BUDDHISMS BETRAYED - II
Though there are many "scholars" who are prepared to write on how the Sinhala Buddhists betrayed Buddhism there is not much of a hue and cry over anybody betraying Islam or Christianity. Is it because nobody has betrayed these religions or is it due to the 'fact'.that the concept of betrayal cannot be applied in the case of those religions. Does anybody say that the Talibans have betrayed Islam? If not why?
Very often we hear of fundamentalism. One talks of fundamentalism not only with respect to religions but also in the spheres of politics, sports and others. As I understand there are two varieties of fundamentalism. Any religious or political movement that is a threat to civilisation is branded as a fundamentalist movement. It is appropriate to mention here that by civilisation what is meant is the western Judaic Christian civilisation. Civilisation without an adjective means western Judaic Christian civilisation and the other civilisations have to be spealt out. Anything western is considered to be the norm and the others are identified by resorting to various epithets. For example, in Sri Lanka we have faculties of medicine and institutes of indigenous medicine that are sometimes headed by postgraduates of faculties of medicine. Why don't we call the former the faculties of western medicine. If a postgraduate of western medicine could be the director of the institute of indigenous medicine, to have some sort of symmetry, why not appoint a vedahamuduruwao, a vedamahaththaya or a vedahamine to direct the post graduate institute of (western) medicine. I would not be surprised if somebody calls me a fundamentalist. However, I must add that it is my training in western mathematics and western theoretical physics that has given me an eye for symmetries as well as asymmetries in structures.
Secondly fundamentalism could mean getting back to the original teachings of the founder(s) of a movement. Now this is always tricky business as identifying the original teachings is not going to be an easy task. In any event it is not impossible to give an interpretation to the original teachings so that it would either agree or not agree with what one is practicing. If fundamentalism means going back to the original teachings (invariably associated with an interpretation) then betrayal means not adhering to the Dhamma or the doctrine of the founder(s) of a religion or a political movement. When the Trotskytes thought that Stalin did not follow the Marxist method they called it revolution betrayed and Trotsky wrote a book entitled "Revolution Betrayed" though Marx's revolution did not preach any kind of permanent or uniturrupted revolution in one or many stages. That was long before Prof. Thambiah wrote his Buddhism Betrayed. However there is a difference. Trotsky believed in some kind of revolution and also wrote a book entitled "In Defence of Marxism".
On closer examination one would find out that Lenin's proletariat is not the same as that of Marx and that Leninism deviates from Marx's Marxism on many counts. I have discussed some of these in my booklet Marxsvadaye Daridrathavaya or Poverty of Marxism. Nobody accuses Lenin of betraying Marxism and in todays fashionable academic jargon in the west, Lenin's interpretation of Marxism or Marxism relative to Lenin would be called Lenin's reading of Marxism. Lenin is not considered to be a fundamentalist nor a betrayer with respect to Marxism, wheras Anagarika Dharmapala is branded both as a fundamentalist and a betrayer of Buddhism. One should not think that the scholars have defied Aristotalean logic or are engaged in a dialectical discourse in identifying Anagarika Dharmapala as a fundamentalist as well as a betrayer. They are only using the first definition of fundamentalism I have given above. It is only a case of resorting to the most suitable definition for one's purpose at the same time pretending to be presenting a rigorous analysis. In the parlance of the ordinary Sinhala people this could be called the "Dambuluth gihin Thalagoyith Maragena Ena" methodology of the western sociologists.
Now before we get on to Anagarika Dharmapala and the Sinhala Bhikkus a la H.L. Seneviratne the western Judaic Christian sociologist, let us discuss whether the Talibans have betrayed Islam. I have not read the Holy Quran in full and I am unable to quote from that Holy book the Islam position on idol worshipping or destruction. However, the following passages from Holy Quran on the Book (meaning the Book according to Moses) and the unbeleivers are interesting. In Sura III we find the verse 3 in the form:
It is He Who sent down
To thee (step by step),
In truth the Book,
Confirming what went before it;
And he sent down the Law
(Of Moses) and the Gospel
(Of Jesus) before this,
As a guide to mankind,
And he sent down the Criterion
(Of judjment between right and wrong)
Sura IV verse 56 is as follows:
Those who reject
Our Signs, We shall soon
Cast into the Fire:
As often as their skins
Are roasted through,
We shall change them
For fresh skins,
That they may taste
The Penalty: for God
Is Exalted in Power, Wise.
Verse 89 of the same Sura says:
They but wish that ye
Should reject Faith,
As they do, and thus be
On the same footing (as they):
But take not friends
From their ranks
Until they flee
In the way of God
(From what is forbidden).
But if they turn renegades,
Seize them and slay them
Wherever ye find them;
And (in any case) take
No friends or helpers
From their ranks:-
I do not want to comment on these verses but it appears that the Old Testament or the Bible of the Jews is acceptable to Islam. If any parts of the old Testament, especially on idol destruction, are not acceptable then they should have been spelt out in the Holy Quaran. As I have not read the Holy Quaran in full I am not in a position to comment on the stand taken by the Holy Quaran on the demolishion of idols. However in a book entitled "Islamic Fundamentalism" by Dilip Hiro I find the following paragraph. "Following a series of victories on the battlefield, Muhamed expanded his domain, and defeated the Quraish in Mecca. In January 630, at the head of an army of 10,000 strong, he entered Mecca. He had the 360 stone idols at the Kaaba overturned from their pedestals, and the pagan Quraish were forced to march past him in homage. He touched the Black Stone with his stick and shouted, 'Allahu Akbar!' (God is Great!), the battle cry of Islam." I know that I am quoting from a western publication and I do not agree with their interpretations of fundamentalism. I am not interested in any fundamentalism according to the westerners and I only want to find out whether the Talibans have betrayed Islam by demolishing the Buddha statues.
Unlike the Holy Quaran the Old Testament of the Holy Bible is familiar to the Buddhists from the days of Ven. Mohottiwatte Gunananda Thero of Panadura Vadaya fame. What follows are some quotations from the Old Testament on idols and idol worshipping. (Exodus 34:12-13) "Do not make any treaties with the people of the country into which you are going, because this could be a fatal trap for you. Instead, tear downtheir altars, destroy their sacred pillars, and cut down their symbols of the goddess Asherah." (Deuteronomy 4: 15- 26 ) "When the Lord spoke to you from the fire on Mount Sinai, you did not see any form. For your own good, then, make certain that you do not sin by making for yourselves an idol in any form at all - whether man or woman, animal or bird, reptile or fish. Do not be tempted to worship and serve what you see in the sky - the sun, the moon and the stars. The Lord your God has given these to all other peoples for them to worship. But you are the people he rescued from Egypt, that blazing furnance. He brought you out to make you his own people, as you are today. Because of you the Lord your God was angry with me and solemnly declared that I would not cross the Jordan River to enter the fertile land which he is giving you. I will die in this land and never cross the river, but you are about to go across and occupy that fertile land. Be certain that you do not forget the covenant that the Lord your God made with you. Obey his command not to make yourselves any kind of idol, because the Lord your God is like a flaming fire; he tolerates no rivals. Even when you have been in the land a long time and have children and grandchildren, do not sin by making yourselves an idol in any form at all. This is evil in the Lord's sight, and it will make him very angry. I call heaven and earth as witness against you today that, if you disobey me,you will soon disappear from the land." (Deuteronomy 7: 21-26) "So do not be afraid of these people. The Lord your God is with you; he is a great God and one to be feared. Little by little he will drive out these nations as you advance. You will not be able to destroy them all at once, for, if you did, the number of wild animals would increase and be a threat to you. The Lord will put your enemies in your power and make them panic until they are destroyed. He will put their kings in your power. You will kill them, and they will be forgotten. No one will be able to stop you; you will destroy everyone. Burn their idols. Do not desire the silver or gold that is on them, and do not take it for yourselves. If you do, that will be fatal, because the Lord hates idolatry. Do not bring any of these idols into your homes, or the same curse will be on you that is on them. You must hate and despise these idols, because they are under the Lord's curse."
The Chinthanaya (more general than the Paradigm of Kuhn or the Episteme of Foucault. When Dr.Seneviratne visited me to research on the Jathika Chinthanaya, I found that he did not understand the concepts Paradigm or Episteme, let alone Chinthanaya. Yet, he has the audacity to comment on the Jathika Chinthanaya in his new book for his western masters and I will briefly respond to them later.) of the people of the Old Testament has been identified and named as the Yudev Chinthanaya by us and is described in "Mage Lokaya" (2nd and 3rd editions). We do not know how much of the Yudev Chinthanaya is found among the Afghan Muslims but by demolishing the Buddha statues they have not betrayed that Chinthanaya. Neither have the Europeans, the white North Americans, he white Australians, the white New Zeelanders, the white South Africans and the white Zimbabwians betrayed this chinthanaya during the last five hundred years or so.
(To be continued)
Professor Nalin de Silva
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