28 March, 2024

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Politics Of Addiction

By Tisaranee Gunasekara

“Not only our actions, but also our inactions, become our destiny.” ~ Heinrich Zimmer (The King and the Corpse)

This week marked the 14th anniversary of the ending of the long Eelam War. 

This week also saw the re-emergence of BBS head-honcho Galgoda-Atte Gnanasara to save the nation from that enterprising entrepreneur-of-cloth, Pastor Jerome Fernando. Much verbal thundering was heard warning of a new religious war.

Jerome Fernando

Later in the week, a bunch of Sinhala-Buddhist extremists crashed into a ceremony at the Borella Cemetery held in the memory of all the war-dead. They condemned the event as a commemoration of the Tigers, probably on the grounds that those Tamils who died in the war (especially in the Rajapaksas’ Humanitarian Operation with zero-civilian casualties) were Tigers, right down to babies and toddlers. 

The week ended with another group of lay-and-monk warriors gathering by the Buddha statue outside the Fort Railway Station, pledging to protect rata, jathiya, and agama. 

Fortunately, ordinary Lankans, immersed in the real struggle for economic survival, ignored these theatrics, turning what could have been explosions into damp squibs.

The ending of the long Eelam War brought neither peace nor prosperity even for the triumphant Sinhalese. The much awaited peace dividend was swallowed by a defence establishment that continued expanding. The Rajapaksas treated the entire Tamil population of the North and parts of the East like enemy aliens, locking up every man, woman, and child in open air prison camps called Welfare Villages (Indian and international pressure eventually compelled them to abandon this policy of mass incarceration). When the cry of the Undead Tiger failed to impress the South, the regime sought other enemies, flirting with ‘alien Christians’ before settling on ‘Encroaching Muslims’. The harvest of that toxic seeding was reaped in April 2019, three weeks short of the 10th anniversary of Eelam War’s ending. 

The war was unnecessary, preventable. Every step towards it was motivated not by national necessity or even popular demand. The motive force was the hellish union between political opportunism and religio-racial extremism. As the events of the last week indicate, that union is far from dead and its current partners are waiting impatiently to return to political mainstream. Unchastened by our blood-soaked history, they want to repeat it.  

Until 1955-56, Lankan politics was cleavaged by class. That classic divide left little electoral space for SWRD Bandaranaike’s ambitions. His newly formed SLFP had challenged the UNP and lost in 1952. In the 1953 Hartal that shook the nation and forced a government to flee, he was an onlooker. The left had a real chance to form a government at the next election, especially if its fractured components could bring themselves to work together. Had Lanka taken that path, there would have been no Sinhala Only, no Sri riots of 1958, no Black July, and no 25-year war. 

SWRD Bandaranaike was clever enough to know that in a political battlefield divided along class lines he couldn’t prevail and unscrupulous enough to adopt the noxious race+religion=nation equation as his signature policy. He accepted the Buddhist Commission report in toto. Monks formed Eksath Bhikshu Peramuna and engaged in house-to-house campaigning to ensure his victory. 

Our tragedy is littered with paths not taken. The Buddha Jayanthi of 1956 could have been celebrated by focusing on what the Buddha taught, and by commencing a process of spiritual renaissance. Instead, under the guise of restoring Buddhism to its pre-colonial glory, Tripitaka was abandoned for Mahawamsa and the core Buddhist values of compassion, non-violence, and moderation replaced with hate, violence, and extremism. 

The Buddhist Commission Report’s title was The Betrayal of Buddhism. The real betrayal had come from within, the work of monks and kings. A universalist teaching had been ghettoised into the exclusive preserve of a single race. A teaching that explicitly rejected caste has been distorted by embedding caste discrimination into its very heart. The Buddhist Commission report could have chartered a course to return debased Lankan Buddhism into what the Buddha taught by ridding it of the twin perversions of race and caste. Instead it ignored the division of a single monkhood into caste-based nikayas (a distortion created by a Kandyan king) and focused on entrenching the racial ghettoisation of Buddhism. 

1956 might have become a year of true nation-building. Buddhism, cleansed of distortions, could have become a binding agent for a nascent Lankan nation. Instead, an unholy alliance of monks and politicians turned Buddhism into an agent of division. 67 years later, that spectre continues to haunt us. 

Fiction and Unfiction

In January this year, an outcry was heard about a fake Temple of the Tooth being built in Pothuhera in Kurunegala by a man who called himself a Bodhisatva (a future Buddha – a tad like Prophet Jerome). People were donating money and jewellery to fund this edifice, the media claimed. Donations were pouring in from here and abroad. The prelates of Malwatte and Asgiriya together with the Diyawadana Nilame of the Temple of the Tooth wrote to the president seeking political intervention against this fakery. (Incidentally, the chief prelates of other two nikayas did not sign the letter as caste bars them from playing any role in rituals surrounding the tooth relic). 

The facts were telling. An enterprising individual thought to build another Temple of the Tooth. There were enough Buddhists willing to believe his claim that once the edifice was complete, the tooth relic would come to him. The entire sorry tale demonstrates how far a rational teaching which accepts the law of cause-and-effect (hethu-pala-vadaya) had degenerated into a myth-ridden superstition in which relics could perform miracles and trees grant wishes. In this version of Buddhism, men are arrested for ‘insulting the Buddha’ (or his relics) while those who claim to be his robed-disciples violate his teachings on a daily basis. 

The Buddha, in his final major sermon, set out the path for the sasana’s survival and expansion. He mentioned seven conditions, seven further conditions, seven good qualities, seven factors of enlightenment, seven perceptions, and six further conditions. If monks adhere to these 41 stipulations, the sasana would flourish. He made no mention of state patronage, of his pristine teachings surviving only in an island called Lanka, of rituals or relics. His sole focus was on the conduct of the monks themselves. And in what passes for Buddhism in Sri Lanka today, almost every single one of those conditions are violated daily and in plain sight. Those violations are ignored while talking about them is being turned into a non-bailable crime.

In 2019, the writer Shakthika Sathkumara was arrested under the ICCPR and held without bail. The arrest was the outcome of a complaint made by a group of monks about a short story he wrote (Ardha – Half). The story is about life in a fictional monastery and contains a hint about the abuse of young monks by senior monks. According to a police spokesman, “A group of monks complained that the reference to homosexual activities among the clergy insulted Buddhism.”

Vinaya pitaka refers to sexual misconduct by monks and specifically lists the masturbation of one monk by another as a serious offence. The Buddha obviously understood that becoming ordained will not free a person from human desires. Only the stream-enterers would be free of such yearnings. Since there are no known stream-enterers in Sri Lanka, the kind of misconduct the Buddha made rules against is likely to be present here. The arrest of several monks for suspected child abuse (including sexual abuse) this year alone indicates that what Shakthika Sathkumara’s fiction alleges is present in real life. Unfortunately, in today’s religious universe, the crime is less offensive than talking about it.

A new trend among political monks is to refer to the saffron robe as ‘Arahat dajaya’ (the standard of enlightened monks). This new myth is a marker in the ongoing attempt to place monks above scrutiny and criticism. This is reminiscent of the kind of blind veneration and unthinking obedience rife in many parts of Catholic Europe until a few decades ago and is present in some Charismatic churches even today (in a remake of the Jonestown horror, the head of Good News International Church in Kenya persuaded his followers to die of starvation to meet Jesus fast. Many did. The pastor is alive and well and currently out on bail). Walter Benjamin in One Way Street, provides an example, something he experienced during a visit to Naples, Italy, in the 1920’s. “…a priest was drawn on a cart through the streets of Naples for indecent offenses. He was followed by a crowd hurling maledictions. At a corner a wedding procession appeared. The priest stands up and makes the sign of a blessing, and the cart’s pursuers fall onto their knees.” This is where we headed. A monk does not have to adhere to the teaching. All he has to do is to wear the robe, just as all that Neapolitan priest had to do was to make the sign of the cross.

Superstition can be dismissed as silly. But it stems from the same irrationality which accepts the perversion of a teaching based on compassion and loving kindness to all living beings into one which rewards the killing of unbelievers with heavenly bliss. It also opens the floodgates of stupidity, enabling such political machinations as the Kelani Cobra. 

In the infamous Mahawamsa story which debuts the justification for a holy war there is a marker for a different path. In the story, King Dutugemunu is saddened by the human costs of his victory. “How shall there be any comfort for me….since by me was caused the slaughter of a great host numbering millions?” he laments. And the deaths he is mourning are not even of civilians in the enemy territory but of enemy combatants. The call of his conscience is closer to the Buddha’s teaching than the supposed advice given to him by monks. It would also provide a better path to a lasting peace, and a more effective counter to the triumphant return of politics of religio-racial addiction.

The Salvation Mania 

In 2019, almost seven million Lankans ignored the evidence before their eyes and elected an economic ignoramus as president, believing that he could guide them to the promised land of development painlessly and fast.

Gullibility has become a national characteristic, something that unites us across racial, religious, class and other lines.

Pastor Jerome Fernando who calls himself a prophet and runs an extremely lucrative religious enterprise seems to epitome that specifically American construct: charismatic preacher who lords it over a fief and turns it into a profit-making venture. Such preachers embody in their teaching and practice the brashness of a certain strand of American capitalism and the anti-intellectual, anti-rational tendencies inherent in unadulterated Lutherism. Martin Luther rejected the concept of free will totally and advocated salvation via sola fide, faith alone. Fortunately for the world, Protestantism evolved into a more tolerant and rational faith due to active mediation by great humanists such as Philip Melanchthon. The American style charismatic preachers are outside this mainstream, advocating political and social stances that are often retrogressive. The role played by this outcrop of Protestantism in propping rightwing populist leaders from Trump to Bolsonaro is well-documented. 

  Pastor Jerome can perhaps be best understood by looking at the former Pitiduwe Siridamma thero who reinvented himself as Arhat Sri Samanthabadra and built another excellent religio-commercial enterprise, Umandawa. The one is as much of a follower of Christ as the other is a disciple of the Buddha. Both – and others of their ilk – work on vulnerabilities of people in uncertain times, turning fear and ignorance into lucre.

On October 3rd, 2002 a group of American Evangelical pastors wrote a letter to President George W Bush supporting a war against Saddam Hussein. The ‘Land Letter’ (named after its prime mover, Pastor Richard D Land) gave seven reasons why an invasion of Iraq would be a ‘Just War’. When Bob Woodward (of Watergate fame) asked President Bush if he consulted his (far more intelligent) father before invading Iraq, the younger Bush replied, “He is the wrong father to appeal to for advice… There is a higher father I appeal to”. The world is still living with the horrors that ‘divinely-mandated’ war, each unnecessary death a living reminder of what happens when religious irrationality bleeds into political irrationality.

Pastor Jerome cannot insult the Buddha even if he tries to. The Buddha was accused of worse and to his face, and his response was that since he refused to accept the insults, they would return to the ones making them. The danger Pastor Jerome represents is the same danger political monks and other politically active religious figures represent (including the Catholic Cardinal). Their words and deeds further exacerbate societal gullibility and social irrationality, making another 2019 and national follies of that order far more likely. But the battle that must be waged with such purveyors of blind faith and unquestioning obedience has nothing to do with law and incarceration. It is a contestation of ideas and ideals over the kind of future we want for Sri Lanka. A secular country where faith is a private matter and every citizen is free to follow a religion – or not – cannot be built on persecution and intolerance.  

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Latest comments

  • 18
    1

    Again another good article. Not all Buddhist monks and priests are like this, This is an interview with the chief priest of the ancient RajaMaha Naga Vihara in Nainatheevu. The interview is in Tamil and the truth that he states should be translated into Sinhalese and English. This is in regard to the illegal construction of the Thayithi Vihara by the armed forces.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v8tOEZjQkY

  • 10
    2

    Is Tisaranee’s call for a secular country a cry in the wilderness?

    • 4
      3

      “The left had a real chance to form a government at the next election, especially if its fractured components could bring themselves to work together. Had Lanka taken that path, there would have been no Sinhala Only, no Sri riots of 1958, no Black July, and no 25-year war. “
      I find that rather naive, given the world conditions in 1953. Any left-wing government would have been speedily despatched perhaps even by armed intervention by the same people who foisted the Shah on Iran the same year. Superpowers took their interests very seriously in those days. Who would have objected? Certainly not India, which didn’t want encouragement for its own growing leftist movements.

      • 14
        1

        Dear OC and other logical thinkers,
        .
        This country is a paradise for human beasts. Beasts are led by Mahinda Rajaakshe CO. Limited.
        .
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSK2cEVLUG8

        https://iharare.com/watch-uebert-angel-jr-sri-lankan-girlfriend-serve-couple-goals-in-latest-tik-tok-challenge/

      • 12
        1

        OC,
        .
        If anyone asks about me or others please don’t waste your valuable time on a GOSSIPY man like sinhala man. He is unique in his nature. Such people never see beyond it. As the people are becoming smarter day by day, SM or the like blind supporters of JVP are now quite nervous not being able to enjoy the crowds for their rallies
        . He says, I am spreading rumours, but I can add the link where I got information about NPP’s future leadership. Many would not like AKD to be the leader of that party combination.

        I think his type of nonsense based on gossip is diverting the topic. He is more interested in knowing one’s personal details than anything else. There was a tele drama back then in Sri Lanka called “Kopi Kade Dayavati”. This protagonist fits the nature of the Sinhalese man like a glove.

        He has proved his bold texts to CT readers in the last few months. My grandmother said it over and over again that bad company can destroy a person. That is what we see in his person today.
        89-92 murderers aka JVP are his friends today. So what other questions should we raise based on his madness today?

      • 5
        0

        Old Codger,

        I agree with you!

        In 1957, the first elections for the new Kerala Legislative Assembly were held, and a Communist Party of India-led government came to power, under E. M. S. Namboodiripad, the great communist leader.

        The communist government introduced education and agrarian bills followed by widespread agitations led by defeated Indian National congress with CIA assistance as it was then the normal style of CIA in their fight against communist expansion.
        Mrs Indira Gandhi was then the leader of Indian National Congress and her father Jawaharlal Nehru was the prime Minister.

        This led to the illegal dismissal of EMS government and to bring in Presidents rule, even though the elected communist government had the support of majority members.
        This was the western style of democracy then! Is it different now?

        JVP need not have any dream of capturing power through democratic elections !

        • 3
          1

          SK,
          The Congress learned to live with it, and now they are allies against Modi.

        • 2
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          “Mrs Indira Gandhi was then the leader of Indian National Congress and her father Jawaharlal Nehru was the prime Minister.
          This led to the illegal dismissal of EMS government”
          *
          The post of President of the INC was not of much purpose.
          Nehru used the anti-government riots as pretext to dismiss, but Indira was instrumental in stirring the riots (something which is unlikely that Nehru played a role in).
          The following is more revealing:
          “In Feroze, the forgotten Gandhi , Swedish author Bertil Falk has reported that Indira Gandhi felt that her father and India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was “indecisive” on communism, even as her parliamentarian husband, Feroze Gandhi, opposed her deal with “caste monsters” of the State.
          “She orchestrated the unrest from New Delhi through her loyal AICC workers in the State. And she did it hand in hand with the communal Hindus in the state and with the Muslim League,” Mr. Falk wrote in a chapter titled ‘Upheaval in Kerala.’”
          (source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/Feroze-biography-brings-up-Indira%E2%80%99s-role-in-ousting-EMS-govt./article16668460.ece).
          *
          There are other sources that confirm a conflict in approach between father and daughter.

          • 2
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            SJ,
            He looks so like his son Rajiv.

      • 3
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        OC
        Mr Nehru dissolved the Communist government of the state of Kerala at the time.
        Her Majesty the Queen of England dismissed the leftist government of Cheddi Jagan in Guyana around the same time.

        • 3
          1

          SJ,
          Probably we would have had a different sort of war.

    • 1
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      sonali, Whether we know it or not, we have a soul/spirit in addition to our bodies and where does that go when the body dies and goes to dust. You and I are right now not relating through our bodies but through our souls.. If you and I agree on the same belief system, that is spirit.

    • 2
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      Tisaranee is on thin ice, writing the unvarnished truth about Sinhala Buddhism. I do hope she doesn’t attract the attention of the unholy Mahanayakas.

  • 7
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    T. S,
    Please tell me where I can find rational faith?
    To me reason and faith don’t go together.
    Faith prevails or reason prevails. Stop.

    • 4
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      I share my counter view on your idea of faith.
      Faith is unadulterated trust in what you believe.
      If you believe in Religion it is your faith. It is you who is responsible for that belief. If you have the ability to reason well, they can go together.

      • 0
        2

        Nathan, My counter. Faith is not to believe in religion which most do, but which god of all the religions that exist. Example jews believe in Jehovah worshipped in Jerusalem temple altar. Arab Moslems worship Allah at the Mecca black box. Hindus worship other gods and so all are not of the same faith in our spirits which christians believe came from the spirit of the creator and which will return when man dies. But when it comes to mental reason in our souls leading to mental enlightenment, all humans are able to reason. Soul has mind, emotions and will.

        • 4
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          davidthegood,
          You have a poor understanding of Hindus.
          Let me say no further.

          • 2
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            Nathan,
            Forget Hinduism, I doubt DTG understands Christianity.

            • 3
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              There is another aspect to faith, it is the opposite of doubt. If a man has faith he will be torn by doubt. If he doubts, he will try to supress it with blind faith. They are the two sides of the same coin.
              In Buddhism there is such a thing as confidence, based on experiencing and investigating the silent (ie non-thinking) mind.

        • 2
          0

          dtg
          The notion of a single almighty creator God is unique to the three Bibilical families of religions.
          Buddhism and Jainism are atheistic.
          Hinduism is truly polytheistic subject to efforts to make it monotheistic but no agreement on the nature of the God.
          The oriental religions are free of a creator God. They emphasise social and personal norms of conduct. The family and community are central to religious thought so that they could assimilate various other religious concepts to their faiths. They do not waste much time debating faith.
          We all need some kind of faith to cope with the challenges of life.
          Perhaps faith in one’s self is the best as long as it is not to compete with another.

      • 5
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        Nathan

        “Faith is unadulterated trust in what you believe.”

        You mean for example it is like SJ’s faith in Mao and Maoism and his love for Siri Mao.

  • 17
    3

    TG, thanks for yet another outright, blunt and factual article. Thanks to SB racists who were lead by their rogue monks and corrupted politicians connived staging nation wide systematic ethnic cleansing. At the end all that , retards achieved is, to strip and make Lanka bankrupt.

    • 12
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      According to news via a live video stream ” Pastor Jerome apologized to Buddhist, Hindus and Muslims for hurting their faith, by his comments “. Will Ganasara and other rogue Monks / Theras do the same (the right thing) ????

      • 1
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        The “Prophet” still insists that he was right in what he said!

  • 10
    2

    I thought Si Lanka’s popultaion had a good educated people but when we look at the reality the population is more violent nature and most educated people are directly or indirectly responsible for the violent nature and corruption. So, there is no link between education and its violent culture or nature. I also thought that influence of buddhism woyld have helped to reduce the violent culture but again the people turned Buddhism into a violent philosophy. People may argue that Buddhism is good but only few misuse Buddhism but when the Whole Buddhist priests are on the side violence or keep silent on violent activities of Buddhists against innocents where Buddhism stands?

    • 8
      0

      Getting a degree is not education. Education should lead to wisdom and If really educated more people will be cultured and then it will be manifested in their behavior.

      • 2
        0

        (Part I)
        SK,
        I agree with you in the main point Education leading to Wisdom!! One other important ingredient to that “MIX” is atleast moderate to high IQ??!! When you have JPUM’s in the majority in any important institution, (Not Only in Parliament) the total case is a Failure – the main cause for the Bankruptcy!!??
        For those uninitiated JPUM is a pre-1957 accolade given to certain specialised individuals!!! Usually, the Acronym JPUM, legal eagles who are Justice of Peace and Unofficial Magistrate – to act in place of the Permanent Magistrate, when absent!
        HOWEVER, THAT ALSO IS THE ACRONYM TO THOSE PROFESSING AND PROCLAIMING KNOWLEDGE, WITHOUT EVER PROGRESSING BEYOND 7TH GRADE!!! Big talker without adequate educational credentials to Match!!!
        In those halcyon days they were fondly and adorably called “JUNIOR PASS, UNABLE PASS MATRICULATION” IN THE HEYDAY of Junior School Certificate (JSC) grade 7 and Senior School certificate (SSC) – Grade 9, which was University of London Matriculation Qualification!!!??
        It is poignant, that in the “Run Up to” March 2022, the KEY STAKE HOLDERS WERE ALL IN DEEP SLUMBER??!! Or was it NUMBNESS caused by failure of the mental faculty at the staggering and the
        (TBC)

      • 2
        0

        (Part II)
        Stupendous deep Ravine/Depression that was RISING and emerging itself in the Horizon of the Sri Lankan Economy!!! None did any act to STALL the USD’s PRECIPITOUS FALL!!??
        FORTUNATELY BY END MARCH/EARLY APRIL 2022, NANDALAL W WAS APPOINTED AS GOVERNOR CBSL. Who managed to reign in the depreciating SL RS.!!?? The Greek Bond backer perhaps had ulterior motives, probably make Sri Lanka a better (or Worse) example of Economic Collapse!!!?
        Pitiful state for nation – Time of Independence (1948) and immediately thereafter acclaimed
        “showcase DEMOCRATIC state in South East Asia (SEA), with all other “SEA Tigers” – trailing and SL acclaimed as exemplary stable Economic Democracy leading the Pack, including present TIGER of SEA Nations – Singapore!!!??
        First system change, improve governance, all voters by concensus decide to “send home packing” all JPUM’s, Majority of 225 August Assembly, as we Sri Lankans do not have space for these, who are burden on Public Purse to Occupy those selected 225 seats!!!
        What we need is Intelligent, men AND WOMEN OOZING WITH THE YEARNING TO SERVE AND NOT WAITING THEIR TURN TO QUALIFY FOR PENSION and retire – first and foremost KNOWLEDGEABLE to lead us Sri Lankans and NOT THE “OTHER WAY AROUND”!!!???

    • 5
      5

      “…most educated people are directly or indirectly responsible for the violent nature and corruption.”
      Really?
      So it will be a good explanation for keeping them out of parliament I guess.

      • 2
        3

        SJ, Educated people who understand the damage violence causes in a society do all they can, to exchange it for peace. But it is in their absolute greed for power and its money, that the ruling class is willing to unleash and eliminate their opponents through violence. No more statesmen here looking after the welfare of country or citizens.

      • 2
        0

        SJ,
        Parliament entry for eligible voters (now unfortunately it includes technically NON-VOTERS AS THEY ARE CITIZENS ELSEWHERE) is mainly due to Populism!!???
        How much any one is popular amongst SL voters helps the election of that individual!!!??? Unlike other democracies worldwide, which by far elect them on their Qualifications, Experience, Educational background etc.
        To attain popularity, they must amass wealth to enable them to spend on the voters, for much needed necessities – donation of Money and Food!! The expenses thereto are stupendous and one should have those resources to defray the Cost!!!???
        Alternatively, they may Seek Graft to defray the expenses incurred for providing these facilities to the electorate!!! No mean Feat
        Intelligence and Intellect is not a requirement to become member of SL Legislature – making laws!!!
        Exhibition of Tom Buffoonery is the only VITAL ingredient for election
        As much as one may want it otherwise, Unfortunate Part is that the GENIE, released by SWRDB & Philip G., WITH the help of the Pancha Maha Balavegaya will be hard to be sent back into the confinement of the bottle!!??
        So we have to live with it as no politician worth his ‘SALT’, is prepared to even talk about it!!!

  • 6
    0

    We can be very sure that the Pothuhera temple is of a far different enterprise to Pastor Jerome Fernando’s. That Bodhistava’s enterprise was entirely for building up the Sri Lankan community. He did not take the money of the gullible and place it on the international markets for magical burgeoning like Pastor Jerome’s enterprise. And who knows, that Bodhistava might have indeed Nirvana. Malwatte and Asgiriya together with the Diyawadana Prelates together with Nilame of the Temple of the Tooth had better transfer The Tooth to the Pothuhera temple if the Enlightment is proved within accepted criteria.

    As per Pastor Jerome, he and his adherents are not gullible -they are greedy! They close their eyes not caring of the method on how the money will magically bloom on the global scene – untaxed wealth, global money-laundering, drug trade, global dysfunction, global upheaval, Wars……with them all worshiping Mammom! Needs to be prosecuted and stopped in its tracks

    • 0
      0

      ~And who knows, that Bodhistava must have indeed attained Nirvana.

    • 0
      0

      Ok….all can be forgiven if he starts building the SME of Sri Lanka, instead of using the untaxed monies to build up mostly his physical church (let him have 10% for his glory be). And it has to be in league with the other religions. Then we will know he is a true prophet. All this while he didn’t have the correct awareness. Now that he knows the error of his ways, he can be perfected…..Christ’s light being a democratic thing. That Bodhisattva of the Pothuhera temple does it correctly.

  • 12
    2

    TG
    Once again you are very correct in your thinking.
    The most practical way to move a country forward is through critical or rational thinking, coming up with solutions to issues, implementing positive policies and most importantly all citizens being united in pursuing the goals as a team.
    While the easiest way to bring down a country is by dividing it along various lines. The uncreative and weak leader will do the latter not considering the damage various divisions would do.
    Unfortunately we have had mostly the dull brand of leaders like Mara.
    When compared to other leaders in most other progressive countries, the Mara clan are retards.
    They don’t have an iota of intellectual substance in them.
    People with Mara’s kind of intelligence should be limited to manual labour at best.
    Sri Lankans plight is not a surprise to me, it is simply cause and effect in action. When the majority of the people in the country decided to vote for a herd of buffaloes what did we expect?
    At least now, we should keep our petty thoughts aside and get organised as one country and work diligently to achieve parity.

    • 11
      1

      TG
      Having said what I have said above, let me speak about Buddhist monks.
      For starters, covering one’s self doesn’t make you a Buddhist monk.
      Just as in other walks of life, it should be the educational proffieiency attained through a proper system of education and testing, should one be ordained as a monk.
      Buddhism is a difficult philosophy to comprehend. Memorising gaathas and parroting them doesn’t mean the parroter understands even the tiniest thing about the message given by the Buddha. If they did, we will not be having extremists, radicals and bastards wearing saffron robes.
      Unfortunately there is no standard clear cut path to becoming a monk in Sri Lanka.
      Until such time, a great sanctuary for Buddhism like Sri Lanka, implement such stringent policy about the high standards required to call a monk a monk, we will only have monkeys running around in saffron robes.
      That is the sad truth.
      We all know the majority of present crop of saffron clad idiots are mostly there for the free food. And they pollute the immaculate image of Buddhism.

      • 6
        0

        HT,
        “For starters, covering one’s self doesn’t make you a Buddhist monk.
        Just as in other walks of life, it should be the educational proficiency attained through a proper system of education and testing, should one be ordained as a monk.”
        One cannot agree with you more; Absolute truth and requirement!!!
        The other most salient and important ingredient to be sought and retained for best outcomes is VITALLY, the need to recruit to the Monastry of Monks to the Sangha, should be,
        1. Aptitude
        2. Merit – intelligence and Intellect
        3. Slightly mature age of entry than practiced now for Sameneras!!??
        4. Family background
        5. Good preliminary education before becoming Sameneras?
        6. Sustained development of the education level post ordination – Religious and Civic
        Unless this is addressed to and remedied, and if the current system of recruiting practised (Families enabling their offspring whom they find it difficult to educate and Feed) becoming Sameneras, the remedy envisaged is not even seen as becoming reality in the distant dawn – UNACHIEVEBLE!!!???
        Whither Sri Lankan Buddhism!!!??

      • 10
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        Part 1
        Dear HT and all the other logical thinkers,

        I think HT is refering on “Sinhala Buddhist monks. Let me tell you, I have met Japanese and Australian monks (in europe) who follow the Dhamma guidelines 24 hours a day. That is their way of practising buddhism. Unfortunately, ours have fallen to the levels that they practise ” filthy langauge instead”.

        Moreover, it was proved that the monks of Burma and Nepal are too educated in those Buddhist languages, while our Sinhalese monks have not mastered Pali and Sanskrit languages. This is very sad. Those Mahanayake monks do not give a damn about this topic. This is the Sinhala Buddhism that is fallen today.

        Buddhist processions mostly harm wild animals under the guise of rituals. Some travelers have voiced this. Their myths hurt those animals. They interpret it according to their agendas. This is against the animal rights that save the world today.

        tbc

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          Part 2
          It is right that many of our Sinhalese monks are like parrots. They are great friends. Many of them entered the monastic life because their parents could not provide food. However, the myth that “a child sacrifice can save generations” may also be another reason why those children become child monks.
          They are not at all rational about what they have preached.

          There is a celebrity in VANAWASI MONK who recently stated that there is nothing wrong with being surrounded by luxury vehicles and other amenities. He said that to a YouTuber the other day. I was speechless.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh1gsZENedU

          As I learned from reading “Ummagga Jataka” the monk should be free from attachment to anything. That is the reason why they maintain a brave head from the first day they enter the monastic life.

          But Today there is no “clear line” between Buddhist laity and monks. This is a sad situation, because people are more stupid than that, even Sinhala Buddhists don’t care if Sinhala Buddhists rape a child or a woman by rolling the “Bo Maluwa” on the ground. Even Sinhala Buddhists are being raped by sinhala monks, people dont give a damn.???

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    Debate is so much better than rejection or saying this separate that

    Why not have a debate and see then the wave length and frequency all religion is the same. Reason is before Christian come to whom did people worship and before Buddhism to whom we worship you are born in Christian and say Christian is superior likewise born in Buddhism or Islam or Hinduism says the same that’s why you have a debate.

    In all debates, let truth be thy aim, not victory, or an unjust interest

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      RBH59, In Judges 6,31, the son had destroyed altar to Baal that his father Joash had made. Joash told the people to let Baal defend his own altar.

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    If our country is to progress the unholy alliance between the Buddhist Clergy and the State must end first. Sadly the Saffron Robe wields too much power and has a stranglehold that no politician would resist.
    We might have to wait a long long time to pop this genie, that was unleashed by SWRD, back in the bottle.

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      Cyclops, You have understood the solution, but ‘this genie’ has tasted too many politicians and will never agree to be locked up again so that the country and citizens can benefit again.

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    After reading all the comments below this —-> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAffcOYqlbY ……… I believe our true savour has finally arrived. He speaks better than any of our pols: even better than Mahinda.

    Native, rejoice your country’s/people’s saviour is finally here.

    Promised Land, here we come. Hallelujah!

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      Nimal,

      He was not taxed in Sri Lanka as Sri Lanka does not have a proper taxation system. His followers who donated jeweler, money, property, are not adequately taxed (if at all) – the necessary tax so the country can function at normalcy. And most of the money came from political honchos who took the money from the hard-work and suffering of the Lankan workers to gambol on international markets.

      If his followers were taxed in line as the proper functioning countries are taxed, his followers would not have these money and assets to give in the first place for Pastors such as these to roll the country proceeds on the international exchange. Time he returns all the money and assets so they can properly be assessed for Lankan taxation. Unfortunately, most of the money would have gone from the international spheres for the Ukraine war.

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        All good big business is tax-free ………. with money-laundering thrown in ……… https://www.sundaytimes.lk/230521/news/pastor-jerome-under-the-radar-cid-to-probe-the-big-bucks-behind-his-church-520626.html :))

        Ranil is throwing the book at him with his whole library. …….. while protecting Gota and Mahinda and the rest on the crooks! :)) …….. What would’ve Buddha said about all that? At this stage of Ranil’s antics, your guess is better than OC’s!!! …… Ranil has his own true-believers, you know ……. Jerome has his!

        Sinhala_Man is fighting hard to get his own believers …… trying his best to sideline poor “Dan” among the flock.

        Native and I have none!

        Unlike Jerome, poor Native has a hard time with the women believers. ………. My skills are such, I can’t even make Native a believer:)))

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        All can be forgiven if he starts building the SME of Sri Lanka, instead of using the untaxed monies on building up mostly his physical church (let him have 10% for his glory be) – that Bodhisattva of the Pothuhera temple does it correctly. He would truly be spreading the gospel then. And it has to be in league with the other religions. Then we will know he is a true prophet.

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      nimal fernando

      “Native, rejoice your country’s/people’s saviour is finally here.”

      I didn’t hear him apologising to Christians, Catholics, Pope, ……….. for taking the lot for aride. Don’t you have to remind the prophet?

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      Nimal,
      So he cures 400 people every Sunday…. using the Jewish candelabra behind him. Hallelujah!!

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        Nimal,
        “He speaks better than any of our pols: even better than Mahinda.”
        Nobody can beat Mahinda. “Apey hamuduruwane, dan sapadaaaaa?”

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        Rasputin did the same.

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