Theraputtabhaya spoke to me this morning
Richard Bach says somewhere in his book ‘Illusions’ that the answer
to any question that is in your mind, whether clearly formulated or
resident as a vague, query mark without word or formulation, is right
before you. He recommends the random opening of any book and assures
that the page will contain answer and also give flesh to that which
earlier resisted articulation.
Now if ‘book’ was considered a metaphor for all things that educated,
clarify and elaborate, then the exercise of intellect and heart would
draw some degree of truth-value from anything and everything.
It makes sense. If the universe is contained in a grain of sand then
anything can be obtained from anything else. The key to
knowledge-extraction then would be, in Buddhist terms, the ability to
exercise reason (following the guidelines, for example, of the Kalama
Sutra) and of course the Karmic endowments that empower or limit such
deployment.
Coffee table
This Nawam Poya morning (February 17, 2011), my mind was not
cluttered by any question. It was blank. I knew I had to write my column
and two more for the Sunday Observer before 2.00 pm. So there was some
‘cloud’. I didn’t know what to write about. I was at my friend Jayanath
Bodahandi’s place. There was a program about the so-called minnows of
the Cricket World Cup on Star TV. There were some teacups, books and
newspapers on the coffee table. Among them, Walisinghe Harishchandra’s
Sithiyam Sahitha Pura Vidyaava: Anuradhapura Urumaya Ha Eya Rekumata
Kala Aragalaya (Archaeology with maps: the heritage of Anuradhapura and
the struggle to preserve it), a 2001 version of the book first published
in 1912, put out by Visidunu Prakashakayo. Random Page had a number,
naturally. 189.
Random page had a random paragraph gleaned from the Mahawamsa (The
Great Chronicle), which I translate/paraphrase as follows:
The great king Dutugemunu, having united the Lankan State and being
duly crowned, offered various posts to his main generals, the Dasa Maha
Yodayas (the Ten Giants). The giant Theraputtabhaya was not interested.
When asked why, he had responded, ‘Because there is another war to be
fought’. ‘Which?’ the King asked. ‘I will fight relentlessly and without
mercy the thieves that are the Kleshas,’ he answered. The King objected
again and again, but Theraputtabhaya appealed for reconsideration.
Finally, with the King’s permission he re-entered the Order, developed
his faculties and attained Enlightenment.
Post-war nation
We are today in a post-war nation. And yet, not all wars have been
fought to a satisfactory conclusion. This is true of the individual and
the collective.
There is a time to fight and to fight without any quarter asked or
given. That’s how the LTTE was vanquished. There is a time to reflect. A
time to recognize that the conclusion of a single war does not imply
that all other irritants and monstrosities have been deal with or
happily surrendered or perished.
Different wars require different approaches, different methodologies,
different human competencies, different tools. Post-war is never an easy
time for lengthy conflicts engender cultures and ways of being that
survive the end of the clash of arms.
Institutions and laws tend to indulge in slumber, tweaked mechanisms
are slow in unravelling and indeed are deliberately left tweaked for
reasons of convenience and ancient antagonisms re-emerge to be marked
‘present’ and ‘continuous’.
Human resources
Theraputtabhaya’s was a personal quest. The lesson, however, is not
inapplicable to the collective, i.e. community, organization and nation.
The end of a righteous war is cause for celebration.
The end of a war does not suggest that righteousness can be or needs
to be retired. Indeed the success of righteousness should ideally
inspire its application to different context.
This is the glue that holds together the necessarily different tools
and human resources in the matter of meaningful engagement of those
other enemies.
There are many books that await opening. Many answers to questions
that are not asked or seem not to have answers. The answer is never so
far away that it cannot be accessed.
This is true for everyone, from leader to the led, the subjugating to
the subjugated, the insulting to the insulted, the robber to the robbed.
Reading is a good thing. I plan to be voracious about it. How about
you? [email protected]
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