social relations we have managed to salvage against great odds. Yes,this all too familiar scene surrounding us is depressing. Hopelessness andhelplessness are the dominant qualities. Then how do we survive and feel andsmile and love? How do we communicate with ourselves above all? By a qualityof the self which is not self. By some thing deep within, a spirituality, a light thatmakes us see and feel something new, something different. And yes it can bringus out of that pervasive frustration. That is what has been called here The Path.Or Re-engagement. A Re-engagement with Self and Society.

As we contemplate that spirituality, that light, we see that it possesses a qualityof resistance, a quality of saying yes to the creative and no to the life-destroying,which is within every human being. And to you and me caught up in this societalcrisis in our country this quality of resistance is what enables us to look atourselves in the mirror, to respect ourselves and those whom we care for. Thisimpulse speaks to us penetratively and insists that we have created somethingno negative force can touch. We have created a spirituality within ourselves thatwe may not be sufficiently aware of. The personhood. The personhood of myself.But not the ego.

CHOICES

The route to The Path is circuitous, somewhat indirect. That is perhaps bestexplained as a matter to do with choices. That is, there were a number ofpossible choices to be exercised before reaching The Path which was the last.


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The first of these was to embrace the frustration itself and attempt to makesomething endurable out of it. How? By simply saying that there was nothing Icould do about the situation I found myself in. Therefore accept it. Bow to it.Recognize its hopelessness and vicariously live off it. Dont try to change it. Thatwill be fatal. For the one certainty is that it cannot be changed.

There was a second choice. In a way that seemed easier. That was to leave thecountry. Yes emigrate. All around me, a minority of people were exercising thatoption. Many have already gone. Others have already decided to go. But surelythere are many who cannot even consider it an option. There can be manyreasons why it is not a realistic option for many. It is after that choice wasrejected that one came to the third and last.

That was the path of re-engaging with self and society. That was in fact the paththat many were being pushed in to take today. As we tried to capture in ouropening prelude, there is something particularly compelling about this choice.

The real challenge here is the question how? How can one engage with self andsociety? Can we recapture some lessons from those who have experienced it?

RE-ENGAGING

The process of re-engaging is really a process of searching. It is therefore a formof searching or re-searching for oneself and for ones relationship with society ina new key.

This conscious search along the route of inner experiences brings us to therealization that all such experience is radiated by something called values. As weinvestigate this still further, we come to the startling revelation that today we aretrying to live without values. Or something other than values have supersededthem. We have certain norms like money and power but they are totallyinsufficient for my purposes and for the purposes of others like myself. Moneyand power cannot contain and nourish my inner self and my spirituality. Thatrequires something which is moral and of the stuff of idealism. Whatever it is ithas to be abiding and enduring and above vanity and doubt and the self itself. Itis closely linked to humanness and humanity. What we call modern societyseems to have short-changed itself by bartering away attributes like values for

more material and ego-boosting attachments.

My search also takes me to a new engagement with myself. It takes me deeperand deeper into parts of myself I have not traveled before. I rediscover aspectsof my being and body which make me more sensitive, make me see myself andthe world in a more holistic and interconnected way, make me see myself as a


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part of nature, makes me aware of the potential for creativity lying within myselfand within society.

Another important engagement is with my work. I begin to examine verycarefully my whole relationship with my work. Am I happy with it? What me

makes me happy with some of it and what makes me unhappy with other partsof it? The fact that I feel tired and worn out with aspects of my work is indicativeof something important which I didnt take notice of all this time. Doesnt thishappen when work is uncreative or mechanistic or imitative? I realize more andmore the need for work to enrich and inspire and satisfy my inner self. In thoseinstances work is not really work. It is a part of my life which I look forward toand dont despise as I used to do when my understanding was incomplete.

I also realize that there are many pitfalls in my engagement with society. Theyhave to do with dehumanization. Here are so many attributes of todaysglobalized society which are harmful to the lives of children and women andmen. A major source of this malaise is commercialization and the advertisingindustry. Commercialization and advertising is fundamentally about makingselling a compulsion and has nothing to do with adding value to the human spiritor quality of feeling or life-relationships. There is an ongoing process ofdesensitization and reductionism which numbs peoples sensitivity and makesthem less prone to feeling experiences spiritually. This reduces our humancapacities and narrows our vision. Alienation within families, between parentsand children, is a marked phenomenon in both village and town in our society.We are also a society very prone to violence and domination. We cannot conductand sustain equal person to person relationships. We want them to be vertical

and dominating. As for violence, there is violence in our speech, our treatment ofourselves, between gender and in our human and social relationships.

It was Gandhi who said that we must become the life we want to be. We toohave come to a turning point in our day to day lives. It has an alternative to offerwhich is a path of hope and enrichment.

We have tried to give ourselves something of a perspective .We called it ThePath or the process of Re-engagement with Self and Society. Many have begunto travel on it. It is something we should focus on.


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2.Affirming Life ARE WEALL MURDERERS THEN?

Let us look at this issue on first principles, as simply as possible and as humanbeings in five simple steps.

Step one - KILLINGIS WRONG

The pre-meditated killing of a human being is wrong.

When I say wrong I mean that it is a negative and unskilful act.

The reference to skill is this. When we are alive in the sense that our heart andmind is switched on present and positive, we can be skilful. This is also beingawake and in touch with reality. Such a person is in a sound state of mentalhealth.

When we fall short of this as we generally do in degrees, we think, speak and actunskilfully.

The opposite of being present and positive is being absent and negative. This isbeing asleep and out of touch with reality. Such a person is mentally unsound.

So the pre-meditated killing of a human being is an unskilful act. A man who isat least reasonably awake would neither kill nor encourage it.

This is because he fully appreciates his inherent dignity and worth as a humanbeing not merely as an intellectual proposition but as a living reality. He knowswith every breath and every beat of his heart that he shares the same air and

the same basic energy with all other human beings. He does not feel separation only a sense of unity. Such a person knows that by harming others we alsoharm ourselves. Conversely by helping others we also help ourselves. By sotaking care of our minds we enhance our sensitivity of heart and clarity ofthought the hallmarks of a true human being. A human society is a livingand dynamic organism. It cannot harm or eliminate a part ofit withoutdamaging itselfin the process.


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In considering standards relating to taking life, honesty and sexual misconductthere is no room for compromise. The more we compromise the less human andmore animal we become. In the words of a great UN Secretary General:

You cannot play with the animal in you without becoming wholly animal, play with falsehood

without forfeiting your right to truth, play with cruelty without losing your sensitivity of mind. Hewho wants to keep his garden tidy doesnt reserve a plot for weeds.

[Dag Hammarskjold]

If it is wrong for an individual to kill how can it be right for the State to kill. TheState we know is all of us and ultimately we are going to hire another man tokill. Most of us dont like to do it ourselves so we contract it out to the hangman.The only difference is that we pay the hangman at the end of the month.

Elaborate rituals like trials etc dont make a difference. A premeditated killing is a

killing. Dont get fooled by labels like punishment or death penalty. Take thelabel off and take a hard look. We are ultimately going to kill a defencelesshuman being.

Step two THOSE WHO KILL ARE MENTALLY UNSOUND

This is self evident. This applies not only to individuals but also aggregates likeStates and Societies which kill in response to a killing by an individual. By joiningthe ranks of the killer we are also going to partake of the same mental attitudeof alienation and separation.

Those who kill are labouring with an unresolved issue. This may relate to atraumatic incident or a series of such incidents which they experienced afterbirth. A traumatic incident that an infant, child, teenager or adult cannot makesense of has a dual impact; a loss of self esteem and a loss of trust in others.

All forms of anti-social behaviour from insider dealing and market manipulationto petty theft is rooted in a mind separated from the rest of society. In the caseof murderers the degree of alienation and suffering is obviously more.

As adults we can relate to something like infidelity of a spouse. This is why thecriminal law mitigates a killing by an enraged spouse who sees his/her mateengaged in an act of adulterous intercourse. Of course our responses may takeany point between deep negativism and deep positivism. Essentially we canchoose not to understand or understand. Understanding is obviously better. Butbecause it challenges us to let go of our prejudice and hatred we prefer to stickto them and take solace in self serving thoughts and self pity.


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The lack of maturity in human relationships should not surprise people living inunstable societies. But they are frequently surprised because they engage in selfdeception and try to make believe that things like crimes are abnormal. Theydont see themselves as part of an abnormal society. This is well supported by a

sensationalist and blaming media culture.

Step three DEATHIS FINAL

Death is final no matter what you do or dont do to the killer. Revenge can makeus feel good if we are also mentally unsound or if we feel inferior and want toshow the killer who is Boss. In a world dominated by ideas of winning andlosing we find it difficult to face reality, put the past behind us and move on.

Step four THOSE LIVING MUST MOVEON

We cannot live in the past. We must face present facts and deal with them. If wehave a sound state of mind we can do something about a person with a lesserstate of mind. We have more power than him. So we need not act on prejudice,hatred, ignorance or fear. We must understand the source of his problem andthere is no better way to do this than by simply listening to him and talking tohim. It may take a long time but at least we are doing our best as human beings

not admitting our inability and defeat.

Good communication is the first step towards problem solving. Unlesswe address our minds to this issue all our efforts are non-starters and a

waste of time and energy. Short of killing and other negative actsrooted in aversion we must be open to any method by which the killercan be set on the road to psychological recovery. This is not rewardingthe killer. Simply being present and doing what is necessary.

This I sincerely believe is the way forward. We cannot afford to make any morecompromises and certainly we cannot afford to undermine the value of a humanlife by our collective and deliberate actions. British criminal justice has dividedour nation and made us judge and punish the uneducated, the deprived, and thementally unsound. If we dont take care of them who will?

Our own massive crimes of neglect and exploitation as an educated middle classwho were the sole beneficiaries of British reforms and the reforms after 1977 hasbrought this island to this state. Let us admit at least now that we are all guiltyof a long list of crimes of acts and omissions not one miserable scapegoat thatthe police has got hold of.


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Step five PERSONAL CONVICTIONS MATTER

Let us honour the dead by affirming life not just the individual but the principlethat all life is sacred. Ultimately the best reason for opposing the taking of life by organized entities like the LTTE or by the Judiciary or State is this.

Our personal convictions and our faith in what is right, good and true cannot bethrown away at the altar of expediency of the forces of coercion and deceit atthe top. If I cannot bring myself to kill a fellow human being, if I cannot squeezehis neck and watch him die, I cannot in all honesty encourage another to do it orstand by and watch. We must bring our thoughts, words and actions in to linewith what we believe and have faith in irrespective of who we are and where weare. We can no longer afford to separate private from public morality becausethey are inter-dependent aspects of our common morality. Only then can we asmen and women of honour assert our freedom and work towards unity andpeace in this island.

Are we all murderers then? Are we all sick in our minds? Let the answer be aresounding NO.

There are two categories in our society the himsaka (those who harmthemselves and others) and ahimsaka (those who protect themselvesand others). This society now needs strong protectors who can takecare of the weak in mind and guide them towards true adulthood andmaturity. And they need not wear ethnic, religious, judicial or otherhats. We need liberation not domination.


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CANINTERNATIONAL LAW SAVE LIVES?

The latest international measure proposed to deal with the increasing violencesurrounding the people of this country was presented by the UN Special

Rapporteur on Extra Judicial Executions Philip Alston in December 2005 in thefollowing words:

This is a potentially very important initiative said Alston. A truly independent internationalinquiry holds out the prospect of resolving some of the horrendous events of recent weeks andmonths and bringing the country back from the abyss.

We do not doubt the sincerity of such initiatives based on an abiding faith ininternational standards and methods. But we will be failing in our duty as citizensif we do not point out that this is too little, too late.

Nor does it go far enough in turning the light towards the internationalcommunity and their role here. The question still remains if the internationalcommunity apart from fire fighting and providing relief in times of distress hasreally clarified and defined its own role to play a pro active hand in thissituation. The proposals of Alston show that they continue to be blind to theirown weaknesses, assume that they can play a positive role and that all thebehavioural changes must come from the Government and LTTE.

To couch your words in UN jargon is the lot of the UN diplomat. We as citizens ofthis country are not so bound from speaking in plain language and placing ourcards on the table.

Regardless of who has killed, and who is killed, a human life is a human life. Ithas intrinsic value. This is the theory and this theory has no place in this countrytoday. We all know this. We also know that murder has been institutionalized asa weapon and as a considered response by the very organizations (both stateand non-state) who now want SLMM to play the role of a better policeman.

We need to face the bitter truth that there is a complete absence of moralleadership in this country. Mr. Alston states that he met people from allcommunities who reject the path of violence and demand higher standards fromthose that claim to represent them. He is correct in qualifying the word

represent with claim because there is only a claim today but no representation.

As far as I am concerned (and I dare say there are likeminded others) not onlydo I reject violence but I also reject all those who have consistently displayedtheir moral impotence by either adopting violence or compromising with violenceto resolve disputes. These impotent men and women do not represent me in oneimportant respect, i.e. morally. They will only continue to do so with brute force,


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nothing more. Their days in these positions are now numbered, in terms of yearsmay be, but numbered.

Mr. Alston has no doubt that with the requisite political will and the appropriateinternational support the current cycle of killings and violence can be ended.

Given the pathetic performance of the political leaders and the internationalcommunity since December 2001 we have grave doubts about the capacity andmoral courage of these two constituencies to stand up for what is right and tostand up for the common man in this country. Their record speaks for itself. Wedo not wish to deceive ourselves any more.

We have no further need of false courage that comes from being armed withdestructive weapons or a false morality that comes from being armed with highsounding international human rights instruments. What we need today is truecourage derived from a perfected discipline of not having harmed your fellowmen and therefore not having any reason to fear them. This is the time for suchpeople to come forward in defence of our common morality and humanity.

The solutions proffered by the UN Special Rapporteur do not address the root ofthe problem. Better investigations and monitoring mechanisms are simply part ofthe negative paradigm which seek to identify, blame and punish offendingparties. They have their place but the present situation is too precarious to seeksolace from these dead horses.

For us in civil society who seek to deal with the heart of the matter it is sufficient

to know that one sri lankan has killed another sri lankan. Only we and we aloneknow the pain and suffering we have undergone in this ong running conflict. Andonly we will have the capacity to see our neighbour as our brother, talk to himand understand the causes for this mutual alienation. We sri lankans must workon the positive, spiritual and psycho-social side. Till then we will not transcendour animal selves.

Well meaning as they are, the UN and other internationals will seek to play thegame as they know it and fail to educate us on lessons only we can learn as srilankans with broad minds and big hearts. For this we need to move away fromthe way the present impotent leadership has defined the problem and re-define

it as human beings on our own terms. This is a human problem with racialimplications. Not a racial problem with human implications.

The international community is hopelessly in league with killers both on thegovernment and LTTE side. Their hands are tied. Ours are not. We are thesovereign people of this country who will ultimately decide our common destiny.


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For this we cannot play the game on terms defined by the British and theirsuccessors the kalu suddas and radalayas who ruled us. The time has come tothrow off the shameful shackles of our semi-colonial and semi-feudal state. It istime to break the famous unspoken and unwritten compact between Brownriggand Ehelepola that henceforth exploitation of the poor man in this country shall

be carried on jointly by the white man and his local supporters.

What is the first step on this journey? The Buddha said once:

Let none find fault with others:Let none see the omissions and commissions of others.But let one see ones own acts,done and undone

[Dhammapada 50]

Having taken this step we must then come to terms with our shadow, our dark

side. That part of us we are in conflict with. It may be the LTTE it may besomething else. Ultimately it is our own negative emotions we are battling with.The path to power over ourselves was outlined with great clarity by Sun Tszu in

Art of War a very long time ago.

He said:

The methods of the peaceful warrior are five love, consciousness, silence, vigilance and power. Relaxation and acceptance give rise to love, love and presence give rise to consciousness, consciousness gives rise to silence, silence givesrise to vigilance. Love, consciousness, silence and vigilance give rise to power.

John Paul Lederach who wrote Moral Imagination, said that we must have thecapacity to imagine ourselves in a web of relationships that include ourenemies. Such an imagination, he said, must emerge from and speak to thehard realities of human affairs.

Within this transformed and transformative imagination there is no problem, nohuman rights violations, no atrocities, no heroes and no villains. It is a just a webof relationships that must be patched up between individual human beings. AsMother Theresa once said:

Do not wait for leaders. Do it alone, person to person.

Such a dialogue can take place at different levels in a human society. Thedialogue that goes on at the political level can also ascend to this level. But onlyif there is honesty in that great turn inward referred to above and a continuouscommitment to stay that lonely course. I say lonely not in the sense of isolating


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yourself from others but in isolating yourself from the distractions of a deceitfuland seductive world.

The peaceful warrior aligns his or her power with nature by dying to his pettyself or ego. This power will then run its course naturally without laborious plans

and schemes flowing spontaneously towards fulfilment of a grand universal lawand design within which it peacefully plays its part.

3.Grasping the truth the satyagrahiin youBREACHING THECONSENSUSOF COWARDICE

For us Sri Lankans this is the age of moral despair. Might is right and dishonesty

pays. Our experience that great teacher, has confirmed this in our minds. Ourleaders also confirm this belief. Moral clarity and the courage of conviction hasnot been a weakness for them.

We hunger for moral leadership, for true heroism and courage. At times ofdarkness they light up the darkness even for a brief magical moment, giving us asign of hope that we must not succumb. We must not succumb to the code ofsilence and the consensus of cowardice which threatens to put us to sleep andmake us slaves to the powers that be whether these are political or economicstructures of human exploitation and whether these operate in the north, south,east or west.

Today we quote from the past, from a work of art that deals with the superiorityof moral courage over physical courage and the art of the exponent oftruthfulness the satyagrahi

The author is DC Vijayawardena. The book is Revolt in the Temple published in1953. The extracts are culled from a chapter which deals with what the authorcalls Barren Virtues of our times. He has listed three of them; physical courage,apathetic contentment and material charity. We quote from that part which dealswith physical courage.

It is one thing to hold on, even at great cost, to what we honestly love and reasonably believe in.But there is no virtue in conforming to expected standards to do what we want to do. What weusually mean by fidelity is holding on to someone we have ceased to love, a religion we haveoutgrown, a political principle we have never reasoned about at all, and our country right orwrong. We have got to learn a new fidelity; unfaithfulness to what was once right and hasbecome wrong, fidelity to ourselves as we are today and may be tomorrow.

Virtue must be sought for its own sake, quite apart from its results. What is good, the thingsmeet and fit can be known by reason, the wise man being guided by the God within, that is,


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by his participation in the universal reason. There is a natural law which man can know and canobey, and conformity to this law is the highest good. Obedience this law of Nature wouldnormally bring with it health and happiness. But if it does, happiness lies in conformity to the law,not in the fruits of that conformity. And if it fails to bring these goods, it is possible that a goodman can be happy even on the rack.

We have never understood, says A. R. Wylie, in Our Pernicious Virtues, why physical courageshould be so valued and rewarded in our modern life. It is as common to the human race as seximpulse. Even in war physical courage is being out- moded.

When men roamed the jungles and wild beasts ravaged the forests, physical courage was autilitarian quality without which men could not survive. There are no sabre toothed tigers on ourstreets today; and the actual calls upon the individuals physical courage are so rare that theaverage man goes through life without knowing whether he is brave or not.

This is not to underestimate or disparage a quality that has been useful to man to conquer thesavage world. But that conquest has been made. Now we have to go on to the much moredifficult conquest of ourselves. And we need other weapons intellectual and moral heroism.

Moral courage is not merely a virtue; it is the virtue. Without it there are no other virtues. Allother virtues do not become virtues unless it takes moral courage to exercise them. I havenever met, said General Sir William Slim, former Commander in Chief, Allied Land Forces inSouth-East Asia, a man with moral courage who would not, when it was really necessary, facebodily danger. Moral courage is a higher and rarer virtue than physical courage.

Napoleon once remarked and he certainly knew what he was talking about: The onlyconquests which are permanent and leave no regrets, are our conquests over ourselves.

It is still true that he who overcomes himself is greater than he who takes a city. Moral values arethe product of will and intelligence, which enables us to submit to ourselves to discipline. Ofcourse man is fiercely inclined to satisfy his appetites. But he is a slave if he yields to thosepassions. He becomes free only when his mind, and not an animal instinct, dominates his course.The curse of our deification of physical force is that a display of it, in the individual or a nation,can disguise a total bankruptcy in the essential virtues.

If we had any sense of what really mattered, we should regard the soldier as a self- confessedfailure and a martial nation as a nation of failures. For both are shirking the real business of lifewhich is to live and make life possible. Nazi Germany led by Hitler, deified the fighter not becauseshe was a nation of heroes, but because she was a nation of potential suicides, broken undermoral and emotional pressure, who knew no way out save through destruction.

From the earliest times, Indian ideals have been essentially pacifistic. European poets haveglorified war; European theologians have found justifications for religious persecution andnationalistic aggression. This has not been so in India. Indian philosophers and Indian poets have

almost all been anti-militarists.

As an alternative to meeting physical force with physical force, which means strife, war andbloody revolution, the philosophy of non violence is a growing force in the modern world. Itmay be accounted a growing force because, despite the fact that the majority of people stillbelieves in meeting violence with violence, the pacifist movement nevertheless makes headway,particularly among the young intelligentsia. Mahatma Gandhis demonstration of the power of Ahimsa, non violence, during the Civil Disobedience Campaign in India in 1929, had anenormous influence, far beyond India. Gandhiji believed that India could only be liberated, and


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mankind in general saved from destruction, through non violence. He regarded it as the centralteaching of religion, and thereby raised it from a political tactic to a religion.

THE TRUTHFUL ART OF THESATYAGRAHI

Non violence is not to be confused with passivity; it is, as Gandhiji emphasized, an active force;a spiritual force pitted against materialist forces. It is a weapon as Gandhiji has said, not for theweak, as passive resistance may be, but for the strongest and bravest; If blood be shed let it beour blood. Cultivate the quiet courage of dying without killing. For man lives freely only by hisreadiness to die, if need be at the hands of his brother, never by killing him Love does notburn others, it burns itself, suffering joyfully even unto death.

The tactics of non violence are simply non co-operation, civil disobedience, boycott, and inindustry Ahimsa stops short at non co-operation. Gandhiji believed that a complete socialrevolution could be carried out non violently by utilising all the tactics available in Ahimsa.

Violence and non violence were for Gandhiji states of mind, and the practice of Ahimsademanded not merely sacrifice, but the discipline and self-control of a Satyagraha, spiritual force.

In Gandhijis own words, A satyagrahi has faith that the silent and undemonstrative action oftruth and love produces far more permanent and abiding results than speeches and other showyperformances. There is no such thing as real defeat in Satyagraha But fearlessness isabsolutely necessary, the abandonment of all fear of bodily injury, of disease or death, or the lossof possessions or family, or of reputation.

This famous doctrine, the gospel of renunciation of physical force, had its birth in the East, itsspiritual home. In turbulent times when life is insecure, injustice rife, when tyranny and violencerule the mundane scene, there is for the virtuous man no refuge save in Satyagraha. When therace is to the swift and the battle to the wicked and strong, the weaker and the virtuous must goto the wall. In such times this gospel offers a peace within when there is none without.

Over outward things, so runs the satyagrahi thought, we have, it is evident, no power at all, over

the material elements or seasons, over chance or change, over decay and death. They are toostrong for us, and there is no logic in their proceedings. Nature is irrational: the just suffer noless than the unjust, the young die as well as the old. Nature too is unmoral, and has forgoodness no more respect than the earthquake for its victims.

But man, man is rational, and his mind is an independent kingdom, over which material things,over which Nature herself, for all her brutal strength, has no sovereignty. From its impregnablefortress the Satyagrahi may look down upon, and defy, all her embattled powers. What matterher atrocities? What matter any miseries the wicked may inflict upon the good. Withdraw into thecitadel of the self, and you can disdain these Satanic forces. Your contempt for them disarmsthem. You are their overlord and master. My mind to me a kingdom is, where I am theunchallengeable ruler.

The virtuous man has thus supreme control over his own actions. Things beyond his power areno concern of his, and towards them he maintains an attitude of calm indifference. Give me saysEpictetus, what you please, and I will turn it into a good. Bring me illness, poverty, suffering,condemnation to death all this shall be turned to profit. If the condition of your own heart besound, and if here is the hard matter you care not whether you are well or ill, in prison or onthe rack, whether your friends and children suffer and die, your country perishes, whether youyourself live or die if you can view all such things as unconcernedly as you observe the flight ofa bird or the falling of a leaf, you may, indeed, claim divinity.


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POSTSCRIPT

As a nation which has already committed moral suicide we are hardly in a

position to judge the sincere satyagrahi for infringing the Vinaya Code of aBuddhist monk. Today, the State and its component institutions that wereestablished for the common good are more fiction than reality; more shadowthan substance. We are now reduced to a collection of human beings who mustre-establish our collective morality to re-build a new civilisation upon thesmouldering ruins of sinhalese, tamil and muslim culture which lie destroyed,from within and without. The cancer which destroyed our collective culture ormorality is the alienation of man from man with the complete replacement of ourhuman identity with a racial identity. Our rights were exaggerated and theirrights were diluted. We could not, and still do not see that our rights and theirrights are inter-dependent and not separate. Geography stands against usbecause this, after all, is one small island.

The satyagrahi owes allegiance to this truth. This is a truth cuts through morethan the racial barriers we have erected. It also cuts through our moral confusion

our failure to call a spade a spade. If the State is serious about making thiscountry safe for all human beings (a right that precedes all other rights) it mustdo more than refrain from killing. It must work positively to promote the right tolife. It must discourage killing and refuse to confer legitimacy to and deal withthose who continue to kill. We are willing to forgive past crimes, to reconcile andlet live. But we are not prepared to barter away our birthright to a life free from

the menace of political killings and abductions, at the instance of any power,local or foreign. To be open is one thing; to be blind quite another. The safety ofall human beings on this island, whether they are in the east, south, north orwest is a paramount consideration for those entrusted with public power.Neglecting it is an abdication of a sacred duty to themselves and others.

We are not concerned with signatures on pieces of paper. When signed by thosewho lack moral legitimacy they are worthless anyway. True commitment tohuman safety is more important. Without it we will fail to begin at the beginningand embark on another process without a humane foundation. In no time we willbe back to square one. We appeal to all politicians to stop playing childish games

and to grow up. In the game of LIFE there are no winners and losers. Either weall win or we all lose.

4.The ego within


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WHAT IS YOURRELIGION?

Standing up for your religion and race does not go against secularism andtolerance provided that this is done with a clear understanding of the true

function of religion and race in a human society.

The true function of religion is to civilize and humanize the human being byproviding an ethical framework or code of values for peaceful living. Everyhuman being has a unique code of life based on his or her own interpretation ofa particular set of teachings. Thus the usual question what is your religion? iswrongly put. The true question must be what is your code of life and from whatspecific teachings have you derived guidance? Ordinary conversations howevergenerally dont penetrate the label.

Albert Anderson pointed out recently that:Religions are but one way in which spirituality is manifested in human life. It is as open tocorruption and distortion as other forms of personal existence Contemporary global existencerequires a vision of spirituality that embraces not only Protestantism, Catholicism, Judaism, Islam,Buddhism, Hinduism, and dozens of other religions, but it must also include atheists, agnostics,and humanists.

The true function of race or a group of people who perceive a common identityamongst themselves is to nurture, foster and preserve this spiritual heritage.Race must serve religion or spirituality not the other way around. Bothspirituality and race in this relationship of inter dependence must serve thehuman being and human needs.

Reaching a correct understanding on this point requires an honest process ofindividual truth seeking. Such a person must embark upon and stay on this pathof understanding without pre-conceptions and dogmatic beliefs using his or herpreferred framework instrumentally and not substituting it for trueunderstanding. We can only see things as they are through direct experienceuncluttered by explanations given by a teacher. Our experience may confirm theteachings but they are not the same. The former is the real thing the latteronly a description of it.

Above all we must learn to let go of our views and opinions and not become tooattached to them. This is the secret of not dwelling on anything longer than isactually required, and being always present, open and vigilant. The middle pathof the true seeker is a path of ego reduction not ego inflation.

Once a Christian brother asked Abba Peomen, How should I behave in mydesert cell? Abba Peomen replied:


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Wherever you live, live like a stranger and do not expect your words to have anyinfluence, thenyouwillbe atpeace.

Onlythe truththat is sought ina spiritofcomplete openness willliberate. Everyother formoftruth will keepustied tothe bondsofthe ego. Youcannotfind

somethingifyou believe itisalreadyinyourhand. The bondsofthe egoare allthe same whetherwe labelthem as sinhalaor tamil egosorbuddhist,hindu,christianorislamicegos. The humanegohasmasteredthe artofusingthem alltoinflate itself.

The truthliesbeyondthe egoandourinsecure habitofclaimingmonopolyofthetruthasmembersofaparticulargroup. Having prattledaboutthe egofor longenough this is an appropriate point to follow the admonition ofNyanatilokaMahathera(followingSocratesofadifferentera) to define yourtermswhenyouspeak about them. Let us therefore attempt a definition of this troublesomephenomenonwhichtome appearstobe the rootofallevilandsufferingineverypartofthisisland. We are anegoisticsocietyandthiscancerhasnowpervadedeverysphere ofourlife includingthe religioussphere.

A definition of ego

A solidified view of self as a stable and continuous entity; mind created; it has no basis in reality.Its function is to separate the head from heart, mind from matter, the self from others and theideal from actual and assert a pseudo independence which in fact is alienation. For example,we feel unhappy when we are sick because we separate our ideal healthy self from the actualsick self. The ego by setting up2 persons instead of one gives birth to a perpetual conflict withinthe individual and prevents him or her from seeing, understanding and accepting things as they

are. Incidental to this separation is the need to claim ownership of things that are external tothis non-existent ego. As part of this acquisitive habit we also need to define a relationshipbetween the ego and things artificially separated from it. From this is born passion, aggressionand indifference; all of them extreme reactions and deviations from things as they are. Thehuman habit of naming everything from ourselves our thoughts, feelings and emotions, thegroups to which we belong all serve to strengthen this tendency towards selfishness as opposedto selflessness. The ego is born out of insecurity a primordial fear which is a direct result ofseparating ourselves from other living beings and the rest of the universe of which we are a partand with which we are inextricably linked. The distinction between needs and wants alsofurnishes a basis for identifying the ego. The latter are dictated by it. This means that the ego issimply a troublesome addition to human existence. It is really not necessary. All superfluousthoughts, words and actions indicate that the ego is at work. Cultivating inner silence is the bestmethod of seeing the ego clearly and diminishing its effect on our lives.

The Buddha taught a doctrine of egolessness and selflessness. But our legislatorsby dividing our spiritual heritage into four separate parts and giving one of themprecedence over the other three have conferred a solidity and ego on each oneof them. This mistake is in turn based on a British formula found in clause 16 ofthe Proclamation of 1818. Its repetition in the Constitution of 1972 goes directlycounter to and undermines the doctrine of egolessness or anatta in the dharma.There is no question that the Buddha Sasana must be protected in this island.


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Following the advice of the Buddha this must be done from within. It is the innerstrength of the Sasana that should grow by the monkhood and laiety resolving tointegrate wisdom and compassion into their everyday lives. No laws or any otherform of external protection can do this for them.

As Krishnamurti pointed out very clearly:

Where there is division there is conflict this is the law

This Indian Philosopher once had a fascinating conversation with Walpola RahulaMahathera the renowned scholar monk of Sri Lanka.

WR: But there is hardly any difference between your teaching and the Buddhas, it isjust that you say the same thing in a way that is fascinating for Man today, and fortomorrows Man. And now I would like to know what you think about all this.

K:

MayI

ask sir, w

ith due respect, why you compare

?

WR: This is because when I read your books as a Buddhist scholar, as one who hasstudied Buddhist texts, I always see that it is the same thing.

K: Yes sir, but ifI may ask, what is the necessity of comparing?

WR: There is no necessity.

Human craving or desire is based on this fundamental mistake of separation andthe notions of ownership and possession. In fact the whole of our currentcapitalist technological civilisation is founded on such a misunderstanding of

reality.

All this has tremendous implications for a vibrant and functional democracy inwhich there can be free and respectful communication between individuals andgroups leading to the establishment of concord, amity and consensus on thefundamental principles on which our co-existence as islanders must be founded.

According to Philip Eden:

The possibilities of progress are dim if people are not permitted to think freely and to expressideas freely. Anyone who is sincerely seeking the truth has no attachment to any particular ideaor concept, if on reflection or as a result of new evidence a previously held point of view appears

to be incorrect the wise man discards it, no matter how inviolate or sacred society may regardthis particular concept to be. It is only the man who is afraid or uncertain who clings to ideas andvilifies others who disagree with him. Such conduct is once again a sure sign of the ego at work.

If a comfortable belief which gave the ego a sense of security is questioned, it reacts predictablyby engendering anger and abuse in its subject. A person so conditioned by his ego consciousnessis no longer interested in establishing what the truth is. Indeed his own prejudices arethemselves described as truth and all who question them are dismissed as heathens or heretics,hence the sad history of intolerance and cruelty which has so often manifested itself under the


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banner of established religious systems. When the ego feels threatened there are no bounds tothe self deception which it will employ to regain its position of false security.

In this country we now have two sets of politicians those in the north andthose in the south. Those in the south do not seem to tire of words even whenthey have lost all meaning. Conversely our brothers in the north appear to haveno faith in words, but only in actions. At times these actions become destructiveto us all. They all share a strange faith in the efficacy of a preferred leader toperform miracles when the people themselves are not prepared to lift a finger.Dominated on the one hand by words and on the other by actions both ofwhich lack meaning and congruence, the people are trapped.

Words and actions which lack meaning can only be understood and overcome ifthey are both traced to their root insecurity, separation of self and others, self

deception and the master mechanism that directs all superfluous and harmfulhuman operations the ego. The key to regaining the dignity of our citizenship,

in our lifetime is understanding how we have become an egoistic society, amirror image of our egoistic political, economic, social and cultural leaders. Thishas progressively narrowed our vision and trapped our hearts and minds in acycle of unnecessary human suffering.

If what we practice is the test, our collective religion is egoism. There are manypaths that lead us away from it. Due to our human failing however whicheverpath we choose the ego will remain with us right up to the end of our search.Trungpa Rinpoche said that the ego must be worn out like the sole of your shoe

journeying from samsara to liberation.

This is what unites us. When we cling hard to the self we suffer. When we let gowe become one with ourselves and our true nature. Clinging to yourself and yourother acquisitions like religion and race is as futile as trying to hold on to yourbreath. Having breathed in you must also breathe out. Do not hold on to thingsthat do not belong to you. You belong in this world. You are a part of it just asmuch as every other living being.

If you deny this truth to others, if you deny them love and respect, you alsodeny these things to yourself. Have you observed in your close relationships howthe worst in one person brings out the worst in the other? Conversely our best

qualities also bring out the best in others. As human beings we cannot trulysuffer or rejoice alone. If we pretend to do this it is false suffering, and falsehappiness.

This is why human happiness is a matter of global concern. In technical languageit is said that States cannot violate human rights under the cloak of nationalsovereignty. The human being is sovereign over this planet. The nation stateand every other form of social organization is the creation of the sovereign


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human being. Through a gradual process by which deception replaced truth thesovereign is now the subject of his creations which have acquired an ego of theirown.

As Bhikkhu Nanananda (Concept and Reality in Early Buddhist Thought) pointed

out,

Like the legendary resurrected tiger which devoured the magician who restored it to life out of itsskeletal bones, the concepts and linguistic conventions overwhelm the worldling who evolvedthem.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 was an attempt to break outof this vicious cycle. Predictably however the process of solidification and egoformation set in. Proponents of human rights today seek to conquer withauthority (rather than understanding) and they show the same narrowmindedness, intolerance and aggression which their opponents the human

rights violators show.

There is far too much emphasis on the narrow and legalistic aspect of humanrights and not enough attention given to human relationships. In life rights cannever be divorced from the essentially human process of communication andinteraction on which they are based and on which they depend. This was clearlyrecognized in Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 whichdeclared:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reasonand conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Human values of wisdom and compassion which sustain brotherhood go beyondwords, concepts and legalistic notions of rights and duties. They belong to therealm of spirituality. This is simply the human heart and mind. The UniversalDeclaration recognizes spirituality in this sense as the bedrock on which acivilized social order and true human rights must be built. There is no conflictbetween spirituality and rights if we interpret them holistically. Spirituality, in itsbroadest form includes rights. This is because it is not merely concerned withmind but with life as well. Likewise, rights, in their broadest form includesspirituality. This is because it is not merely concerned with life but also withmind.

It is through engaging with other human beings and working with relationships by seeking to understand the other side of the divides we have erected that weunderstand the workings of the ego. Without such an in depth connection withand knowledge of the human being rights are incomplete.

5.Uniting with what is


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BEINGONE WITH THE DHARMA

The Buddha did not proclaim Buddhism. He taught the dharma. (The noble triple gemunites in the dharma.) Neither did he select a chosen race. His compassion extended

to all living beings. He liberated himself and liberated others. He claimed no monopolyof the truth but invited intelligent human beings to find the truth within. Indeed headvised his followers to accept the truth irrespective of the form in which it iscouched. Thus a disciple of the Buddha will accept the substance of the teachings inother religions which embody universal truths like respect, holism, inclusion, inter-dependence and unity. Labels do not matter to him as he transcends the forms andsymbols which bind men who are not fully liberated. In essence the true discipleaffirms a simple truth the truth of common humanity no credentials or frillsattached.

May be someone has already said to you to take it one day at a time. Mysuggestion is along the same lines. Take it one moment at a time. Try to livefully in the present moment and to be positive about yourself, others and

eventswhich keep happening in that moment. Our real home is peace of mindand no one can deprive usof that except our own thoughtsand feelings. So thisis yoga for the mind. There isa neat definition of meditation that I came acrossrecently:

Meditation involvesa deep listening - with kindnessand sensitivity, to your body,heart and mind, and then asks us to extend this careful attention to the worldaround us.

Sensations, thoughts and feelings whether pleasant, unpleasant or neutralhave their own dynamic of rise and fall. We just need to be aware of them. Let

them come and let them go. Note how we cling either with delight or aver sionto what we label as pleasant and painful. This is the action of the ego and itmakes us suffer because we are trying to hold on to things that are fleeting,transient and impermanent. We suffer because we go against thiscosmic law.

We are all tiny atoms within this mighty universe every one of us, with noinherent significance except our sharing of this universal characteristic ofappearing and disappearing. Isnt this what happens to everything? Humanbeings like every thing else are born and they die from moment to moment.Once you turn the light of awareness inwards and outwards you see this

characteristic of impermanence both within and all around you. So connectingwith our true nature is the first step to connecting with other people and theuniverse itself. It is this free connection with ourselves unobstructed by themaya of ego - that we call love. Nothing more its thatsimple. So to connectyou need to be silent and open. Accept what comes into your life and let go ofwhat goesout.


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To be present and positive in this way is to be Sath Chitta Nandan in everysense of that meaningful and beautiful word. In Buddhism we call it nirvana. Thisis the bliss experienced by a united heart and mind (Chitta) which is alignedaccording to reality or truth. Experience this reality or the moment fully andcompletely without attachment and with equanimity. Our hopes and fears are

all outside this reality and take us away from life which is a succession of evernew and fresh phenomena.

Each community in this island has many miles to go. It is worth preparing for thisgreat journey, from suffering to happiness, from darkness to light and fromseparation to unity. This is a state of unity that emanates naturally from peoplewho understand the magic of sathchithananthan. Unity is ultimately a personaland collective state of well being.

TR

UE

RE

LIGION:

A

SEARCH

FOR

UNI

TYPolitics is the noble art of governance. Religion is the search of human beingsfor unity, both internal and external. Adherents of individual religious traditionsmay like to define their search in egoistic terms: nevertheless the search is for asupreme law, to find it, live in harmony with it and find the highest happiness.

We see the phenomenon in our day of both politics and religion becoming theflashpoints for division, conflict, discord and suffering. This is the opposite ofwhat people look for. When we see religion becoming the source of conflict andconfrontation we tend to explain it away by conceptualising and packaging the

whole problem. We talk of politics or religion with distaste and bitterness as ifthe pollutant lay with these activities so that any human being who engages withit gets polluted. We dont look beneath the surface at the individual humanbeings and their frailty and weaknesses that produce conflict at the macro level.

There is disunity at the individual level when there is discrepancybetween words and actions. Amongst our leaders we have giftedspeakers but almost none who have the courage for self reflectionand the ability to bring their thoughts, words and deeds into onewholesome unity. Almost all of them judge and criticize others but

none will admit their own mistakes. As a result they direct the blameoutwards even when their actions have taken them to prison. Thosewho take responsibility for self can also take responsibility for others.Those who cannot take the responsibility for self will also disownresponsibility for others. The germ is disconnection and separation andthe cure connection and unity. Only forgiveness and love for selfand others can promote healing and reconciliation. Even if we cannotcure others we, and only we, can cure ourselves.


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All religious conceptions of wholesome or holistic conduct are based onthis truth of non-separation. In protecting oneself you protect others.In protecting others you protect yourself. A follower of truth isprotected by the truth. The notion of race does not defile any of these

concepts.

The light of awareness must be directed inwards and it must bedirected continuously to penetrate the falsity we have cloakedourselves with. Only then will we realize that we are no different fromour fellow human beings.

Our unity and brotherhood as human beings must be realized, experienced andreach the core of our beings for us to shed our petty differences. So long as theequality of man remains a legal concept imported from abroad we will continueto treat the shadows as real and indulge in childish games of separation and winand lose. In this sense therefore true religiousness underscores our actualtransition from childhood to maturity. Both our politics and religion is in animmature and childish state because they are both used for self confirmation and self enhancement rather than for letting go of self.Mahathir Mohamed once said of Islamism in Malaysia:

Malay Muslims are very rational The majority of Muslims in Malaysia knowwhat Islam is all about and cannot easily be led by people who pretend to beIslamic.

Lets us work towards a day when we can say the same about the four greatreligions and their adherents in Sri Lanka. Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam andChristianity have no independent existence apart from what their adherentsthink, speak and do. We will simply end by quoting two great thinkers on themagnitude and dimensions of true religion and how they transcend humandivision, pettiness and narrowness in their grand sweep.

Rabindranath Tagore: the Religion of Man

The process of evolution, which after ages has reached man, must be realized inits unity with him; though in him it assumes a new value and proceeds to a

different path. It is a continuous process that finds its meaning in Man; and wemust acknowledge that the evolution which Science talks of is that of mansuniverse. The leather binding and title page are parts of the book itself; and thisworld that we perceive through our senses and mind and lifes experience isprofoundly one with ourselves.

The divine principle of unity has ever been that of an inner inter-relationship.This is revealed in some of its earliest stages in the evolution of multi-cellular life


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on this planet. The most perfect inward expression has been attained by man inhis own body. But what is most important of all is the fact that man has alsoattained its realization in a more subtle body outside his physical system. Hemisses himself when isolated; he finds his own larger and truer self in his widehuman relationship. His multi-cellular body is born and it dies; his multi-personal

humanity is immortal. In this ideal of unity he realizes the eternal in his life andthe boundless in his love. The unity becomes not a mere subjective idea, but anenergizing truth. Whatever name may be given to it, and whatever form itsymbolizes, the consciousness of this unity is spiritual, and our effort to be trueto it is our religion. It ever awaits to be revealed in our history in a more andmore perfect illumination.

Jalaludin Rumi

Moses, what to you seems wrong is right to him. One mans poison is anothermans honey. Purity and impurity, sloth and diligence what do these matter tome? I am above all that. Ways of worship can not be put in ranks as better orworse. It is all praise and it is all right. It is the worshipper who is glorified byworship not I. I dont listen to the words. I look inside at the humility. Onlythat low and open emptiness is real. Forget language I want burning, burning!Be friends with this fire. Burn up your grand ideas and special words!

Re-engagement with society5.Applying the dharma

RETURN TO LIFEIN TRINCOMALEE: FROMCOMPETITION TOCOOPERATION

A few more words on the tragi-comedy in Trincomalee because lofty sentimentmust be translated into practical guidance for action.

Once you divide yourselves as Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims and take thisdivision as truth you have no option but to play the game to a finish. Games ofseparation and win and lose belong to the playground. They have nothing to dowith real life which is about real communication, understanding and empathy.


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You only listen to those you can trust. You only trust people you respect. Andyou only truly respect those you love.

Most of us are Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims by the accident of birth. Hence wefollow different approaches to the same truth. There is only one truth there

cannot be two. The search is real and the goal is real. This is what unites us. Thesincerely spiritual man can find profound peace whether he is standing before abuddha statue, a kovil, a mosque or church. A holy environment is born out ofhumility, self-denial and love. Not arrogance, self affirmation and hate.

First and foremost, the Buddhists have a proud history on this land and theymust set an example to others in conducting their business with decorum andpropriety. The Buddha himself pointed this out in the Maha Mangala Sutta:

Anakulaca kammanta anavajjani kammani etam mangala muttamam.

[Propriety and decorum in ones activities to be blameless in ones conduct these rank among the highest success generators.] Translation by DhammavihariThera. Propriety and decorum, translated into the case in point means thatreligious actions must be carried out in a religious spirit with concord, amity,respect and sensitivity to the environment.

Secondly, the law of the land must be obeyed. Once the law is violated it is noexcuse to point the finger at others. There is nothing more un-Buddhistic than topoint the finger at others to cover ones own wrongdoing.

Let none find fault with others;Let none see the commissions and omissions of others;But let one see ones own acts, done and undone

[Dhammapada 50]

Life is not complicated. We have only made it so by hardening our egos byfollowing a destructive path laid by two dictators one sinhala and one tamil one dead and one alive. True religion is to soften our ego, to startcommunicating and learn the true art of human co-existence. It is to get out ofthe child mode.

Human conflict is based on delusion the failure of communication; failure tosee things as they are and the resultant re-creation of the playground mentalityof us v. them. Till we learn to distinguish the game from life we will not be ableto get on with the serious business of life itself.


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This serious business of life begins when the human being elects to work for trueliberation. To do this he must find out who he is and then relate to his wholeenvironment not merely the tamil, sinhala or muslim environment. He or shemust train in conscious living to tread the path of freedom and happiness. Thiswork is slow and it requires enormous patience. But as Nyanaponika Mahathera

assured us:

The resolute turning away from disastrous paths, the turning that might save the world in itspresent crisis, must necessarily be a turning inward, into the recesses of mans own mind. Onlythrough a change within will there be a change without. Even if it is sometimes slow in following,it will never fail to arrive.

Unless you fight the internal battle with the right implements, that is, withkindness and sensitivity, you will never discover how utterly devoid of substancethe external battles are. To know who we are and to be what we are asinhabitants of this island we must seek to understand its history not merely in

terms of who lived where and who defeated whom but what ideas and what kindof culture inspired its leaders and people.

Too much energy has been wasted in either asserting or rejecting a traditionalhomeland theory. Every community and every human being on this planetdeserves to live in freedom and dignity. There is room for all of us. Whatseparates us from this freedom and dignity is our own ignorance and our owninsecure and parochial thinking.

Our history shows us how the sinhalese, tamils and muslims when left tothemselves learnt to live in relative harmony by using their faith as a source of

inner strength and not as a point of external conflict. All this changed when thisshared ethic of unity and cooperation was replaced in the 19th century with theethic of separation and competition.

Today it is the whole world that has come under the ethic of competition andthis is what is influencing our actions more than our identity as Buddhists, Hindusor Muslims. We are all under the spell of this destructive ethic.

In order to break this spell we must understand that there is a powerful thingcalled human relationships in addition to human rights. Rights will neithertake root nor grow on a soil that is barren, dry and emotionless. That rich warmand moist earth we must re-create is human and humane relationships.

Rights without relationships are empty. They are not worth the paper they arewritten on. Relationships are the key to happiness if they are handled withmaturity. In fact they will make rights a residuary mechanism for immaturepeople to get advice from professionals as to how they should lead their life.


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Let us all learn and understand our great religious traditions and use them forour common good. Let us stop being neurotic fools and avoid the temptation ofusing or perceiving religious symbols as instruments of racial hegemony.

CELEBRATINGVESAK WITHOUT FREEDOM:REGAINING THE FREEDOM OF SELFLESSNESS

Part 1:Rise and fall of the buddhist nation

Our priorityThis is vesak 2005. We (when I say we I refer to all of us who call this island ourhome) have now been subject to external domination for almost 500 years. It istherefore time we woke up and got some facts straight.

We cannot in any way belittle the achievements of our pre - independenceleaders in winning the separation of our country from the British Empire. Buttoday we have lost whatever freedom we gained on February 4, 1948. Regainingour lost freedom is our priority now, because without it none of the solutionsthat our political, economic and legal leaders are talking about will be of muchavail. Peace must be based on true freedom not enslavement.

Mindfulness and awarenessThe buddhist nation which historically took the leadership in safeguarding thefreedom and independence of this land is dead. The Buddhist notion of life anddeath must be explained here. According to the Buddhist way of life to bemindful and aware is to be alive. To be mindless and unaware is equated withthe death of our essential human nature. With the death of that essential humannature we start leading a sub human existence. This leads in the next life toour acquiring a form of life that corresponds to our sub human mental state.Whilst there are buddhist individuals and groups of individuals who are alive inthis sense they are yet to influence and awaken the majority who remain asleepand dead.

This death was the logical culmination of a long historical process. When a

majority of individuals within a race or nation become unaware of their truenature and of their surroundings in a global or environmental sense they mustnaturally forfeit their freedom and dignity to other races and nations who exploitthis weakness for their own gain.

The rise and fall of the buddhist nationThis account is essentially the same as the history of other races which followthe universal truth of anicca or impermanence and disappear from the earth,


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except to note that ancient Lanka was one kingdom that did not prosper byrobbing its neighbours.

In the beginning we had the pioneers, endowed with the courage given bywisdom and compassion who laid the foundations of a sustainable civilisation.

They understood the dhamma, distinguished concept from reality andestablished the social structures to ensure sound and holistic governance of manby man. But structures as we know cannot last forever and they are only as goodas the human beings who man them. In the beginning substance dominatesform and the people are free. Internal unity ensures the integrity andindependence of the nation. But then the inevitable process of decay sets in. Thesubstance is eroded by a blind and ritualistic adherence to form, institutionaltyranny sets in and forms ends up dominating and obscuring the substance.Thus Buddha became God and saviour; monks became priests, the pragmaticpath to enlightenment became dogmatic religion and the ariya sangha became aland owning class something like a minor Vatican wielding power, privilege andwealth.

The break up of internal unity is both facilitated and brought to fruition byexternal interference. Such people can be enslaved into mechanical obedience toforms and symbols they do not truly comprehend. This was the condition andplight of the sinhala buddhist race when they confronted the might of the BritishEmpire in the early 19th century.

The last standThe kandyan sinhalese had withstood successive waves of western imperialism

to maintain their way of life and institutions for another 200 years but the endwas surely near. It came in fact, not when their chiefs signed up to the KandyanConvention on March 2, 1815 but after their own war of independence wasbrutally suppressed by the British invader in 1818. In Keppetipola, the sinhalabuddhist race found a fitting leader for their last stand not only in battle butalso in defeat.

Courage and dignity in the face of death is a rare trait and Keppetipola displayedboth at his execution on November 25, 1818 at Bogambara. This was also areflection of his selflessness, which was either instinctive or based upon his ownrealization of the truth of anatta or egolessness. The realization of egolessness is

lauded in meditative traditions as the highest skill on the middle path or ariyamagga.

Adopting an orphaned raceAfter the war of 1818the British deprived this country of every leader who hadany love for the people. Over two millennia had taken their toll on those socialstructures established by Arahant Mahinda and the buddhist kings. The buddhist


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nation was out of step with a rapidly changing world which had prioritisedmaterial development over spiritual development. Thus they forfeited their rightto organize their life in accordance with their ancient values to their new imperialmaster.

Who decided the structural framework the inhabitants of Ceylon would live underfor the next 200 years? The adoptive parents of the orphaned and leaderlesspopulace were two well meaning Britishers, the Commissioners Coolebrooke andCameron. To them the legitimacy of Western values the conquest ushered in wasnever in question and the worthlessness of the society they were replacing wasequally certain. In the words of Cameron in 1832,

The peculiar circumstances of Ceylon, both physical and moral, seem to point it out to the Britishgovernment as the fittest spot in our Eastern Dominions in which to plant the germ of Europeancivilisation

The certified sinhala Buddhist race today are well equipped with the trappings ofboth western and eastern civilisation. Yet we have integrated the values ofneither and are truly confused about our real identity. Clad in our westernclothes and other ridiculous costumes ill-suited to our climate we celebratevesak, not as the children of Arahant Mahinda and King Devanampiyatissa but asthe children of Colebrooke and Cameron.

As the children of Colebrooke and Cameron we have built a society whichupholds the death penalty and has no respect for fellow human beings onmotorways; which gives a free rein to a shamelessly exploitative economy; whichobjectifies and commodifies the woman in giant hoardings; which deceives the

people with false advertisements for political and monetary gain and whichpromotes liquor towards the destruction of families and society.

The great turn inwardEvery vesak day that is celebrated in this polluted society is a disgrace to thatrace to whom the ariya magga was the perpetual refuge in its quest forliberation. Outward shows cannot hide our shame. We must now turn inwardwith the firm determination that we will master ourselves before we seek tomaster others. It is only in fulfilling our self worth and in fulfilling the dhamma of

the Great Sage that we will also fulfil our duty as the protectors of all livingbeings within the four corners of this island.

Part 2: Buddhist conception of justice andgovernance

Conceptions of justice


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Some of us are still crying over the colonial experience and its injustice. This isbecause of an alien conception of justice that the British taught us and theinternational human rights community continues to teach us. The artificiality andidealism inherent in this notion of justice that individuals and states mustbehave according to norms agreed to by the international community must

necessarily fail.

The Buddhist conception of justice is not an arbitrary and inflexible normimposed from above but a norm derived from a rigorous analysis of the way theworld actually works. This analysis is found in that part of the dhamma whichexplains the law of dependent origination or the paticca samuppada. We are toldin short that negative causes and conditions produce negative consequenceswhilst positive causes and conditions produce positive consequences. Theessential point here is to view the present in its authenticity as the genuineproduct of a set of causes and conditions that led to it.

Thus if we subject our colonial experience to a buddhist analysis the scope ofinquiry would extend from an abstract judgement imposed on the foreigner toall the causes both local and external as well as the structural, social and inter-personal factors that led to it. As a buddhist cannot take sides and indeed mustview things from no mans land nothing is excluded from his or herinvestigation. The distinction to be observed here is between the narrow moralityof right and wrong and the broader morality of causes and consequences.

The ultimate causes of all actions however are found within the recesses of themind. It is there that the enemy must be sought, identified and conquered not

with force, but through understanding. The genius of the Buddha was to pointtowards this dormant potential for self transformation within every humanbeing and to lay down a clear path for its attainment.

Holistic governanceThis noble path or ariya magga was comprehended wisely by our ancient fore-fathers who laid the foundations of the sinhala buddhist civilisation on this island.Governance thus encompassed both the spiritual and material welfare of thepeople. The norms, forms, customs and ceremonies of the sinhalese sub-servedthese purposes. According to Chogyam Trungpa (Training the Mind andCultivating Loving Kindness):

The government that is supposed to run a country is a wide administration rather than a narrowadministration: it takes care of the psychology of the country, the economics, politics anddomestic situations.

In modern parlance this is the holistic view of governance. The capitalistdemocracy now being promoted all over the world is a narrower concept. It isprioritised in such a way that economics and politics take the front seat whilst


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domestic situations and the psychology of the people take a back seat. Thisimbalance is a failure of moderation and balance. Greed, competition andinsecurity has now taken over the realms of politics and economics. This is thesame whether we look at the leader of the so called free world, the UnitedStates, or a struggling, down trodden third world democracy. When greed takes

over, man is enslaved, no longer the master of his destiny of final liberation.

Means and endsAt the heart of this confusion is the simple question of means and ends. Whenempire building (whether at international or local level) is disguised as progressman exists for the perpetuation of institutionalised power (democracy) andwealth (capitalism). These giants no longer exist for him. They are no longer hisservants. He is their servant. As Bhikkhu Nanananda (Concept and Reality inEarly Buddhist Thought) pointed out,

Like the legendary resurrected tiger which devoured the magician who restored it to life out of its

skeletal bones, the concepts and linguistic conventions overwhelm the worldling who evolvedthem.

Human rights was the collective agreement of mankind to rescue the humanbeing from this subordinate position. But so long as we stop short of challengingexploitation (under whatever name it takes place) it will only play a maintenancerole in society. It will keep the victim alive for a few more rounds of torturewithout effecting any alteration to the status quo. To go beyond maintenance todevelopment, human rights must transcend the narrow morality or rights andwrongs and take the broader perspective of causes and consequences. It mustbe pro-human and anti-structural, not the other way round.

Until all of us who espouse human rights (under whatever shade or hue) resolveto do this no community on this island will enjoy the dignity of citizenship. Wewill continue to remain tenants, paying the rent for our miserable existence toour exploiters political, economic, professional and spiritual all of whom arebusy trying to win our allegiance and sell their self-serving version of the goodlife. Whilst they seek to deceive us we are deceived most of all by our self deception. To overcome this we need to move from concept to reality. The firstconcept we must unravel is this notion of you and me.

As noted earlier the sinhala buddhist race that safeguarded this land, its peopleand its morality for over two millennia is now dead. Those of us who bear thismantle today must now re-discover the secret of their success. That secret wasself-knowledge and self-awareness. As Zen Master Dogen said with great clarity:

To study the self is to k now the selfTo know the self is to forget the selfTo forget the self is to be enlightened by all things .


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Full awareness of self also ensured awareness of others. That which was knownwas understood, loved and respected freely without external compulsion. Theconcepts they received, including the dhamma itself were

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