By the Late Most Venerable K.Sri Dhammananda

I think that the protection of Buddhism is an important area of concern for Buddhists all over the world, especially in the traditional areas in Asia where Buddhism was the religion of the people for well over a thousand years Before we discuss this topic, I think it is important for us to know what we mean by "Buddhism". To my mind it is the organised religion which grew around the Teachings of the Enlightened One. The teachings, better known as the Dhamma need no protection because it is the Eternal Truth and it can withstand any onslaught from any quarter in any period of time. But what we call "Buddhism" is another matter altogether. Buddhism is the popular religion which developed over the centuries following the passing away of the Buddha. It is represented by the three 'yanas' as well as the myriad cultural manifestations which evolved over the centuries in so many parts of Asia all the way from Afghanistan in the west to Japan in the east and Mongolia in the north to Sri Lanka in the south not to mention the manifestations in Southeast Asia. This 'Buddhism' is the religion practiced by the people of Asia and in recent years, by growing members in Europe, America, Africa and Australia. This 'Buddhism’ is

facing many challenges and how it survives into the future depends a great deal on how we today respond to these challenges. Our concern is how we can `protect' Buddhism so that it can be handed down to future generations in the way in which it was taught by the Buddha.

Many Buddhist have confused Buddhism and the Dhamma. Because they have been taught that the Dhamma is eternal so naturally they conclude that Buddhism will survive the ravages of time. This is not necessarily true.

We only have to look to the history of Buddhism in India to realise that if we become lax and complacent then other more aggressive but not necessarily superior religious practices will take over. Although Buddhism grew in India and flourished there for over a thousand years, the compla­cent attitude of its followers and their concern for the external trappings of religion led directly to its ousting from the sub-conti­nent, to be forgotten until it was revived there less than a century ago by notables like Anagarika Dharmapala of Sri Lanka and Dr.Ambedkar of India. If we are not mindful of the fact, then it is certainly worth reminding everyone of us that Buddhism is faced with the same complacency and apathy among the followers in Asia.  Every­day we hear of the distressing trend in every so called Buddhist country in Asia that the very foundations of this religion is being shaken and it is in very real danger of being overthrown by many aggressive forces which are funded by wealthy organisations out to seek converts in new areas because the traditional followers in their own countries are rejecting their teachings en masse.

Does Buddhism (as opposed to the Dhamma) deserve to be protected? Of course it does. Because when our Enlightened Master formed the Sangha Order and sent out the first sixty arahants to spread the Dhamma for 'good of the many, for the benefit of gods and men' he was not simply concerned with self aggrandisement. He was concerned with the teaching reaching out to all beings, out of Compassion for their welfare and happiness. We the Buddhists of today are the heirs of that sacred concern. As Buddhists we are enjoined by compassion to preserve the Dhamma because only the Dhamma has the ability to show mankind the way to Ultimate Peace and Happiness. For the Dhamma to be made known, to serve our fellow beings, we must protect Buddhism ­because it is through Buddhism that the Dhamma can be sustained.

Who is to protect Buddhism? What do we mean by Sangha? The Buddha's answer to this question is clear : the Sangha. This noble institution has been handed down from the time of the First Ordination with the solemn injunction to never rest in promoting its cause. What do we mean by Sangha? Bhikkhu/Bhikkhuni, Upasaka/Upasika. The function of the Bhikkhu / Bhikkhuni Order is to study the Dhamma, ensure that it is understood as it was taught by the Buddha, and hand it down to future generations. The Upasaka/Upasika on the other hand have to maintain the Bhikkhu/Bhikkhuni and give them material support. The entire process of protection and dissemination is carried out through the institutions we call Buddhism. Where all sectors are active the institution is protected and people are benefited. This is the ultimate reason why the Dhamma is kept alive to benefit the human race and to bring happiness where there is suffering, confusion, bigotry, hate, zealotry, discrimina­tion and so on.

Going back to the decline of Buddhism in India, its direct cause was that the Bhikkhu / Bhikkhuni sangha lost sight of the needs of the common people, being more interested in their own concerns rather than the needs of the people. This forced the people to look elsewhere for their spiritual solace. When the grassroots support for the Sangha was withdrawn the Sangha declined and the Dhamma was forgotten. Buddhism died out in India.

A similar fate confronts us in Asia today. The sangha seems to have lost touch with the needs of the common people. And the reason could be that, because they have stayed within the walls of their monasteries, they have lost touch with the changes which are taking outside : the impact of TV, computers, consumerism, westernisation have made demands on the social and spiritual lives of the people and the monks and nuns are unable to meet these needs. How many monks are there today who can adequately counsel married couples, teena­gers, unmarried mothers, drug addicts, AIDS patients? How can they translate the eternal truths of the Dhamma into contemporary terms? If we cannot then the population will turn elsewhere to provide answers for their immediate needs.

One of the greatest challenges facing Asia today is Christian evangelism. It has to be made clear at the very outset that we are not referring to mainstream Christians like the Catholics who are making a creditable effort to respect the rights of other religions and cultures to exist. Here we are referring to the particularly obnoxious breed of so called Christians who will stop at nothing  to destroy entire cultures through lies and misrepresen­tation. They are extremely well-organised, heavily funded, thoroughly well versed in psychological warfare and ruthless. They are undermining our very social structure.

The urgent call to protect our young and our cultures from these elements has to be made and every effort must be made to protect "Buddhism" so that we have something to pass on to the next generation. But the efforts to stop the tide of evangelism cannot be made by force or by persecution. This would be going against the Buddhist Teaching. It must be done by Education and Infor­mation

.

Our Sangha must be educated in modem sciences like psychology, sociology, psychia­try and the like to be able to re-interpret the Dhamma to help people. They must be equipped to understand the world around them and to help people gain happiness by recognising and reducing tanha (craving / attachment). They must preach COMPASSION by example and precept. In short they must receive secular education besides their monastic training.

The Sangha cannot afford to stay within the walls of their monasteries. They must go out into the streets and must modernize.

One of the ways in which they can modernise is to re-assess their attitude towards women. The Buddha recognised the vast potential women had for spiritual development and he gave them freely of his time, and appointed them to positions of responsibility. It cannot be denied that Asian women have enormous potential to protect Buddhism both in the home as mothers and outside as social workers. We need to honestly re-assess the present sorry state regarding the position of women in Asia and make every effort to give them oppor­tunities to serve mankind in the Buddhist way.

Even more urgently perhaps, we should seriously look at the way in which the followers of the Buddha have separated themselves from each other into the yanas. This may have  been feasible in the days when we were separated by culture and geographical location, but today, division is a luxury we can no longer afford. In the past we could behave like the proverbial blind men and hold on to our understanding of the Dhamma as if no one else mattered. Today, thanks to globalisation and better education, our vision should improve and we should in all humility study all the yanas and try to see how they all point to the same truths. Let us, as they say in Zen Buddhism: 'Look at the moon rather than the finger which points to the moon'.

One of the excuses used by the Buddhist to explain their weakness in the face of Christian evangelism is that Buddhists are short of funds to counter their activities. This excuse has little grounding in fact. If one looks at the enormous amounts of money Buddhists waste on making over-sized Buddha images, elaborately decorated temples (some of which are renovated as soon as they are built) and innumerable conferences, we cannot say we are short of financial resources. We should urgently realise that these funds would be far more effectively used to build hospitals, orphan­ages, schools and the like to benefit the poor areas in third world countries where the evangelists are most active and sadly where Buddhists are least prominent.

One of the favorite pastimes of modern Buddhist leaders seems to be to organize and attend conferences. Each month enormous sums of money are spent to gather elaborate assemblies of prominent Buddhists. They come by the planeloads, stay in expensive hotels, make impressive speeches (and also very un-impressive speeches) arrive at awe-inspiring resolutions and go home with good souvenirs. When they go home they do nothing to implement the resolutions and wait for the next conference. How much more meaningful and profitable would it be if all this money could have been channeled for charity and education as is being done by the evangelists. Of course this is not to belittle the importance of conferences and religious gatherings. But they could be done more simply, more in the way the Buddha would have convened an assembly of his followers to make a decision on some matters regarding Buddhism.

It is not possible in the limited scope of this short paper to explore all the ways in which we can protect Buddhism. And because of its very brevity it may have sounded rather harsh and critical. But the intention of this paper is to bring home dramatically the urgency regarding the measures which need to be taken to protect Buddhism in Asia. In Asia, because while it is in need of protection here, it is doing well enough in Europe, America and Australia. Perhaps we should look at the methods used by these new comers to Buddhism and learn how our old ways of practicing and propagating and preserving our sacred religion can be revitalised and given contemporary relevance.

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