Buddhism And The Politics Of Homosexuality
Thrishantha Nanayakkara
Last weekend, I enjoyed some time with the kids and my wife in the beach. As always, it was so relaxing to watch how the waves arose, broke down on sand, and receded back to the sea. Walking along, we were paying attention to the sound of waves impounding on sand. Every wave had a sound track with its own subtle uniqueness that sent waves of unique feelings inside me. At some point, I closed my eyes, and started to watch these waves of feelings triggered by every new wave that broke on the beach. It re-confirmed me that I had no control over the waves of feelings being propagated in my mind – ear (rupa) comes into contact with sound (rupa), a vinyana or the discriminative awareness arises (vi-for vibhedana or splitting, and nyana-for knowing that splits a “me” here vs a “wave” out there), detailed sensations (vedana) of the sound comes under discriminative awareness, and perceptions and judgments arise (sanya). When I closed one ear (augmented the physical organization of the process of hearing or kaya sankara), the way I felt the sound of waves changed. So my feelings and perceptions depended on kaya sankara too (sankara in general refers to any thing with a structure in body, mind, or language).
What was striking is that this whole internal wave starting from the contact of a sound wave on the ear all the way to perceptions was so self-driven. I had no control over the process, and the end effect depended on so many laws of nature (dharmatha) of which I was only a manifestation, than a controlling authority. This notion is explained in Buddhism in one word called anatta (the non-self nature). When we are unaware of this process, somebody who goes to the beach will enjoy the feelings for sometime, but get bored of it over time, or find some fault there, like the chill in the air. This non-satisfactory nature of being unaware of sensations is called the quality of dukka (du- for weak, akka-for axis), or in other words the compulsion to move away seeking a more pleasurable thing out there. It works like a wheel mounted on a weak axis – hence it is calleddu-akka or dukka. Moreover, the variation of the sound track of every new breaking wave, and the variability of resulting perceptions is called the quality of anicca or anithya every present in nature. Buddha explained that all five aggregates – rupa, vedana, sanya, sankara, and vinyana – that underpin compounded objects and mind, possess the three qualities – unaware clinging leads to unsatisfactoriness (dukka), the aggregates are subject to change (anithya), and there is no superseding owner of the five aggregates but they are self driven, conditioned, and transient phenomena (anatta). Read More
Orientalists’ Perspective On Sri Lankan Moors
By Aboobacker Rameez -August 22, 2013
Aboobacker Rameez
This is in response to the recent article titled Moors of Sri Lanka are not perfectlypeaceful appeared at Colombo Telegraph by Dr Imthiyaz, on whom, I have a great respect as an academic who largely deals with issues concerning ethnic conflicts and minority issues in Sri Lanka and other parts of the world.
However, I beg to disagree with his latest article in which he seriously lambasted the Muslims as being not a peaceful community in Sri Lanka. At the outset, let me stress that the Moors (also known as Muslims) have never joined with the separatist movement in Sri Lanka that fought against the government forces for many decades. Many people concede that had Muslims joined hands with the rebels fighting for the Ealam project in North East, things would have been different. The government at the early stages of the war was ill equipped to deal with the separatists. Muslims due to their refusal to ally with the paid dearly in terms of life and wealth, even this author has lost one of his close relatives in the attack of the separatists in 90s. It is also to be noted that the Southern Sinhalese also had two insurgencies in 70s and 80s with the frustrated youth as a result of mass unemployment and poverty gripping the country at that time.
Muslims, unlike their Tamil and Sinhalese counterparts, have never been involved in any insurgencies. The Muslims have always remained as a peaceful and harmonious community with a great deal of integration with other communities such as Sinhelese and Tamils in the Island. Read More
