And to think he is allowed to govern us..!

A cheap, silly show – it should be scrapped.

Without thinking about the final goal, you simply follow the rules…
But, the goal was always in your mind, wasn’t it?
Gandhi’s goal-independence, Mendela’s-Black Rule, King’s-Equal Rights
Buddha’s- Eradication or Suffering
While reaching that goal you may live in the present tense
but it doesn’t amount to a ‘renunciation of the fruits of your actions’.
Not at all!

That’s why I told that their sense of ego may not be in the wealth, power or glory.
But the sense of achievement.

‘I had a dream; I reached the mountain top”
It’s self-delution only, to think that they had renounced the fruits of their actions!

Buddha did it for himself. Whatever you call his achievement was.
“I found the builder of the house; destroyed it”
That was of course a non-worldly achievement.

You know that for various people the meaning of ‘achievement’ may differ.
For Gandhi, it was political. For Buddha it’s about finding the thuth.
Without a goal any action becomes a random movement only.
To think like that is fooling yourself only!

the people that you mentioned – Gandhi, Mandela and King – and of course many others both famous and not so famous are different … they are following a pricipled and ethical course of action – their means is their goal. as you know – it is always today and it is always the present that we are dealing with. In that present the false dichotomy between means and ends is destroyed and we stay focused on selfless motivation and selfless action here and now. the reward is the freedom of action that is generated – not the fruits of your action which you renounce.

Gandhi identified the renunciation of the fruits of your actions as the key point in the Baghvad Gita and also as the path of non violence… In fact without non violence there is no real change. when change is forced it is always dependent on external enforcement. only self regulation and self discipline is sustainable.

Ego according to a famous Tibetan Master Trungpa has to be worn out like the heel of your shoe – journeying from the world to liberation – it is essential for psychological survival – and this of course is important – that is until you identify ego as the true driver of certain habitual thoughts and feelings and learn to isolate it – starve it sometimes …

a little esoteric may be – but we ought to discuss ego much more – SL is a superb case study – THE EGOISTIC SOCIETY

We can quote people like Ghandi, Mandela or Martin Luther King as not having any self interest in what they did, but on the other hand isn’t their ego that was fed or inflated by their seemingly “selfless” actions?

In the final analysis they may have fulfilled a need to boost their ego, though it was not obvious!

Like Sri Edmund Hilary climbing the Mt.Everest;it’s the sense of achievement that motivated them;Another form of ‘ego’!

Good try at poetry!
As you say
‘Ego’ is an illusion
I am not telling it
just because Buddhism says so
It is a made up thing
in our mind,
but it’s useful
for our survival
(that’s why we have it!)

You can console yourself
when you lose
your money, kith and kin
and your honour
by thinking
“it’s not me!”

Because in the end
even the biggest ego
turns into dust!
as king Alexander realised in his death bed:
when he asked that his hands should be hanging out of his coffin
to show that he was leaving empty handed

As Omar Khayyam told:
“we come like the wind
and go like the wind”

So we are to sit back
passively?
Looking at all the villians and scoundrels trample us?

That is why there should be ‘social action’
which is lacking in Sri Lanka
maybe a result of passivity
When you said earlier:
“MS is a product of the executive presidency – nothing more. without it he would be a simple idiot not a national one …”
this lack of ‘social action’
is very evident………

ITS THE EGO FRIEND

Light cannot penetrate
The darkest rooms
Of the self
Hold the light away from you!
Get excited!
About Mervyn Silva
Denounce the label that makes your blood boil
Assert your credentials
Strong and true

Blindness
Is not to see the self
Not to see the emotions
Not to see the driver
Of your bus

When you don’t see the driver
You cannot see people
And you don’t see the human being
How can names help you?
When you don’t see the human being?

Why waste time?
With all this nonsense
Why this idle chatter
Is it insanity we like to spread?

Just have another look
At our own behaviour
In this thread
Who indeed is really fit
To throw a stone at Mervyn Silva
And if there is one so fit
Will s/he actually stone him?

Understand the challenge
Of Prabhakaran
Understand the challenge
Of Mervyn Silva
The challenge is for us to get fit
And grow up
Its not about them friend
It’s about us…

And by the way
We did not meet the real challenge
Of Prabhakaran yet
Killing the body
Did not kill the ego
The ego we all share
Its the ego friends…

The ego makes Mervyn and Kamal suffer
Just as much as you and me

Just an after thought to what you said earlier…

” Engaging in narrow debates with those who are unable/unwilling even to mention their names proper amount to a self – ratifying social masturbation.”

That ‘self ratifying social masturbation’, I must say, is a very creative expression. And also, it is my favourite past-time too!

It is lke the ‘intellectual intercourse’ we see here, isn’t it?

nice name …

I remember a game we played as children called bang bang – you see a person on the other side and shout bang X or bang Y and that person is out of the game

is it your habit to likewise attack anyone who seems to have something to do with buddhism as a sinhala buddhist – and someone who has created dystopia on top of that?

I mean we are used to overreactions on this thread – (they do provide some light relief) but how does the term sinhala come in? I have referred to buddhism and that is of course re a point raised by Suren …

please – as BM advises – use solid argument

the rest is hot air – and that will not be accepted – so it remains to your credit alone

time for another verse

politics when abused
ceases to be politics
religion when abused
ceases to be religion
refer to abuse as abuse
call a spade a spade
not what the spade
comes into contact with