Venerable Sumedha Bodhi is an Indian Buddhist monk working to spread the wisdom of the Buddhist Dhamma Soldier movement to reform in Myanmar and India. In this commentary, released during this time of crisis for Myanmar and India, he expresses hope that relationships between people in India and Myanmar will grow and benefit from reflection on Buddhist wisdom.
India and Myanmar are linked by the cultural affinity and the geographical contiguity, and they are shared in history. Buddhism remains an enduring bond. The sacred sites of Bodh Gaya and Shwedagon pagoda are testimony to the strong relations that have existed between the two countries throughout the centuries. This contact was not only one way, but the traders and teachers also visited each other from the two countries or territories.
Today, India and Myanmar are working together on many levels. Many students from both countries are visiting to study long-term and short-term courses, construction of projects are underway, humanitarian relief work is going well and tourists and pilgrims are visiting the sacred places of both countries.
Myanmar is a Southeast Asian country where the innumerable beings practiced the ancient teachings of the Buddha and became the Arhanats. But today, the followers of the Buddha are facing social, political, economic, technological, health, religious, and environmental challenges. In fact, the Golden Land has the ability to support others, instead nowadays it is trying to get support from outside to survive.
The other side of the coin is the unrest, injustice, gambling, bogus-like negative factors that are increasing day by day. Therefore, to come out from these problems, we should “reform” ourselves and our organizations and policies as early as possible. The Government of India is already reforming itself through “the ancient Indian knowledge system” to extract itself from corruption.
The “Dhamma Soldier Reform Movement” (DSRM) is conducting lectures and activities related to Dhamma to educate the masses to reform India. I conducted classes to improve human values and spiritual values to improve the knowledge of the masses. I am strongly working to help people to come out from drunkenness, guthka, Panparg, gambling, betel chewing and prostitution. For women, I am stressing to develop moral values and for those affected to come out from an undignified way of
life. Myanmar people can work to eradicate corruption by not supporting wrong policies, wicked persons, and institutions in their own country, and Indian people can do the same.
I strongly believe that the same movement holds good in Myanmar and India to realize the dreams of people going forward. India and Myanmar have the many similarities socially, politically, and economically to work together. Therefore, we hope that India and Myanmar are entering into new relationship, a relationship devoted to reform.
India and Myanmar need to work together to resolve the post-coup crisis in Myanmar and ethnic and political clashes in India peacefully within the constitutional framework. I hope that the Dhamma Soldier Reform Movement is quite useful in this regard for people and both governments.
How will we reform? Who will reform? What are the benefits of reforms? I will discuss.
First of all, everybody should know that there is not “I” and “mine”. There is no someone, some-situation and some-thing, there is only mind-matter (Nāma-Rūpa) which is ever changing by nature. Everything happens according to “Karma”, but there is not any God almighty or superpower who is executing all of these things.
If you know who you are then only you can take the appropriate decisions and if you are ignorant of “what you are”, then your decisions all go the wrong way. I mean one should be a ‘realist ’as the Buddha said. But now unfortunately, people are living in an illusion. They also don’t have a moral-based “Art of Living” to lead a peaceful and meritorious life. If they cultivated the proper way of life definitely, they can be successful in achieving their goals materially and spiritually.
Therefore, everybody should learn to see things as they are. For example, we know the flower-garland. Flowers always looks beautiful but fade away within a few hours, but the inside thread does not fade. In the same way, we shouldn’t look at the external factors which are impermanent and always changing (Anicca). See the thread inside the garland, not the outside flowers of the garland. I mean don’t confuse with the external objects, concepts, issues, etc. Follow the path proclaimed by the enlightened beings for the benefit of ourselves.
One should practice Sīla, Bhāvanā, and Vandanā, etc. which is the base for the spiritual and material development in one’s own life. Then we have to think about the world around us. Nowadays, the natural decline in the moral standards and natural changes in health, height, etc., and also it is affecting the practitioner negatively. Today, we are living in unclean surroundings. Also, there are not serene and sanctified surroundings in which to practice the teachings of the Buddha as the Buddha
asked us to practice. To overcome these hindrances, we have to follow “socially-engaged Buddhism” the 20th century concept to continue our traditional Buddha’s path for the benefit of oneself and others around us.
The engaged Buddhism grounded in the ethics and morality is the path of social action in the world as opposed to the path of rights and rituals, which became the part of ancient traditional Buddhism. I mean identifying and addressing the human suffering outside of the cravings and ignorance of the sufferer - such as social, political and economic injustice, etc. This doesn’t mean that present-day Buddhists are deviating from the actual ancient path, which is promulgated by the Buddha.
The leaders of engaged Buddhism advocated moral training (Sīla such as right speech, right action, and right livelihood which is featured in the traditional eightfold path), which may be of special interest to the engaged Buddhists, in forming their choice of public statements, activities, and roles through meditation training (Samadhi: right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration), and wisdom training (Pañña: right view and right thought). It is nothing but Dhamma or Dharma in action.
The distinction between the social actions (for example, caring for the sick or helping the poor and needy or joining a peace march) which is typically undertaken to relieve others ’suffering, and the ritual action (meditation and devotional rites, for example), which is typically undertaken to relieve the practitioner’s own suffering, is not easy to maintain in Buddhism, where “inner” and “outer” practices are deeply interdependent.
Most of the engaged Buddhists profiled insist on the identification of the spiritual and social dimensions of their practice, and they regard service and activism as essential to today’s Buddhist path. This view point is not acceptable to all the engaged Buddhists or scholars in engaged Buddhism like Robert Bosewell and Robert Gimello and others. In this connection, the words of Tich Nhat Hanh are worth remembering: Do not avoid contact with suffering or close your eyes before suffering.
Do not lose awareness of the existence of suffering in the life of the world. Find ways to be with those who are suffering by all means, including personal contact, visits, images, and sounds. By such means awaken yourself and others to the reality of suffering in the world.
Further, many international figures in engaged Buddhism, particularly ordained leaders such as the Dalai Lama and Maha Goshananada, hold that spiritual effort, mindfulness, and meditation are the
very actions that will decisively shape one’s speech, social behaviors, and livelihood – and these will, in turn have beneficial ripple effects throughout society.
The engaged Buddhists never asserted that individual freedom and awakening are unimportant or unrelated to social justice, human rights, and environmental protection, but it is critical to stress the distinction between immediate and long-term objectives. It is seeing the personal and social as deeply interconnected.
Now, we decided to focus our attention to reform society, politics, economy and the judicial system. We also have to consider health and environment issues. We have to uproot ‘social, political, economic suffering and injustice ’through educating people, not by the gun.
When I am doing activities in India, I detected that many even learned also doubt about positive change. They are strongly believing that there won’t be change in the future. They lost hope regarding positive developments in society, government and individuals. Then, I explained to realize the facts of future possibilities in my “Dhamma Soldier Reform Movement”. For example, if we can remember teachings of the enlightened beings that they said everything is happening in our life due to “karma”, not because of our effort or any other external superpower, etc.
We should be optimistic to gain benefits in our personal life. If we take refuge in the Dhamma, we will definitely attain positive change. After taking refuge, we should work hard to try ourselves to be good and to do good deeds. If anyone follows as I say, he will definitely get to a higher level spiritually and materially.
Conclusion: Material wellbeing is a prerequisite for moral development and its absence leads to social disaster. I mean that the material support precedes successful moral leadership because it eradicates the immoral environments and poverty that are obstructions.
The engaged Buddhist movements do not typically make clear distinctions between the “worldly” or “mundane” suffering which is caused by temporal conditions and the more profound “spiritual” suffering (dukkha) that is the result of individuals ’attachments. The engaged Buddhist social ethics can be regarded as nominal. Thus, the distinction between “temporal” and “spiritual” suffering is crucial and should not be overlooked by any engaged Buddhists if they wish to maintain a sense of continuity with the Buddhist tradition.
It is becoming clear that our Buddhism must be and will be socially engaged – not as a replacement of earlier teachings, but as a supplement to and development of them. I believe that the Buddha’s ancient teachings on suffering, impermanence, and selflessness will continue to shine.
