May all beings be happy and free

I read an interesting letter in Thursday’s Daily Mirror applauding finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera for the views he so bravely expressed and faulting Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith for the political speeches he has made in recent times.

I too admire the Minister’s guts in expressing without fear what he believes in and so courageously defending his stance amid so much of opposition. No one could deny or dispute the fact that Sri Lanka’s population is mainly made up of Sinhala Buddhists nor can anyone deny or dispute the fact that the country’s population also comprises those belonging to other religious disciplines – Hindus, Christians and Muslims, who also have the constitutional right to uphold their cultural and religious traditions.

How wonderful would it have been if the Minister’s detractors including the Cardinal could have said that Sri Lanka is a country where the majority Sinhala Buddhists live and practise the teachings and the tents the Buddha taught and lived.that is what would finally matter when it is time for our individual ‘book of life is balanced’. Then of course we have the Cardinal visiting the fasting monk in Kandy and there making another political speech where he is asking the government to resign while pompously announcing that this country does not belong to the politicians. In a similar vein he should be reminded that this country does not belong to the clergy either and not to be held to ransom by either the clergy or the laity whosoever they might be. On the eve of Poson, which is day so significant to Buddhists in Sri Lanka, I thought it best to conclude this letter with an excerpt from the book written by Ven. Walpola Rahula Thera titled ‘What the Buddha taught’. “The heart of the Buddha’s teachings lies in the Four Noble Truths, which the Buddha expounded in his very first sermon at Isipathana. They are Dukkha; Samudaya, the arising or origin of dukkha; Nirodha, the cessation of dukkha and the Maga, the way leading to the cessation of dukkha. Also known as the ‘Middle Path’ because it avoids two extremes – One being the search for happiness through the pleasures of the senses while the other is the search for happiness through self-mortification or asceticism. Having tried these two extremes the Buddha found them useless and through personal experience discovered the Middle Path ‘which he says gives vision and knowledge leading to Calm, Insight, Nirvana’.

Let all beings be happy and free RUSSELL CC NUGEGODA