“A religion known for nonviolence is being used to fuel a genocidal campaign against the Muslims of Burma. Inside the coming, September 2014 Shambhala Sun, Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield, who recently returned from Burma, urges us to join the call for peace. His full article appears below — you can also download and share this PDF of the article — along with with helpful contact info for showing your support and sharing your voice, and the full text of an open letter, “World Buddhist Leaders’ Response to the Growing Ethnic Violence Against Muslims in Myanmar.”
Neither in anger nor hatred
Should anyone wish harm to another.
—The Buddha, in the Metta Sutta
On the surface, upcountry Burma is not very different than it was in 1971, when I first trained there as a monk in the monasteries of Mahasi and Sunlun Sayadaw. The green and dusty landscape is dotted with temples and golden pagodas. There are poor hardworking farmers and small towns with colorful marketplaces. The Burmese people remain extraordinarily gracious and goodhearted, the nation a revered center of Buddhist teachings.
But now there is also fear, an underlying tension spreading across the country. I recently returned from working in Burma with peace activists and for Partners Asia, supporting schools, shelters for orphans and battered women, HIV programs, rural clinics, and other amazing projects across the land. I found amid the positive changes and slow movement toward democracy a growing religious and ethnic intolerance and conflict.
News reports show monks crisscrossing Burma using Buddhist teachings to encourage violence and the passage of inhumane laws. Here in the West, people are shocked. Isn’t Buddhism the religion that preaches against violence and killing? Are these stories true? How can we understand them? Read more.
