| by Victor Cherubim
( June 25k, 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) There is a lot going on in London, besides the forthcoming Olympics and Paralympics. Ascot racing followed by Wimbledon tennis, then Henley rowing regatta, followed by One Day internationals in Cricket with Australia and later South Africa, with the entire summer overcrowded for the sports lover. Whilst for the ordinary citizen, individual responsibility is trying to balance the bank account with pay cheques being held up, mortgages not completed, and unending worry for days on end by one of the Big Five Banks in UK, “down” with a computer glitch last week.
Who could have said it was their “karma,” but that was what it was like: everything in a continuous flux. Change was written large in the minds of the many who attended the Sambuddhatva Jayanthiva and Vesak- Poson celebrations held at Brent Town Hall Sunday 24th June 2012 hosted by Ven. Aggamahapanditha Galayaye Piyadassi, Head of Sri Saddhatissa International Buddhist Centre ,Kingsbury, London NW9, with visiting monks from Sri Lanka and other temples in U.K. When Professor Richard Gombrich. Emeritus Professor and Academic Director Oxford Centre for Buddhist studies gave the keynote and addressed the large Sri Lankan gathering; he echoed the sentiments of those who were eager to seek solace in the words of Lord Buddha.
Karma according to Gombrich, is “one of the elements of volition, partly conditioned by earlier lives. Karma is personal, not group intention. It is a process each of us makes of his/her own intention, constantly intending to live good or bad lives. Negligence is seen as a failure of what one intended. Unlike generally assumed there is free will. Do I do it because I have a choice, or am I programmed, or predetermined? You are influenced by your former acts. Once you are conditioned by your former acts, continuing similar acts comes naturally because of karma. You are heirs of your own karma, either in this or your previous (past) lives. The principle is on the basis of individual karma, as there is no basis of group karma.”
He compared the fate of the Greek people and what the government and the bankers got the people, into this horrendous debt. The bankers lent the money of their own free will and expected it to be paid back naturally with interest. Now the entire people have been burdened. The poor may not have borrowed, but they together with others who benefitted, are told to pay it back, but cannot pay it back. Is it fair for the children to go hungry, for the corrupt people who did not pay their taxes? Likewise he said, in Sri Lanka, there were terrorists who violently terrorised large numbers of innocent people to take sides. They did not have a moral responsibility, yet the masses who were not terrorists suffered and died. He concluded by stating that each of us is individually responsible for this moral process.
It is thus pointless to deny change, he said. Change is continuous. What we know as our intention is our karma. The process by which we “materialise” our intention, this process goes on changing forever. All ideologies do change. Cruelty in this process also goes on changing, until we arrive at responsibility. Change is the only constant; if it did not, it would be a contradiction.
What was not witnessed at this gathering, is the quiet work the Venerable Thera does to train over 350 students in the Centre in Sri Lanka customs, song and dance, the charitable work of looking after the aged and the infirm, the helpful way all Sri Lankan communities are brought together through Interfaith gatherings at the Temple – a veritable storehouse of change.
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