By Harsha
Gunasena
The popular
interpretation of Sri Lankan history is that there was a age old rivalry
between Sinhalese and Tamils. Reality
may be different. Throughout the history in Sri Lanka there were wars among the
princes and kings. It was the same in South India as well. The wars were among
the Sinhala princes and sometimes between the Sinhala and Tamil princes.
Sometimes Sinhala princes brought forces from South India to fight fellow
Sinhala princes in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan kings sometimes had very good
relationships with Pandyan kingdom in South India and they got together to
fight Cholas. Certain Sinhala kings invaded South Indian kingdoms.
In the
Polonnaruva era Hindu gods encroached the Buddhist temples and the bull, a
sacred animal of Hinduism, was
disappeared from ‘sandakadapahana’. Even today most of the Sinhala Buddhists
worship Hindu gods more affectionately compared to worshipping Buddha. In the
11th century King Vijayabahu the Great who fought a decisive war
with the Chola invaders had to erect rock scripts in Tamil for the benefit of
the Tamil soldiers who fought along with him against Cholas. Therefore there was no rivalry among Sinhalese and Tamils. Rivalry
was among the kings and princes for power irrespective of their ethnicity.
In Sri Lanka it was Sinhala Buddhists and their kings who
protected Muslims against the western nations who were engaged in a trade war
and gave land in internal areas of Sri Lanka. That is why Muslims are
concentrated In Kandy. It was Sinhala Buddhists and their kings who protected
Roman Catholics from Dutch and British Protestants. That is why Pope Francis
was able to canonize Joseph Vaz.
This situation was changed in the
recent history under the British rule during the independence struggle. Now Sri Lanka is deeply divided in the lines of
ethnicity and religion. After a 30 year civil war the country is still
struggling to establish religious and ethnic harmony. How can mindfulness
remedy this situation?
The
origin of mindfulness is coming from the discourses of the Buddha. In Satipattana Sutta in Majjima Nikaya where
he dealt with mindfulness it was declared as follows at the beginning.
"This
is the only way, O bhikkhus, for the purification of beings, for the overcoming
of sorrow and lamentation, for the destruction of suffering and grief, for
reaching the right path, for the attainment of Nibbana, namely, the Four
Arousings of Mindfulness." (Translated by Soma Thera)
Mindfulness
is the ability to focus our bear attention on the present moment
non-judgmentally and continue to do so from moment to moment. When we need to
rest the body we keep it in one place without moving it around. Similarly mind
also can be rested by keeping it at the present moment rather than allowing it
to wander from past to future and from here to there. This was proved by
various researches carried out in the West and hence the concept of mindfulness
is gaining the momentum throughout the world now.
Sri
Lanka, although considered a Buddhist country where Buddhism is protected in
the constitution itself, this essential teaching of the Buddha has not been
reached to the masses effectively. There is a little chance that a mindful
person be harmful to oneself or others. When we angry usually we realize that
we were angry after committing the harmful act. If we can know
that we are angry probably we may not commit those harmful acts.
This can be achieved through mindfulness.
To be
mindful is not a religious activity but a pure personal activity. One can be
mindful when one follows one’s religion whatever it is.
Harmony
and tolerance is our inheritance. Buddha had a very good relationship and dialog with
people of other religious faiths. It was described in Potthapada Sutta in Digha
Nikaya as follows. “Then the Blessed One, early in the morning, taking his
robes & bowl, entered Savatthi for alms. Then the thought occurred to him,
‘While it's still too early to go into Savatthi for alms, why don't I go to the
debating hall near the Tinduka tree in the single-pavilion park of Queen
Mallika to see Potthapada the wanderer?’ ”
“Then
the Blessed One went to Potthapada, and Potthapada said to him, ‘Come, Blessed
One. Welcome, Blessed One. It's been a long time since the Blessed One has gone
out of his way to come here. Sit down, Blessed One.’ " (Translated by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu)
Sati
Pasala takes the message of mindfulness to children and to the masses in a
non-religious and non-sectarian manner and in a harmonious way as advocated by
the Buddha and by the kings and masses throughout the history of Sri Lanka. We
have the experience of children of all the religions and all ethnicities of Sri
Lanka practicing mindfulness enthusiastically. We communicate with children in
all three languages. We recently had a training programme for the education officers of the Ministry of
Education who were the representatives of all island educational zones. They
were comprising of Sinhala , Tamil and Muslim ethnicities and Buddhism,
Hinduism, Christianity and Islam religions. Programme was conducted in both
Sinhala and Tamil languages with instant translations which took time but added
beauty. The atmosphere was nothing else but celebrating diversity and fostering
harmony.
Mindfulness
remedies the stress which is a common phenomenon in present day world
irrespective of ethnicity or the religion one belongs to. Mindfulness promotes the awareness of the life
experience at the very moment it occurs which has no relevance to ethnicity or
religion. The only relevance and relationship of mindfulness is to humanity
since only humans can experience mindfulness and not animals. When remaining in
the state of mindfulness dogmas, theories, ideologies which promote divisions
do not exist.
Therefore,
mindfulness can be a common thread of unifying deeply divided Sri Lanka by way
of ethnicity and religion. Mindfulness while being a common thread, will show
all of us that the petty ideologies and dogmas are secondary to humanity and
the humanity is the supreme.
“Patriotism cannot be our final
spiritual shelter; my refuge is humanity. I will not buy glass for the price of
diamonds, and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as
I live.” -Rabindranath
Tagore
(An article of the souvenir published at the Global Mindfulness Summit held in Colombo in February 2018)
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