all religions have their popular, spiritual and political versions. This enriches humanity so long as evil spirits do not reign.

I would like to respond to spiritual man’s assertion of tamil eelam like this.

we must all co-exist. that is the truth of inter-dependence. if in order to co-exist we have to bring in certain political and administrative arrangements let us do so.

it is the two extreme positions on the sinhala and tamil sides originated by SWRD and GG Ponnambalam that led to this war. it is only natural that extremism should be continued by the winning side. This is the truth – that extremism has won.

and when that happens the label – colour – race of the extremists does not matter. the same law that applied to LTTE will also apply to the sinhalese extremists who have become the biggest enemies of buddhism.

rejection of religion is shared by all fascist forces. and they must be defeated.

Thank you for your response even though you did not answer my questions. You argued that Buddhists do not need the false crutch of a “supernatural God” to do good, unlike theists. Perhaps I misunderstood that point of yours.

“And the recent military occupation and colonisation of Tamil Eelam by Sri Lanka(SL) is also equally evil.”

The the leader of this “colonisation” force, Mahinda Rajapakse, believes in a supernatural God. Therefore he must be on the correct side.

Man is a spirit being. He is not merely a lump of flesh and bones.

A man seeing himself on a mirror knows full well that he is not just all what he sees on it, He is something beyond that.

If he asks himself the question ” Who am I?” and “what is inside of me that drives me to do what I do?” He finds the answer that he has a “soul” -with mind, emotions and will- and an “inner spirit” that controls his mind emotions and will.

Spirit in man can be good or evil. Good spirit in man brings love and care and evil spirit brings out wickedness and bloodshed.

Regardless of what “religion” a person belongs to, when his spirit is evil he becomes dangerously ruthless and justifies it like Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin and other present day wicked rulers.

I agree that colonisation of the past was wicked regardless of who did it. And the recent military occupation and colonisation of Tamil Eelam by Sri Lanka(SL) is also equally evil.

Spiritual wickedness in high places made the Roman empire to fail in the past and Japanese empire to fail in 1940’s.

In SL there is spiritual wickiedness in high places. The “Empire” of SL will fail like Roman and Japanese empires.

We must admit that our finite mind cannot understand supernatural things. Our non-understanding of it is no proof of its non-existence.

It is also telling that there is a palpable sense of paranoia among many people who have appointed themselves destroying of Buddhism in Sri Lanka.

Thanks!

Our pre-Mahinda (arahat not rajapakse) and pre- buddhistic history indicates some links with pre-vedic India and our beliefs in local Gods – astrology and many other native forms of worship begin there. These have continued to this day. I feel (this is subj to correction) that even Hindus, Muslims and some Christians take this path.

so when we look at the principal forms of buddhism I can clearly see 3.

1. popular buddhism that is largely polytheistic and rooted in native religion though embellished with buddhist ideas

2. spiritual buddhism which is more rational – liberating and de-ritualized in the sense of not being enslaved to rituals. This is more atheistic than theistic. I am afraid I cannot share the pessimism of some contributors that serious buddhist practice is not prevalent among sri lankans. there are both monks and laypeople engaged in serious practice here so it may be rash to just give in to our prejudices.

3. political buddhism – this we know mingles very exploitatively with 1 more than 2. 2 does not care to share the corridors of either wealth or power with 3. But in countries like Thailand even meditation practice has been exploited for political gains. Even in SL some monks have abused this for personal gain. all this is quite normal.

It is only a sweeping assumption to label the sri lankan buddhist tradition as Theravada. as this is a very broad generalization I would urge that it be treated as such. of course theravada can be treated in a more technical sense but that aspect is not under discussion here.

just happy to see so many people interested in buddhism….

“The author has an opinion, right or wrong its one she is entitled to, and that is something that we should all respect.”

Don’t you think writers have a responsibly in writing sensible things and do you think any opinion should be treated equally, on the basis of that entitlement? In that case should any wild opinion of anybody be treated alike with sensible opinions? Anybody can write any insulting nonsense in the name of that entitlement, do you think so?

My dear friend, your problem in your argument to justify the writer lies in your analytical principle itself, “she is entitled to her opinion” itself is wrong. It is not necessary to say that outcome of your principle, that is ideas derived in your post have no validity/value.

Please see, I have mentioned this in the forum several times, the very popular quote “I am entitled to my opinion” is a logical fallacy.

Anybody is not entitled to any opinion, but to justifiable/sensible opinions only.

Please read.

1. http://www.google.lk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBQQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FI'm_entitled_to_my_opinion&ei=BrQtTfu-AYjprAfWtYjMCg&usg=AFQjCNFbnme5bw8q-FBKd3rXwWvtCgdjOg

2. http://www.google.lk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CCoQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Finviink.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F09%2F16%2Flogical-fallacies-that-just-wont-die-the-opinion-entitlement-fallacy%2F&ei=BrQtTfu-AYjprAfWtYjMCg&usg=AFQjCNFzCu78xyd0FGEsQASRVkg-gPs06w

Thanks!