I hope you can give me a little space to make a few observations on the letter published in your newspaper by Mr. D. Senaratne captioned ‘Unethical Conversions’. As this subject is being discussed by erudite scholars, I only wish to comment about the careless manner Mr. S has written about the five precepts and Buddha Dhamma in general. The five precepts are training precepts and not for repetition like a ‘parrot’. In the first precept, the Buddha has recognized the ‘right to life’. There are no provisos like "you may kill to eat". In the second precept, the Buddha has ensured ‘The right to one’s property’. There are no qualifications about ‘foul means’. The other three training precepts also have deep meanings and due to constraints of space I shall not go into it.
Buddha Dhamma Mr. S, is for the training of the mind and not for repetition like a parrot or is to be obtained within the ‘inside walls of a temple’. Wisdom is not coterminous with academic achievements. One passes examinations by borrowing other peoples’ knowledge reproduces them at examinations becomes qualified and affixes letters behind or before their names. A well known doctor of medicine, now dead, told me how he won all the gold and other medals. He said that he borrowed all the notes from his lecturer and ‘crammed’ for about three months before his examination, sleeping less than five hours in a day! He explained this to me to show the difference between knowledge and wisdom.
I will explain this further by reference to a discourse by the Buddha to the Ven. Ananda Thero, when he was asked what the benefit/merit of practising Seela - morality. To conserve space, I am giving only the gist of the discourse and if Mr. S cares to learn more, he could discuss with an erudite bhikku and there are many of them, apart from the one who you say ‘offered you any brand of liquor’! There are people masquerading as bhikkus to bring discredit to the robe.
Ven. Ananda asked the Buddha the benefit/merit of practising Seela. The Buddha explained that those who practised Seela will have the benefit of non remorse, which will be the starting point to bring about the benefits of gladness, inner joy, tranquillity, concentration, realistic knowledge leading to wisdom and emancipation. One can achieve all this within the ‘inner walls of one’s house’.
People go to Viharaya to pay homage to the Buddha who showed us the path to get rid of dhukka by bringing to an end this farcical existence. The temple is where the bhikkus live.
You say that discussions on unethical conversions overshadow the complaints of the rising cost of living. Whichever the government is in power, we Sri Lankans have been grumbling about the rising cost of living. Cost of living goes up and down according to supply and demand of the products essential for living. We cannot blame governments for the droughts or floods which affect supply. Look at the large sums of money that has to be spent on helping our suffering families without water even to drink and how people have got together to give whatever help they can afford. It is elementary economics that when goods are in short supply, prices will rise which economists call too much money chasing too few goods - inflation. We are dependent for most of our essentials on imports and world price increase of such products, we cannot control and such price rises, the economists describe as cost push inflation. So we, consumers are hit from both directions. The simple answer is for the economic managers of this country to activate national plans to produce our food needs and for all of us to contribute in whatever way we can to achieve the objective.
