Cricket and religion
Posted on July 20th, 2017
W.Senanayake
From Island
It is creditable that Angelo resigned with dignity. However, what inspired me when listening to him was how he praised the Almighty with gratitude at the end of his speech.
We see many Sri Lankan cricket players make frequent crosses when success happens on the field. This is true with Muslim players from their countries, beginning their speeches with gratitude to the Almighty as well as worship on the ground at times. In this scenario, it is worth considering how Buddhists should tread the path in the present context.
Of course Buddhism being so liberal many a Buddhist would not advocate anything different. Chandimal started and finished his acceptance speech with a thank you. However, I have been privy to some international Buddhist forums where the speakers start and finish their speech with ‘Theruwan Saranai’ with regularity.
I wonder why this should not be a regular habit for our Buddhist children, especially on social occasions representing the country. It is simply a wish of blessing as in other religions.
I hope this will catch the eye of the Sports Minister and the SLC President, Mr. Sumathipala, to introduce to Buddhist players a similar phrase to be followed on such occasions, which will add to the flavour of the country and not just a thank you.
July 21st, 2017 at 4:44 am
Matthews had a habit of picking players who make crosses. He made sure all his teams had at least 3-4 of his acolytes. It maybe one reason for dismal results under him. But who is going to utter a word against the powerful C brigade? They all get the blessings of sheep in wolf’s clothing, traitor chief die hard catholic token Buddhist Bay Gal Karaya Mega Thief Batalande Wadakaya Pol Pot r@nil wickramaSinhalakiller who runs Sri Lanka today.
These guys should study Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution which explains how these clever two-legged creatures came to being. It started from most primitive form of life and evolved and evolved over millions of years to be what we are today. Just like Lord Buddha explained over 2,500 years ago. What about the rest of the animal kingdom then? Charles Darwin explained the animal kingdom, sea creatures etc. etc. all byproducts of that evolution. Please google Darwin’s Tree of Life to find out. These all are accepted the world over today to be true. Darwin destroyed the creator god myth. If so called god couldn’t create these clever two-legged creatures in the first place, no point sending messages from ‘above’ since they are surely capable of doing it themselves! So these guys who are hell bent on destroying the only true religion in the world, are committing sins and won’t be two legged creatures in their next lives!
The god theory has a lot of ‘holes’ in it. If the so called god going to punish baddies, he himself going to be the baddest of all since he will be amassing so much sins himself and going to lose his job. Then, how he is going to keep track of all these baddies? Have a billion ‘deputies’ or buy powerful computers? Universe is a vast vast vast place where distances are measured in light years (light travels at
186,000 miles per SECOND, not hour). Who can create such a vast vast place? Then during the WW1, WW2 millions
and millions of people perished. Did he come? Yes/no? You do your maths! Buddhism is the only true religion in the
world and people following other religions going on a wrong path. They should study at least basics of Buddhism
and then they will realise it is the only true religion in the world. But they use Buddhism’s non-violence approach
itself to destroy it.
July 21st, 2017 at 4:46 am
Some useful links to show anti Sinhalese, anti Buddhist, anti Sri Lankan catholic run UNPatriotic party’s handy
work.
http://ltte-christian-ties.blogspot.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV6_o9txURc
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/08/05/christianizing-of-sri-lanka-unps-betrayal-of-buddhism/
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2016/05/27/ranil-wickremasinghes-new-unp-3/
http://www.lankagrid.com/soma-thero/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_eJ1gX_fuU
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2016/09/26/ltte-terrorism-church-links-can-someone-explain-these-photos/
July 21st, 2017 at 5:42 am
AS,
Listen this sermon.
“https://www.facebook.com/siyapatha.lk/videos/1704280713191978/?hc_ref=ART7hd6vC_q7qaZEdjjfgnZyqqUn5-SAIDKf1_QTvBIhOTdw61P3D6xjJvNOX1-z6LM”
July 21st, 2017 at 10:25 pm
I wonder whether this writer has an ulterior motive of wanting to bring disrespect to Buddhism. Saying ‘theruwan saranai’ after a speech is fine as a tradition but going and thanking Buddha after scaring 100 is absoultely ridiculuos. I can see so many non-Buddhist in the team and draw a cross everytime they want to send a ball or when going to bat. This makes no sense ( or simply stupid) , as God has to help both the bowler and the batsman at the sametime. He may be almighty to fools only is everyone is doing this. If there is a God then evry match will be drawn with both sides scoring 300 exactly in ODIs.
This nonsence shall come to a stop. If God is fair he can’t help you. These praying shall be prohibited during matches when the whole world see your action. That is the Buddhist way in my view.
July 22nd, 2017 at 8:37 pm
It is so sad to see that there are so many misguided people still believing in a god today. As we all know, god was created by man and not the other way about. Some people are willing to kill or sacrifice animals for favours from god. If god is someone who is almighty and omnipotent, why should one ask (pray) god for help? Can he or she not see who deserves to be helped? How can one blindly believe things like creation, astrology, horoscopes etc. when all intelligent people know today about science, genetics, evolution, mutations etc.? The way I see it, it is partly because of the lack of their ability to think freely and the lack of self- confidence, partly because of the fear created in their mind by the religious leaders for their own benefit. Rational and open-minded thinking is impossible for these people because of the fear of god’s retribution created in the minds of these blind believers. Also, religion has become an exclusive club in some cases.