By Colombo Telegraph –
“We once again stress that we are not anti Bodu Bala Sena. We honour everyone’s right of expression and speech. However, we are Buddhists (Sinhala Buddhists if anyone cares further) questioning the Bodu Bala Sena via the Dhamma. One of our biggest questions is ‘how can the Bodu Bala Sena, claiming to be a Buddhist organization, so blatantly violate Lord Buddha’s teachings on right speech?'” Buddhists Questioning Bodu Bala Sena Facebook update says today.
Who has the moral right to protest ?
“We urge the Mahanayakas to speak up. Sri Lankans have the greatest respect for them and only they can truly put an end to this. For today the rising face of Buddhism in Sri Lanka is Gnanasara and the Bodu Bala Sena, and the Mahanayakas continued inaction and silence isn’t helpful. If they delay further, we fear it will be too late. This is no time for half measures.” they further say.
Meanwhile Bodhu Bala Sena (BBS) Executive Committee member, Dilanthe Withanage wrote in Buddhists Questioning Bodu Bala Sena Facebook page; “FAKE BUDDHISTS and LTTE SUPPORTERS and Real Buddhists – We are happy thank to BBS these groups ( Including Muslims, catholic etc) started talking of Buddha’s Teaching. It is a great victory for Buddhism. Started Chanting Buddha’s teaching, Started going to Buddhist Places. Read Malinda’s article”
We publish below the BQBBS facebook update in full;
Dear Friends,
It was humbling to see so many people present last evening, given the fact that this idea was first announced on Tuesday (9 April) and solely promoted on Facebook and held on a day (12 April) when most people have gone on vacation or back to their ancestral homes.
There were no organizers per se, no pre-meetings, just Sri Lankans guided by the sense of Civic Duty, to maintain and preserve the peace of our tiny Island Nation as it is called for in our beautiful National Anthem, Buddhists guided by the peaceful words of Lord Buddha on Samma Vacca (Right speech) on Subhasita Vaccan (on well spoken speech) gathered in unison.
We once again stress that we are not anti Bodu Bala Sena. We honour everyone’s right of expression and speech. However, we are Buddhists (Sinhala Buddhists if anyone cares further) questioning the Bodu Bala Sena via the Dhamma. One of our biggest questions is “how can the Bodu Bala Sena, claiming to be a Buddhist organization, so blatantly violate Lord Buddha’s teachings on right speech?” Yesterday we posed this question again and got the same answer. So much of the Dhamma is about right speech, 4 of the 10 evil acts (Dasa Akusal) is about speech, one whole factor of the Noble Eight Fold path leading to Nibbana is dedicated to Right Speech. Yet, all this is cast aside by the leaders of the Bodu Bala Sena in the name of “preserving the Dhamma”. If Buddhists in Sri Lanka allow this to continue, they will be left with a Buddhism bereft of any essence, a flower without its perfume. We will be left with temples, ancient ruins, yellow robe wearers, just symbols of Buddhism. We urge the Mahanayakas to speak up. Sri Lankans have the greatest respect for them and only they can truly put an end to this. For today the rising face of Buddhism in Sri Lanka is Gnanasara and the Bodu Bala Sena, and the Mahanayakas continued inaction and silence isn’t helpful. If they delay further, we fear it will be too late. This is no time for half measures.
Now a word on courage and honour…there is no courage, there is no honour in the strong trampling the weak, in the majority attacking a minority. Such victories are hollow. Yesterday we saw young Sinhala Buddhists taking a stance, peacefully gathering, staying calm in the face of abuse and false accusations from the Bodu Bala Sena members, amidst the heavy hand of the police, this is courage, this is honor. This gives us hope, that in our tiny Island Nation there are people who will stand up to the might and have the courage to say “this is not right”.
“For the Blessed One, O Lord, spoke these words to me: ‘I shall not come to my final passing away, Evil Mara, until my laymen and laywomen, have come to be true disciples — wise, well disciplined, apt and learned, preservers of the Dhamma, living according to the Dhamma, abiding by the appropriate conduct, and having learned the Master’s word, are able to expound it, preach it, proclaim it, establish it, reveal it, explain it in detail, and make it clear; until, when adverse opinions arise, they shall be able to refute them thoroughly and well, and to preach this convincing and liberating Dhamma.’ (Mahaparinibbana Sutta)
Sabbe Satta Bhavantu Sukhitata
This for those who were labeled “Nightclub Buddhists” just because they didn’t wear white.
Alankato cepi samam careyya
santo danto niyato brahmacari
sabbesu bhutesu nidhaya dandam
so bramano so samano sa bhikkhu.
Dhammapada Verse 142.
Anam / April 15, 2013
Kicked out BBS from Temple in Los Angeles
The Management Committee of the Anaheim temple would like to issue the following statement regarding the visit of the Bodu Bala Sena:
We are deeply disturbed and disappointed by the actions taken by Ven. Sumana in allowing the “Bodu Bala Sena” representatives to stay at the Anaheim temple, organizing a ‘Buddhanussathi Pooja’ and a get-together.
This was organized with the consent of the Ven. Sumana by two individuals without consulting the Management Committee of the temple and we had no prior knowledge of this visit until last Thursday. Since then, the Management Committee has met and spoken to Ven. Sumana requesting not to provide accommodation to the representatives of this group and not to organize a bodhi pooja or a meeting with them.
It is our position that Sri Ratana Viharaya should not support “Bodu Bala Sena” which advocates against the rights of minorities in Sri Lanka and resorts to violence, mob action and intimidation to advance their cause. The temple premises should not be used as a platform to promote hatred and/or to promote an extremist group like “Bodu Bala Sena”.
Therefore, the Management Committee requests our devotees not to participate in any of these activities and not to support this extremist group now or in the future.
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Amerasiri / April 16, 2013
1. BBS is not Buddhists. They are racists. They are Maras. They are Devaduttas, who are trying to destroy Buddhism.
2. Initially the natives of Sri Lanka were Veddahs, Yakkas and Nagas. Later around 550 BC Prakrit Kalinga, Orissa and Bengal, immigrants, who were Hindu and Jain, came, and introduced their hierarchy and language, with Sanskrit roots, Sinhala.
3. The New Year was then called Hindu New Year. Almost all the natives and Newcomers celebrated, the Hindu New Year, whether they spoke Sinhala, or Tamil or other.
4. Later on Buddhism was introduced, and some of the Hindus accepted Buddhism, but continued to celebrate the New Year. The Sinhala speaking people were mostly Buddhist and the Tamil speaking people mostly Hindu, and the New Year came to be known as Tamil and Sinhala New year or Hindu and Sinhala New Year. It was never known as Hindu and Buddhist New Year, as Buddhism follows a different calendar.
5. We hope your actions keep Sri Lanka to be One despite the different imported beliefs in the past and resist the hegemony of one group of people over the others advanced by the extremists.
Lanka was
1. Natives, Veddah, Yakka and Naga
2. Animist beliefs and Hindu
3. Bali Island is Hindu then and Now.
4. Buddhism was imported, like everything else.
5. Religion is the opiate of the masses- Karl Marx,
6. Keep Church-Temple and Mosque Separate from State.
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Amerasiri / April 16, 2013
Wonder what Colonel Olcott would have said about Budu Bala Sena?
Mara Dogs?
Devadatta or Deva Dutta?
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Lanka Liar / April 19, 2013
Who cares about Colonel Olcott . Listen to what colonel Karuna says.
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Jayantha / April 17, 2013
I think both BBS, Rawaya and Rawana are the victims of Rajapakse Brothers Political power play.
It is Rajapakses who created, nourished and used them for their benefit to stay in power by destabilising the minority communities, similar to what JVP and VP did to Sinhala and Tamil youth.
Very soon they will realise the truth and will start to take revenge from Rajapakses.
Rajapakse days could be numbered.
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Kaliamma / April 17, 2013
They are not monks nor Buddhist
They are saffron robe wearing thugs
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Ravi Karunaratne / April 17, 2013
The Mahanayakes are also playing politics. They know which side of the toast is well buttered. They enjoy the perks of office and are given expensive handouts by the powers that be. If they had any sense of leadership and call themselves protectors of the Dhamma they would by now given a good dressing down to the BBS thugs that are wrapping themselves in yellow robes.Why are they silent?Is it because one of the Rajapassa brothers Gota is a sponser of this BBS mob and they don’t want to get on his bad books.Sinhala Buddhism is now in the pits. We need good spiritual leadership by learned Monks. Where are the Reverend Naradhas, Madihe Pannagnsseheyas, Rahulas Anandas and Somas. Come out and lead the people and chase these false prophets of the BBS to the Kassippu dens from where they came.
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Michael Newhouse / April 17, 2013
Catholics reply to BQBBS (CRBQBBS)“
If you are as you have claimed to be “Sinhala Buddhists”, you are a shame both for Buddhists and for Sinhelas because you have shown yourself to be an ill-read and ignorant extremist racist – for you have isolated one Buddhist monk and attacked him by carefully avoiding comparison with the conduct of the Roman Catholic priests, who number MILLIONS in the world!
If, as you say you are “Sinhala Buddhists”, you are totally ignorant about the Roman Catholic (and Protestant Christian) Churches and their conduct. But we are Catholic Sinhelas, and we are fully aware of the brutal and murderous 1,500-year histories of our Churches, including mass-murdering Roman Catholic popes and priests and Protestant priests (not to mention mass-murdering Muslim clerics). But now that the internet is there, it is very easy for you to learn about the Killer Popes. Just click on “Borgia popes”, for an example! Two of their specialities were tying the hands and legs of their Catholic or {Protestant) victims to four different horses and driving the horses in the four opposite directions in order TO TEAR THE LIVING VICTIMS INTO FOUR DIFFERENT PIECES; or tying up victims (men, women, children!) to stakes driven into the ground, putting firewood around their legs and BURNING THE PERSON ALIVE! These atrocities were committed NOT ONLY by ordinary Catholic priests but BY MANY OF THE POPES as well! And, yes, you can question them via the Bible (Compare with “Love thy neighbour” , “If someone hits you on the left cheek, turn the right cheek also!” etc)! Once you have read the histories of the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Churches, I promise that you will not bother about traffic offences committed by pacific Buddhist monks! You see, the problem about you Buddhist Sinhelas is that you are very ignorant of the bloody histories of the other religions. Just because you Buddhist Sinhelas have a 2,600-year history of total pacifism in your tiny Island – no wars, no going out to invade other countries, no tortures, no genocidal murders – you are like frogs in wells, thinking that in the rest of the world, the other religions are also pacific people like you, so that if someone does not meticulously observe traffic rules, or kills a mosquito, it seems a big serious crime for you! Till the Roman Catholic Portuguese, the Protestant Christian Dutch and the Protestant British and even the Roman Catholic Tamil Parayakaran brought mass tortures and genocidal murders to your Island, you were like innocent babies!
WAKE UP, you Buddhist Sinhelas! Outside your tiny country it is a brutal and blood-thirsty JUNGLE WORLD where the Christ-believing white Western races (AND the Muslims who believe in the SAME God) have 1,500 year histories which would shock EVEN ANIMALS! Trust us, we KNOW – since we are Roman Catholics! IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE US, JUST READ ON THE INTERNET about the countless BLOODY ATROCITIES committed by our popes and priests, you ignorant Sinhela Buddhists! Also, read about the thousands of children sex-abused by Catholic priests, for which the Church was fined an estimated 300 million dollars in the USA during the past few years. And, since priests are selected from the general population, just think of the 1.4 million men, women and children butchered during the carpet-bombings in Iraq (and that is without even mentioning the tens of millions murdered by Christian Westerners in the First World War, the Second World War, Vietnam, etc), and you can understand the mentality of many in these white Western Christian races!
Then, you won’t waste bad dreams on potty traffic offences by your harmless Sinhela Buddhist monks!
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w.Diyana / April 18, 2013
Seyed,
No, it should be BBS Booru, Balu Sena
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Sadmemories / April 18, 2013
“A picture is worth a thousand words.”
See the criminal energies that the monk more likely to appeared to be from his look as street thugs of maradana or pettah – are these buddhists monks that the folks had 3 decades ago in the country ?
For what they are protesting here `?
At the time country was its climax struggling against LTTE terror, has anybody seen any kind of protest of this hatred magnitude ?
These kinds of monks are a curse for the lanken buddhists.
Rulers have to screen their whereabouts and keep them in records by computerising the data – so that investigations can go smooth where it is necessary.
It is wrong to judge it by appearence but they are making kenda kanda for a issue of not that big impact – may be those monks are not busy with their shedules as have been the case with ones are in abroad. I met monks of very kind sort in Europe, they are very respectful buddhist monks from SL, their aim is to help their buddhist communities through work shops held by them.
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Rama / April 20, 2013
mongolian bikkus, please don’t talk about mongolian buddhism. mongolian buddhism doesn’t exist here . it’s all just just talk about your love for mongolian buddha and mongolian buddhism and nothing else. mongolian buddha’s teachings have never been followed or practiced here. please don’t drag mahanaai- aks into this. they just exist for name saks and they are a waste of space. mongolian bikkus, polease don’t talk about something that interests you and your so called followers of mongolian buddhism. shall we say killing, rape, child molesting , booze and bonking. mongolian buddhism is on the way out. don’t you think it’s a waste of time clinging on to a dying faith.
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Rama / April 20, 2013
i meant pleast talk about something.
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M. Newhouse / April 29, 2013
CHRISTIANITY IN THE WEST IS IN GREAT MORAL AND SPIRITUAL DECLINE TODAY. Christianity in the West has been MILITARIZED and TALIBAN-IZED. IT has been emptied of its true spirit and substance and turned into a political-military circus by corrupt politicians, particularly in the West and brothers, who use Christian RITUALS to justify and distract the people from their greed and corruption, by promoting groups like the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant Christian Churches who commit crimes and spread hatred, hate speech and actions.
The gross MILITARIZATION of Christianity in the West today (also to hide huge land grabs and oil grabs in other countries) is a result of POLITICIZATION of Christianity, and the greed of Christians – Popes, priests and laymen to have all sorts of luxuries, power and wealth, rather than leading the simple life – according to what Jesus Christ taught.
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