8th Global Conference on Buddhism passed resolutions against violence in Buddhist countries and bombing in India

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Singapore -- Delegates from Singapore and overseas attended the two-day 8th Global Conference on Buddhism, held in Singapore on 6 and 7 July 2013. Drawing on the presence of 1,200 delegates from the various Buddhist traditions, the Conference culminated in the passing of two resolutions concerning the on-going violence against Muslims in Buddhist countries, and the bombing of the MahaBodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, India on 7 July 2013.

The resolutions were a response from the Buddhist community towards these international incidents, and passed with an overwhelming majority of more than 95% voting in favour.

Resolution on the violence against Muslims in Buddhist countries

“We hereby wish to inform our Muslim brothers and sisters that as Buddhists, we are deeply concerned by the violent treatment of Muslims at the hands of people claiming to be Buddhists.

Islam is a religion of peace and Buddhism a religion of non-violence. These are ideals for all mankind, regardless of differences in beliefs and customs. We call upon the leaders of the Buddhist and Muslim communities to condemn all acts of violence and to use their influence to encourage all to be gentle and act with compassion. We also call on governments to take firm measures against murder, assault, arson, rape and other acts of violence and incitement to violence, and take the appropriate action against offenders, whatever their social status.”

Resolution on the bombing in India

“We are deeply saddened but we forgive those responsible for bombing the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya.

You may damage the most important temple in Buddhism but you will not destroy our faith in forgiveness and compassion. “

“Buddhism is a religion of compassion and wisdom,” said Ms Angie Chew Monksfield, organising chairperson of the Global Conference on Buddhism and President of Buddhist Fellowship, said: “While we are saddened by the violence in Myanmar and the bombings in
India, we recognise that the only lasting solution towards such acts of violence is forgiveness. The resolutions are a concrete way of demonstrating our commitment to peace. We hope that these resolutions will contribute towards resolving the conflicts in a
peaceful and effective manner.”

Datuk Dr Victor Wee, President of Buddhist Gem Fellowship Malaysia, said: “I am heartened to see Buddhists from all traditions using this opportunity to engage each other on current issues of critical importance. We have discussed and passed public
resolutions on these two issues, based on the Buddhist principles of kindness and wisdom.”

The Conference included topics and presenters such as “Search Inside Yourself” by Mr Tan Chade-Meng of Google, “Challenges to Buddhism: Taking the Buddha Seriously” by Professor Richard Gombrich of Oxford University, and “Buddhist Bioethics in Medicine and Research” by Dr Ho Eu Chin.

About the Organiser of the Conference - Buddhist Fellowship

Buddhist Fellowship is a non-sectarian English speaking Buddhist group that focuses on the learning of the Buddha’s Teachings and the practice of meditation. It has over 5,000 members and has been a dynamic force in the Buddhist community in advocating modernization and bringing issues into the open for discussion and resolution.

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Disturbing Buddhist Trend toward Violence

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Colombo, Sri Lanka -- Recent incidents of anti-Muslim religious nationalism in Sri Lanka and Myanmar, ostensibly in defense of the Theravada Buddhist faith held by the majority, have opened fresh cultural and political wounds.

<< What would Buddha do?
In Myanmar and Sri Lanka, anti-Muslim religious nationalism opens wounds

Growing violence appears in danger of spinning completely out of control in Burma, most lately in the town of Okkan on the outskirts of Yangon, where a Buddhist mob burned as many as a dozen homes and ransacked a shop shouting "Let's destroy the property of Muslims." Two mosques were desecrated and Qurans were torn to pieces.

Some of these are violent events with alleged government or Buddhist monastic (sangha) backing. Others appear spontaneous, beyond the control of state and Buddhist hierarchy. Either way, they are destructive and troubling. Buddhism is revered as a faith of healing and mercy, but like all religions, it can promote contradictory elements of triumphalism and intolerance.

Both countries are newly emerged from recent politically traumatic experiences released from a decades-long military autocracy (Myanmar) and the ravages of a civil war (Lanka). Both are spectacularly ill-served by this latest outburst of jingoism in the name of a faith that in both instances appears to be manipulated to meet political ends.

Turning first to Myanmar, the state has a long record of relations between the majority Buddhists (90 percent) and minority religions, notably Muslims (5 percent) and Hindus (3 percent). Muslims from a variety of Middle Eastern and Central Asian ethnic backgrounds were at one time a welcome part of historical Burmese kingdoms, traders for the most part, but even serving in the infantry of the great king Mindon Min in the mid-19th century.

Others, particularly the Rohingya in Arakan State bordering on present-day Bangladesh, filtered across porous borders over decades. More controversial were thousands of Indian Muslims brought in by British colonial officials for their commercial skills and hard work.

Anti-Muslim outbreaks associated with Burmese Buddhist economic resentment occurred periodically prior to independence. But Muslim fortunes in Myanmar were virtually ruined by the 1962 military take-over of the state. The Rohingya in particular were held back by the 1982 Citizenship Law, which required proof of ancestry in Myanmar for three generations.

Elsewhere, in 1997 the government allegedly provoked a violent anti-Muslim riot as a diversion over the disappearance of a precious, mystically powerful ruby rumored to have been stolen by superstitious generals from the famous Maha Myat Muni Buddha image in Mandalay.

Further attacks in 2001 in Taungoo and Pyinmana were precursors of the vicious 2012 pogrom on Rohingya communities in the western Rakhine state. This sometimes featured Buddhist monks in the vanguard of activism organizing and encouraging forcible relocation of the Muslim population. More recently in March, 2013, a minor altercation in a Muslim-owned gold shop in the small mid-country city of Meiktila, was suddenly compounded by the murder of a Buddhist monk.

This provoked a week-long rampage. Dozens of pro-Burmese motorcyclists suddenly appeared. Photos of a Buddhist monk manhandling a bull-dozer, and of police standing by while Muslim buildings burned, lent credibility to the suggestion that disgruntled military parliamentarians over the reforms of the government of President Thein Sein were behind the incident, perhaps a circuitous appeal for a return to military rule.

Though Muslims are only a fragment of Myanmar's population, a recent avalanche of rumors about rising Muslim economic and demographic dominance is further spurred on by widespread circulation of inflammatory Islamophobic DVDs. These are complemented by the infamous but relentless hate-filled sermons of the maverick Buddhist monk U Wirathu of Mandalay's otherwise prestigious Masoeyein monastery.

The vitriol spills over into street-level social and commercial relations, with Buddhist businesses demarcating their premises with a special number (969) purporting a spiritual significance, and Muslims adopting something of the same strategy with their own sacred numerals (786).

Left unresolved, these unsavory activities are serious harbingers of a possible failure of Myanmar's three-year experiment with reform and democracy.

Second, Sri Lanka is an example of how sectarian conflict can ruin an otherwise fortunate country. Despite the end of the long civil war in 2009, inter-community relations have sharply deteriorated, and minority vulnerability is high.

This has provided space for a new, anti-Muslim ethnic fault line. Lankan Muslims make up only 9% population and have a centuries-old historical lineage with the Middle East. Many Muslims have been caught by surprise at the recent turn of events, believing themselves to be well integrated, loyal to the state during the civil war, and with longstanding senior appointments in government.

But the roots of Buddhist resentment and suspicion about Muslim presence in Lanka emerged a century ago with the introduction of the ?Aryan myth' into Sinhala politics, which claimed that all minorities live in Lanka by the grace of Sinhalese supremacy and must know their secondary place.

This was the background to the infamous 1915 anti-Muslim riots. Nowhere was motivation for an activist Sinhala Buddhist role more clearly articulated than in Ven. Walpola Rahula's 1946 ground-breaking Bhiksuvage Urumaya (The Heritage of the Bhikkhu).

An intense religio-ethnic struggle had come to characterize the nation, and Buddhism played a critical role in fostering a tough, uncompromising ethnocentric faith, characterized by the 1956 and 1983 riots, this time focused on Ceylon Tamils. An appeal to neo-traditionalism, rather than a needed reappraisal of the role of the sangha and Buddhism in public life, became commonplace.

The situation in 2013 is really not much different in this matter. Just as even an educated Sinhala middle class was persuaded that the Tamils were taking over commercial, educational and professional opportunity in Lanka in the 1980s, now there is renewed antipathy towards the longstanding indigenous Muslim community, an attitude that thrives under the present government, feeling vindicated by the victorious Eelam war.

Anti-Muslim actions have involved attacks on mosques with little or no effective police response, claims that national examination results are distorted to favor Muslims, demands for repeal of Halal certification with the claim that its fees go toward mosque construction, ludicrous conspiracy theories (e.g., that certain sanitary napkins sold in Muslim stores to Buddhist women lead to sterilization), claims that Muslim families are too large, and malicious spreading of rumors of rape and coercion. Within the last year there have been attacks on Muslim mosques or businesses in Dambulla, Gampola, Peliliyana and Colombo, some involving stone-throwing Buddhist monks.

This is accompanied by the sudden rise of the Bodhu Bala Sena (Buddhist Power Force), a relatively new expression of Sinhala ultra-nationalistic patriotism. The organization uses crude language to describe, for instance, Muslim imams, and is also actively anti-Christian.

It has top-level patronage support, with its new leadership academy in Galle opened by Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who recently intoned "It is the monks who protect our country, religion and race. No one should doubt these clergy."

Buddhism is not a monolithic organization in Sri Lanka. The sangha is comprised of approximately 30,000 monks (bhikkhus) belonging to three principal nikayas, in turn divided into many smaller groups. Each monastery is virtually an autonomous unit.

This indicates that centralized authority over the conduct of sangha members is almost non-existent. Buddhism's many nuances, structural and ideological, make it impossible for senior monks to dictate an alternative official Buddhist position or to propose any one sweeping commentary on its participation in the political destiny of the country.

This is compounded by a current climate of fear and helplessness, with people silent or unable to speak out against rampant injustice and intimidation, violence. The government appears indifferent to alternative opinions and is obsessed with majoritarianism, not with unity in diversity, or equality and justice in a pluralistic state.

Lankan moderates, of which there are many, have failed to sustain or act on inter-religious friendships and to speak out and protect each other. Regrettably there is no key internal pressure from the electorate to challenge the slide into communalism, despite the horrors stance this has visited upon Lanka since independence in 1948.

Muslim leaders have not been confrontational, and remain largely conciliatory. But there is the risk of Sri Lanka losing any political and economic good will the government might have built up with Middle East countries, many of which are huge sources of employment for Sri Lanka domestics and their important economic remittances.

No government representing a majority Buddhist population should tolerate such anti-Muslim activism. As Ven. Arriya Wuthu Bewuntha, abbot of the Myawaddy Sayadaw monastery in Mandalay has put it, "This is not what the Buddha taught." But in both Myanmar and Sri Lanka, this is an on-going uncomfortable reality. It remains to be seen what further deleterious consequences these events will have for these nations.
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Bruce Matthews is a Professor Emeritus of Comparative Religion, Acadia University, Nova Scotia

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Insight into Anti-Muslim Violence in Sri Lanka

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Colombo, Sri Lanka -- There was an uneasy standoff in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo this weekend after a group of Buddhists attacked a mosque and injured several Muslim worshippers.

Analysts say an anti-Muslim campaign by Buddhist nationalist groups in Sri Lanka is being fueled by fears about the swelling Muslim population.

Muslims account for only 9% of the island nation’s population of 20 million, the 2011 census found. But the community is the fastest growing. Between 1981 and 2011, Sri Lanka’s Muslim population grew 78%, from 1.04 million to 1.86 million. In that period, Sri Lanka’s majority Sinhalese-Buddhist community grew 38%, from 10.9 million to 15.8 million.

“There is fear that the Muslim population will engulf the Buddhist majority, fear that they will dominate businesses and occupy larger share of the native Sinhalese land,” said S. Chandrasekharan, director of South Asia Analysis Group, a New Delhi-based think-tank.

Unlike Myanmar, where clashes between Buddhists and the minority Muslim community have been running for decades, the tension in Sri Lanka has surfaced only in recent years, analysts say.

Buddhist nationalist groups also complain Muslims are secretly sterilizing Sinhalese, the Associated Press said.

Tilak Samaranayaka, an Australia-based commentator on Sri Lanka, cited census data to argue that many Sinhalese-Buddhists had been coerced to adopt Islam. In a column in the Colombo Telegraph in March, Mr. Samaranayaka wrote that 101,319 people said they had converted to Islam when surveyed in 2011, up from 65,755 surveyed in 1981.

Other observers say there isn’t enough evidence to suggest the conversions were forced.

“Perhaps - given the ethnic diversity in Sri Lanka - most of these conversions could be by virtue of marrying into Muslim communities,” said B.S. Verghese, an analyst at the Center for Policy Research, a New Delhi based think-tank.

“If allegations of forced conversions routinely surface in the local press, Buddhist groups may retaliate believing their religion is being attacked,” he added.

Conflicting ideologies could also be a cause of tension. Earlier this year, for example, the Bodu Bala Sena, a Sri Lankan Buddhist group, spearheaded a nationwide campaign against the Islamic practice of halal-slaughtered meat.

Buddhist monks, who preach non-violence, view the practice of halal or slow death, as inhuman. Islamic law, on the other hand, says meat that isn’t prepared using the halal technique is unfit for consumption.

The All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama, Sri Lanka’s main body of Islamic clergy, withdrew food items bearing halal certificates from markets in March.

“We are giving up what is important to us…. in the interest of peace and harmony,” the president of the Muslim group said, according to reports. The move was criticized in Muslim countries and viewed as a clampdown on Islam.

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Conflict in Buddhism: 'Violence for the sake of peace?'

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Hong Kong, China -- For Thailand's Queen Sikrisit, the 2007 attack on a minibus in southern Thailand's Yala province -- in which suspected Muslim militants shot eight Buddhists through the head in broad daylight -- was simply further proof of what she'd been saying for more than three years.

<< Buddhists monks in Meiktila, Myanmar, where violence between Muslims and Buddhists left 43 dead last month

"We have to help people there to survive. If they need to be trained, train them. If they need to be armed, arm them," she was quoted as saying by one of her military staff, according to media reports.
Meanwhile, Thailand was convulsed by demonstrations condemning the attack.

Her response was to boost her support for the Or Ror Bor or Village Protection Force, the militia the Royal Aide-de-Camp department, under Queen Sirikit's direction, established in 2004.

Unlike other militia in the strife-torn region, whose make up reflects the local demographic, the Or Ror Bor is exclusively Buddhist, is often stationed near temple compounds and is tasked with protecting Buddhist communities.

While Buddhism is associated in the Western mind with pacifism, Buddhist nations such as Thailand, Myanmar and Sri Lanka have been engaged in vicious conflicts.

 Deadly ethnic unrest spreads in Myanmar New realities for Tibetans in China Why Buddhists, Muslims clash in Myanmar

In Thailand, state security is now locked in an increasingly bloody civil war with the Muslim minority near its border with Malaysia, in Myanmar civil strife looms between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State and Sri Lanka has just concluded a protracted civil war with its Tamil minority.

Cycle of birth and death

Buddhism, with its emphasis on karma and samsara -- the idea that the cycle of birth and death is driven by the actions of an individual -- is traditionally deeply averse to killing, believing it creates negative karma that will be revisited on a person in their own lifetime or in subsequent reincarnations.

So how do the largely Buddhist state security in these countries square their beliefs with the need to fight?

Michael Jerryson, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Florida's Eckerd College and co-editor of the book Buddhist Warfare, says that warfare is part of the human condition irrespective of religion.

"The first thing to remember is that people have a penchant for violence, it just so happens that every religion has people in it," Jerryson told CNN.

History of conflicts

He said that while Buddhism has a 1,600-year well-documented history of monastic-led rebellions and conflicts, the association of Buddhism in the Western mind is with pacifism.

"Buddhism certainly has a lot within its precepts about pacifism. In fact, almost every global religion does," he said.

However, Buddhism differs in that the act of killing is less the focus than the "intention" behind the killing, he said.

"When there are Buddhist monks traveling with soldiers in Sri Lanka and chanting with them and blessing them, their perspective is that they are not trying to support the violence but ... it's better to have soldiers with a cool, calm, clear head, with good intentions, than those that are hot headed," Jerryson said.

Self-immolations

He said Tibet's Dalai Lama spoke of the same focus on "intention" when asked about the recent spate of self-immolations in Tibet.

"He pointed out that these people are not on drugs, they don't seem insane but they're doing it for a cause - the intention seems to be clear," he said. "This is often used to rationalize violence within Buddhist circles but as we're seeing now with Myanmar and Thailand, cool heads are not prevailing now."

He said Buddhist states often mesh nationalism with Buddhism, justifying war on the grounds that a fracture in the nation state is a tear in the sacred fabric of a land which represents the well-spring of their belief.

"Sri Lanka often speaks about 'the little teardrop island' as the last true vestige of true Buddhism. So when the LTTE, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, tried to separate a portion of that 'teardrop island' it was analogous to attacking the mother," Jerryson said.

Political rhetoric

As with most countries that use violence to solve disputes, Jerryson says the political rhetoric will begin to assume that the means justifies the ends.

"The rhetoric of violence as a defense, and this is not unique to Buddhism, is the idea of violence for the sake of peace," he said. "That although this is an infraction, although we are gaining negative karma, it's for the greater good -- prima facie anyway."

Buddhist nation states have historically sought to use Buddhist doctrine to justify war. During the Japanese invasion of China in the 1930s, for instance, soldiers were told not only that they were defending Buddhism but that emptiness in Buddhism is the only true reality, therefore, in the end, nobody was being killed, Jerryson said.
Ultimately,added Jerryson, Buddhist countries battling insurgencies will find that their root problems are economic rather than sectarian.
"How many strong Buddhists states are we looking at in the world? How many of them are economically strong? Because with economic strength and vitality comes less likelihood of civil insurrections and wars.

"Of course, we see a lot violence with Islamic countries now, but we also see a lot of poverty with them too."

Identity crisis

For Thailand-based security analyst Don Pathan the problems in Thailand's south have less to do with religion than with identity.

"The fact that the Or Ror Bor is exclusively Buddhist, doesn't say anything about Buddhism in ethical terms; it's just something that sets them apart from other security units," Pathan told CNN. "The issue is not about religion."

He said that while there were many factors influencing the insurgency -- economic, historical and the fact, he says, that the violence has migrated from rural areas to the cities -- he had also noticed a generational dimension to the problems.

"My experience with the older generation is that I still sense a strong fabric of society that still gets along together -- people are still friends whether they are Muslim or Buddhist.

"But I don't get that sense very strongly with the younger generation."
He said that while older Buddhists generally speak functional Malay to communicate with their neighbors, younger people have little interest in learning the language, regarding it as something only their grandparents do. The state emphasis on speaking Thai at schools has created problems, he said, reinforcing differences between the two communities.

"And it's not just Thai, but Central Thai -- that's how ethnocentric the Thai nation state can be. But they don't seem to understand that's a problem; that we need to accommodate the local identity," Pathan said.

He said the confusion between culture and religion was one of the driving forces behind the violence.

"It's like (groups) that say they practice correct Islam, but what is correct Islam? Islam is a religion not a culture," he said. "The problem (in southern Thailand) is that they don't separate these things; for them it's two sides of the same coin."

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Is Burma’s Anti-Muslim Violence Led by “Buddhist Neo-Nazis”?

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Yangon, Myanmar -- When most Westerners think of Buddhism, they think of smiling men with potbellies and inspirational quotes from Phil Jackson. “Buddhist neo-Nazi” sounds like a contradiction in terms.

<< The logo of the 969 group.

But in Burma, vicious anti-Muslim sentiment has been on the rise, and Buddhist extremists are responsible for attacking Muslims and burning down their houses and mosques, a state of affairs that was largely ignored until Anonymous launched a Twitter campaign to teach the world about the genocide against the Rohingya people, the officially stateless Muslims who many believe will be massacred if the world does not respond.

According to Dr. Muang Zarni, a Burmese human rights activist and research fellow at the London School of Economics, much of the blame for the current situation in Burma can be laid at the feet of the 969 group, which he describes as an neo-Nazi organization of hatemongers who are using Hitlerian tactics to “purify” the country by getting rid of the Muslims—it’s also, he says, one of the fastest-growing movements in the country.

I spoke to Dr. Zarni to find out more about what’s going on in Burma and how a Buddhist can be a "Nazi."

VICE: Who are the 969, and what does the number mean?

Dr. Muang Zarni: The 969 leaders are Burmese men in monks’ robes. It’s a bit difficult to describe them as genuine monks because they are preaching a message of anti-Muslim hatred and Islamophobia that is completely incompatible with the Buddhist message of universal kindness. The 969 number stands for three things: the 9 stands for the special attributes of Buddha, the founder of the religion; the 6 stands for attributes of his teachings of dharma; and finally, the last 9 stands for special characteristics or attributes of the clergy.

You’ve described the 969 group as “Burma’s fastest-growing neo-Nazi ‘Buddhist’ nationalist movement.” What makes them neo-Nazis and why are they targeting Muslims?

I use the word neo-Nazi because their intent is genocidal in the sense that the Muslims of Burma—all of them, including the ethnically Burmese—are considered leeches in our society the way the Jews were considered leeches and bloodsuckers during the Third Reich when Nazism was taking root.

There is a parallel between what we saw in Nazi Germany and what we are seeing today in Burma. The 969 movement and its leading spokespersons call for attacking the Muslims of Burma—not just the Rohingyas in western Burma who were incorrectly framed as illegal migrants from Bangladesh, but all Muslims from Burma. Buddhist people who try to help Muslims or buy groceries from Muslim businesses are either beaten up or intimidated or ostracized by other Buddhists.

Also, the military is involved with this movement. At best, the military authorities are tolerating the message of hatred coming from the Buddhist preachers. At worst, and I believe this to be true, elements within the military leadership are passively backing this movement. Over the past 50 years since the military came to power, there has been a consistent pattern of the military leadership using proxy organizations within Burmese communities across the country to incite violence against targeted groups, be they dissidents, Chinese, or now, Muslims.

What does the Burmese government have to gain from this violence?

There are three goals, as far as I can tell. One is, the military leadership has swapped their generals’ uniforms for civilian clothing, but at heart, they still remain irredeemably authoritarian and dictatorial. They are security obsessed and some of them feel the reforms that are unfolding in the country are going too far. So they want to slow it down and roll back the reform process. In order to do that, they must create social instability and use volatile situations as an excuse to say, “The people can’t handle freedom of speech, freedom of movement, and freedom of organization. Therefore, we need to have a strong handle on the situation to make sure people stay in line and don’t kill each other.”

Secondly, when all these waves of violence against Rohingya Muslims started last year, the military and the proxy political party of the military was in a worrisome situation because it lost by a landslide in the elections. So within two months of their defeat, they decided to create this very powerful anti-Muslim communal sentiment around the country. And now, [activist and political leader An San] Suu Kyi is in a difficult situation because she can only speak the liberal language of human rights and democracy, which is not as powerful as the ideology that the military and these neo-Nazi monks have whipped up. When it comes to fighting this kind of abnormal religious movement, the language of human rights is never enough.

Thirdly, I think the military is not leaving anything to chance. They have another round of elections in 2015, and they want to make sure that they have a new proxy political movement that they can use to square off Suu Kyi’s party. As a result, the 969 neo-Nazi movement is the most popular movement in the country.

In a YouTube video of a sermon given by Wirathu, one of 969’s leaders, he says that Muslims are taking over the country and destroying the Buddhist way of life. Is this way of thinking only popular in extremist circles, or are everyday Burmese buying it?
The reaction is mixed. We Burmese tend to be prejudiced against people with darker skin color. And that’s typical among Far East or Southeast Asian countries where lighter, paler skin is considered more prestigious and desirable. This 969 movement is preying on the historical and cultural prejudices we have as a society towards darker skin color.

Also, when you have a country that is the poorest in Southeast Asia, the language of economic nationalism is appealing, and that’s what the neo-Nazi movement is using. They tell people they are poor because their wealth is taken away by the “Islamic leeches.”

What role, if any, do Western governments have in this?

Burma is a crucial element in Obama’s new foreign policy of rebalancing American interests and power. It sits in between two major powers: India and China. And we’re also next to Thailand, which is the United States’s strategic hub for diplomatic, economic, and intelligence operations in Southeast Asia.

American and EU businesses are looking for new markets to get out of their economic decline and Burma has massive resources of oil, gas, uranium, timber, you name it. So they’re not going to frame their new business partner in an emerging market as genocidal.

If the West portrays what is happening in Burma accurately as genocidal, the international community will demand action and demand the perpetrators be brought to justice. That’s why I

think the international community is going very easy on the Burmese military.

-------------------
Follow Ray on Twitter: @RayDowns

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Newtown shooting and gun violence: A Buddhist response

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Losang Tendrol is a nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. She teaches meditation at the Guhyasamaja Buddhist Center in Fairfax, Va.

Fairfax, Va. (US'A) -- In a press release issued on Dec 19 after the shooting in Newton, Conn., New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg stated that 34 Americans fall victim to gun violence every day. They are our parents, children, friends, neighbors, and our police officers, managers, teachers –  perhaps indirectly we all know someone who has met a violent end. Every death tears a hole in the intricate network of relationships that unites us.

The Buddha taught that from birth, each of us has an instinctive gentleness towards others – a desire to protect those around us from harm and a willingness to make sacrifices to help even strangers. Cultivating and nurturing this love gives meaning to our short lives. Yet looking within ourselves we also find our innate self-focus.

This self-awareness is a sense that we exist apart from others. Rather than being a negative factor, it is this very self-focus that enables us to feel empathy because it is the basis for our common humanity. It is only because we experience suffering first hand that we generate the motivation to eliminate the suffering of others. As a nation, we deeply mourn the loss of the 20 school children and their teachers at Sandy Hook because of this deep seated connection.

In contrast, many believe that human nature is malevolent, so we need to guard ourselves from others.  We invest in many defense systems ranging from security systems, door locks, firewalls, antivirus software, passwords, all the way to what some consider the ultimate protection – possessing guns.

Some own guns based on the conviction that the world will end and we need guns in order to survive. Others feel that guns are necessary to stand up against a tyrannical government, or to rid society of undesirable people. The underlying rationale is the need for protection against an external threat, an outside enemy who intends to injure us.

In response the to the Sandy Hook shooting, Wayne LaPierre, head of the National Rifle Association advocated for putting armed police officers in every school in America. More guns, however, is not the solution. Instead as a society we need to address the underlying causes of violence in our nation. As many have proposed, we need to increase expenditures for public mental health care so that the mentally ill receive appropriate treatment, supervision and care. It must be terrifying for someone who is delusional to be left to survive on the streets all alone.  Strict measures should be taken to ensure the mentally ill are unable to obtain guns.

Likewise, we need to tone down the violence in the entertainment industry so that our children do not grow up thinking that aggression is an acceptable means of resolving problem.  Violence breeds more violence, today's killers may be tomorrow's victims. According to the Buddha's teaching about karma, actions always have related consequences. Murder is a misdeed because it harms others and the result is that the killer will experience tremendous suffering in the future and may even die in a similar manner. As such, all guns should be illegal as they only serve one purpose – to end lives.

Still, many shootings in America are not committed by people who are mentally ill, but instead by people who are angry and restless, and who lack the ability to regulate their emotions. So what is the long-term solution? The Buddha taught that the only real medicine to cure the disease of harming others is by transforming our own minds. Through meditation, we discover that the true source of our problems is not external enemies; instead, it is our own negative emotions and ignorance. Each of us needs to address the underlying malaise and discontent that give rise to our hatred, attachment, fear, and self-centeredness.

By cultivating bodhicitta, the mind that seeks to benefit others, we find meaning and joy in life.  Lama Zopa Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist teacher, explains how to we should set our motivation: “In the West, millions of people suffer from depression, but if you dedicate your life in the morning to numberless sentient beings, you will have unbelievable joy and happiness the whole day. Cherishing the I opens the door to all suffering, while cherishing others opens the door to all happiness. When you live your life every day for others, the door to depression, relationship problems and all such things is closed and instead there is incredible joy and excitement.”

The benefits of the mind of compassion, bodhicitta, are described in this verse:

Bodhicitta makes you abandon all harms,
Bodhicitta rids you of all sufferings,
Bodhicitta frees you from all fears,
Bodhicitta stops all negative conduct,
~ Khunu Lama Rinpoche

In his book “Beyond Religion: Ethics for a whole world,” the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso, stresses the need for secular ethics grounded in compassion that transcend the confines of religious traditions. Such ethical principles celebrate our shared humanity and interdependence.

It is up to each of us as individuals to make these principles the rules we live by and thereby to fulfill our full potential as human beings. While this may seem impossible,  it is in fact realistic because the inner peace that arises from such ethics lies hidden in our minds waiting for us to reveal it through study and contemplation.

By caring for others with compassion, we create vast amounts of positive karma and this gives rise to a feeling of safety and ease. We don't need guns because we understand how a strong community is a reflection of close ties with our neighbors forged through mutual respect and kindness. We are no longer paranoid that everyone is out to get us because we have looked deep within ourselves and expelled our inner enemy - self-cherishing.

Gradually, as more people choose to practice the path of peace, killings such as the incident in Newton, Conn. will no longer occur.

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Toronto Area Buddhist Monks protest Bangladesh's violence

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Monks protest to cruelty of Anti-Buddhist Moslem Extremists by invoking blessings for enemies’ well being

Toronto, Canada -- History was created in Canada last Saturday - 12th October 2012 - as Buddhist Monks from temples across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) came out of the seclusion of their monasteries and gathered at the Downtown Speakers Corner of the Nathan Philips Square to add their voices to the ongoing demonstrations around the world protesting last week’s spate of targeted barbaric and violent attacks on Buddhists by Moslem extremists in the Chittagong Region of Bangladesh.

Amid fears and a disturbing tendency among the Bangladeshi majority Moslems throughout the Nation to feel threatened by the ‘handful’ of innocent Buddhists who have heroically and steadfastly preserved their ancient and hallowed Buddhist Tradition without much help from their own government or surrounding / neighbor Buddhist Nations in Asia. While nearly 3 million Hindus fled to India over the brutal suppression by Pakistani soldiers in the wake of the 1970-1971 crises, Buddhists remained stay put, with intent to preserve their religion and Bengali cultural heritage.

Last few weeks saw nearly 45 Buddhist Temples incinerated in different parts of the Chittagong Region of Bangladesh. Hundreds in violent gangs had set on the Temples attacking the venerable monks and causing them bodily harm and had gone on rampage leaving homes of Buddhists in the area looted and gutted as law enforcement officers watched and waited doing nothing to stop the violence until the Government decided to call the Army to contain the violence against innocent Buddhists and protect their homes.

Many Buddhist temples, some centuries old, have been sacked, torched and desecrated, Buddha statues disfigured, sacred relics venerated by devotees completely destroyed and many libraries with rare, valuable and manuscripts and books burnt. This tell-tale episode of religious persecution and atrocities against Buddhists with no parallel in modern times has hurt Buddhist Communities the world over and particularly among the devotees of West End Buddhist Temple and the Toronto Mahavihara where the Bangladeshi Buddhist s and Indian Buddhists in the GTA respectively worship.

Last Weekend, Saturday, October 13th, Buddhist Monks in the Greater Toronto Area, gathered in large numbers in a peaceful procession at the Speakers Corner to express their solidarity and oneness with fellow Buddhists of Bangladesh.

The peaceful protests were initiated by Ven. Bhikkhu Bhante Saranapala, a Bangladeshi Buddhist Monk, attached to the West End Buddhist Temple & Cultural Centre, its Abbot Incumbent, Most Ven. Kulugammana Dhammawasa Nayaka Thera, Most Ven. Ven. Ahangama Rathanasiri Nayaka Thera, Abbot Incumbent of Toronto Mahavihara and Most Ven. Ashin Kawwida Maha Thera, Abbot Incumbent, of the Maha Dhammika Burmese Buddhist Temple in Toronto along with a few leading Buddhists in the GTA belonging to Bangladesh and Sri Lankan Buddhist Faith Communities.

They had formed themselves into an ad hoc Sangha Council which called upon the monasteries and Temples in the GTA to gather to perform ‘Satyakriya’  or Affirmation of the Truth” ritual, a typically Buddhist version of a peaceful demonstration sans loud and raucous slogan shouting.

As Buddhist monks from diverse Buddhist traditions from Bangladesh, Myanmar (Burma), Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Japan, Cambodia, Laos and India stood on parade in near silence  at the Speakers Corner along with their respective Buddhist communities, many sympathizers and Saturday afternoon shoppers in the busy Toronto Downtown were seen to take part in the public peaceful protest display.

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Religious sensitivities no excuse for violence in Muslim world

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Ramu, Bangladesh -- Religious sensitivities cannot be used to justify violent attacks. A perceived insult against one’s faith is simply not an excuse for breaking the law. And it is not an excuse to persecute people with different religious beliefs.

The looting and destruction of Buddhist temples and monasteries in Bangladesh by thousands of Bangladeshi Muslims is the latest example of this dangerous and warped way of thinking.

The mob’s rationale: they were angry about a photo of a burned Koran allegedly posted on Facebook by a Buddhist boy. While these protesters demand respect for their religion, where is their respect for the religion of others?

The Buddhist minority in Bangladesh, a country of 150 million, has traditionally coexisted peacefully within the majority Muslim society; however, there are now fears of further sectarian violence. For its part, the government blamed the attack on Islamists, as well as on Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.

But the incident is not an isolated one; it comes on the heels of last month’s protests in Muslim countries over the offensive depiction of the Prophet Mohammed in a low-budget film produced by an Egyptian Copt living in the U.S.

This pattern of intolerance is alarming, and should concern religious leaders, as much as governments, because the violence is being committed in the name of Islam, and subverts what the religion actually stands for. Of course, minority religions across vast swaths of the world are subject to attacks, but religious minorities in the Muslim world, including Baha’is, Ahmadis, Zoroastrians and others, are particularly vulnerable because of the failure in many countries to guarantee freedom of religion, as well as the rise of Islamist governments in the wake of the Arab spring.

In Egypt, Christian Copts are concerned about the erosion of their religious rights. In Pakistan, the country’s blasphemy laws were recently used to arrest a Christian girl with mental disabilities who was accused of desecrating the pages of the Koran. A furious mob demanded she be punished. Last year, the country’s national Minister for Minorities – a Christian and a critic of the blasphemy law – was shot dead, In Nigeria, churches in the North have been destroyed by Boko Haram, the militant group trying to establish an Islamic state.

These acts of persecution against should be condemned. Entire communities should not have live in terror that a perceived insult of one’s faith will prompt indefensible acts of aggression.

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