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Bhikkhus should be formulators of public opinion

Buddhist mirror by A.G.S.Kariyawasam

Buddhist monks have been formulators of public opinion in Sri Lanka from the day Buddhism was introduced in the 3rd century BC. As educators and counsellors of both the rulers and the ruled they have played a crucial role as nation-builders in the process of the island's historical evolution. To claim that the Sinhala nation became a heroic and a culturally rich set of people because they were nurtured by the bhikkhu-fraternity is quite justified.

In historical times the bhikkhus had categorised themselves into two groups as village-dwellers (graamavaasi) and forest-dwellers (aranayavaasi). The former maintained close contacts with the laity and provided for their spiritual needs while the latter strived for their personal deliverance secluded from society, thereby having little to do with matters pertaining to the layman. On the other hand, the village-dwelling fraternity played a leadership role at the popular level of all Buddhist activities. They provided the spiritual model as the guide, the guru, the adviser and the counsellor as well as the active community leader plus the originator of merit.

The temple became the centre of learning while special academic institutions comparable to universities also existed as exemplified by the Mahavihara and Abhayagiri Vihara at Anuradhapura, Aalaaha pirivena at Polonnaruwa and in still later times by the Vijayabaa Pirivena at Totagamuva in the south. Bhikkhus were the main imparters of knowledge in these academic centres and thus they became both the spiritual and temporal leaders of the Sinhala people. In such a backdrop the role of the bhikkhu as a public opinion moulder assumed much significance as he became a key figure in it.

In playing this significant role as well as in his capacity as adviser to kings and rulers, he always based his instructions on Buddhist ethical principles as repeatedly mentioned in Buddhist classics when describing them as instructing the rulers in artha and dharma meaning "temporally" and "spiritually" respectively. In this manner the bhikkhus exercised a benign influence and a controlling power over both the rulers and the ruled, who dared not to go against them as the bhikkhus were the moulders as well as the controllers of public opinion.

However, with the advent of the European invaders and their conquest of the country as a part of their colonial expansion agenda, this crucial role of the bhikkhu began to disintegrate alongwith the Buddhist ethical foundation of the island's governance and civilisation. These became replaced with western concepts aimed at the realisation of colonial interests. The subsequent history is too well-known to be detailed here.

Suffice it to highlight the failure of the bhikkhu to regain his erstwhile position as the main public opinion-moulder in the nation-building process. Even after more than half-a-century or political independence, he has been a failure in regaining it. Its unwelcome outcome is the absence of Buddhist values from tempering the country's national ethos.

Today the country's problems are legion. If the bhikkhus, as the bearers of the Buddha's timeless message of peaceful living, can extend at least a certain degree of influence on our dehumanised and almost brutalised society, it would go a long way in easing the situation. Even in the vexed problem of the ethnic strife he can exercise an alround benign influence towards an amicable settlement fair to all parties.

The unemployment problem, high cost of living, progressively increasing indebtedness of the country to the World Bank and the IMF, selling of the country's assets to multinational companies, rapid deforestation, the galloping crime rate headed by murders and robberies, endless environmental pollution and degradation, alcoholism and the kasippu menace, degradation of family life leading to the criminal abuse of the child etc. are today our burning problems defying solutions even in the foreseeable future.

The bhikkhus must be able to study them and offer solutions for which the greatest need of the hour seems to be the creation of a strong and viable public opinion demanding a proper leadership capable of tackling these problems successfully for the greater good of the country.

The genuine bhikkhus must be alive to the grave situation and the big responsibility cast on them as they cannot waste further time when even the priceless art treasures like Buddha statues, most of them golden, buried treasures of many a variety are being robbed openly and getting out of the country. These treasures representing the country's rich heritage cannot and should not be allowed to become mere objects of commerce changing hands for rupees and cents. These are painful thoughts to people who "do not live by bread alone".

It is here that the bhikkhus have to step into arrest the rot from spreading further.

They should re-assume their classical role in regenerating the country's spiritual life once more. Why have we failed to re-discover our lost cultural roots of eternal value even after more than half-a-century of political independence? The bhikkhus have played a prominent role in gaining back our independence as exemplified by Kadapola Hamuduruvo, Vaariyapola Sumangala etc. The presence of 'brown-sahib' elements, as had been forewarned by Anagarika Dharmapala has been the main cause of this failure.

Hence let the modern bhikkhu, without becoming a tool of any political alignment in these tempting times of unbridled open economy, come out and play the leadership role in creating the public opinion as shown here against waste, corruption, immorality etc. etc. So that the perpetrators of crimes get betrayed and are eliminated from public life for good. Let them see to it that there would not be "governments of the politicians, for the politicians, by the politicians".

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Point of View : Why the Taliban are destroying Buddhas

by W. L. Rathje

In the Diamond Sutra, the historical Buddha, Sakyamuni (whose lifetime crossed the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.), says to a disciple: "Thousands of lifetimes ago when my body was cut into pieces by King Kalinga, I was not caught in the idea of a separate self or life span. If, at that time, I had been caught up in any such idea, I would have felt anger and ill-will against the king." Now, that's Buddhist tolerance!

In Afghanistan recently, supreme Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar issued an edict against un-Islamic graven images, which means all idolatrous images of humans and animals. As a result, the Taliban are destroying all ancient sculptures. Explosives, tanks, and anti-aircraft weapons blew apart two colossal images of the Buddha in Bamiyan Province, 230 kilometres (150 miles) from the capital of Kabul.

Since, unlike the Buddha, most of us are caught up in endless "selfness" today, news media worldwide now trumpet a rising animus toward the Taliban from foes and their few allies alike. Ancient archaeological remains have been thrust into the cruel world of today's seemingly endless conflicts - the ever-changing aims and alliances of international politics, religions duelling on the world stage, and the ironic trade-off of providing aid to conserve the material heritage of the past but not to preserve the lives of modern inheritors of that past. Arrayed against the tolerant and measured messages of Buddhism, the quagmire of the "Bamiyan Massacre" seems perplexing at best.

First, it is important to recognize that the massacre has little to do with religion. The Buddha is not God or even one among many gods. During his lifetime of 80 years, Buddha Sakyamuni only allowed his image to be recorded as a reflection in rippling water.

Images of the Buddha himself did not appear for at least 400 years after his death and even then were created only to remind followers of their own innate "Buddha Nature." This kind of early aversion to "idolatry" is typical of Christianity and other religions - many devotees of Christ railed against material images of Jesus for centuries, especially during two waves of "iconoclasts" (idol smashers) in the Byzantine Empire.

The colossal Buddhas were cut at immeasurable cost (probably in the third and fifth centuries A.D.) into the tall, sandstone cliffs surrounding Bamiyan, an oasis town in the center of a long valley that separates the mountain chains of Hindu Kush and Koh-i-Baba. The taller of the two statues (about 53 meters or 175 feet) is thought to represent Vairocana, the "Light Shining throughout the Universe Buddha" The shorter one (36 meters or 120 feet) probably represents Buddha Sakyamuni, although the local Hazara people believe it depicts a woman.

The two colossi must once have been a truly awesome sight, visible for miles, with copper masks for faces and copper-covered hands. Vairocana's robes were painted red and Sakyamuni's blue. These towering, transcendental images were key symbols in the rise of Mahayana Buddhist teachings, which emphasized the ability of everyone, not just monks, to achieve enlightenment.

While the dates of the statues are somewhat equivocal, the Buddhist monk Xuanzang, who travelled to India to bring back to China copies of the original sutras of the Buddha's teachings, bore witness to the statues in A.D. 630-31.For centuries, Bamiyan lay at the heart of the fabled Silk Road, offering respite to caravans carrying goods across the vast reaches between China and the Roman Empire. And for 500 years, it was a center of Buddhist cultivation. The myriad caves that pockmark Bamiyan's cliffs were also home to thousands of Buddhist monks and served as a kind of Holiday Inn for travelling merchants, monks, and pilgrims.

Today those open, cold caves are used primarily by refugees from Afghanistan's brutal, internal war. As shocking as it was to the world community, the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas is no real surprise. Attempts to eradicate them began immediately after Taliban forces retook Bamiyan for the third time. The world community - from Russia to Malaysia, Germany to Sri Lanka, and, of course, UNESCO - has expressed horror at the Buddhas' destruction. Many Mullahs in Islamic countries condemned Mullah Omar's interpretation as wrong-headed and damaging to the image of Islam.

But from the Buddhist side, no blood has been shed. What would happen if any country decided to destroy all statues or religious symbols of Christianity or Judaism or Islam? The recent months of violence in and around Israel were largely sparked by Ariel Sharon simply visiting the Temple Mount, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews. Countries whose populations are primarily Buddhist have expressed dismay and consternation, but no one is going to war. It's not that Buddhists won't fight, but they don't go to war over images.

The great statues remained community-identity symbols even though the Bamiyan community is now Muslim rather than Buddhist, and vandalism aimed at foci of community identity is easy to find in the past. Remember the Byzantine "iconoclasts" (who gave their name to that kind of vandalism and desecration), later Christians, the Communists, and then the non-Communists. Every one of them tore down key symbols of community identity.

But why are the Bamiyan Buddhas targets now, after surviving more than a thousand years at a crucial node on the Silk Road? Buddhism is an easy target for fundamentalist Muslims. As Richard Foltz documents in his book, Religions on the Silk Road, "Although Islamic law offered protection to 'peoples of the Book,' namely Christians, Jews, and by some interpretations Zoroastrians, the early Muslims were generally hostile towards Buddhists.

They referred to Buddhists as 'idol-worshippers,' which had unfortunate associations with the portrayal of the Prophet's Meccan enemies in the Qur'an. This probably, at least in part, accounts for the unabatingly harsh treatment Muslims reserved for the Buddhists they encountered in the course of their conquest." So, even though the Buddha stood against idolatry, the Taliban have a tradition to uphold on the Silk Road.

Bamiyan was a base of the Taliban's opposition - Northern Alliance's "rebel" forces led by ousted Afghani President Borhanuddin Rabbani. How could the Taliban better humiliate the locals than to destroy their heritage? An earlier attempt to destroy the Buddhas came when the Taliban took control of Bamiyan in 1998. Then, the local Taliban governor talked the military commander out of the atrocity.

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The Buddhist Book Project Poland

The Buddhist Book Project Poland has three major objectives:

* Collecting world literature on Buddhism, including original texts and scholarly works

* Creation of an information centre, which will present the world's accomplishments in the area of Buddhist studies

* Developing activities promoting the project, the book collection, and the philosophy of Buddhism. This goal is achieved through organisation of conferences, lectures, exhibitions and publishing activities. The project has been undertaken by the Pomeranian Library, one of the most modern scholarly libraries in Poland. The book collection is intended to be used by foreign readers also.

The geographical location of the city of Szczecin makes it easily accessible for guests from abroad.

This unique book collection creates an opportunity for the city to became a significant European Centre of Buddhist studies and research. In the context of European integration, initiatives that tend to increase knowledge of other cultures can be considered a measure of maturity of a democratic society. The city of Szczecin and the Pomeranian Library have a chance to play an active role in this process and contribute to a better understanding of Buddhism, one of the four great religions of the world.

We will be grateful for any help allowing us to continue The Buddhist Book Project Poland.

We shall be grateful for any donations, including destroyed copies, not suitable for further distribution.

We would also welcome any comments or suggestions you might have, further contacts that would let us develop our project in the best manner possible.

We invite everyone to our web site http://www.bbpp.eu.org where you can find complete information on the project.

Pawel Kamienowski
Project Manager

We welcome any questions, comments or suggestions concerning the project.

The Pomeranian Library,
Buddhist Studies Department,
ul. Podgorna 15/16,
70-205 Szczecin,
Poland.
Pphone: +48 91 4819125
fax: +48 91 4819115
email: [email protected]

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