Reflections on crisis in land of the Buddha
A trip to India's spiritual meccas leaves this soul searcher pondering how the five precepts can be applied to the cycle of disasters in the Land of Smiles
Published: 30/10/2011 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News

I spent last week in India on a religious tour known as the ''Buddhist circuit''.

Described in the promotional literature as a ''journey of a lifetime'', it was indeed a time of soul searching. Although I was there in form, my spirit and thoughts were in Thailand with my family members as they struggled with the dilemma of whether to evacuate, along with the many suffering people of Thailand as they get hit by yet another crisis.

The experience was enhanced by the fact that I was there during the Diwali, the Indian festival of lights. The Buddha sought and attained enlightenment after decades of inner struggle _ which the religion of Islam calls the ''real jihad''. There is plenty of light during this time, but precious little enlightenment.

The Buddha was born in what is now Nepal but he attained enlightenment in India. The tour covered these spots as well as those where he preached his first and last sermons, died and was cremated. Right outside Lumbini, the Buddha's birthplace, a sign made clear some of the suggested practices for ordinary mortals seeking to reach this elusive state known as enlightenment.

It was headlined ''panchasila'', or the five precepts. There was nothing complicated about them. They called for adherents to refrain from: killing any living being; taking what the owner does not give; committing sexual misconduct; telling lies; and taking any intoxicant or drug.
With us on this tour were two groups of Thai pilgrims. The tour leader of one group lost her home in the floods and spent much time on the phone to Bangkok trying to get her housing estate manager to save her two dogs from the rooftop. Others were luckier; their homes had been spared the deluge.

I had many conversations with the Thais. One saw me taking a picture of the panchasila sign. He came over and said, almost despairingly, ''We Thais don't do very well in any of those five categories. What do we expect will be the result?''

In the days to come, after this latest flooding crisis too becomes history, the recriminations and blame-game will start. Who was responsible? Why? How? There will be the usual paralysis by analysis.

Technical, political and commercial factors will be debated. The prescribed solutions will be along the same lines.

Very little of the analysis will include a spiritual angle. If it does come up, it will be summarily dismissed as obsolete mumbo-jumbo, irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

Look at the various crises that have hit Thailand as a direct result of crossing the panchasila. Killing: No shortage of gunmen here.

Stealing: No shortage of that either. Sexual misconduct: The less said the better. Lies: Plenty of that going around, especially during election time. Alcohol and drugs: Again, the less said the better.
Now, if an enlightened leader offered that simple five-step advice as far back as more than 2,500 years ago, and if those who profess to be devout followers of that leader ignore or reject that advice, what do they expect will be the result?

If the Buddha made the conquest of suffering and the pursuit of enlightenment a part and parcel of the same cause-and-effect philosophy, don't those who opt to pay mere lip service to that noble guidance have only themselves to blame for the outcome?

Why blame the politicians, or the generals, the bureaucrats, the media, the gunmen, the alcohol peddlers, the educational system or the clergy? Certainly, none are to blame individually, but all are to blame collectively.

They are all the cells that comprise society. As the many monks we met during the tour made clear in their reflections, when any of those cells begin to malfunction, something goes wrong with the system as a whole. If all of them malfunction, the cancer has spread and the entire system is doomed. It can only survive in a fire-fighting mode, putting out one fire after another but paying little attention to the root causes of the fires.

Over time, this becomes unsustainable. But it is only when both the price and the costs of this cycle of unsustainability become too high that ''alternative solutions'' begin to emerge.

Following the footsteps of the Buddha also underpins what binds Thailand and India culturally, spiritually and environmentally _ both in terms of shared wisdom and heritage, as well as shared problems.

The land once walked by the Buddha must have been carpeted with trees, especially the Bodhi, in the shade of which he attained enlightenment.

Over the past few decades, trees have been destroyed by the millions in pursuit of economic development.

The Buddha went from riches to rags as the first step in his long journey. Today, societies go exactly in the opposite direction.

What do they expect will be the result?

Floods, health pandemics, economic crises and various other catastrophes are often divided into ''man-made'' or ''natural'', otherwise known as ''acts of God''.
In reality, the classification is totally blurred.

Which category does the flooding crisis fall into?

Or is there a wider cause-and-effect factor at play?

Thirty years ago, Thailand was on the threshold of a major HIV/Aids pandemic that would have had devastating economic and social consequences. Was that a man-made crisis or natural?

The key question is: What does Thailand learn from these repeated crises? Is it conscious of its ''real competitive advantage'' over other countries?

This advantage is not its labour costs or its geographical location or its service-minded tourism workforce. It is the country's rich heritage and wise leadership that strives to offer guidance for a greater public good.

The day when policy prescriptions take root in this guidance is when the crises will begin to abate. They will never go away, but they will certainly recede in both frequency and intensity.

As for enlightenment, it will take at least a few light years for us ordinary mortals to see the light.