Chapter sixteen
Human civilisation is
now in the nature of a vicious circle. The trouble is most people cannot see
it. The only way to break free from this hideous roundabout, is by listening to
the knower. ‘Knower’ is a funny term, which is not acceptable in English usage,
but this word is widely used among Buddhists, especially in Thailand. It refers
to the enlightened one, the one who knows God, Nirvana, the ultimate truth, the
ultimate simplicity or simply knows ‘what is what’. As a matter of fact, the
birth of the Buddha, Christ, Lao Tzu and other well known sages is meant to
help us, human beings, to break free from this vicious circle. Our cul-de sac
civilisation is actually a little tiny section of the enormous cycle of rebirth
or re-incarnation. This is exactly what the Buddha tries to tell us by offering
us the way to get out of it.
Theoretically,
religious institutions of all well-established traditions are supposed to lead
society by giving advice to government leaders so that they can plan strategy
of how to govern a country whose population is made up of individuals. This
means that governments can use all the means and resources in the country to
create the right culture for people in order to guarantee the minimum suffering
and peace of mind for every single individual. The economy, education, the
judicial system, social functions, communication and even entertainment have to
consider or follow certain guidelines, which do not disrupt people’s mental
stability so that they can be at peace. Consequently, society, nation and the
whole world can live in peace. That’s why I said that helping the Dalai Lama to
return to Tibet with full political autonomy is of the utmost importance.
This idealism, of course, is based on
the assumption that religious leaders know exactly what the purpose of life is.
Alternatively, they must know the state of God, Nirvana, the tree of life,
ultimate reality or simply know what is what. This is because this is the only
knowledge which can guarantee the minimum suffering, yet offer individual peace
of mind to members of society. It is indeed the individual’s mental stability
which can contribute towards social and national stability, and finally world
peace.
This idealism has
happened before in Buddhist countries like Tibet, Bhutan, Thailand, Burma,
Laos, Cambodia and so on. That’s why Thailand still has a great deal of
enlightening culture left for us to witness. But this precious gem is being
savagely destroyed by consumerism and ignorance. The only way that we can
preserve this priceless culture is by revealing the true meaning of Nirvana and
bringing back the four foundations of awareness into people’s way of life. This
is the reason behind all my work, in which I have done my best to keep the
whole idea coherent.
My work and my effort
are not new phenomena at all. This is the task of all knowers since the first
teacher of the world arrived, the Buddha. As for the Christian tradition, we
can consider the author of the Book of Genesis as the first teacher of the
Christian world. Ever since, the followers of the great teachers have worked
very hard and some of them were even killed in trying to spread the word of
truth by carrying on with the religious tradition until we are all part of it
nowadays. The seed of Light (truth) is obviously still here but it has become
very dim. My job right now is trying to make this ultimate light glow a bit
brighter so that it can at least benefit those who desire to know the truth no
matter how small that number is. This is the task of all enlightened ones.
Should they have any strength left at all, they should come out and fight their
way through and make themselves be known to that small group of people.
The concept in this chapter in particular is an extremely mad and laughable one as I can even see myself. How on earth can we bring back the enlightening culture? This goes against everything that people believe nowadays. In today’s papers, the British government is trying to bring back morality lessons in the new school curriculum but the guidelines are ambiguous since they do not mention marriage or explicitly praise the traditional family of two parents. This is exactly the point I want to argue about. Governments nowadays have no signposts to follow and they are too scared to offend people if that is not the mainstream belief. This is the great difference between the knower and the one who doesn’t know. The knower will talk and put forward the truth although no one wants to hear it. Morality is undoubtedly a good thing that all leaders must praise explicitly without fearing to offend anyone. Even some religious leaders are reluctant to do so. I admired the Dali Lama who had no reluctance in expressing his notion on gay relationships, which upset the whole gay population. Children must know and be encouraged to stick with the five basic moral principles. Otherwise, how on earth can they learn what is good from what is bad? The vicious circle begins when influential adults cannot do it themselves. Where can they find the courage to teach others? We now have two giant government leaders whose personal lives are smothered by moral misconduct; one has committed adultery and one is a drunkard. Not to mention mad leaders who are heavily intoxicated by power and insist on inflicting endless misery and unbearable suffering on humanity. What chance do we have for world peace? Only real people can say the real thing without fearing to upset anyone. This is the quality that our governments’ leaders in the world do not have.
No matter how impossible this idealism is, a little voice (intuitive
wisdom) in my head keeps on telling me that I must make a stand on this issue.
I know that it is impossible to change the world. Even the Buddha could not
prevent his family from killing one another. The most we can do right now is
try to delay disaster from happening too quickly and to keep the suffering
among humanity down to the very minimum. The only way to guarantee the minimum
suffering among humanity is to bring back the enlightening culture into our way
of life. This is the most important concept that all governments must
understand no matter how laughable it is. However, this is what all the
enlightened ones have to do. If they don’t do it, humanity will be plunged
deeper into the darkness of ignorance.