Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

12 November 2021

 

Interpreting Buddhism Foremost

“President Gotabaya’s latest Presidential  Task Force headed by a convicted, jailed and pardoned Gnanasara Thero who is the founder of Bodu Bala Sena {Peoples’ Power Force] is entrusted to “Make a study of the implementation of the concept of “One Country One Law” within Sri Lanka and prepare a draft Act for the said purpose, to study the drafted Acts and amendments that have already been prepared by the Ministry of Justice in relation to this subject and their appropriateness and if there are suitable amendments to submit proposals for this purpose and include them in such relevant draft as is deemed appropriate, aiming to secure the highest proposal for Sri Lanka”. Accordingly Gnanasara Thero, a Buddhist priest ordained to preach Lord Buddha’s teachings is entrusted with political tasks of national importance.” - Dr Thambu Kanagasabai – Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka published by which states about itself:

‘Countercurrents is answerable only to our readers. Support honest journalism because we have no PLANET B. Subscribe to our Telegram channel’

The parallel of the above is the Sri Lankan Government’s declaration of belief that they also do not have Planet B

Note -  "Planet B", according to BBC Science Fiction is a virtual world  in which people play as life-size avatars.

 

The conversation below is a an extension of my sharing in yesterday’s article headed ‘Oppose to be Common’:

Buddhist Engineer (BE) : However the middle path meant in Buddhism for development is universal and common to all the living beings.

Gaja – Sri Lankan Tamil: Disagree. 

BE : OK. As a Buddhist, I used the Buddha's instruction called Sabbe Dhamma Anatta (There is no owner to the Final  Vision (Nibbana) I expected .

Gaja – Fair enough

BE : Final Vision expected in Buddhism is not a belief system. It is a vision NOT based on knowledge like Mathematics innovated by data and observations gathered via our 6 faculties (Eye, Ear, Nose, Tongue, Body and Mind) inherited by the Birth.

Gaja –The six senses as I understand them are the first five in your list and your intuitive sense through the truth in you. The mind is made up of all six. The seventh sense is the connection with the Universal Energy

BE : I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF SEVENTH SENSE IN BUDDHISM. 

Gaja – Then it does not exist for you the same way some Buddhist theories do not exist even for Buddhists

BE : There are also no mind fabrication such as constitutions or precepts as such branded as Buddhism. (Sabbe Dhmma Anatta- all the Dhamma has no owner).  Peace with the rest of the living beings is a naturally inbuilt with the Final Destination of the 8 Fold Noble Path.

Gaja – So according to you there is no Buddha Sasana?

BE : BUDDHIST VISION  IS SURFACED BY BUDDHAS . THAT  VISION HAS NO OWNER AS SUCH.. IT APPEARS AND DISAPPEARS FOM TIME TO TIME BUDDHA SASANA IS THE TIME DURING THIS PERIOD VISION MEANT IN BUDDHISM IS AVAILABLE FOR THE MAN KIND.. WE ARE NOW LIVING IN A PERIOD WHERE THE MESSAGE IS AVAILABLE TO US THANKS TO A BUDDHA CALLED GAOUTHAMA BORNED 2600 YEARS AGO.  NOTE THAT  IT  EVENTUALLY VANISHES UNTIL ANOTHER BUDDHA APPEARS ON EARTH. 

 AFTER SOMETIME IT VANISHES . WHEN IT VANISHES,, WE HAVE TO WAIT TILL  NEXT BUDDHA CALLED MAITHREE APPEARS ON EARTH. THAT VISION HAS NO OWNER AS I MENTIONED BEFORE

Gaja – So according to you the Buddha Sasana stated in the Sri Lankan constitution does not exist for the person who depends on ‘seeing’ to comprehend. It is Gaoutama Buddha’s vision which can be interpreted by followers as per their own ‘vision’. If it is a form common to Sri Lanka, it needs a particular body. Which one is that?

BE : To grasp this unique Buddhist message in its right spirit, you have to develop special Mind Faculties called Pancha Indrirya. For that you have to follow Buddhist Meditation method called Vipassana. If you are interested I can send a web site explaining it. Note that even the King like Suddodana managed the country with a mind equipped with that unique Vision

Gaja – In Hinduism also regulating the five Senses through regulated practice and direct meditation is recommended. I follow both in my own way by meditating on my gurus. Most importantly I accept the benefits I get which results in feeling of ownership with the work I do and for the purpose. The sweet fulfilment comes from that. I see the bowl philosophy in Buddhism and Brahminism to be to feel this ownership.

 BE :HINDUISM PROMOTE REGULATING 5 SENSES BY SUPPRESSING THE FOLLOWING 5 QUALITIES INHERITED WITH THOUGHTS GENERATED BY 5 SENSES. 

 1. Sensual desire (kamacchanda)

2. Ill-will (vyapada)

3. Laziness and inactivity (thina-middha)

4. Restlessness and regret (uddhacca-kukkucca)

5. Sceptical doubt (vicikicca)

Note that above 5 qualities are rights of living beings, Without the help of above 5 qualities you can not lead a social life

 

Gaja –Is that not the message of the ‘middle path’ that would lead to the Vision that Lord Buddha realised?

 

 BE : IF YOU FOLLOW THAT APPROACH BY SYPRESSING ABOVE RIGHTS,   YOU COULD END UP IN AN EXISTENCE CALLED BRAHMA AT ITS PEAK LEVEL. BTAHAMA IS ALSO A SUPREME BLISS BUT NOR PERMANENT. ON THE OTHER HAND IF YOU FOLLOW THAT APPROACH, YOU NATURALLY FORCED TO LEAVE HOMELY LIFE BECAUSE IT IS NO PRACTICAL TO LEAD A SOCIAL LIFE WITHOUT USING ABOVE NEEWARANA. 

ON THE OTHERHAND BUDDHA INTRODUCED A MEDITATION TECHNIQUE CALLED VIPASSANA, BY WHICH YOU BECOME CAPABLE OF MANAGING NEEWARANA BLENDED THOUGHTS NOT TO DO ANY UNSKILLFUL ACTS WHILE LEADING A SOCIAL LIFE. 

 

Gaja – I am a Hindu and I believe in Hinduism. This has led me to enjoying my sovereignty while living in Samsara / family and work life. Hinduism got me there and I am so very grateful to all those who developed that pathway for me also.

 

My book ‘Naan Australian’ confirms that I used the Hindu pathway to understand why I had the workplace pain I had. I thus cured my pain through my own experience through & of the Hindu pathway. I did not suppress but moderated it as per the position I held in family, workplace, community and society. Then it was easier for me to understand the secular laws – especially the laws of Equal Opportunity. 

 

Essential in this process was not to criticise another person / system beyond that which was needed to ‘show’ others concerned  why I felt hurt . The system common to others and me at the workplace was not Hinduism but the secular system. If I profited from it – it becomes excessive enjoyment and ‘burns out’ the faculty (including the brain) through which I have that enjoyment of knowing I was ‘right’ as per the common measure. This means that I must know this standing in the shoes of the other side also. Hence the ‘Commonness’ .

 

Many of the secular laws are of British origin stem from Christian philosophy. It was naturally acceptable to me because I studied at Holy Family Convent. Likewise our children and grandchildren have their educational roots in Christianity.

 

As for suppressing the senses – the Hindu priest is not prohibited from marrying. Majority Hindu priests are married. The challenge to moderate is greater in married life than as a single person who is not aware of the pleasures in married and family life. In Hinduism sexual pleasures are regulated through Kamasutram. Kamam means lust and Sutram means scripture / constitution / pathway. When practiced as an art the sweetness from lust fills us. But to lift it to art level one needs to regulate the pleasure and hence the Middle Pathway between desire and fear/pleasure and pain.

 

In Buddhism as per my knowledge – the priests do not marry. Hence, Buddhist children who are ordained  at young age are deprived of sexual pleasures as if they were animals. Likewise child soldiers in LTTE army.

 

Anything Universal has to be free of compulsions – external as well as internal. It flows of its own ‘absolute’ power known as Sovereignty. That is the sweetness of everlasting bliss.

 

Gaja –  Different pathways to the same destination. Science also takes you there

BE : NO. SCIENCE  IS A FABRICATED KNOWLEDGE ACCUMULATED BY OUR 5 SENSES .

 TO GRASP BUSSHIST MESSAGE YOU HAVE TO DEVELOP SPECIAL 5 MIND SKILL CALLED PANCHA INDRIYA BY DOING SATHARA SATHIPATTANA MEDITATION. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED I COULD GUIDE YOU. EVEN 7 YEARS OLD KIDS AT THE TIME OF BUDDHA HAD SURFACED THEM

 

Gaja – You are confirming again your desire to ‘convert’ me. This is why you fear takeovers. Desire and Fear are the two sides of the same coin. When you enjoy desire you accumulate fear also. Hence one must earn and deserve which is through the Noble Middle Path. In your paper ‘Vision hidden behind the Design Features of Sri Lankan Ancient Irrigation Engineering Technology’ you state:

BE : [Conventional Middle path is a person specific point of view and therefore the middle varies from person to person, from nation to nation and even politically within a nation]

Gaja –That is the parallel of saying each one/group  has their own conscience as their personal measure. This includes secular scientists. Fact is the local and particular form of Truth .

You then state:

BE : [However the middle path meant in Buddhism for development is universal and common to all the living beings.]

 

Gaja – Buddhism is as particular as Hinduism, Islam, Christianity or Secularism.  If Universal – it can have no particular form. You go on to state:

 

BE : [Though the Buddhist middle path is conventionally explained in relation to spiritual development, material development focusing physical health is also stressed as a necessary pre-requisite for spiritual achievements.]

Gaja – When the physical is included – it becomes relative and is no longer Absolute.

By acknowledging the need for materialism you are confirming the ‘particular’. Particular without commonness leads to possession and possession carries the high risk of ‘attachment to the physical’.  Hence materialism requires reliable, balanced sharing of costs and benefits; responsibilities and Rights. If therefore non-Buddhists who feel Sri Lankan are punished through Buddha Sasana by those currently in power, the pain and suffering of those who do not retaliate – at the same level, but show their on diversity and make declarations of Truth within their circle of belief – they connect to other owners of the issue – in this instance elimination of ethnic particularity in common areas and those who follow in that pathway. This is the 7^th sense I referred to and you said you had no knowledge of it. I conclude that as a Sri Lankan Buddhist you did not need this. But as a minority living in majority controlled area – in Australia as well as Sri Lanka, I felt the need to Oppose as per my belief and this naturally connected me to global minorities.

In your above mentioned paper, your own knowledge in Engineering has been made a slave to your knowledge of Buddhism. If junior – the Engineering knowledge would have been invisible. By showing without a relationship – you confirm takeover and hence enslavement.

You state in your paper:

BE : [ In order to understand this universally common middle path applicable to both spiritual and material development, design features of projects already implemented by the planners equipped with Buddhist Vision in its right spirit, could be used as an exploration ground. Irrigation Projects which have been sustained more than 2000 years and still functioning in some parts of Sri Lanka, designed using the AIT, is the best entry point for that exploration. This is also a timely need because the projects developed during the last century using Modern Irrigation Technologies (MIT) in Sri Lanka have already failed due to reasons such as water and soil pollution, human elephant conflicts and never ending dependency of farmers for fertilizer subsidies etc. In the proposed exploration, modern tools such as circular economic models as well as Buddhist guidelines related to ecosystems management for food production would be used to analyse the visions behind AIT which contributed to that long term sustainability.]

 

Gaja – Given that you are in a group that includes Hindus, Muslims and Christians – to whom also the land now known as Sri Lanka has been ‘home’ since those ancient times – you have the DUTY as per article 9 of the constitution to facilitate their Ancient Irrigation Practices. If they mind merge – they are likely to invoke that 7^th sense power of others and the results are likely to show stronger global spread by them than by you – as Tamils have already confirmed.

 

At a time like this when the Sri Lankan Buddhist government is preparing to have one law – should you not be publishing your paper in government circles, instead of with me only?

 

I have been opposing through my belief in Sri Lankan Sovereignty through multiculturalism  and therefore I share regularly with Sri Lankans and publish in forums I consider to be global.

 

BE : I was trying to disseminate a spiritual experience I am enjoying as a Buddhist.  I think I failed in your case.  Even the paper I published is a similar effort…. However in this discussion as a last effort I thought of disseminating my experience using the following quote of Einstein. It worked for most of my friends, especially in western countries who are clueless and therefore open minded towards Indian religions. 

Gaja –Thank you . By trying to share – you did achieve commonness. But others have already stated ‘I will not be told’ Best wishes , Gaja

 

BE : Quote: “A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.” Albert Einstein