Buddhism As Education

When we see dishonest people who are wealthy or cruel people who are powerful, or kind people who die young, we may doubt the law of Karma. But many of this results we experience in this life are results of actions in previous lives and many of the action we do in this life will only ripen in future lives i.e. this is called long term Karma. Short term Karma is that which show results within a short term of time. The wealth of dishonest people might be the result of their generosity in past lives. Their current dishonesty is however leaving karmic seeds for them to experience poverty in their future lives. Likewise, the respect and authority given to cruel people is due to positive actions they did in the past. In the present, they are abusing their power, thus creating the cause for future pain. Those who die young are experiencing the result of negative actions such as killing done in past lives. However, their present kindness is planting seeds or imprints on their mainstreams for t...

It has been a common situation till today that leaders of Buddhist association and societies often discourage its members from being politically active or being sympathetic to any political ideologies or its cause. This is because Buddhists as the whole has been ingrained for decades that they should not address any issues or raise matters that show signs of political connotations or support of any political organizations. In any Buddhist association or societies normally, if there are any of its committee members or leaders show any signs of interest in politics or being part of a political party or comments in political development of our nation, they will be often treated with suspicion and frowned. I personally agreed with Loka Ng, a former leader of the Buddhist Missionary Society of Malaysia (BMSM) and Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia (YBAM). Such thought and perception are completely inaccurate, wronged and should be corrected as quickly as possible. By encouraging leaders...

The Buddha was among the first to speak against the caste system, on the importance of individual rights and the equality of all human beings despite differences in social standing, race and religions. He also encouraged the spirit of social cooperation and active participation in society at all levels. According to the Buddha, the only classification of human beings is based on equality of their moral conduct. The Buddha, seeing the two sexes as ultimately equal in rights was the first religious teacher who gave women full freedom to participate in religious rights. His move to allow women to enter the Sangha (order of monks and nuns) was extremely radical in his times. The Buddha was also the first religious teacher to advocate the spirit of consultation and democratic process in the Sangha community, each member has individual rights to decide on matters of general concern. When a serious question arose, the issues are put forth before and discussed in a manner similar to today’s de...