It’s difficult to disentangle religious hard truths from myth, or truth from lies.We have a tendency to “shoot the messenger,” –don’t be angry with the person who makes disrespectful expressions intended to offend or hurt you; instead look for the obscured message in it. Let the authorities conduct investigations to detect any violations of the law, and also expose any hidden agenda by interested parties in Nathasha’s‘Modabhimanaya’ [Fool’s Pride]. The terminology used in Nathasha’s script is irritating no doubt, but the unintended implicit ‘message,’“Detach Dhamma from Fiction,” is thought- provoking, and therefore it needs to be addressed with a positive mind.
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 Unless we revise or delete outdated ‘divine manifestations’ that would prompt future Nathashas from staging comedic gigs, soon all of us would appear as ‘Fools with Pride’
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There are only approximate truths in everything around us, nothing is absolute; let it be belief systems, “Isms,” or even mathematics and science for that matter. About the existence of absolute truths in religious dogma—I reserve my comments. Buddhists are familiar with the “Buddha Charithaya” [biography]. It appears to have progressed or evolved over time and was mostly compiled by commentators, observers, and critics. The writer’s seven-year-old grandchild, delighted after learning the text in school, described how Baby Siduhath immediately after he was born, walked on lotuses that blossomed under his feet and then uttered some stanzas too. I was not surprised at the unknown author’s skills in creating fantasy. The girl was convinced.
The canonical transcripts do not present a methodical biography of Siduhath. The commentarial versions contain quite a few inaccuracies, exaggerations, and inconsistencies as well. The Sutta-piṭaka and the Vinaya-piṭaka contain just a few facts relating to the life of the Buddha. The commentaries on the previous births of the Buddha, the Jātaka-nidāna,and Buddhavamsa present accounts of the biography of the Buddha from his birth. The commentators give additional facts on his Biography because the observations there have been written about ten centuries after the parinibbana [passing away] of the Buddha. Most of the other canonical texts do not speak on this. There are inconsistencies in the early canonical texts and later texts.
Buddhist and Pāli scholars hold various opinions concerning the life of the Buddha. Dr Rhys Davids says,“…. The followers during and immediately after the time of the Buddha did not feel a necessity of compiling the Master’s biography, perhaps since everyone at that time was conversant with it and was admonished frequently by the Buddha that the Dhamma be first emulated. The Buddha in the course of giving sermons refers occasionally to his personal life….”Masutani, another scholar wrote,“… the Buddhists had a distinct but unofficial tradition of amassing events and tales associated with the biography of the Buddha from the earliest times...”Herman Oldernberg said: “A biography of the Buddha has not come down to us from earliest times, and we can safely say no such biography was in existence then. This is, very easily understood. The idea of biography was far-off to the mind of that age. To take the life of a man as a whole, its progress from beginning to end as a combined subject for literary treatment had not befallen to anyone yet in that age.”The Buddhaʼs teachings as signified in the Canon could be viewed as the most authentic source of the memoir of the Buddha because there he mentioned the facts regarding his home life and the ascetic life in numerous sermons.
The biographer continues, ‘… when they took the royal baby to ascetic Asita, suddenly to the amazement of the ascetic Asita and all present, the feet of the baby Siduhath turned and rested on the intertwined curls [head] of the ascetic’. The teacher missed that part of the story, for the writer’s granddaughter, who is intelligent, would have demanded an explanation.
“Kalamas, of course, if you are in doubt; when there are reasons for doubt, uncertainty is born. So Kalamas, don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ Question, confront and challenge most basic beliefs and convictions, even those we may have about the Dhamma itself;encourage the spirit of inquiry, the spirit of critical assessment.-Lord Buddha.
The late Prof Carlo Fonseka, who once publicly ridiculed religious miracles as a young man, contradicted his own stance in his advanced years by asking, “Is it the right thing to make a disrespectful expression or an act intended to offend or hurt the feelings of millions of believers? We must be cultured enough to respect their dogmas.”
Classical miracle stories intended to move people emotionally, stimulated fear and amazement, prompting worship and admiration. They were projected to support the growth and expansion of religions. David Hume, the Scottish philosopher pointed out that every religion proclaims its miracles as indications of the truth of its message: “An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding”— p/ 178.
From Sepala’s utterings about Dalada Maligawa up to Natasha’s antics, they wrote, “freedom of expression a fundamental right”—“your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man’s nose begins”. – “Questioning religions is a right”.—“Courts should defend the Right to satire etc.” The late Prof Carlo Fonseka, who once publicly ridiculed religious miracles as a young man, contradicted his own stance in his advanced years by asking, “Is it the right thing to make a disrespectful expression or an act intended to offend or hurt the feelings of millions of believers? We must be cultured enough to respect their dogmas.”
Unless we revise or delete outdated ‘divine manifestations’ that would prompt future Nathashas from staging comedic gigs, soon all of us would appear as ‘Fools with Pride’. Apart from American and British forms in the early 20th C, other nations did not create standup comedy scenes until decades later. But they are not new to Sri Lanka; five to six decades ago, it was a common feature at Sunday fair [pola] by skilled street performers who mocked prominent politicians to attract crowds while selling vitamin/iron tablets and –‘Tip top’ dental powder.
Those demanding new laws to ban and impose severe punishment onStand-up Comedians lack knowledge of the ineffectiveness of such attempts amid a flow of falsehoods in thriving social media.
There are only approximate truths in everything around us, nothing is absolute; let it be belief systems, “Isms,” or even mathematics and science for that matter. About the existence of absolute truths in religious dogma—I reserve my comments
Include ‘Comparative Religions’ in Curriculum !
As a child grows up in our society, he or she will be deemed to belong to a particular nationality religion, and race. The child who is incompetent in rational thinking, cannot differentiate fact from fiction and lacks the ability to judge, compare and contrast, would naturally tend to believe selfishly and mistakenly that nationality, religion, race, and caste as facts.
In their edited volume, ‘Religion and Education: Comparative and International Perspectives’, --Sivasubramaniam and Hayhoe present a historical analysis of three transformative experiences of inter-religious interaction. Taking Christianity as her focal point, the author describes the positive historic interaction between Christians, Daoists, Buddhists, and Confucian adherents- (p. 146). It might be a nice idea to introduce ‘Comparative Religious Studies’, strictly doctrinal aspects’, as a subject into the school curriculum, instead of teaching a particular religion. The lack of such a subject leaves a moral vacuum that can become a space to be abused by religious extremism. Eventually, students will develop critical thinking providing essential knowledge of traditions embedded in religious teachings. Leave the responsibility of teaching parents’ religion to Sunday schools!
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