WE ARE NOT BEWILDERED
We are not bewildered that the co-chairs of the donors are bewildered of the stand taken by the JVP on the so-called peace talks. The donors that include Japan, a so-called Buddhist country are all Christian in culture as Sri Lankan elite are. Japan, though an economic giant is for all purposes a prisoner of the Anglo Saxon culture. Germany, though an European country "resurrected" after the "second world war" with American money is somewhat independent than Japan from USA when it comes to politics. Japan which has been looking to the west for centuries is now dependent on the Anglo Saxon culture for ideas much more than Germany and France which retain at least some features of the Catholic Chinthanaya. It wont be long before Mahayana Buddhist culture is absorbed into the American culture through Dalai Lama, who is propagating a Buddhism that is acceptable to the Anglo Saxon culture, especially to its Anglo American variety. It is said that books on Buddhism are popular in the USA and I am afraid it is not due to the "Dharma Prachara" of the Sinhala and other Theravada Bhikkus in that country. The Sinhala Bhikkus in the western countries make their "Anushasanas" mainly to the Sinhala Buddhists in those countries, and it is the Lama Buddhism that is drawing the attention of the middle class and the upper middle class including some film actors in the USA. The western scientific establishment is also interested in the "meditation" of Dalai Lama and his followers, and it is clear that Mahayana Buddhism is undergoing a period of transition by the end of which it would be absorbed into the Anglo Saxon culture.
The west, especially the protestant west that includes USA, UK, and the Scandinavian countries having defeated the last challenge from Catholic Chinthanaya in the form of Marxist Communism, previously the challenge was from Fascism again a product of Catholic Chinthanaya, has turned its eyes on the Islamic civilisation and the Theravada Chinthanaya. The war against the Islamic civilisation and the Muslim Chinthanaya is clear to anybody though the action that the western Protestant culture taking against the Theravada countries is somewhat hidden. Unfortunately the political movements that have sprung from these countries have sometimes played into the hands of the protestant west as these movements did not have much of a base in the tradition of those societies. The Pol Pot regime in Kampuchea was based on borrowed Marxism which could not fit in with the Theravada tradition of that country. The result is now history and Kampuchea with all its so called advisors on Buddhist activities from other countries under the auspices of the USA has failed to recover from the defeats the country had to face. In Sri Lanka too the JVP started on the wrong foot as a Marxist party under Mr. Wijeweera but fortunately in the recent past has attempted to deviate from its original "Marxist" policies. When one realises that some of the advisors to the Kampuchean government were advisors to the JVP as well, one begins to see a pattern emerging.
Mianmar, another Theravada country is not doing that well and Thailand in spite of appearances is having problems. In the former the west has imposed economic sanctions while in the latter the country is bombarded with western Protestant culture. Though the methods are different the effect is the same and if something radical does not happen the future is very bleak for both countries. In Sri Lanka the west is attacking the Sinhala Theravada culture using Tamil racism that was created and baptised by themselves. When the JVP took up arms against the government, not to divide the country, all the countries including the west did not have second thoughts to help the governments in power to destroy the movement. However, when the LTTE takes up arms to divide the country the west helps the terrorists, claiming that there are injustices to the Tamils. Not only the west helps the terrorists they even proclaim that the JVP is responsible for the failure of the "peace talks". When everybody knows, that includes the Norwegians themselves, that Norway had been helping the LTTE, and that Norway has not been successful in their other "peace attempts" across the globe, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga decided to "invite" the Norwegians as the "peace makers". Though she may deny it at present, she was pressurised by the western countries to "invite" Norway as the so called facilitator. Even today she is under pressure from those so called donors and friends to start "peace talks" based on the ISGA proposals.
One may laugh at the above and declare that the west is not interested in destroying the Theravada cultures in the world, and that it is not realistic, and it is only the imagination of a few people. However, if one analyses the different cultures in the world one finds that the threats to the western Protestant culture are the Islamic cultures and the Theravada cultures. The former is a threat to the Judaic Christian (Protestant) cultures in general, as all these cultures stem from the belief of the same God though She/He may have different names in different cultures. The Catholic Chinthanaya was against the Judaic Chinthanaya but gradually the Protestant Culture that based itself on Greek Judaic (GJC) Chinthanaya as well, came to terms with the Judaic Chinthanaya. The so called second world war decidedly gave victory to the Judaic Christian Chinthanaya over the Catholic Chinthanaya, and now the former has taken up arms against the Muslim Chinthanaya. If the Islamic cultures and the Protestant cultures stem from the belief of the same God, the Theravada cultures are unique among the religion based cultures in the world by not believing in a creator God. The Mahayana cultures would have no difficulty in making one of the Bodhisattvas a creator God in their reconciliation with the western Protestant cultures.
As we have often said the western science is based on the Protestant cultures and the Greek Judaic Christian Chinthanaya. The Darwinian evolution was opposed by the Catholic Chinthanaya and its remnants in the GJC Chinthanaya. The Darwinian evolution and the Big Bang though appear to be formulated against a creator God, are essentially based on the second Genesis story in the Old Testament. The two theories together may not have a place for a creator God, but they have a beginning which is essentially a creation. The two theories have a creation without a creator at present, but the creator can be incorporated with minor tinkering by bringing in the Anthropic Principle. The Christian Scientists such as Paul Davies are trying to introduce God into the picture by various techniques. His latest as reported in this week's New Scientist is to throw in Quantum Fluctuations to give life to the lifeless atoms and molecules. However all these attempts are made by second rate scientists as the first rate scientists and mathematicians could see the folly of this type of reductionism. Mathematics, which is the most deductive as well as reductionist of all the disciplines that are based on Greek Judaic Christian (GJC) Chinthanaya was given a severe blow by the Godel's incompleteness theorem which essentially is a theorem against reductionism and deductions. It should be pointed out that western Mathematics is not secular but is based on the GJC Chinthanaya. Western Mathematics begin with undefined elements such as points which resemble an undefined God. The God cannot be defined as to define God one needs other concepts that deal with things created by Him/Her. A point in geometry is left as an undefined mathematical entity for the simple reason that it cannot be defined in terms of other concepts such as straight lines which themselves depend on the concept of a point.
The ladies and gentlemen who speak of secular states and objective sciences live in a world that has been created for them not only by the God but by the western scientists including political scientists, philosophers, thinkers etc., as well. The God created the western scientists and other intellectuals who created the world that we have to live in. The moment we complain that it is not our world we are branded as fundamentalists etc.
Back to the co-chair boys who are bewildered by the behaviour of the JVP. The JVP, unlike most of the Marxists of yesteryear (excluding people such as mature Philip Gunawardhana), has been influenced by the thinking of the ordinary Sinhala Theravada Buddhists who would never accept a creator God. The co-chair boys want the JVP to agree to the ISGA proposals. According to them anybody who is against the so called Oslo Agreement and the ISGA proposals is against peace. The boys have their own definition of peace which is nothing but creation of an Eelam, and they want others to agree with them. Anybody other than the co-chair boys and their henchmen and henchwomen, for the sake of women liberationists, know that ISGA spells Eelam and separation. The boys only serve their culture which is attempting to Christianise the whole world at least by culture. Western Christian modernity for the last five hundred years has been engaged with that process, and Japan in spite of the kimona is increasingly becoming a Christian country by culture.
The Sinhala Buddhists refuse to buy the peace as sold by the co chair boys. (The buying and selling idiom of the western Protestant Culture is used here so that the co-chair boys would understand it better). At the last general elections the Sinhala Buddhists voted overwhelmingly for the Sandhanaya for more than anything else to defeat the UNP which was only following the dictates of the west. The Sinhala Buddhists have categorically said no to ISGA and even to Norwegian "facilitation". Though Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga educated at St. Bridget's and Sorborne could be dictated terms by the west it is not as easy in the case of the JVP. The west has nothing to say to the LTTE that goes on killing its political opponents under the auspices of the Norwegian sponsored MoU signed by Ranil Wickremasinghe and Prabhakaran. Do they think that the LTTE wants peace? I suppose so because the peace that the LTTE wants is nothing but the peace that the co-chair boys want. The donor countries may be thinking of threatening the Sinhala Buddhists with so called aid cuts. They may be even thinking of imposing economic sanctions as in the case of Mianmar. The bewilderment on the behaviour of the JVP may be the first step in this direction. Well, gentlemen the Sinhala Buddhists are not bewildered by your behaviour. Unlike in the past the Sinhala Buddhists do not have to depend on theories imported from the west to understand the world that has been created for them. They would not be fooled by talks of fundamentalism, secularism etc., when they know that the world that your intellectuals have created is nothing but a Christian world. You are only forcing the others to live in the world your culture has created for the others.
Professor Nalin de Silva
>
>
>