“Human rights” for a divided society
To understand the process of indirect colonisation of the non-white countries in Asia and Africa is to work through the splitting of society in two. When overwhelming power came externally to crush…
Author: Sajeeva Samaranayake
Standing up to the Age of Emotions
Featured image of Paris attack memorial courtesy Norway July 23, 2011 A 32-year-old Norwegian suspect has been arrested after at least 87 people were killed in two attacks in Norway courtesy Colombo,…
William Blake, Buddhism and Human Rights – value of praxis over ideology
[William Blake 1757-1827 demonstrated through his art and poetry how opposite views were actually relative and dependent on each other and that they were reconcilable once we overcame the mental trap of…
Cycles of joy and pain: Ode to the Jaffna cyclist
Build and break Break and build Is this not A child’s world? Stamp your journey with mildness Stamp your journey with gentleness Tread with care Disturb nothing Inherit the earth By being…
Freedom and bondage: Lankans, then and now
Introduction There is a need to question the adequacy and suitability of current conceptions of both ‘human rights’ and ‘secularism’ to meet the challenges of unbridled majoritarianism, which seems perfectly at home…
Reception of Buddhism in Lanka: An entanglement with worldly sovereignty?
Image courtesy [Constitutional amendments at Anuradhapura were signified by the erection of a new stupa; or as in the case of King Kasyapa, by moving the capital to another place. The ideological…
Sinhalese and their fear of freedom
Anagarika Dharmapala, A.E. Goonesinha and C.W.W. Kannangara, three of the radical champions of the early 20th century who were ‘managed’ by the conservative leaders who eventually negotiated ‘freedom’ from the British. With…
Understanding the Sinhala Buddhist doctrine of ‘Holding On’
“I do not say you can attain purity by views, traditions, morality or conventions, nor will you gain purity without these. But by using them for abandonment rather than as positions to…
Beyond collective egos: Our relational grounds of belonging and faith
While racial hatred burns, with fires so ably lit by the ignorant on both sides of Palk Straits, there is another source of energy – hidden from view but none the less…
The Sinhalese…
[The triple gem of Anuradhapura; Abhayagiriya facing north and its synthesis of Theravada and Mahayana represents the spiritual values of balance and integration; Ruvanweliseya in the western corner symbolizes caution, orthodoxy and…
Nalanda Sahayogaya
Image from Wikimedia Commons Grappling and struggling With this constructed reality Where everyone wants to succeed But so few do Why don’t we try and forge Our own reality? I find it…
Is the history of Sri Lanka a tale of two civilisations?
[Parakramabahu (1153-1186) holds the yoke of sovereignty which has only been upheld since by military power and force, rather than by the consent of the people] [Today, the easy co-existence of opposites…
Child Abuse: A Time for Deconstruction and Engagement
The politics of child abuse is no different from the politics of human rights, women’s rights etc, etc. I use the word politics in the sense of labels we use to divide…