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We would like to appeal to the Sinhala Buddhists first of
all to acknowledge the crimes that they committed against their own Tamil
sisters and brothers and ask for forgiveness from the Tamils. Rejoicing at the
war victories, when thousands have been killed, ‘disappeared', maimed, raped
and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and detained, is
totally against the dhamma.
After all, forgiveness in Pali is apaya - no fear - we
should cultivate spiritual
fearlessness. Fear arises from
construction of the other. Construction of the other arises from
separation of
self and other. This is ignorance. The enemy is, in fact, greed, hatred
and
ignorance. In order to be fearless one needs to break the fetters of
ignorance
and greed. It is the ideological attachment to a majority dominated
state that
has caused the war and led to enormous suffering. The notions of
minority and
majority are wrong perceptions. We are interrelated or ‘interbeing'. One
who
realizes interbeing is fearless. It is this fearlessness that can help
transform the colonial construction of the Sri Lankan unitary state.
This
construction is based on greed and hatred.
Through deep Buddhist meditation we can realize our interbeing.
In reality we all are friends, who may have different ethnicities. But with
right-mindfulness (samma smadhi), we can see that they are all our friends, not
enemies. The words war heroes and terrorists are misconceptions. We can live together, acknowledging each
other's dignity. Tamils are human beings and they should live their basic human
rights as we do. They aspire to live in their own land just like the Sinhalese.
The government of Sri Lanka
should follow Emperor Asoka who transformed violence into loving kindness
treating all diverse ethnicities in his empire with dignity and equal respect,
upholding different cultures and religions. We need to follow the great
Buddhist emperor in order to uphold the world in the twenty- first century in
peace, truth and compassion. The Sri Lankan state needs a transformation.
The Machiavellian approach of exploitation and imperialism
is coming to an end, as the Buddhist
teaching of anicca, impermanency has implied and as evidenced by the fact that
the Roman and British empires have come to their ends and the American one is
on the decline. The future of humankind depends on ahimsa and satyagraha. The
power of the truth was not only expressed by Gandhi, but it was proclaimed by
the Buddha. Once we confront the Noble Truth of Suffering ? not only
individually but socially; we can then find out the causes of suffering, which
link directly with greed lobha (capitalism and consumerism), hatred dosa
(nationalism, militarism, pseudo-democracy), and delusion moha (mainstream
education stressing on the head without cultivating the heart and mainstream
mass media).
Then we can overcome social suffering through the Noble
Eightfold Path of Sila not exploitative of oneself and others, samadhi, deep
meditative practice of self-awareness, and panna, that is wisdom or true
understanding, seeing that we are all interconnected. The Tamils and Sinhalese
need to be brother and sister. If this is taken seriously as a reality not as a
far-fetched ideal Sri Lanka can really be a land of the Buddha, with a small
?b?. Tamils and Sinhala could be side by side in unity and diversity. This will
indeed be a good example of the country in the twenty-first century. It will be a century marked by the strength
of spirituality beyond hypocrisy and mediocrity.
  
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