To be truly religious is not to reject society but to work for social justice and change. Religion is at the heart of social change, and this change is an essence of religion. The teachings of Buddha have much more to offer to mitigate sufferings of both humans and nature in the world. If one is worth living, there are ways one can live.
This was the crux of the talk on the challenges and prospects of Buddhism given by Sulak Sivaraksa from Thailand at the conference hall of the Centre for Bhutan Studies on 23 August.
He is a teacher, a scholar, a publisher, an activist, founder of many organizations and author of more than hundred books and monographs. He is among the handful of leaders world-wide working to revive the socially engaged aspects of spirituality and was granted the Right Livelihood Award, also known as Alternative Noble Prize in 1995.
According to Sivaraksa, 21st century is the century of spirituality. Otherwise the world would have been destroyed. Buddhism plays a vital role in Asia especially in South and South East Asia, not only spiritually but also morally, socially and ecologically. Simplicity guides one to be mindful of materialism and sensual pleasures.
Bhutan has developed the concept of Gross National Happiness instead of Gross National Product, which will help in the post-modern era, realizing that what they wanted is happiness, not money nor power.
Sulak envisions a future built on traditional wisdom and culture. Bhutan is unique in this regard.
“We must chain our society to be transparent and accountable. One cannot practice good politics without being a spiritual person,” said Sulak.
During the 1970s, Sulak became a central figure in a number of NGOs in Thailand. He said, “Whatever you do, don’t do it out of selfish motives but out of understanding and kindness. Itีs you who decide.”
Sonam Pelden
from Bhutan Observer
Saturday August 25, 2006
It is debatable whether one calls Buddhism religion or not. However as an organized creed practiced by many peoples in Asia and now in the west too, it contributes both a blessing and a curse to mankind.
My late spiritual teacher, Bhikkhu Buddhadasa, whose centenary this year is recognized by UNESCO as a man who contributes so much for peace in the world, has warned his disciples that we should understand the best in Buddhism, that is how to transform greed into generosity, hatred into loving kindness and delusion into wisdom or proper understanding.
He also says that Buddhists must respect other religions – not just tolerance – as much as our own.
People with different religions must collaborate together and with atheists and agnostics too, in order to overcome the new demonic religion of materialism and consumerism i.e. to liberate mankind from greed, hatred and delusion.
The hard core of the Buddha’s teaching is skillful means to reduce selfishness to serve all sentient beings yet all through these years, Buddhism has compromised itself with superstition, nationalism, feudalism, male chauvinism and lately with economism. As an institution Buddhism contributed negatively to mankind too. Baker Roshi will no doubt confirm the information in the book Zen at War that Japanese practitioners of Buddhist meditation used that technique of inner strength to kill the enemy more effectively, even with the loss of their own lives, for the sake of the Emperor and the Empire.
In Sri Lanka , many Sinhala Buddhists are against the Tamil Hindus on the island very violently. Likewise in my own country, quite a number of Thai Buddhists are not at all tolerant towards the Malay Muslims who are also citizens of Siam.
As Bhutan prepares to embrace parliamentary democracy in 2008, it should be cautious about drawing models from western democracy, says a Buddhist scholar from Thailand.
Mr. Ajarn Sulak Sivaraksa, who is a teacher, an activist and a renowned Thai Buddhist scholar, said that he was afraid that Bhutan would use western democracy as a model, a mistake most Asian countries like Bur-ma, Sri Lanka including his own country, Thailand made.
The elections, he emphasised, was one of the very negative sides from the west.
Bhutan should instead adopt the Buddhist model of democracy.
The old “sangha model”, he said, which is the oldest Buddhist democracy upholds positive actions, transforms bad habits, purifies negativity, increases virtuous acts and encourages equality and fraternity for all.
Simplicity, modesty and harmony, he said, were the key elements in the Buddhist concept. He said that the sangha model was used to run Bhutan some 100 years ago and could still be referred to pull out positive aspects so Bhutan could itself become a model for rest of the world.
“With the western democracy you cannot stop corruption,” he said. “That is evident in the British and American elections which are filled with it.”
The advent of western modernisation in Thailand started a century ago before it came to Bhutan, and he said that his country adopted western democracy at the expense of Buddhism.
“That’s where we went wrong as our elites embraced modernisation at the cost of our own tradition and culture,” Mr. Sulak Sivaraksa told Kuensel. “Now our invaluable tradition and culture live only in the form of dance and music and not as a way of life.”
Bhutan, he said, was in a very unique situation in that it remained isolated while all its neighbouring countries went through the evils of western modernisation, which gave the country the advantage to learn about both the positive and negative aspects of modernisation and adopt what was good and relevant.
“The countryีs policy of allowing few selected tourists is a good example of that,” said Mr. Sulak Sivaraksa, adding that while the country focused on learning certain things from the tourists, it in turn taught them a great deal about values, tradition, culture and preservation of nature.
“Tourism destroys every country like mine,” he said. “Our local people saw them as wonderful modern people with great spending capacity. They then started aping the tourists and embraced their ways of life.”
Samten Wangchuk
from Kuensel
Saturday August 26, 2006
