Buddhists – Where Now?

An article entitled: Sri Lanka is a Buddhist Country Controlled by the Christian Catholic Church was circulated by E-Mail at the end of November, 2010 - written by Upali Thantirige.  He gives instances and details occurrences. Is Upali Thantirige correct? Sadly his writing is supported by the news and events occurring daily in the media. He has given us an inescapable truth.
This is a dismal reversal of the optimism we all felt at the turn of the new millennium. Now you can see newspapers promoting Christian news as if it is the only belief religion on the planet. And where is Buddhist news? (E.g., The slow erosion of Buddhism in Sikkhim, the plight of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Buddhists, the opening of new temples in the west, the throttling of Buddhism in Thailand, Cambodia, the missionizing of South Korea and China and so on??  - mostly dismal news all at the hands of the religionists.)
Also, Buddhist news is made unattractive to editors of commercial newspapers. It is suppressed (after warnings) by editors fearful of losing their advertizing revenues paid by the big, rich, Christian owned businesses. On the contrary to Buddhism, Christianity is exciting – if unbelievable, viz: a dead man awoke, walked around a bit to say goodbye to one or two close friends and then went to heaven on a rocket around 0033CE. That is 1977 years ago, but the religionists are only very vague about the exact date as it was of no interest at the time.
Buddhism cannot compete with that sort of story in the minds of the poor and gullible, un-Dhamma-schooled masses.. Continuing on a little more: a virgin giving birth? – it sounds like monkey business! That is certainly why Christianity is dead set against fornication – they invented that lovely word for the event of sex outside marriage. And ‘prostitution’ was coined – that dirty word sealed the fate of all lusty men since the advent of Christianity. Here are two examples of the Christian Western Chinthanaya at work.
Upuli Thantirige’s article points out Dr. Nalin De Silva’s writings of how Buddhists in Sri Lanka are Christian by culture (and attitudes) but Buddhist by religion. Irrefutable! E.g., a young couple in Ja-Ela wanted to have their marriage ceremony carried out by the monk in a nearby temple and being blessed for everlasting happiness. To his credit, the monk refused.                                                                                                    
After 500 years of Christian occupation of Sinhale (Sri Lankan) territory the Buddhists have lost their direction, they have lost “Due North”. We have lost our way (and our wealth) and where are the Monks to guide us?.
So, this writing is just another wakeup call before it is too late. But it is all getting ominous to those who can see.
Firstly, we need to identify where we have gone wrong and what is our  true Buddhist culture and way of thinking; what has been lost and what steps are to be taken to reach there again? Some penetrating thinking is needed.
Secondly, we need to strengthen other aspects of Buddhism, too, in the face of so many external pressures – from the west and from within. We need to strengthen the hull of our ship! Dr. Nalin makes two interesting points in the Island Midweek Review of 7th. December 2010. He talks about different systems of knowledge based on different Chinthanayas and that the west is dominating us through their systems of knowledge and that words such as “transparency”, “democracy” used in their system, are only hypocritical terms to deceive the (western Chinthanaya) educated.
He says it is finally the western media (with an anti-Sinhala Buddhist stance that makes use of the Tamil racism of the elite to demean the Sinhala Buddhists) – the western media who will give publicity to the Tamil diasporas views he previously stated.
Therefore, we need to build up our base -  the foundation of Buddhist influence and project our intellectual power.
But getting this power and voice is difficult. Dr. Nalin quotes Professor Noam Chomsky (the great critic of US. Policy) who is made ineffective in trying to propagate his views as the government, the media and of course, the universities act in unison to make him ineffective – reminiscent of the difficulties now experienced by the Buddhists in Sri Lanka concerning the news and current affairs of Buddhism.
Thirdly, Muslim Malaysia developed rapidly thanks to the exploitation of their oil reserves.. The authorities launched many Government sponsored companies and staffed them – you’ve guessed it - by only Muslims managers and Muslim workers. (Chinese – well qualified – must convert to get a job!) In Sri Lanka, it is a ‘free for all’ and ‘winner takes all’ as the Christians and Muslims are exactly doing!
Wake up the Buddhists; we are losing it to the occupation!
Motto:
All It Takes For Buddhism To Disappear
Is For Good Buddhists To Do Nothing To Help
 
 Motto:
May you have the Buddha in your heart and
the Buddha - Dhamma in your head!
by Brian Pedley

1 comment:

  1. We cannot be the losers, when we should be the winners. We have a Buddhist majority, Sinhala majority and a country that belong to the Sinhalese Buddhists. We have intelligent people.
    But are we cowards, no backbone to defend the country, Sinhala race , Sinhala culture and Buddhism.
    Why do we follow the western culture like slaves? Other countries are proud of their culture,race, religion.

    We need to protect the innocent in the villages. We need to expose the hypocrisy of the West, their religion, their so called "Democracy"
    ,
    their double standard attitudes. Expose the truth. Get honest editors of both Sinhalese and English papers. Get foreign reporters with integrity to revel the truth. You have to wake up and not be complacent. When faLse information about Sinhalese and Buddhists are written attack profusely with good language. Do not keep a low profile in ignorance. Ask for govt. help.

    Organize an intellectual educated organization to deal with all above.

    We need patriotic people. Unfortunately they are hard to find.

    The whole situation is annoying, and insulting to hear or read. Makes us very angry as to why some people ignore such a serious situation. I think an appeal to proper people in the universities, Law colleges and Political Science group should be made immediately.

    Buddhist priests must form their own groups. Do not involve them at this stage, they may speak on passive terms initially. That is not what we need right now. We need bold confrontations to attack the NGO's, Bullying Christians. Western reporters and Sinhala reporters who have no backbone to face the truth.
    It is important to get the help of a few Ministers who are intelligent and forward. But we must respect their oaths and responsibilities to the Govt. and people. We cannot allow them to make a fool of themselves in public.

    Everything to be manipulated like how "Dutugemunu " faced the enemy.

    We have to recognize who our enemies are.
    Also seek the assistance of the rich Buddhists.

    Corruption and greed should also be eradicated. Otherwise good intentions will not last long.

    Get young people to organize vigilante groups to deal with corrupt hypocritical religious converts. Protect the Sinhalese.

    The reason is the Tamils, Muslims, and Christians are protected by their own organizations and also by the government due to pressure from western govts.
    Ultimately the people who suffer are the majority Buddhists, where cowards of varied nature,fear to confront the actual situation and the truth.

    It is a shame please form a strong Organization of Intellectuals to face this Pathetic situation, so the Sinhalese Buddhists can wake up boldly.

    Thank you for all sending this rude awakening message. I am very disappointed that our majority SiNhala Buddhists are so complacent and tempted and fooled by Christian and foreign opportunist.

    Buddha saranai

    It is very sad where the country and the religion is facing and heading. It seems no one cares.
    Watch out for the insiders and outsiders who are taking advantage of our weaknesses and boldness.
    We need the Buddhist monks to wake up and face the consequences.

    Write to the Govt. and ask them to beat the opposition liars in a forthright manner.

    I am sorry if I have offended anyone. I wrote this in haste, as thoughts came to my mind. The situation is very sad and annoying.
    RD

    -Ranjini Deraniyagala

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