Facing the Era of Globalization and Real

Ven. Seik Hui Siong

Abbot of Vihara Mahavira Graha Pusa Buddhist Building Indonesia

Respectable World Buddhist Forum (WBF) committee members, most honored religious and spiritual leaders of the world, teachers, and brothers and sisters: I would like to extend my appreciation to all of us and the organizing committee who have made these events possible. It reflects our continuous efforts in bringing ideas and dialogues which aim to consolidate Buddhism internally and ultimately: realizing peace to humankind on earth.

I am grateful to these events because each of us still recognizes the importance of brainstorming, working together to solve problems, and uniting is powerful. The future of Buddhist organizations, just like any other spiritual organizations, will depend on our comprehensive understanding of systems and interdependency. Because organizations are established by humans, they inherit one of the humans’ essential aspects: the most social creatures on earth. Therefore, organizations will last if they are able to survive through social complexities and cultural evolutions.

Craincross (1997)[1] argues that the world will become smaller over the time. In the 21^st century, societies from all over the world will be interconnected through advanced technologies, a global system. The ability of human to communicate is limitless even they are thousand miles apart. Despite of our preferences, globalization is unavoidable. Transformation to society in technology, economy, and politic derived from globalization will affect almost every aspects of our life, including our spiritual life. The most important aspect, in my humble opinion, is increasing human interdependencies. Peace and coexist in mutual respect are essential.

To survive in the emerging complex societies, Buddhist organizations around the globe must look for the opportunities to work hand in hand, achieving common goals instead of digging out differences among the Buddhist sects. Identifying sameness and working to grow strong with these values ensure stability and prosperous the future of spreading the Dharma. On the other hand, fighting internally and trying to argue over the non-fundamental doctrines will only destroy the future of Buddhism.

Throughout various history of mankind on the face of planet earth, we can conclude one thing in common, that is, we strive to seek for happiness and to improve the quality of life. In the journey to achieve this goal, we face many challenges and can sometime automatically forget about the root to solve the problems. No wonder, many who have tried to improve their quality of life through accumulating wealth and/or utilizing other worldly materials failed to satisfy their needs in the end. Sakyamuni Buddha reminds us that there are no materials in this world can overcome sufferings. “Monks, all conditioned things are of a nature to decay; strive to attain the goal by diligence.” (Digha Nikaya II, 120). This is the truth of life. A cultivated and peaceful mind may lead us to improving the quality of our life. In reality, however, the dynamicity of environment (e.g., war, social instability) and our routines life have driven us away from cultivating our mind. Therefore, I believe a peaceful environment that is free from selfishness, fears, and hatreds, is a necessary condition to allow us practicing our beliefs and cultivating our spiritual pathways toward achieving the common goals. With a peaceful society, a peaceful mind can be attained. Let us send our thoughts and prayers to the Georgians and Russians recent conflicts. May their leaders are called to serve for peace, compassion, and boundless wisdom to save the lives of the people in both countries.

To achieve peace in the era of globalization, we need teamwork and the cooperation of everyone’s resources. Our hard work is very significant so as to let the next generation live without selfishness, fears and hatreds. These conditions, I believe, are very crucial factors in ensuring the growth of Buddhist spiritual development in each individual, regardless of their sects.

On a broader issue, each Buddhist disciple must be able to be the change agent to fashion a peaceful future with our brothers and sisters from different religions and spiritual practices. Similar to the major world religions, Buddhism promotes peace. I quote a verse from the Dhammapada verse five that states: “Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world; by non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is an Eternal Law”[2] In addition to that, the last chapter of the Dhammapada disapproves of prejudicial distinctions because of favorable born-attributes.

“I do not call one a holy person because of one's lineage or one's high-born mother. If one has impeding attachments, one is just a supercilious person. But one who is free from impediments and clinging--such a one do I call a holy person”[3]

In the 8th century, a Mahayana poet, Santideva emphasized the above quote. In his great work, Bodhicaryavatara, he warned us about the dangers of hatred:

"There is no evil equal to hatred and no spiritual practice equal to forbearance. Therefore, one ought to develop forbearance, by various means, with great effort."[4]

Prejudices exist in different forms. As a human, we are entitled to like certain colors or sounds, to dislike certain behaviors, conditions or styles of doing things. Indeed, the ability to form judgments and make choices discriminate human beings from other living creatures.

The problem arises when our own individual likes and dislikes become inflexible and we tend to force our own views to others. We forget that everyone has the same right to exercise their own preferences. Globalization impacts every aspects of multicultural society, ethnic and racial prejudices, and therefore these factors become a very important issue. As the results, it is easy to plant hatreds all over the world. Wars are conducted in the name of holy religion. Indeed, these irresponsible actions are rooted to greed, anger, and infatuation.

I would like to share a thought from one of the outstanding citizens of the world, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I totally believe that his message, vision, and legacy belong to every human being who wants to fashion a more humane and just world. He gave us two options: to peacefully coexist or to destroy ourselves. His argument is based on the accumulation of prejudicial attitudes and behaviors that we generate each day. Because of these factors, we must learn to appreciate and value each other if we want to survive on this tiny planet that is our mutual home.

With humility and respect, I would like to propose the following point of views. I hope we can continue sharing perspectives which will promote the realization of peaceful environment in the era of globalization.

Respect

King Asoka from the Indian Mauryan dynasty defined how respect to other religions is the peaceful way to glorify one’s religion. To share this value so that it can be cherished by future generations, the King founded a Piyadasi Pilar that states:

"One should not honor only one's own religion and condemn the religions of others, but one should honor others' religions for this or that reason. So doing, one helps one's own religion to grow and renders service to the religions of others too. In acting otherwise, one digs the grave of one's own religion and also does harm to other religions. Whosoever honors their own religion and condemns other religions does so indeed through devotion to their own religion, thinking they will glorify their own religion. But on the contrary, in so doing they injure their own religion more gravely.”

Compassionate actions based on equality

"All beings in the world posses the mark of the Tathagata's wisdom," This quote of equality, proclaimed by the Buddha, is the light that guides us toward peace and compassionate life. We are human beings who wish to drive away suffering and gain happiness. At the same time, however, we are also capable of creating selfishness, craving and conflicts through the perceived “my religion is best”. The perception of my religion is best places ourselves as being superior than others. Wars in the name of religious beliefs are then inevitable. I believe that the salvation in each religion attributed to the most loving-kindness, the most righteous and just, and the omnipotence of their worshipped God. If we believe that God has the capacity beyond what we could have possibly imagined, we should also accept that God has transformed the teaching in different ways throughout different times and civilizations to different groups of people so that the teaching could be well understood. With this perspective, do we still need to argue about superiority?

It is a great challenge to each of us to implement equality in our life. When equality exists, the compassionate actions will emanate and peace is no longer needed.

Teamwork

To realize peace and harmony into our life, we need to unite resources from one another. Our distinguished talents alone do not suffice the needs of this great work. These talents need to combine with others so that we can gain synergy that will contribute to the effort of promoting peace throughout the Earth. Together Everyone Accomplishes More (TEAM) allows us to achieve the extraordinary result: peace.

Perseverance

Our everyday effort to realize peace may be hindered by the “Eight-Challenges” (profit and loss, defamation and fame, praise and blame, pleasure and pain). Perseverance will shield us not only from the adverse circumstances but also in favorable situations. It plays a tremendously important role to avoid the influence of negative critics and unnecessary compliments. Perseverance reinforces us to keep making progress in realizing peace and improving effective methods in bringing harmonious life. The era of globalization impacts the social and political evolutions. Many examples include one-sidedness economic which will only bring the advantage to the haves, environmental crisis, social and cultural disintegration, hectic lifestyles, and privacy invasion. These factors will lead into instability and potentially affect inner and outer peace. The moral perplexity of the era of globalization has rendered us to establish the effort to promote peace more than ever. For such global problems are often so complex and difficult, and no man is omniscient.

[1] Craincross, F. 1997. The Death of Distance: How the Communication Revolution Will Change Our Lives. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

[2] English translation by Acharya Buddharakkhita

[3] Verses 399 - English translation by Acharya Buddharakkhita

[4] Chapter 6, verse 2