Plenary, 03 Jun 2009
Meeting date: Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Official Report
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Time for Reflection
Good afternoon. As always on a Wednesday, our first item of business is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader today is the Venerable K Sri Rewatha Thero, Scotland's Buddhist Vihara.
Venerable K Sri Rewatha Thero (Scotland’s Buddhist Vihara):
Thank you very much for inviting me to lead time for reflection. It is an honour for all Buddhists living in Scotland.
Today, I reflect on some teachings of Buddha on non-violence and peace. Once, he mentioned 10 qualities that rajas—rulers or Governments—should develop.
The first one is generosity. Rulers should not have cravings for government wealth and property. They should give away wealth for the benefit of the people. The other qualities are: a high moral character; being prepared to give up personal comfort in the interest of their people; honesty and integrity; kindness and gentleness; the ability to lead a simple life with self control; freedom from hatred and ill-will; non-violence and the ability to promote peace and unity among people; patience and tolerance; the ability to bear hardship, difficulties and insults without losing their temper; and not opposing the will of the people. Those are aspirations that we can all share.
Once, Buddha said:
"One should defeat anger through kindness, wickedness through goodness, selfishness through charity, and falsehood through truthfulness".
The Buddha not only taught non-violence and peace but went into the field of battle himself, intervened personally and prevented war.
The philosophy that I profess is one of non-violence, and it is regrettable that the war in my country, Sri Lanka, had to end in the way that it has. We are now faced with another battle: to bring peace to all the citizens of our country. It will take many, many years to erase the scars, both physical and mental.
I remind you of the strong links that we have built between Sri Lanka and Scotland. The Scots introduced tea to Sri Lanka during the colonial period. As you are aware, we had to cope with the devastation of the 2004 tsunami. The world helped, especially the big-hearted Scots. With the support of the Scottish Government, we built an orphanage for tsunami orphans. The honourable minister, Stewart Maxwell, officially opened it, making another strong link with Sri Lanka. The good kamma created by that worked within a day. The next day, in Colombo, it was announced that Glasgow had been chosen as the host city for the Commonwealth games in 2014.
Now, the south of the country has been rebuilt after the tsunami, but the north and east of our country have been ravaged by terrorism. Money and expertise are now needed to rebuild the infrastructure in the areas that have been devastated by the war. Thanks to the continuing compassion and generosity of the Scottish people, we feel optimistic about achieving that target.
May you be well and happy. May all beings be well and happy.