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When Buddhism reached the western lands

by Aryadasa Ratnasinghe

Buddhist history reveals that during the past 26 centuries Buddhism has influenced most of the nations and cultures of the world. It has attracted scholarly interests in the areas of philosophy, psychology and history, and still continues to do so by the publication of numerous books and periodicals and other treatises, sometimes, including translations, embodying the true doctrine of the Buddha.

Western scholars who had begun their research studies in the domain of Indian literature, since the beginning of the 16th century, were put to great perplexity of thought at the discovery made of the existence of a religion called Buddhism in the Indian philosophical treatises. Dr. P. Marshmann in 1824 said that Buddha was the Egyptian Apis (the Egyptian bull-god incarnating the Path of Memphis), and Sir William Jones solved the problem by saying that he was no other than the Scandinavian Odin (the god of the dead according to Norse mythology).

In 1837, the obscure history of India and Buddhism was made clear (i) by the deciphering of the rock edicts of Emperor Asoka of India, found in Girnar and Kapurdagiri, by the famous archaeologist James Prinsep, (ii) by the translation of the history of Sri Lanka from Pali to English by Turner, and (iii) by the discovery of Buddhist manuscripts in the temples of Nepal, India and Sri Lanka, and other Buddhist countries of the East.

In 1844, the first rational, scientific and comprehensive account of Buddhism was published by the eminent Pali scholar Eugene Burnouf, who took much interest in Buddhism having a broad-based philosophy "that man is his own saviour" which contradicts the teachings of other religions based on divine authority. The key to the hidden archives of this great religion, was presented to the people of Europe by this great oriental scholar, which opened the minds of many European intellectuals to embrace Buddhism.

Prof. T.H. Huxley, biologist, in his memorable lecture on the 'Evolution of Ethics' at the Oxford University, England, speaking of Buddha says "Gautama got rid of even that shade of a shadow of permanent existence by a metaphysical 'tour de force' of great interest to the student of Philosophy, seeing that it supplies the wanting half of the Anglican Bishop and philosopher George Berkeley's well-known idealist argument based on the 'Evolution of Man'.

The Anglo-Saxons soon became to admire the ways of the Buddha in relieving mankind from all suffering which manifests every individual from birth to death. At the same time, Buddhist meditation gave thought to many Europeans to follow the path of the Buddha in their quest to ascertain the mastery of the mind. Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), one of the great statesmen England ever produced, spoke of the mind thus: "The mind is the man.

If that be kept pure, he would very clearly see what difference there is between man and the beast".

One day an Anglican clergyman, having met a Buddhist priest in England while travelling by train, had asked the priest "Why to you come wearing these yellow robes to a land of such rich tradition"? The reply was "We are at liberty to travel wherever we like wearing this robe, being disciples of the Buddha". On another occasion, a similar question was asked by Francis J. Payne, from a bookseller in 1907, when he saw Buddhist books displayed for sale at No. 14, Bury Street near the Museum in London.

He asked the bookseller "Why do you bring this superstitious trash to England?" The reply given was "Don't be in such a hurry. Read the books and see what you find in them". The result was that " Payne became a convert to Buddhism, and later played a valuable role in the development of Buddhism in England," says Christmas Humphreys, an eminent author of many Buddhist publications in English.

The Buddhist Movement in England dates from the year 1907, when the Buddhist society of Great Britain and Ireland was formed to receive a Buddhist mission from Myanmar, promoted and led by the English Bhikku, Ven. Ananda Maitreya. His lay name was Allan Bennett, the son of an electric engineer. In 1890, at the impressionable age of 18 years, he happened to read the Light of Asia, written by Sir Edwin Arnold, a book that had a wide circulation in the West.

Sir Arnold once said "I have often said, and I shall say again and again, that between Buddhism and modern science there exists a close bond. When Tyndall tells us of sounds we cannot hear, Norman Lockyer of colours we cannot see, and when Sir William Thompson and Prof. Sylvester push mathematical investigations to regions almost beyond the calculus, and others still bolder, imagine and try to grapple a space of four dimensions, what are they when compared with Buddhism"?

Sir Arnold, the great personage, had come to Sri Lanka, as a self-converted Buddhist, studied the Dhamma of the Buddha and, in 1901, gave his first lecture on the Four Noble Truths that received considerable attention among the Englishmen in the Island. Others who worked for the uplift of Buddhism in the country were many and being foreigners, they had good faith in the doctrine of the Buddha, unlike our own people who were Buddhists by birth and not so much so in action.

Among other foreigners who worked for the cause of Buddhism were Dr. E.R. Rost, Prof. Rhys Davids, E.T. Mills, Capt. J.Z. Ellam, Hon. Eric Collier, Sir Charles Eliot, Dr. H.S. Olcott, who came to the Island in 1880. Buddhism has the highest religious freedom, and anyone can embrace it at his own will. It has never conducted proselytising campaigns like Roman Catholicism and Christianity, by sword or by reward. By 1927, many Englishmen had embraced Buddhism, the first European being Brian Hodgson, and the first English missionary to learn Sinhala was Spence Hardy.

Among the intellectuals who had spoken highly about Buddhism were many including eminent philosophers, scholars, historians, scientists, writers, religious dignitaries, social reformers and politicians. Speaking Buddha's greatness, Bertrand Russell says "I cannot myself feel that either in the matter of wisdom or in the matter of virtue, none stands quite as high, and, I think, I should put Buddha above all".

Prof. Saunders, Literary Secretary, YMCA, India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka, says "Lord Buddha could be very easily singled out as the one person known to man who received homage from the greatest number of mankind including kings".

According to E.A. Burt, "Gentleness, serenity, compassion, liberation from selfish craving are the fundamental teachings of the great oriental religion of Buddhism". Bishop Gore says "It is Buddhism as we find it actually recorded, not a hypothetical primitive system, which still forms a challenge to other religions".

Many learned men in foreign countries have spoken about the greatness of the Buddha, unparalleled in history, as one who showed the path for the attainment of Enlightenment through wisdom, leading to Nibbana (the summum bonum in Buddhism).

In many countries of the world there are temples for the devotees to worship. In England there is the London Buddhist Vihara which caters for the needs of many Englishmen who had become Buddhists. They admire the Buddha's philosophy where there is no belief in a creator God. Buddha promulgated his system of philosophy after studying other religions that were in vogue during his time.

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Humanity and the need for religion

Excerpts of the speech by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, His Hon. Dato Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad at the World Fellowship of Buddhists and World Fellowship of Buddhist Youth General Conferences 2002 at Grand Blue Wave Hotel, Shah Alam on Tuesday, 10 December 2002 at 9.00 am.

I would like to thank the World Fellowship of Buddhists for the opportunity to address this esteemed gathering of World Buddhist leaders attending the 22nd General Conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists and the 13th General Conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhist Youth.

I am made to understand that these conferences are one of the biggest international Buddhist conferences ever to be held in Malaysia.

For the past 50 years or so, after the greatest world war humanity has ever experienced, there has been no more great wars. But the world is far from being peaceful. There was the Cold War, the proxy wars, the wars for national liberation, the wars to regain expropriated land, the wars against oppression and bushfire wars. And now we are witnessing the great world war against terrorism.

It would seem that despite the peace preached by all the religions of the world, humanity has not mastered the skills and the capacity to live at peace with each other. When it suits us we are ready to forget religious injunctions or at times to reinterpret religion in order to justify wars.

Yet we hear today more talks and exhortations for people, governments especially, to respect human rights and uphold them, to allow for the freedom of choice in the election of governments, for free speech and press freedom, for the abolition of the death penalty, for workers rights, abolition of child labour etc. One would think that humanity has become truly civilised even if they are less keen on religious and spiritual values. Some even believe that they can be human and humane without need for religion. They know what values are good and honourable without having to be told by religion about this.

But are people who downgrade religion, who claim that God is dead; are they really so civilised and sophisticated that they have no need for religion? The turmoil and injustice that we see today does not seem to indicate that today's man needs no religion.

We are today living in a world of fear. We are all being threatened by modern terrorism. We fear to fly, we fear visiting certain countries, we fear unexpected and unprecedented attacks within our countries, and between our countries, and we find ourselves unable to put our economy back on track. There is also the collapse of morality so that all the things proscribed by religions are now flouted with impunity. The institutions of marriage and family are no longer respected.

Worse still these institutions are mocked because the law in some countries, very civilised countries, permits man to marry man and woman to marry woman and regard these couples as families. Clothings are worn in order to expose the human body as much as possible not to cover it. In fact not wearing anything at all is a human right. Children are openly begotten out of wedlock and they attend the mock marriage of their parents.

Truly there is a total collapse of morality. The injunctions of religions, the codes of human behaviour are now totally rejected. Men it is claimed know what is good for them. The most important creed is freedom of the individual to do his own thing, to do what he likes without any consideration for the sensitivities and values of others, of the community. Any attempt to curb this absolute individual freedom is considered as abuse of human rights.

Yet democracy must be upheld. Democracy implies the upholding of the rights of the majority.

This must necessarily be negated if the norms of the majority can be totally disregarded by individuals. One cannot help feeling that in this matter the world is very confused, insisting on the upholding of values which are totally incompatible. Yet woe betide those who try to practise the rights of the majority as implied by democracy.

Now even the propagation of democracy itself is undemocratic. Democracy means free choice. When there were autocratic rulers, the democrats struggled for free choice, i.e. free choice of the systems of government including choosing democracy. But now no one is allowed to choose anything except democracy.

If democracy is not chosen then the democrats will apply sanctions, will take military action, including bombing and killing innocent civilians, until democracy is forcibly practised. Even when democracy is adopted there is no let-up. Accusations of failures to practise so-called true democracy are made and all sorts of pressures are applied in order to force the adoption of more liberal ideas about democracy.

There is a parallel to this in the history of religion. When some Romans adopted Christianity, they were persecuted by the "heathen' Roman Emperors.

Christians were regularly thrown into the arena to fight and be killed by ferocious animals. But eventually Christianity was adopted by the Romans. And when most Europeans became Christians they were as intolerant of non-Christians or suspected heretics as were the heathen Romans of the past. Heretics were tortured and burnt at the stakes. During the Spanish Inquisition the suspected heretics, the new converts from Judaism and Islam, were tried, tortured until they confess to the correctness of the charges, then tortured again for heresy and burnt at the stake. In other forms we are still seeing this today.

The situation today is not unlike that which prevailed when Christianity was being spread. Not only must we adopt the new religion called democracy, but also the worship of Mammon which has come together with it. "Globalisation" is about making money. All else is not important. Nothing must stand in the way of making as much money as possible.

The borders which insulate nations and obstruct the capitalists must be brought down in the name of one world. Nations should not exist, nor should national governments. If they exist, it is merely to enable the money worshippers to get at the money more easily. The governments are there to prevent any opposition to the invasion and predations of the capitalists. They are there to uphold the rules that the capitalists have formulated to facilitate their making more money.

Why should there be small banks and companies in any country when international giant banks and corporations can provide better service and products. The word international is indiscriminately used for entities which are owned and operated by the rich, for the rich.

The argument is that the poor will benefit from the more efficient goods and services provided by the giants through the vaunted economies of scale.

If the small banks and businesses have to shut down and their owners, managers and workers thrown out of work, that is a small sacrifice to make for better services and goods. But what happens to these people who are now unemployed? Well, they should be content with the unemployment benefits paid by the government. But poor countries have no unemployment benefits like the rich countries have.

That is too bad. They really should have. It is their fault if they don't. Whatever, they must not stand in the way of progress in a globalised world. One day they will realise how globalisation has brought benefit to them.

There was a time when the world gaped and admired the millionaires like Rockefeller, JR Morgan, Pierre Dupont and others. Today anyone can be a millionaire. They are dime a dozen. We talk now about billionaires and we are looking forward to the first trillionaire. We must not just admire these people but we must worship them. For they are the greatest worshippers of Mammon, the only true religion.

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Animals too deserve "equal compassion"

Arahant Mahinda during that historic first meeting with King Devanampiyatissa at Mihintale more than 2300 years ago advised the King that he was the protector, not only of his human subjects, but also of the natural environment and all living beings in his realm.

Arahant Mahinda would have undoubtedly been influenced by the Buddha's Discourse in the Cakkavatti Sihanada Sutta ( Digha Nikaya of the Sutta Pitaka ) where the Buddha in spelling out the State Responsibilities of an ideal ruler said : "The Cakkavatti King (Righteous King) will give protection, shelter and ward both to the different classes of human beings, and also to birds and beasts".

This pronouncement of the Buddha ranks as a landmark in the evolution of the struggle for the emancipation of non human animals from human abuse and cruelty. Arahant Mahinda's declaration set the tone for the creation of an Asokan model of benevolent State in Sri Lanka, which lasted for nearly 2000 years, until it was broken down by the entry of western colonial powers, commencing with the Portuguese invasion in 1505.

Animal welfare is not on the election manifesto of any political party or candidate. This is a reflection of the low priority extended to our dumb friends in this Country's national agenda. If one were to compare the increasing attention that is given to animal rights issues by lawmakers in Western countries (that lack a cultural heritage of compassion for animals) with the corresponding neglect of these issues in Sri Lanka, it would cause us to hide our faces in shame.

Those who campaign for human rights as the path of purifying the tarnished national image of our country, should ponder over the statement of Mahatma Gandhi who said that 'The greatness and morality of a nation must be judged by the way it treats its animals '.The abuse and cruelty towards animals goes on in Sri Lanka unabated due to outdated laws and weak enforcement of these laws. Further, large-scale political interference on behalf of wrongdoers and butchers running illegal abattoirs, prevent the Police from performing their duty of protecting the helpless animals.

We demand out of a sense of compassion and justice, for the suffering animals, that animal welfare issues be given due attention in the national agenda. We insist on the adoption of the following measures: Ban the export of meat from Sri Lanka.

Advertising of flesh foods in the mass media

Enact new Animal welfare laws that incorporate internationally recognised standards of protection of animals, and impose heavy punishment including long sentences of imprisonment and confiscation of vehicles used in illegal transport of animals. The current maximum fine for cruelty to animals is Rs. 100. It is totally inadequate and lacks a deterrent effect.

Ban the caricaturing of animals eg chicken, in advertisements. These tasteless advertisements influence people, particularly our children, to see animals as objects of fun and playthings, rather than as living creatures deserving of our kindness and compassion.

Register and empower Animal welfare societies to liaise with Police in the enforcement of animal protection laws. This position prevails in most western countries e.g. UK, USA, Australia, France, Germany, and also India.

Ban ' Battery Hen ' Poultry farming. Ban the use of animals for human entertainment e.g. horse racing, circus, elephant polo games, cart racing using cattle, cock-fighting, and the like. These activities cause immense suffering to animals. They are unlikely to attract much foreign tourists who are becoming increasingly sensitive to the plight and harassment of animals that are used in so-called 'sports'.

The State should not encourage the public to engage in vocations involving the abuse and killing of animals. These vocations constitute wrong livelihoods and may result in some participants severing all connections with their religion e.g. Buddhism that does not sanction the killing of animals, including fish for food.

Tudor Wickremasinghe, 
Hony. Secretary, Gal Gava Mithuro

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