The Search For Enlightenment

As a practicing Buddhist, I feel I can be rightly proud, that Buddhism has always been a peaceful philosophy. Apart from some of the political struggles in Sri Lanka, and the forceful annexing of Tibet by China, there has been little or no conflict involving Buddhists, until now.

The recent outbreak of looting and burning of Buddhist villages by Muslim protestors, in the Cox’s Bazar area of Bangladesh, appears to have been sparked by a photo of a burned copy of the Koran that was posted on Facebook. Presumably the image was posted by someone who has been identified as a Buddhist, the reports do not say.

It appears, from where I stand, that there is an escalation of religious based violence in the past few months. Is that just my impression, is it due to the ease with which we can get news from anywhere in the world, or are the inter-faith tensions becoming more obvious as the world politics change?

Whatever the situation, there seems to be a surfeit of Courage coupled with a dearth of Wisdom and Compassion, surely a recipe for on-going strife, violence and even war. It is beholding to the leaders on all sides to reduce the tensions through their wise words and deeds, rather than, as appears to be happening, the use of inflammatory speeches to incite further violence.

We are often hearing the Muslim leaders in this country, describing the Muslim faith as one of peace and understanding. Our own Dalai Lama has always gone to great pains to promote a peaceful message. Now is the time for these leaders to come together to defuse a very dangerous trend.