Sinister attempt to usurp place of Buddhism & its heritage, culture, festivals in Sri Lanka through bogus ‘shared values’ program
Posted on April 11th, 2017
Shenali D Waduge
Ever since western colonial invaders arrived on our island the policy of the western administrators was to eliminate Buddhism and indoctrinate the Sinhala Buddhists. Buddhism stood in the way of totally controlling the people & the island. They divided the Sinhalese by religion creating Catholics/Christians upon whom was tasked the objective of diluting the place of Buddhism and promote Christianity. Ever since independence sinister attempts have been made using ministries, government policies and society groups to dilute the place of Buddhism. The present ‘shared values’ program is one such insidious wolf in sheeps clothing attempt riding on a bogus multicultural multi-religious dogma.
The latest casualty is likely to be Vesak if the Buddhists of Sri Lanka and Buddhists in general do not wake up to understand the writings on the wall.
Vesak honors 3 great events in the life of Buddha – the birth the enlightenment and the Mahaparinibbhana also known as the ‘themagula’. It delivers an universal message of peace, to do good and turn away from evil. In 1999 by Resolution 54/115 the UN General Assembly decided to annually commemorate Vesak in UN Head office and UN offices globally. An International Buddhist Symposium is to be held in Colombo this year but unlikely to even raise the challenges to Buddhism as no one wants to upset non-Buddhists but it is fine for non-Buddhists to smear Buddhists!
The cultural aspect of Vesak is the lanterns, lamps, Pandals depicting stories in the life of Buddha and the Jataka stories that provide guidance to adults and child to live a compassionate life. Buddhists are very charitable people, always giving dana to the underprivileged but at Vesak that is extended further by arranging dansal – free lunch, dinner, snacks, drinks, ice creams etc. Vesak is a time when the entire country is illuminated in lights. For several years attempts had been made to even adopt symbols of other faiths to the Vesak pandols. Would Islam /Christianity or Catholicism put a single Buddhist symbol alongside their faith unless it is with the plan to project the notion to ignorant masses that there is no difference between Buddhism and Christian/Islam!
Buddhism is a dharmic religion. It can never be cobbled with Abrahamic religions many of which have been usurped and are preaching a totally different ideology to the original teachings. Christianity today as over 3000 denominations. Islam has been taken over by British created Wahhabi-Islam. There are quarters trying Hinduinize Buddhism. All these are challenges that Buddhists face and without addressing these challenges it is a futile endeavor to commit to shared values when there are no values to share in how institutionalized religions are currently being practiced.
Both the Church & Islam stand guilty of pursuing historical objective of world conquest and domination of non-Abrahamic territory. In ancient times it was using the gun, in present times it is by conversions, power of money, political arm-twisting and increase of birth. Today’s weapons are ‘human rights’, liberal theories of democracy, freedom of speech, religion slogans all of which the West has a tight control over. Slavery during Christian colonial rule has been replaced by the trade monopolies of IMF, World Bank dictating slave labor in the form of immigration. The newest notions are humanitarian interventions, military interventions, self-determination all insidious attempts to take over non-Abrahamic territories. Though we presume that Islam has challenged the Christian West we are confused how the many terrorists groups that prevail have links to Western intelligence operatives who are supplying them arms, training even funding.
Apart from a handful of Hindus, the 1billion Hindus globally prefer to not challenge the status quo but want to take diplomatic use of Buddhism to expand Hindu However, when Buddhists raise alarm bells and expose the insidious attempts, the response has been to use the might of media to denounce Buddhists as rabble rousers, racists, fundamentalists, completely denigrate Buddhist leaders who are highlighting some of the wrongs taking place and even go so far as to create incidents and accuse Buddhists of being culprit. But, when Buddhist places of worship are attacked, when Buddhist temples are burnt, when statues of Buddha are broken from the head, when museums are attacked and all Buddhist items are destroyed other than a passing statement nothing is done. The Dalai Lama may call himself a Buddhist leader but at no time has he spoken against these acts or highlighted the wrongs and injustices Buddhists today suffer from. Even the heads of the Nikayas in Sri Lanka stand guilty of their silence over the years when Buddhists and Buddhist sites in particular ancient sites have been intruded upon and taken over and places like Sripada which were once only Buddhist places of worship have suddenly become multicultural-multireligious sites! There are enough of examples to show how Buddhism is being targeted – newspapers in the hands of non-Buddhists are regularly out to denigrate Buddhism, contributors to the newspapers are regular Buddhist-bashers, articles on Buddhism are not commiserate to the composition of Buddhists in Sri Lanka. The religious and cultural Buddhist festivals are being diluted. We somehow overcame the attempt to remove the perahera elephants using the bogey of elephant torture but silent over animal ritual sacrifice showing the double standards and duplicity.
Name a single Islamic country that follows multiculturalism or multi-religion? Do they ever agree to dilute the place of their faith and culture? Yet, they demand other countries to adopt to their faiths and more often than not their faith has to be given priority status. Only Austria and Russia has given status to Buddhism as a religion. Temples are not allowed to be built in Muslim majority countries but Muslims want to build mosques even next to Buddhist sacred sites and play the azan to purposely disturb Buddhists in prayer/meditation. The number of mosques in sacred city of Anuradhapura is daily rising. The number of Christian/Evangelical missionary centres are daily rising with no efforts from the government to monitor them.
A Buddhist conference is of no use unless the participants and organizers are not prepared to lay on the table the challenges that Buddhists and the Buddhist world face and draw up a plan on how to address them. Church & Muslim nations annually meet and devise action plans on how to take their institutionalized faith forward globally. Buddhists need to have an effective mechanism to protect and preserve a history of over 2500 years. The tragedy is that those countries that do not have history or cultures or their history and cultures are blood soaked at the one’s out to destroy Buddhism.
Of late there have been attempts to use media to denigrate Buddhists and thus use that as a logic to denounce and deny the state patronage while completely ignoring the fact that the Church & Islam has billions to promote their faiths and lobby their cause while the handful of majority Buddhist countries have just their government backing based on the notion that these countries historically protected and preserved Buddhism and associated entities to continue to do so.
What needs to be said about the present attempt to bring in ‘shared values’ concept is that anything that comes without reciprocity should not be accepted. You cannot demand what you are not prepared to concede.
Buddhists do not enjoy any of the privileges in other countries that non-Buddhists are presently demanding of Buddhists in Sri Lanka. Moreover, simply promoting a new liberal concept, it is immoral and unethical to terminate and replace a country’s history and heritage. What the obvious plan is to make all Buddhist-only places as multicultural and slowly bring in other faiths into these domains and then with time given that there is no spokesman or institute for Buddhism, slowly and clandestinely remove the Buddhist history, architecture and culture and replace them with either of the Abrahamic faiths or even with Hinduism. South Indian invaders & colonial invaders and presently Islamic incursions have all attempted to replace Buddhism with theirs and their global institutions and political powers are being used to facilitate this objective.
If Buddhists are not aware of these challenges and are unable to pick up these sinister designs and comprehend the ulterior motive and plan, before too long Buddhism will end up in the mantelpiece. With time those that usurped Buddhism will give a western/Islamic/Hindu twist and re-introduce it with a changed history as can be seen in the manner that even the school text books are currently being written and the syllabus is being designed with this intent in mind.
Shenali D Waduge
April 10th, 2017 at 1:39 pm
I think they are planning to destroy what are called Sinhala-buddist culture.
Christians celebrate something called “Sudda wu satiya” and it starts similtanouesly with the ALuth-avurudu festival. what is there intention
April 10th, 2017 at 2:11 pm
Which political party is AGAINST this? NO ONE! But foolish people still go after these bankrupt political system.
April 10th, 2017 at 3:36 pm
Times of Ceylon and Daily Mirror are Catholic papers, Times of Celon carries an advertisement for a multicultural Wesak Celebration. They try to promote other religions to down grade Buddhism. The fault is with the Buddhists. W the Buddhists have failed to speak in one voice. We are divided politically. The Mahanayakes of the Siam Nikaya are UNP sympathisers and they think it is by promoting UNP that they can protect Buddhism. There had never been a genuine attempt to bring the three Nikayas together. Hence, as the saying goes divided we will fall.
There is no reason why the Buddhists have to join hands with other religions. We have differences we cannot surmount, and we cannot accept and acclaim those religions which are against the Buddhist Concepts.
Buddha was born in a country which had 62 different philosophies. The Buddha after enlightenment rejected those religions with a belief in a creator God and admonished the impossibility to wash off one’s sins by bathing in rivers..
Christianity is a new religion as the Biblical religion was meant for the Israelites and no one else. Therefore the European people other than Israelites had to fall on the New Testament which gave the God a son to save their skins. This God the Christians as well as Israelites and the Islamists believe in had not been seen by any one.
The God had said that no one can see him and live. He only appears to the prophets in visions where they only hear his voice. Hence their belief system is not in the belief in God but in the belief in Prophets who says they have heard the God..! Let them have their belief system and let us keep our Buddhism separated from their beliefs.
Buddhism is unique and one day the world may realise the truth of the teachings of the Buddha. Buddhism does not belong to Sri Lanka only but to the whole world. Therefore as the pure teachings of the Buddha is in Sri Lanka Buddhism has to protected by Sri Lanka.
Hence the Constitution of Sri Lanka would be imperfect if it does not protect Buddhism. That is more the reason why this Yahapalanaya Government which has no respect to Buddhism should not be allowed to write a new Constitution to Sri Lanka.
April 10th, 2017 at 5:28 pm
Thank you Shenali for a very timely expose’ of the deception that is Sanhidiyawa. It is a one-way lane only for Sinhala Buddhist to travel. All the other lanes are open to Islamists, Jihadists, Christians of all denominations and Hindus to tread on Sinhala Buddhist sensitivities. Plethora of lies that are out there to fool the easily fooled Sinhala Buddhists are working overtime.
At first they promised to hold a Buddhist Sangayanawa which is now conveniently forgotten, only intention being to fool the easily fooled. This among countless other lies promised and forgotten.
They tried to destabilise the Buddhist Sangha, by bringing in the Kathikawatha nonsense. Then it was about anima cruelty and elephants. It is time we made a compendium of these lies and anti-Buddhist activities of this administration since coming to power, as well as those of the Islamists, the Evagelists, the foreign funded NGOs- the list goes on.
Sinister intentions of this Christian Administration is there to be seen by all, and yet there is no action by those who are supposed to be the custodians of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Their memories hardly last two days, by which time another set of lies are manufactured to keep the gullible busy and deception marches on! Now it is up to the ordinary Buddhists to take the task of defending Buddhism and the Buddhist Establishment in Sri Lanka.
Soon it may be necessary to take meaningful and practical actions first by dissociating with the Multi-religious bullshit that is being tooted as panacea for all religion related ills in Sri Lanka. We must When finally push came to shove, King Dutugemunu took arms to defend Buddhism. This is what we may have to emulate in the end.
The Sanhindiyawa tooted is just the camel’s head in the tent.
April 11th, 2017 at 1:55 am
Egypt drafts bill to ban burqa, Islamic veils in public places
Cairo (Egypt), Apr. 10.2017 (ANI): The Egyptian Parliament is drafting a law banning women from wearing the niqab veil.
The ban will apply to wearing the clothing in public places and government institutions, the Independent reported.
MP Amna Nosseir, professor of comparative jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University, who has backed the ban, said that wearing the veil is not a requirement of Islam and in fact has non-Islamic origins.
She has argued that it is a Jewish tradition which appeared in the Arabian Peninsula prior to Islam and that a variety of Quran passages contradict its use. Instead, she has advocated that the Quran calls for modest clothing and covered hair, but does not require facial covering.
A number of restrictions have been placed on wearing the niqab in Egypt in recent years.
In February, the Cairo University banned nurses and doctors from wearing it in medical schools and in teaching hospitals, arguing the ban would: “protect patients’ rights and interests.”
In September last year, the university also banned academic staff from wearing the niqab in classrooms in response to complaints from students that it was too difficult for niqab wearers to communicate effectively with students. (ANI)
April 11th, 2017 at 11:53 am
The touble is that it may not be just a little bit of intermingling by others with Buddhist practices, but a total take over of Buddhist festivals, ceremonies, etc. when a larger, perceived as a stronger religion/s steps into a gentler, more inward and peaceful religion, we can guess which one will prevail eventually.
That is how Lanka got colonised for nearly 500 yrs in the first place – rule by the gun, with Bible in hand via Trader/Pirates.
There are other ways Buddhism can be downed by another group, such as done in Indonesia which was earlier a Buddhist country. In Indonesia, when the Krakatoa volcanoe last erupted causing havoc, the Muslim folk there told the majority Buddhists there that this was because the Buddhists did not believe in the Muslim ‘God’. So the ignorant Buddhists there converted to Islam. Today, Indonesia is a Muslim country, and the Krakatoa did erupt again.
Buddhist countries need Educated Vigilante Groups to moniter the safety of Buddhist folk as well as their religious practices ? Could the Local PATRIOTIC LEADERS, Chief Priests, and Concerned Others, undertake these tasks together with the Armed Forces of Lanka ?
The Constitution of Sri Lanka must continue protect Buddhism in all its forms in Sri Lanka.
Similarly, the Constitution must protect the rights and practices of Other Religions too, but not if it is inimical or is a threat to Life, Security, in Sri Lanka.
April 11th, 2017 at 2:32 pm
LORENZO !! Fran too suggests that the Chief Priests and the Armed Forces should get together for action. Good.
April 11th, 2017 at 4:27 pm
SW,
I know.
But when PROBED she denies it. That is normal. More and more HIGHLY INSIGHTFUL people move AWAY from this ROTTEN SYSTEM. Their first stop is ON THE FENCE. Very good.
You have been a CEO of many companies. That helps you FORESEE threats BEFORE they hit. But MOST people don’t have that. We have to be patient. It is coming!
April 11th, 2017 at 4:58 pm
Susantha,
I made the suggestion AFTER the Chief Priests submitted their To Do List to the GoSL. Till then, I thought they were keeping out of what was happening in the country.
We are encouraged that the Chief Priests are participating and caring about what goes on in Sri Lanka.
They ought to keep on at it now that they have got started.
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Lorenzo,
Sitting on a fence is an uncomfortable position. Action is needed by ALL PATRIOTS, not just the Chief Priests.
Are the Tamil folk of Lanka and the Tamil Leaders PATRIOTS ?
April 11th, 2017 at 6:02 pm
Fran,
Susantha says you are now advocating direct military+Sangha action to oust the Yamapalana!
Is that TRUE? Are you advocaring that the ACTIVE military should engage in politics?
I did not see any such comment from you? When and where did you say that?
April 11th, 2017 at 6:28 pm
Ananda,
Thanks for your entry here. You are quite right – I made NO such suggestion that an ACTIVE military should engage in politics.
I am sorry I did not make my intent clear here to Susantha …. but, if you, Anada, did not see it that way, then I have been misinterpreted by Susantha. There is a wrong interpretation by Susantha, again !
What I stated and meant to say was that the Sanga has already made suggestions to Yahap for the welfare of the Country and the Sasana, and that the Armed Forces should also participate in the protection of Buddhism in Lanka.
To make it even more clear : The Armed Forces ought to guard the Buddhist sites of importance.
Also, during the MR Govt times, the Armed Forces participated in helping the ordinary people during times of internal strife such as floods, droughts – and that was such a good thing. The Armed Forces of Lanka can participate in such activities to make life better for all in Lanka – what do you think of that, Ananda ?
To outst Yahap : There has to be an Election to do so. That is the Democratic Way.
April 11th, 2017 at 8:37 pm
Fran,
“Sitting on a fence is an uncomfortable position. Action is needed by ALL PATRIOTS, not just the Chief Priests.”
AGREE.
“Are the Tamil folk of Lanka and the Tamil Leaders PATRIOTS ?”
NO. NEVER.
(There are about 10,000 Tamil patriots and they don’t mind ANYTHING as long as SL is SAFE. About 200,000 Tamils voted for MR but not all of them are patriots. Most of them voted for a GOLD COIN, Samurthi money, govt. contracts and other things. Patriots cannot be bought for money.)
April 11th, 2017 at 8:48 pm
USA,
There is NO NEED for a violent MILITARY COUP to takeover the country although I WORD it s TAKEOVER for maximum IMPACT.
A PEACEFUL and SMOOTH transition of GOVERNANCE to a MILITARY-SANGHA COUNCIL for a period of 2 years is what we demand.
YA(MA)PA(LA)NAYA govt. cannot be ousted peacefully. Have NO illusions! ALL SL secret services, RAW and CIA have been deployed to SPY on ANY challenger and they are sent to prison.
USA has been talking about the BASTILE DAY many times here. Don’t deny. We are talking of the same thing.
Our method is LESS DESTRUCTIVE than a BASTILE DAY!
So stop resisting USA. Give up on a ROWDY BASTILE DAY. Join the MOST DISCIPLINED, MOST PATRIOTIC, MOST PEACEFUL military and Sangha unity to take SL back to the days of RATHNA DEEPA JANMA BOOMI LANKA DEEPA VIJEYA BOOMI.
Don’t forget the MILITARY-SANGHA movement that brought Sira to power. SF was the most successful army commander ever and SOBITHA THERO was the most effective political monk in SL. They joined forces.
April 11th, 2017 at 8:58 pm
Fran,
Now don’t fall BACK to the same ROTTEN, VOTE RIGGING, RAW-CIA manipulating, DRUGS-KASIPPU induced elections.
You KNOW they are FAKE.
I know how “they” manipulated the PUBLIC to vote for Sira. And they also manipulated PARTY REPRESENTATIVES and monitors. By 12 noon some of them were DRUNK! By 3 PM most of them were OUT OF ACTION. Rotating representatives at BOOTHS from UPFA were diverted for a buffet lunch and GAL BOTTLE. The tired man cannot check everything waiting for replacement!! It is a ROTTEN SYSTEM. It cannot produce a DECENT govt.
We need an ALTERNATIVE SYSTEM not just an alternative party. We need a system where a LADY can contest elections without being harassed or threatened where people vote on MERITS of manifestos.
April 14th, 2017 at 6:59 am
Lorenzo,
Whatever system is in place, if there is Greed, Fear & Ignorance (of the true Self) short term GFI, then no amount of good systems will work.
Suggestions :
* PATRIOTISM & Meditation should be taught to all children in Lanka. This will help eradicate GFI.
* One Law of the Land should apply to all in Lanka.
* Get rid of all Laws forced on Lanka e.g. 13-A.
Many more ….
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Comments welcome.