Don't React Negatively to Others Who Mocks Us

Every religion praises their respective God everyday. Same for Buddhists. We chant, "O - The Blessed One, the Supremely Enlighted One, Leader of Gods and Men, Arahant, etc etc". There is always this tendency to defend our religions at the expense of others. We think that it is our duty to do so, otherwise we will be punish to hell later when we die. Many times we have seen crime being committed in the name of defending the sanctity of our respective God. The fact that others are kidnapped, killed, stabbed, or whatever does not matter to us. We feel threatened when we see other religions start spreading their "gospel" or some of our members got converted. Sometimes we feel we need to amend the laws of the nation to protect our own religions, at the expense of others. But all these crime and hate cannot be accepted, even if it was to protect our own.

 

What believers do, it actually reflects upon his or her God. Buddha is only as enlightened as our Buddhists' actions, speech and thinking. If we commit killing or hurt others, even though we do it for the sake of our religion, in actual fact we are belittling our own religion. We will be making a mockery of our own religion. Due to our silly, impulsive and emotional actions, we will make our religion seems like it never teaches us the way of patience, tolerance and wisdom. What wisdom? The wisdom to forgive those who mocks us. The wisdom to guide those immature people who makes fun of our religion. The wisdom to provide the true picture of our religion to those who cannot yet see it. But only to make them understand and not to convert them. I truly believe that only when our actions are virtuous and holy, are we truly praising our Lord. This is something many don't understand. They don't get it. So people get into conflicts over religions. If people want to burn in hell, there is not much we can do. So why try to convert others so much? Give them time to believe what they want and if our Lord is that great, he will know what to do. We don't have to decide for Him and take the law into our own hands. People are not as compassionate as they think they are. The moment someone says something against what they want to hear, they easily get agitated and angry. Then they feel they want to take revenge. This "revenge and punish 'em" attitude is very bad and shows that we never practice our own religions properly.We should not react negatively to others who ridicule us. Have patience. Instead of anger, show them mercy and compassion. Instead of urging the authorities to put them in jail, try instead to put them into good institutions under the guidance of proper mentors or counselling where perhaps they can learn something about citizenship, nation building and harmony. Try instead to turn them into good model people. You try to push them more, the more they will hate you. So that is not the way to transform people. If we want to be saints and bodhisattvas, we need to have the wisdom in knowing how to guide stubborn, immature persons into good, positive persons. Only if that does not work out, maybe you need to be a little bit hard on them. Just a little. If that still does not work out, then a little harder. In this way, we give chance for people to transform themselves into better persons. We should not straight away punish people very harshly without first trying the soft way (of changing their wrong attitudes).

 

So what I suggest above, may it serve to truely praise The Lord, if what I say is true! May the Buddha continue to turn the wheel of dharma! So, to those radical Buddhists in Myanmar, Sri Lanka or elsewhere, I pray that they think it over before they do anything negative against others. Same for the other way around. We try to live in harmony with all kinds of sentient beings! May there be peace!

Helping People By Being A Medium

Referring to this news below, I think helping people is good. I am just not sure if the spirit that goes into him during trance is really the deity "Zhang Fei". That's all.

http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2013/07/27/Businessman-finds-unusual-calling-He-turns-into-Taoist-medium-to-help-others.aspx

Bodhgaya bombing : Buddhist Leaders in Myanmar Must Act More Wisely

Recently the holiest of Buddhist holy sites got bombed. Yes, the Mahabodhi temple at Bodhgaya, Bihar, India was bombed and 2 monks were injured. According to the Indian police, the Indian Mujahideen group claimed responsibility. Apparently they were unhappy about the muslim Rohingyas in Myanmar who were said to be mistreated by the ethnic Rakhinese, who are Buddhists. Soon after the incident, very quickly we see Buddhist teachers and holinesses issuing public statements urging patience and compassion for the perpetrators. I feel what is missing is their public messages condemning the violent acts by Buddhist Rakhinese towards the Rohingyas. Of course, the Rohingyas have their violent actions too. But being Buddhists, we must chide our own people. Failure to chide our own people is indirectly supporting them. I am happy that His Holiness the Dalai Lama were among the first major Buddhist leader to condemn any Buddhist leaders in Myanmar who are responsible for the attacks on any Muslims in Myanmar. It showed that he is a fair person. The actions by those few aggressive Buddhists in Myanmar do not realise that their actions have a vast implication on other Buddhists outside of Myanmar. For the first time, the Times magazine had recently published detailed account of a Buddhist terrorist in its cover article entitled  "The Face of Buddhist Terror". For the first time in the history of Buddhism, a Buddhist with robes of a Theravada Sangha, had been branded as a terrorist. This is such a big shame! These people has tarnished the peaceful and tolerant impression people of other religion had, until now, towards Buddhism. I hope they will know that the majority of Budhdist people are peaceful and will not seek aggressiveness as a solution. I believe it is only these small group of irresponsible monks and laypersons in Myanmar that keep on inciting hatred towards the Rohingyas. I believe the same goes to a small group of irresponsible people who incite hatred towards the Buddhist Rakhinese. No matter what they do, the Buddhists must not be emotional and re-act wrongly towards them.

With the bombing of the Mahabodhi temple, I fear for the safety of Buddhist holy sites. The police in India particularly must be more vigilant. Buddhist leaders in Myanmar must act more wisely and be more accommodating towards the Muslims. The same goes for the Rohingyas. If they are not accommodating and terrorise Buddhists, they will create their own hellish karma that they will suffer sooner or later. That is for sure. But Buddhists must find a way to uphold the peace in society in a smarter way than being aggressive or violent. I know it is easier said than done, but they should try peaceful means to resolve their crisis. At least I don't think it has come to a situation when non-peaceful means need to be considered. Not yet. They have not even come together in a roundtable conference to seek peace. That is all I can say.