Special lecture on Security, Peace, Harmony and Co-existence

Special lecture on
Security, Peace, Harmony and Co-existence

Dr. Ashin Ñyāņissara (Ph.D., D.Litt.)
Aggamahāpaņdita,
Mahādhammakathika Bahujanahitadhara,
Aggamahā Saddhammajotikadhaja
The chancellor of Sītagū International Buddhist Academies
The founder of Sītagū organization
The principal of Theravada Dhamma Society of America

Your Venerable,
Eminent Scholars,
Distinguished Guests,
Friends in Dhamma,

Good morning,
On behalf of the Sītagū International Buddhist Missionary Association, I would, first of all, like to extend our warm welcome to the religious, political and spiritual leaders and academic scholars from different parts of the world present here today and wish you all good health and personal well-being. I'm confident that you are all gathered here with the noble spirit to work together not only for individual peace and prosperity but for that of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and the entire world as a whole.

I'm pleased to say that our meeting today under the theme of Security, Peace, Harmony and Co-existence goes with the teaching of the Buddha who said "frequent meetings between religious or political or social leaders bring prosperity to all". The Buddha also said that frequent meetings should be organized with the aim of finding solution to problems, but not finding fault with others or putting a blame on each other.

As you are aware, the world today is facing with conflicts and tragedies almost everywhere. At this critical time, we need to find out the cause of problem as a matter of priority. It helps us reach the right solution to the problem. If a person comes to a physician to receive medical treatment, the physician has to first diagnose the disease before deciding what medication is to be given. Unfortunately, many patients get worse due to the physician's wrong medication without conducting thorough diagnosis. The world has witnessed a lot of sufferings caused by human beings throughout the history, like a patient who does not receive proper treatment or medication. It has been tainted with jealousy, enmity, aggression and fighting. The whole world is shaking and unstable as the Buddha said over 2500 years ago.

At this time of chaos and instability, it is an urgent need for us to find ways to turn the unstable world stable. The Buddha said 'the whole world is blazing with greed, anger, jealousy, hatred and enmity. Nowadays, peace and stability are hardly seen prevailing. Conflicts are pervasive and the whole world is almost without peace politically, economically and socially. It is totally discouraging to note that these conflicts, fighting and instabilities have even brought a spark into the religious world which has long been peaceful and stabilized with the noble teachings of respective religions. The situation is thus demanding us to work together through the meetings of this kind for world peace.

I would here like to take this opportunity to bring to you another message of the Buddha. He said, "The whole world is needy". It is absolutely true. We can clearly see that any country, whether it is practising socialism or capitalism or communism or democracy, is in need of one thing or another. No political system is perfect for its people. Even those who follow the teachings of their respective religions are not perfect in their work due to lack of knowledge of the religion they believe in. Frankly speaking, the Buddhists do not really know about the Buddha and the essence of his teachings. In the same way, there are a large number of Christians whose knowledge about Jesus's compassion and wisdom is limited. The same is obvious in Hinduism. There are a large number of Hindus who do not have much knowledge about Brahmins and follow their way of noble living.

At the time of knowledge age with the rapid advancement of science and technologies, it is clearly seen that the people of different faiths have become less interested in the teachings of their respective religions. I am wondering if this situation would lead us to a future where people do not believe in and follow the teachings of their respective religions any more. The current situation has proved that even at the time noble religious teachings are prevailing, the religious and political leaders find it hard to put the conflicts well under control. I dare not imagine how worse our future will be without religion.

I would, thus, like to point out that we urgently need to work for Modern Education, in harmony with Moral Education. At the same time we need to pay much attention to the two great tasks, "Missionary and Ministry" with a view to make people's heart calm and peaceful.

I would here like to quote what I have heard a Myanmar politician of pre-independence days say. He said "politics is nothing but just to balance Demand and Supply". Demand is on the increase while the supply is on the reverse. It proves that "The whole world is needy" as the Buddha said. There'll be conflicts, riots and fighting as long as people think their needs are not fulfilled. They are not contented with what they have and their hearts are filled with more and more desires.

I would like to say "Poverty" is the root-cause of conflict. It can be considered as two main causes - Economic Poverty and Education Poverty. The latter is the problem, almost every country is facing today, which is mainly caused by economic poverty and unemployment. It is a matter of sympathy for the youths who cannot learn at school due to economic poverty. Some have to drop out without finishing their studies and have to live rough by earning a living that comes their way. This is the case to be seen more in Asian and African countries. Young people who lose their education due to economic poverty easily become mentally poor.

Conflicts are pervasive only in those countries which are facing economic, education and mental poverty. But conflicts hardly take place in the countries with opposite circumstances. So I'm of the view that it is the prime duty of all religious leaders to uplift the mentality and intellectuality of those who are mentally and intellectually poor. It is understood that respective governments, on their part, will do their best for alleviation of economic poverty. It is quite natural that people from under-developed and developing countries move to other places where there are better chances of education and living. It can be proved by the movement of about two million Myanmar people to Thailand, about two hundred thousand to Malaysia, about one hundred thousand each to Japan and Korea.

Dear Excellencies, Distinguished guests and Scholars,
To look back our history, we were colonized by the British for over one century. During this period, a large number of Chinese from the north, Indian from the north-west and Bengalis from the west migrated to Myanmar which is a country with abundant food, temperate climate, and polite, generous and hospitable people. Myanmar was then a country with a population of ten million people and Myanmar people have lived amicably with these foreigners migrated to the country. Likewise, a great number of East Europeans migrated to the West Europe. Similarly the middle-east people moved to England and other European countries and Mexicans and Latin Americans to the United States of America in search of greener pasture. Our neighbouring governments also have been using various ways and means to prevent the influx of people into their territories. Migration is not the case for the people from rich and developed states to poor and under-developed ones.

Our west neighbour Bangladesh is located at the gulf between Myanmar and India where many streams and rivers flow like fingers. Due to unfavourable geographical location, it has to receive all the storms originated in the Indian Ocean resulting in the loss of crops destroyed by high tidal waves. While facing with economic hardships due to storms and floods, its population rate is high on the increase. It badly affects the people in their living and makes the young people unable to study at schools, colleges and universities. Due to economic poverty followed by education and mental poverty, the Bengalis left their country for different directions. Some of them came into India, some into Myanmar, some into Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia by boats available. It is found out that the source of migration is nothing but poverty. Some of them were jobless and could earn nothing for a living. So they established refugee camps and enrolled themselves as refugees and survive with the support rendered by the international community. Some, who are poor and illiterate due to education and mental poverty, purposely committed a lot of robberies through road accidents and quarrels. As the Buddha said, the whole world is needy: it needs one thing or another. So I would like to put my earnest request to the governments of world nations to do their best in fulfilling education and economic needs to the needy people. The religious and spiritual leaders are also requested to uplift intellectuality and mentality of those people.

I would here like to quote another teaching of the Buddha which says "Sammukhu Vinaya". It means when the two opposite groups talk across a table to find a solution to the problem, they need to be humble and friendly to each other without prioritizing individual demand and feeling and personal conceit. One should not point a finger on another. Putting a blame on each other makes them far from the solution to the problem. If one sees another doing the wrong thing, he should not make it public. But instead, he should find ways how to lead that person in the right direction.

Tolerance, Confession and forgiveness are the Three Fundamental Principles that form the very common highway for all religious leaders and their followers to walk on together. That's the unique way that all human beings have to walk joining hands towards the common world of peace and happiness. So I would like to urge all brothers and sisters of different faiths to try to live in unison on the common ground of Peace, Harmony and Co-existence.

In conclusion, I would like to stress that anyone, whatever religion he chooses, should learn to understand rightly intrinsic meaning of his chosen religion, and follow it accordingly. If the people are in the absence of observing the noble teachings of their respective religions, it hinders peace and progress of the human society and its surroundings. I believe no one would object if I say the human world is mentally poor. It is because of the lack of knowledge on the essence of respective religions and failure to observe the noble teachings of their religions. So, the onus is on all religious leaders to strive to lead the people in the right direction to be mentally rich.

Esteemed Religious leaders, distinguished guests and scholars,
Human life is too short which is less than one hundred years. During such a short period of time, we should not possess a meaningless life by spending most of our time on disputes, fighting, animosity, disappointment, discontentment, worries and anxieties. If we are free from these unwanted situations, we would be able to possess a peaceful and meaningful life. We also need to avoid unfair competition based on racial and religious sensitivity so that we would be able to stay away from fighting. It is also important to abandon aggressive and extremist spirit so as to cease disputes and fighting. The very essence of the Buddha's teachings is known as the Middle Way which directs us to try to be free from two extremes-application of favouritism and fear and the cause of fear. The Buddha said, fear which arises when one meets with a threat or a danger, is the source of religion.
His Excellency, Neru, the First Prime Minister of India, echoed this in his book titled "Glimpses of World History". He said fear is the beginning of religion. Majority of the people of the world are living in fear of threat, conflict and fighting. What I see here is that all religious leaders, on their part, should try to comfort the people and stabilize their mind to be free from fear.

The Buddha explicitly pointed out that ignorance of Truth is the cause of all problems and miseries. On the contrary, realization of Truth is the one and only means that can solve all problems. The great Independence Leader of India, Mahatma Gandhi supported it by saying that "There is nothing new to teach in this world but the Truth". So I would like to urge all to try to build a happy and meaningful life by virtue of Truth.

Last but not least, I wish to convey an important message to Muslim brothers and sisters living on Myanmar's soil. You are living on a land where everyone is guaranteed by the constitution for freedom of worship. There is a saying which goes "you need to act as a Roman while you are in Rome". You are thus advisable to respect the customs, culture and traditions of the country you are living in.

Myanmar is a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic country where the people of different faiths have been living happily and peacefully for many years. The people with different beliefs and ideas living on the same land may have different opinions. There may arise conflicts among them based on different approach on a matter. As the people who belong to the same country, enjoying the same water of the same river must try to have the attitude of forgive and forget. We should be mindful here that some political elements try to exploit the situation for their own self-interest. They try to make the situation worse and create hatred among people of different faiths. We must see the disagreement not as a problem to be managed. We need to solve it through peaceful and non-violent discussions. We must learn the art of negotiations geared towards finding a common ground of peaceful co-existence while upholding the noble teachings of our religions.

May you all be happy, healthy and peaceful.

Thank you very much.