Vajiragnana Warnakulasuriya,Melbourne, Australia

To the Attention of Damien Carrick,
Law Report,

Excerpt from the discussion

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Damien Carrick*: Charles, I know that Gandhi was a Hindu and not a Buddhist, but Ahimsa is a philosophy with deep roots in both traditions, *and there’s an ancient Buddhist story of a bodhisattva, and that’s a person or a saint who has attained enlightenment but they stick around on earth to help less evolved mortals like us attain enlightenment. And I understand the story goes that there’s a bodhisattva, he’s traveling on a ship which is carrying 500 people, and he knows that someone is trying to kill everyone on board, so he thinks about the best course of action and he goes ahead and he kills the guy, and he saves 500 lives.* And the moral of the story is that sometimes violence is consistent with non-violence. What would Gandhi have made of that? Because that’s a difficult issue.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Damien, I donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t know from where you got this story, thereƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s nothing like this in Buddhist Philosophy, unless somebody has distorted a ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-JatakaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ story and written somewhere or a weird video is made which you may have read or seen.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ A ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-bodhisattvaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ is not a ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-SaintƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ who has attained enlightenment, he is someone like you and me, the difference being he aspires to be enlightened in a future life to free the deluded people from suffering!!ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Over a period of enumerable life cycles such a person even has to sacrifice his life for the sake of others. He does not take the life of an ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-AntƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ let alone a ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-humanƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ being no matter what! This is how one prepares to become an enlightened one, an arduous task, to becomes the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-BuddhaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚

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ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Yours sincerely

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Vajiragnana Warnakulasuriya,

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Melbourne, Australia