A Gift of Dharma for 5.23.11
Today’s quote is yet another from Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne, Sri Lanka’s “Little Gandhi” and the founder of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, whom I previously quoted and wrote a short biography for in this post. This is it:
We [in the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement] believe that Buddhist teaching devoid of this revolutionary meaning and application is incapable of facing the realities of the modern materialistic society. On the one hand we are strongly spiritual and on the other hand we are strongly revolutionary. We are not prepared to concede revolutionary monopoly only to those who base all their social actions on organised hatred. We have based our revolutionary approach on Loving Kindness and the organisation of compassionate action. It is impossible to build up just and righteous societies without a high level of spirituality even under most trying and exploitative situations. Bodhisatva had been fighting despots using even violence but without hatred towards the adversary. When King Dutugemunu fought King Elara the way he treated the fallen enemy shows that even in war one can fight without hatred towards the enemy. Progressive movements of modern times have mostly failed to bring in this magnanimity towards their opponents in their struggles for social justice. This is because their ideology did not embrace totality of existence and did not pay head to the fact that every human being has the potential to attain supreme enlightenment.
