Buddhism and the fight against Terrorism A fractioned mind sees only a fraction of the Problem.

By Charles Perera

There was a letter to the Editor in the Tamil Week website where a writer had criticised the Buddhists as being opposed to a peaceful solution to the ethnic problem. He had added that the political leaders who sit in meditative postures before the Statues of the Buddha are the very same people who encourage killing, stealing and lying. This type of thinking comes from not being able to separate the laic from the temporal.

There is no hypocrisy in being a Buddhist and fighting terrorism. Buddhism and the war against terrorism, are two different things. Buddha teaches universal love to all beings and does not distinguish human beings according to their race, or religion. His teaching are for his disciples and the lay followers to live according to his teachings to end suffering in Samsara.
His disciples have to adhere to a strict code of discipline. But the Buddha did not interfere into the organisation of the lay society. The Buddha instructed the lay followers to live a full lay life, be just and fair, and be an asset to the family and the society in which he lives. He taught them what is good and what is bad and why one should discipline one’s thoughts , words and actions. He taught the out come of a life which is given to attachment, aversion and delusion, and that which is given to non-attachment-non-aversion and non-delusion. It is for the lay person to choose his way of life according to the teachings.

The Society is made of persons who employ them-selves in different ways for the benefit of the society, the nation or the country. There are the farmers who till the ground and produce food, the fishermen who throw their nets and catch fish and sell them to the consumer, the butcher who kill the animals skin them and sell the meat in the market. Similarly there are the potters, blacksmith, cobblers, mechanics, administrators and the rulers.
Each group carries out different tasks allotted to them according to an accepted system for the society to function.

The Ruler-the King has to protect the country and the people , drive away the invaders and fight the enemies. The security forces have to arrest the criminals, the thieves and the miscreants and take them before the judges, who give them appropriate punishments. The law and order has to be maintained, and when the criminals are sentenced to be hanged the order has to be executed. If the system breaks down their would be chaos. Therefore, each group has to be vigilant that the work allotted to it is carried out in the best interest of the society and the country. In doing that work it separates it-self from its spirituality.

The King cannot say that he is a follower of the teachings of the Buddha and allow his citizens to be massacred by invaders and enemies and establish their own rule. The farmer cannot say that he is a follower of the teachings of the Buddha and therefore he cannot till the ground because in doing so he kills living beings, the worms and the insects. The security forces cannot stand aloof and watch, while the criminals, and thieves break the law, because they do not want to wound the criminals and law breakers as they follow the teachings of the Buddha.

Similarly, when there are terrorists that have no love for the country or nation, but are fighting for an ideal of their own, the Government has to first tell them to stop their terrorism, and if they do not listen and persist in their activities, then the government has to wake up and use all its force to stop the terrorists devastating the country, inconvenience the public, and take civilians to hostage.

In between the Ruler, the farmer, the potter, the scavenger, fisherman and the butcher will clean them selves put on appropriate dresses and go to the temple, the mosque , the kovil or the Church. The Buddhists may worship in the shrine room and observe their precepts, the Muslims will go to the Mosque to say prayers to the God, the Hindu will go to the Kovil for the pooja , and the Christian to his Church for the mass. Thus each member of the society, will perform their religious activities. There is neither a conflict in that, nor a hypocrisy.

The hypocrisy lies in our fractioned mind. Our minds are fractioned as Tamils or Sinhala, Doctors or workers, Buddhists or Christians. Therefore we look at each problem with the particular fraction of the mind, and fail to see terrorism in Sri Lanka in its correct perspective. If it is a Tamil person he looks at it from his Tamil fraction of the mind, and interprets it as a discrimination against the Tamil people. A Sinhala will look at it from his Sinhala fraction of the mind, and say that terrorism is against the Sinhala people. But if we learn to look at the problem of terrorism with the whole mind, without fractioning it, then we will see that terrorism is completely out side the narrow communalism, but some thing that is affecting each one of us as a whole living together in this Island, not as a Tamil, not as a Sinhala , or a Muslim, but, as an individual citizen.

Therefore, we should not look at a problem, as a problem affecting a section of the citizens- not as an ethnic problem. We should look at terrorism that has for more than 20 years divided, and destroyed our Nation not as Sinhala
Buddhists, Tamil Hindus and Islamic Muslims, but as citizens-a part of the Nation suffering together, it is then that we will see the problem as one affecting the whole of the Nation, and it is then that we will be able to find a workable solution.