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| Thursday, 20 January 2005 |
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Catastrophes and human craving by Daya Sirisena, President, Board of Trustees, Sirisena Dharmamandiraya and Meditation Centre, Moratuwa. Although the tsunami claimed thousands of lives it also brought many hidden human qualities to the surface. It has proved we live under one roof in the world and we have one moon and one sun. This tragedy has made all to think positively. The Buddha said that he himself had known both pleasure and pain in their most extreme forms. If life were unrelieved misery noone would feel a desire to continue with it. If it were unalloyed happiness these would be no need for the remedy which religion seeks to provide. Now we all know the adverse conditions prevail in the world, where good and evil, virtue and vice are in perpetuate conflict man's noblest endeavours could be born. It is only in such a world in fact that these opposites could exist. Human beings exhibit such a diversity of taste, inclinations and desires. It is not possible for human beings to think for even a second of building a uniform society and providing happiness because of diversity. Can we imagine ideal happiness and security in the world? We may dream of ideal happiness and security but we fail to achieve them. The Buddha stood outside the limitations of consciousness continued in an illusory Self and was able to see through and beyond the cosmic process past the boundaries of space and time. At last, after those six years of arduous, agonizing and fruitless austerities, he was able to say, I discovered the profound truth so difficult to perceive, difficult to comprehend, tranquillising and sublime, which is not to be grasped by mere reasoning and is visible only to the wise (Majjima Nikaya 26). The profound truth he found and penetrated was the fourfold division of knowledge. Buddha found that craving and ignorance are the two major factors for continuity of life and manifestation of everything. We in this world do so many things with craving and ignorance and this builds fear. The time has come for world leaders to sit together and discuss a way of getting rid of all nuclear weapons and mass destructive weapons which cause fear. No sensible world leader would want a catastrophe caused by nuclear weapons which in turn are born of craving. The human suffering we see now is so great, particularly after tsunami. I appeal to world leaders to completely prohibit the use of nuclear weapons. They must make a joint declaration that no country has the right to use these weapons against mankind. May all human beings be happy and contented. |
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