Buddhist Global Relief

Buddhist Global Relief (BGR) is an inter-denominational community of Buddhists and friends of Buddhism who seek to give concrete expression to the Buddha’s great compassion as an ongoing project in the contemporary world.

BGR addresses the plight of people worldwide afflicted by poverty, natural disaster, and societal neglect. It aspires to directly participate in the Buddha’s mission of liberating beings from suffering by addressing the most immediate causes of their distress and providing for their well-being and happiness.

Inspired by a sense of humane responsibility and commitment to social justice, its members seek to improve the lives of the men, women, and children that they serve, enabling them to lead fruitful lives of dignity, hope, and meaning.

Note from webmaster: BGR is still consider new in this world and has yet to establish themselves in every corner of the world. Nevertheless, we should not be hinder by the barrier that exist now. We can still do our part today for our own community.

Swine Flu FAQ

Information taken from The Star Online

What is swine influenza?

It is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A strains of the influenza virus. It regularly causes high flu outbreaks in pigs but with low death rates. There are four main sub-types of the virus, but the most recent isolated influenza viruses from pigs have been H1N1 viruses.

How does it spread?

Swine flu viruses do not typically infect humans though they do occur through close proximity or contact with infected pigs or contaminated areas. Cases of human-to-human spread have been documented.

What are the symptoms?

The symptoms are similar to those of regular flu:
- Fever
- Lethargy
- Runny nose
- Cough
- Sore throat
- Lack of appetite
- Vomiting and diarrhoea in some cases.

How common is swine flu infection in humans?

In the past reports of about one human swine flu virus infection had been received every one to two years in the United States. From December 2005 till February 2009, 12 cases have been reported.

Has this strain of flu been seen before?

No. Flu mutates constantly, so it is common for new strains to emerge. Pigs can also be infected with both human and avian influenza, and the current circulating swine flu strain appears to contain genetic elements from all three.

Can swine flu be treated with antiviral drugs and flu vaccine?

The swine flu is resistant to two common drugs – Amantadine and Rimantadine. The H1N1 swine flu viruses are very different from human H1N1 viruses. Therefore, vaccines for human seasonal flu would not provide protection. However, a “seed vaccine” has been specifically tailored to this swine flu and will be manufactured if officials deem it necessary.

Can people catch swine flu by eating pork?

No. Swine influenza viruses are not transmitted by food. Eating properly handled and cooked pork and pork products is safe. Cooking pork to an internal temperature of 70ºC and above kills the swine flu virus.

How long is someone with swine flu considered contagious?

People with swine influenza virus infection should be considered potentially contagious as long as they are symptomatic; possibly for up to seven days following the onset of the illness. Children, especially younger children, might potentially be contagious for longer periods.

What can I do to protect myself from the swine flu?

There is no vaccine available right now to protect against the swine flu.

However, you can help prevent the spread of germs that cause respiratory illnesses like influenza by:

- Covering your nose and mouth with a disposable tissue or handkerchief when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the waste basket after you use it.

- Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also helpful

- Try to avoid close contact with sick people. - If you get sick with influenza, stay at home and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.

- Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth.

- Consult your nearest healthcare facility if you think you have any of the symptoms.

Which countries have had cases of the swine flu?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed human cases of swine flu in Mexico, the United States, Canada and Spain. Only Mexico has reported deaths from the new strain.

Are there any travel restrictions or advisories for Malaysians?

The Health Ministry on April 27 advised Malaysians against travelling to certain places in the United States, Mexico and Canada which have been affected by the swine flu.

What precautions are in place in Malaysia?

- The Health Ministry’s operations room in Putrajaya has started a 24-hour monitoring of the situation. The public can call 03-8881 0200/300 for enquiries.

- Those returning from Latin American countries and found to have flu-like symptoms will be quarantined.

- Health Ministry officials are conducting health screenings on passengers arriving from the United States.

- Thermal scanners will be placed at international airports to speed up the screening process for swine flu.

- Public and private medical practitioners have been instructed to report to the district health office any patient with influenza-like illnesses or severe pneumonia symptoms and who had travelled to the affected countries after April 17.

- Owners of the 797 pig farms nationwide have been ordered to immediately contact the nearest Veterinary Services Department office or the Animal Disease Control Centre if their workers or animals show symptoms linked to the swine flu.

Where can I get more information?

For more information, go to the Health Ministry (www.moh.gov.my) or call the Ministry's hotline at (03) 8881-0200/300.

Useful Links:
World Health Organization: www.who.int
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: www.cdc.gov
Homeland Security Department: www.dhs.gov
WHO swine flu page: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html

Youth Camp Promo @ KCBA

Wesak Day is approaching. The committee members of KCBA English Dhamma Youth Camp for this year would be around to help out the Adult group in propagating Buddhism while doing our own propagating as well.

As usual, our main even of the year would be our KCBA English Dhamma Youth Camp 14: The Gems of Life.
Date: 17th - 20th December 2009
Venue: The Klang and Coast Buddhist Association
Fee: RM70 per person

More info, please visit us at our counter during Wesak Day or contact us at kcbadyc@gmail.com

Everybody, it seems, is a Buddhist now

by Douglas Todd, Canwest News Service, April 27, 2009

Vancouver, Cabada -- Have you noticed more friends and acquaintances quietly suggesting they have become Buddhists? I'm picking up the trend everywhere.

I take Buddhism very seriously as one of the great religions. There are important truths to explore in Buddhism. It is a profound and challenging system of belief.

But right now I just want to remark on how struck I've been by the way many North American searchers are making Buddhism their spirituality of choice. It is currently very cool to be a Buddhist.

Buddhism gets good media coverage. The Dalai Lama. Thich Nhat Hanh. Jack Kornfeld. These caring and charismatic men are high profile. Many Hollywood stars are also into Buddhism, spreading the word.

Unlike some of the world's two billion Christians, Buddhists are not linked in the public's mind with extremism or war or aggressive proslytizing (even though, believe it or not, there are Buddhist militants).

In contrast, it is definitely not cool now to be Christian, especially in Canada, despite the diversity of the faith.

And it's still not really socially acceptable to be a follower of Jesus in Canada despite Barack Obama being a liberal Christian.

Even Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism and in some quarters Islam seem to be more cool these days. Yet nothing seems to touch the popularity of Buddhism as its been adapted to the West. I think many are drawn to a Buddhist-flavoured allure of meditation, inner calm, psychological insight and apparent open-mindedness.

I recently interviewed the rock-and-roll/punk singer Bif Naked. A smart woman, Bif has been noticing how young North Americans, as well as the not so young, are drawn today to "exotic" religions, and that typically means from the East.

A Vancouver yoga studio owner says, "Everybody's a Buddhist now." She also knows a few things about Buddhism. But, like me, she wonders how so many people can so casually say they're Buddhist.

Do they attend a Buddhist temple? Have they studied Buddhism, beyond a few books or articles or taking some meditation classes? What do they think about Buddhist basics, such as the Four Noble Truths? The Eightfold Path? Which stream of Buddhism do they follow?

There are so many different schools of Buddhist thought -- and they are incredibly complex, both philosophically and in their spiritual demands. I suspect some new Buddhists don't know the answers to these questions.

It's true that followers of many religions don't really know much about their tradition. And despite raising these concerns, in some ways I celebrate these new Buddhists' interest in this spiritual path. Maybe they're at the beginning of something creatively transformative for themselves, and even society.

Earth Day

Articles and pictures courtesy from Youth2 and Metro of The Star Publication. (Combination of a few articles)

What is Earth Day?

First Earth Hour, now Earth Day, what next? Earth Week?

Hate to break it to you, but in many countries, it really IS Earth Week now.

Don’t worry, it’s not about turning off electricity for a whole day. Earth Day is simply an event to remind everyone about the importance of protecting and appreciating our planet.

This year, the US-based Earth Day Network will be starting a Green Generation campaign which will slowly build up towards Earth Day’s 40th anniversary next year.

According to Wikipedia, the theme 40 years ago was overpopulation. In spite of that, world population has almost doubled since then, so imagine what would happen if we ignored the current themes of sustainability.

To find out more about the Green Generation campaign and how you can get involved, log on to earthday.net/node/13475.

Creative initiatives to protect our planet

GREEN business has become the trend of the century. While the Earth Hour was a short-term effort to create awareness about the environment, or as critics claimed, a mere publicity stunt, some organisations are going green by making long-term changes for sustainability.

The following are some examples of green business initiatives by several companies:

Waterless urinals in men’s washroom

At the Sunway Pyramid, there is no more need to flush at the urinals in the men’s toilets as each urinal is coated with BioCare liquid, a special chemical that breaks down urine into environment-friendly components without using water.

“This is part of the mall’s effort to conserve water and reduce wastage to help the environment. As the breakdown of the urine takes place immediately upon contact, this system ensures the urinals are always hygienic for use,” said the mall’s leasing and marketing general manager Kevin Tan.

According to Tan, the chemical is changed weekly to ensure its effectiveness.

Other green activities by the mall include a car park guiding system, the Alam Flora Recycling Buy Back Centre, and the Bring Your Own Bag campaign.

The parking system uses red/green LED (light emitting diodes) light to guide motorists to the nearest available parking bay.

“This system helps drivers to save time in locating available parking bays and reduces the time spent on finding available parking bays means less carbon monoxide emission from running vehicles,” Tan said.

“Shoppers and tenants can also recycle old cardboard boxes, newspapers, can and hard plastic for cash at the Alam Flora Recycling Buy Back Centre (BBC), which is open daily from 10am to 5pm except Thursday,” he said.

“A recycling buyback centre in the mall encourages not only the public but the retail outlets to trade in recyclables for cash as well.

In addition, the Sunway Pyramid will be rewarding shoppers with free parking every Tuesday (except public holidays) for supporting the environment. To qualify for the scheme, shoppers need to bring their eco-friendly bags (paper or plastic bags are not allowed) and buy product-based goods worth a minimum of RM50. They then have to present their receipts to one of the concierges and exchange their parking ticket for a free ticket.

“The main message of the campaign is not solely about the mall going green for the long-term, but that its shoppers take ownership and do their part for Mother Nature,” Tan said.

100% PCR PET Bottles

The Body Shop, known for its environment-friendly initiatives, is no stranger to the concept of green business.

According to The Body Shop marketing communication manager Jennifer Chan, one key value at The Body Shop is to protect the planet.

“Early last year, 100% recycled plastic bottles were introduced. That’s because some people still discard the packaging the usual way even if there’s a recycling centre or the option to return it to our outlets. The bottles are also 100% recyclable, from the cap to the label, even if it ends up in a landfill,” Chan said,

She said The Body Shop paper bags were made from 100% recycled paper with printing using water-based ink that did not harm the environment.

For the Green Office concept, the company’s workers are encouraged to practice the 3R — reduce, reuse and recycle.

Recycle bins are placed in the office for used paper and empty bottles.

Employees are advised to switch off all electrical appliances such as lights, air-conditioners, and computers when not in use, print emails or documents only when necessary and print all documents double-sided where possible, as well as publish, distribute or copy documents electronically.

As for reuse, the workers are encouraged to use scrap paper for taking notes and printing, re-use envelopes from internal mail and use own coffee mugs or water bottles for water and beverages instead of plastic/paper cups.

Up next is the “Kick The Bag Habit” on World Environment Day on June 5. Launched on Earth Day last year, the campaign raised RM91,953 towards the protection of the Temengor rainforest and over 77,000 paper bags saved over the period of the campaign.

For each shopping bag declined by every customer during the campaign, The Body Shop donated 50 sen to its campaign partner Malay­sia Nature Society (MNS). Customers who requested a bag donated 50 sen towards the campaign.

“The concept is same for this year, but customers can now have the choice to purchase a limited edition tote bag at RM5, where RM2.50 will be donated to the MNS for the Save Temengor campaign,” Chan said.

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions

Panasonic Malaysia Sdn Bhd is committed to reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from its production activities by 300,000 tonnes globally over three years from fiscal year 2008 to 2010.

According to its assistant general manager (corporate communication and branding), Azizah Wahid, as part of the company’s environmental sustainability management activities, it will focus on three initiatives: Eco ideas for manufacturing, Eco ideas for everybody and everywhere, and Eco ideas for products.

Internally, the company has adopted a series of activities such as “no overtime” day, saving energy by switching off air-conditioners and lights, “no driving out for lunch” day to save petrol and reduce carbon footprint as well as recycling and office cleaning to maintain a clean and healthy work environment and work culture.

Azizah said the company was also striving to develop technologies for resource conservation while improving product functions.

To reduce CO2 emissions in the group’s activities, Panasonic will improve productivity in all manufacturing processes, including product planning, procurement, marketing, logistics and recycling.

“Reducing resources will reduce the amount of material used; reduce the rate of non-circulating resources over their life cycles; use more recycled resources; and increase recyclable resources. At the same time, Panasonic will reduce CO2 emissions,” Azizah said.

For the Clean Factories initiatives, Panasonic emphasises preventing global warming, reducing total waste, and reducing the release and transfer of chemical substances.

The company is endeavouring to minimise all input and output and to make all their manufacturing sites into Clean Factories.

Panasonic also promotes green logistics and recycling waste to help prevent global warming and reduce air pollution.

Panasonic will expand its eco- activities to local communities around the world. The company is promoting awareness-raising activities such as Love the Earth Citizens Campaign to encourage employees and their families to be active parti­ci­pants in eco-initiatives at home, the workplace and local communities.

Panasonic is aiming to establish factories co-existing in harmony with local communities and societies.

In addition to giving environmental consideration to materials and promoting recycling-oriented de­signs, Panasonic will accelerate development of energy conservation technologies while eliminating products with low energy efficiency.

Green crusaders

By NASA MARIA ENTABAN and IAN YEE

FROM rearing their own chickens to adopting lightbulbs, the young people of Malaysia have sure risen to the challenge of preserving our planet.

It’s one thing to turn off your lights for an hour every year to reduce your carbon footprint as was done in the recent Earth Hour global campaign, and another altogether to spend your weekends saving the natural habitats of turtles, or cleaning up waterfalls.

But that’s exactly what some young people have been doing; and in conjunction with Earth Day today, R.AGE checked out some of the activities our youth are getting involved in to help protect our little blue planet.

Can’t adopt a tree? Try a lightbulb!

Planting trees may not be something everybody can afford to do in the concrete jungles that we have built around ourselves, so why not try something else more creative?

A group of 18 A-Levels students in Kolej Tuanku Ja’afar (KTJ), Negri Sembilan, came up with an idea for people to start living an environmentally sustainable lifestyle.

The students organised an “Adopt-A-Lightbulb” campaign as part of their school’s Eco Fair (taking place today at KTJ), and have so far raised enough money to sponsor over 200 energy-saving lightbulbs to various schools and charity homes.

“These lightbulbs are actually much more practical,” said Tai Yang, 19, one of the students.

“A Grade A energy-saving bulb can save up to 80% energy, and they have a lifespan of 6,000 to 15,000 hours, while normal bulbs last a maximum of 1,000 hours.

“That’s why a lot of businesses use energy-saving lightbulbs. They’re more expensive, but if you consider how long they last, it actually comes up to about the same price.”

Tai initiated the campaign as part of the Global Debate competition (organised by United Nations Foundation initiative The People Speak), a worldwide project that encourages youth to speak out about pressing global issues.

Tai hopes that the event won’t just impact his fellow schoolmates, but that it will help others beyond the school realise the benefits of even small acts like switching lightbulbs.

He said: “I used to think global warming was a myth. That’s what a lot of young people are still like. They don’t believe it’s a serious problem.”

Rearing to go

While the KTJ students are working on a campaign as a group, others choose to do it their own way.

Take Mah Chong Ee, 25, for example,whose hobby of rearing chickens ensures that he and his friends not only have healthy food to eat but also helps to do away with commercial waste associated with purchasing poultry from say, a supermarket.

“I just find it sad that we barely know what real chicken tastes like anymore. Once you have tried free range or kampung chicken, you’ll taste the difference. It’s like the birds we eat these days aren’t even real chickens anymore,” said Chong Ee who, together with his father, has been rearing a few small chicks for their meat.

Free range animals are those brought up in a more natural environment, compared to those mass produced in farms..

He was quick, however, to distance himself from those caught up in the organic food trend.

“I’m not some organic food freak. The rest of my eating habits are quite normal. I just feel that it’s a small step I can take to have a better lifestyle. I don’t expect people to start growing their own fruits and vegetables, but it would be great if they could,” he said.

Waterfall Survivors

In July 2008, nature enthusiast Joe Yap established a Facebook group called “Waterfall Survivors”, a group that would unite over 1,000 waterfall lovers in Malaysia.

“I found Kanching Waterfalls in Rawang, Selangor, online while searching for a perfect family outing venue,” Joe, 30, explained.

“I was immediately interested in locating more waterfalls, and decided it would be a good idea to hold waterfall expeditions.”

Waterfall Survivors organises regular waterfall exploration trips – day trips as well as overnight trips, where members gather to collect rubbish, socialise and, bathe in, as well as explore, the waterfalls.

Last Sunday’s expedition was the group’s most successful to date as 300 people, made up of the Facebook group members and their friends, showed up to clean up Kanching Waterfalls.

This was the first time Kong Yink Heay, a 25-year-old production executive, had taken part in a collective effort.

“Whenever I picked up a piece of rubbish during that campaign I feel I’ve given back something to nature. After clearing up the rubbish, the waterfall looks more undisturbed.”

Check out the Facebook page at tinyurl.com/dhjqe4 or e-mail waterfallsurvivors@hotmail.com for more information about the group.

PENYUinc

Mohd Amzari Abas, 29, last saw a Giant Leatherback turtle when he was a small child, on a trip to Rantau Abang, Terengganu, with his family.

“That was the first and last time I have encountered that mighty creature. From then on I vowed to do something to help preserve these beautiful sea turtles,” said the founder of PENYUinc.

In 2006, Amzari visited Turtle Sanctuary in Cherating, Pahang, and to his shock discovered that the Giant Leatherbacks no longer lay eggs on Malaysian shores. He decided then that he would set up a volunteer group to help the sanctuary out.

“At first it was just me and a few friends, but now we have around 600 members from all over the world who are passionate about saving the turtles,” Amzari said.

At the centre, volunteers clean up the beach, give information to tourists, learn about turtles and release baby turtles into the sea.

“The best part is helping the beach rangers during their night patrols on the beach and coming across sea turtles! The most valuable experience would be watching them lay eggs and learning about the process,” Amzari noted.

“I don’t want my grandchildren to only encounter turtles as figurines in a museum. They should have the same experiences we do,” Amzari added.

Those interested to take part in the programme must be over the age of 18. Visit myspace.com/penyuinc or e-mail penyuinc@yahoo.com.au for details.

Sri KDU River Rangers

At 17, nature lover Richard Liew already knows how to test water pollution levels, and, along, with 30 other students of Sri KDU, has cleaned a river.

Not many 17-year-old teenagers, let alone adults, have experienced anything quite like the River Rangers at the Sri KDU school in Selangor, who recently attended a training session run by the Global Environment Centre.

Prior to the river clean up last month, the students were given theoretical sessions at the school to educate them on the status of rivers in Malaysia, the main sources of pollution and its impact on our drinking water and health.

Richard and his peers went to Sungai Penchala in Petaling Jaya and were astounded by the strange things they discovered submerged in the river.

“Apart from regular rubbish, there were bicycles, cables, even a mattress floating in the river!” Richard shared.

“Being a part of this programme makes me feel useful. As a teenager, I have a role to play in society, and I’ve done my part and will continue to do it.”

The River Rangers will continue to carry out periodic checks and river cleanups and in the process learn to appreciate that rivers are the lifeblood of the environment.

Green on screen

By SHARMILA NAIR

THESE movies and songs will get us all in the right frame of mind, and strengthen our resolve to be good to Mother Earth.

This eye-opening and much talked about documentary is former US vice president Al Gore’s personal project to save Mother Nature. It captures viewers’ attention from the start with its predictions on the catastrophes waiting to befall humanity as a result of global warming.

The Inconvenient Truth explores climate change and how it affects humans today and in the years to come. Great lesson from this movie – don’t take too long to conserve Earth. Start now.

We may be a little tired of Eddie Murphy and his crazy antics but credit should be given where it’s due. Dr. Dolittle 2 has a strong message to share. Eddie reprises his role as Dr. Dolittle, the vet with the ability to talk to animals, who in this movie are preparing to launch a strike to save their woods.

Dolittle works with the animals to stop land developers bent on destroying the jungle and comes up with a brilliant plan to save the animals’ homes.

Who can forget this movie? Not only did it show the world that Julia Roberts has a great cleavage, it also tackled some serious environmental issues.

Based on a true story, Julia plays Erin Brokovich, a single mother who takes on a gas company which she believes is responsible for polluting the town’s water supply. She goes on to bust a cover-up that had taken place and almost single-handedly brings the gas company down.

Melting ice, rising waters and flooding are the issues this movie tackles. Manny the Mammoth, Sid the Sloth and Diego the Sabretooth Tiger discover that the ice wall surrounding their valley is melting and will soon flood their home.

The trio embark on a journey to save their lives and learn why their world is ‘melting’ around them. Okay, so we don’t have mammoths and sabretooth tigers roaming the Earth anymore, but what they face relates to the animals today nonetheless.

Leonardo DiCaprio has long outgrown the love-struck boy in Titanic. Now, the environmentally-conscious actor does movies that don’t necessarily make money but are educational.

The 11th Hour is a documentary, hosted by DiCaprio, featuring prominent scientists and environmental experts looking into how humans can stop destroying Earth and undo the damage we’ve inflicted upon it.

Okay, so the movie basically tells you not to dump pigs’ waste into lakes, but hey, that’s a lesson there. Springfield’s lake is so polluted that when Homer drops his pet pig’s poo container in it, the town becomes a dangerous zone.

The vengeful townsfolk, angered by Homer’s stupidity, descend on the Simpsons and wouldn’t rest until they see blood. The United States Environmental Protection Agency comes to the rescue and cleans up the town in a dramatic and dictatorial manner.

It’s up to Homer to save the town and reunite with his family ... and pet pig.

Unusual hailstorms and tornadoes hit Earth and the entire northern hemisphere is covered with a sheet of ice. Life as we (okay, the characters in the movie) know it ends, and the only one genuinely worried is scientist Roland Emmerich (played by Dennis Quaid).

The movie tries to scare us into taking global warming seriously, but unfortunately, it just comes out looking illogical at times.

Nevertheless, it’s a great step towards making people more aware of global warming and its consequences.

Also, check out these earth-friendly tunes that teach us a lesson or two about keeping nature they way it should be.

This tween queen discusses what most songstress her age don’t. Wake Up America, asks America(ns) to do just that – wake up, and see the destruction that they’ve wreaked on Earth. A catchy tune loaded with Earth-friendly messages, this song should definitely be on everybody’s MP3 playlist.

Our very own wake-up call song, Hijau is still remembered for Zainal Abidin’s smooth voice and its educational lyrics. Hijau bears a conservation message telling us to love our lush and green environment before we lose it all. Yikes!

Jacko is not only wacko for gloves and monkeys but also for the environment, apparently. This 1995 hit song got us all charged up about saving the Earth and watching its video clip still brings a tingle down our spine. Good job, Michael!

Jay Kay has always been passionate about the environment and this song (featured in the movie Godzilla) in particular, pokes fun at people’s indifference when it comes to environmental issues. Don’t let the funky music and beat fool you, this is a real save-the-Earth-now kind of song.

Showing the way

By YAM PHUI YEE

Everyone can do their bit to save the Earth. You can hold an environmental awareness event, design a poster or sign a petition to save endangered animals.

ONE Earth. Environment First. Action Now.

OK, fine, you figured out where that came from – it’s inspired from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s slogan for his team of cabinet ministers.

But consider the above slogan again. With climate change, depletion of natural resources and loss of habitats for animals happening around the world, we really need to take action now and make conscious decisions to protect this planet we’re living on.

You don’t have to be a scientist, researcher or activist with expertise in environmental issues to get started. At the Generation Green event in Sunway University College last week, students took part in big and small ways to conserve and protect the environment.

The two-day event was jointly organised by the Sunway Alumni Office and the Canadian International Matriculation Programme (CIMP) in conjunction with Earth Day today.

“Generation Green was organised to raise funds to help an environmental organisation. We also wanted to raise awareness of environmental issues and ways to solve the problems,” said CIMP student Ayesha Hannah Amer, 19.

According to her, the students stepped up to volunteer for the project. They also designed and voted for the best brochure to be used for the event.

At Generation Green, students stopped by to check out the exhibition booths set up by various NGOs and environmental groups. At the booths, they discovered composting techniques, learnt about water pollution and were made aware of the threats that coral reefs are facing.

Grace Sim found out about the conservation and community programmes held by Raleigh International Kuala Lumpur in Sabah, while her friend Sarah Chong took part in a signature petition to call for comprehensive federal laws to protect turtles, at the WWF Malaysia booth.

“This is something that everyone could do. It didn’t cost a thing to sign it,” said Sarah, 19.

Others pledged to cut down on plastic bag usage at the Project Daily Million booth and purchased reusable shopping bags and T-shirts with green messages such as “I do my part. Do yours too!”. There were also food sales, games, forums and screenings of documentaries and animated films such as The 11th Hour, The Story of Stuff, Kilowatt Ours, The Man Who Planted Trees and An Inconvenient Truth.

Ayesha, who had watched The Story of Stuff previously, now thinks carefully before buying an item. The videos screened showed how much impact each consumer has on the environment when seen collectively, and she hoped they will help students, as consumers, make better choices that will benefit the Earth.

“We don’t know how much we waste until we see it through a third person’s life (in documentaries),” she said.

Student Goh Yee Yin, who also volunteered at the event, said that while they can’t stop their friends from shopping, campaigning and having such an event on campus will raise their awareness and convince them to adopt good habits. For that to happen, students need incentives, geology student Kiret Singh suggested.

“They can introduce programmes such as giving some money to customers who return soda cans or giving bonus points to shoppers who reuse plastic bags in malls. Hopefully, people will make it a habit to reduce, reuse and recycle (3R) and less resources will be used,” said Kiret.

His poster on 3R and 3P (Plan, Play, Plant) was among those exhibited at Green Generation. Its tagline “Reduce as priority, reuse as a back-up and recycle as an alternative” encouraged students to cut down on unnecessary consumption of resources and keep recycling of the unwanted items as a last resort. The 3Ps, meanwhile, were about planting trees to make our world greener.

This generation of youths play a role to help make the Earth a better place for themselves and the generations to come, Ayesha believed.

“We have to take the initiative to learn about the various issues. There is information everywhere. We can make a difference.”

Bittersweet 'School Days with a Pig'

by Shen Shi'an, The Buddhist Channel, April 14, 2009

Singapore -- The award-winning movie ‘School Days with a Pig’ tells of a teacher’s special project for his class of grade 6 students to learn more deeply about the connection between life and food - by raising a piglet together, before eventually eating it.

This premise is actually rather disturbing (though there is not a single gory scene) as it’s quite bizarre that both the teacher and 28 students were agreeable to the conclusion of the project in the first place. It’s easy to assume the film to be a cutesy comedy with piggy misadventures, but the ending is such that it becomes a ‘horror’ movie - albeit not readily depicted. As expected, the class splits into two factions as the story progresses.

One side feels that pigs are to be eaten, and since humans need food anyway, while the other feels that it lacks compassion. What missed dwelling into was the fact that humans don’t really require any animal produce to survive. It’s out of ignorance and greed that meat-eating is perpetuated. Throughout most of the show, the teacher doesn’t educate on the possibility of taking up a kinder diet (vegetarianism or veganism), and remains mostly neutral and ambivalent, letting the class debate on the future of the pig.

Naturally, the pig gets named (P-chan) by the kids, which some felt to be a mistake - because it meant bonding with him, making the prospect of departure harder. Even the ones who were initially pro-eating him became attached to some degree. Some start questioning why P-chan must be eaten - especially since he became not just like a classmate, but a pet and friend too.

This reminds us of a famous quote by George Bernard Shaw - ‘Animals are my friends… and I don’t eat my friends.’ In fact, the Buddha even encouraged us to befriend all sentient beings with loving-kindness (Metta), and to practise harmlessness. The issue of hypocrisy arose too… Why would it be okay to eat other living beings if it’s not okay to eat P-chan? Is it just because they became attached to P-chan? But must attachment be a requisite for universal kindness to function? Not at all. The teacher didn’t want to use a chicken because he felt it would be ‘too easy’.

He wanted the kids to learn to care for an animal well, to maximise the lessons learnt. The kids learn to nurture P-chan, play with him, feed him and defend him. They even built a house for him, clearing his poop and pee, and he becomes the jolly mascot of the school.

The more the bonding deepens, the more disturbing it becomes as the date for the kids’ graduation looms closer. For what is their kindness to him ultimately for, when P-chan is to be sent to the slaughterhouse? Does the bad faith not intensify?

As the kids became preoccupied with P-chan, even eating less to save leftovers for P-chan, some parents wondered if they attend school to learn or to raise a pig. That’s short-sighted of course, because raising a pig offers opportunities to learn about priceless lessons such as unconditional love and responsibility to a fellow sentient being.

The film consists of many one-line debating points on the ethics of eating P-chan versus not. Here are some… One says that since the project’s conclusion was to eat P-chan, they should do just that, as a matter of principle. But isn’t sticking to principles rigidly and needlessly itself a poor principle in practice? Is raising an animal to eat cruel, or is it the eating itself that is so? What’s the difference between creating a supply for meat and sustaining a demand for meat? In the Lankavatara Sutra, the irrefutable economics of the interdependence of the meat-seller (killer) and meat-buyer (eater) is stated - a cycle of violence that one can opt out of.

Pigs, and any other animals, don’t exist just to be killed and eaten by others, just as humans don’t. Humans are the ones who decide how to relate to weaker beings. When we choose the easy way out for our convenience and greed, we are really spiritually weak beings, truly incapable of caring for other beings. If so, humans shouldn’t domesticate animals in the first place to exploit them. '

We don’t need to eat animals to stay alive, while animals need us not to eat them to stay alive. Since there was domestication of P-chan with no way to return him to the wild, the kids ought to care for him throughout his natural lifespan. Someone remarked that P-chan already lived a full life of six months, but to measure lifespan unnaturally by the yardstick of slaughterhouses is as twisted as it is to let someone determine you own lifespan.

Another kid rationalised that after P-chan is killed, he would just be meat, no longer P-chan. This is unsound logic, because one still kills P-chan as P-chan. Yet another rationalised that killing and eating is entirely not related, that eating inherits the life of the eaten to let them be part of us. If so, why are we not eating our beloved family and friends when they pass away?

The matter of discrimination arose a few times. Isn’t it clearly favourtism to fight for P-chan’s life, while eating other pigs? Isn’t it clearly speciesim to not eat P-chan, while eating other animals? A cook saw pigs as monsters, who are nevertheless ‘delicious’ when cooked well (with vegetarian seasonings actually). But isn’t the one who demonises and exploits animals the real monster? The kids mistakenly assume that pig farmers love pigs like pets, that they too feel attachment to them before they get killed. If the attachment is so real, why let them be killed… continuously in countless numbers? They have probably gotten numb to the suffering of the pigs.

A child feels that if they are responsible for P-chan’s uncertain future, they should eat him. This would save others the heartache of probably ‘needing’ to send him to the slaugherhouse later. This was accused as being heartless by another. The class hoped to handover P-chan to juniors to care for him as there was no farm which wanted to adopt him for life. Should P-chan be killed simply due to their lack of time to care for him? A class of grade 3 students volunteer to take over, but were deemed too small and young. But couldn’t they be taught how to care for them as a team with more guiding teachers? Isn’t it better to learn to respect life from young?

The ending of the story is a distasteful one. The class cast equal votes for letting P-chan be adopted by the grade 3 students versus sending P-chan to a ‘meat-centre’, which is really euphemism for a bloodily merciless slaughterhouse. The teacher was forced to take a side by casting the deciding vote. He chose the latter, because he felt that the kids were already overburdened by the whole issue. This is bad decision because he chose the easy way out for everyone - by sacrificing P-chan. He was just selfishly ridding self-chosen human misery by subjecting an animal to ultimate misery.

It also hinted that all domesticated animals should die and be eaten in the end? The truth is, the voting was totally unnecessary - because only P-chan’s vote mattered. How could he vote, since he can’t speak? He could vote a resounding ‘Yes! I want to live!’ by screaming and kicking when he faces the knife. It is this final scene of P-chan’s life that the kids and the audience never get witness. The teacher truly failed in teaching the kids about the source of their non-vegetarian food - by not arranging an excursion for them to see this.

The P-chan adventure was only half-lived. It does not do justice to P-chan, since it was partially based on a true story. Seeing P-chan go under the knife, not that I want to, could save many more animals. The movie was unfortunately just another desensitised film that failed to deliver greater lessons on respect for life.

When Siddhartha (the Buddha-to-be) was a child, he once rescued a swan shot by his cousin Devadatta. Reluctant to hand it over to him, it was judged by the wise that the swan belonged to those who saw value in its life, not its death, to those who wanted to save it, not to those who wanted to kill it. In this sense, the teacher’s special project to educate on the meaning of life and death had failed… in his own hands. If the kids were to be taught the true meaning of responsibility for P-chan all the way, they ought to kill him personally (since they voted for the death sentence).

Why pay others do the dirty job? Then again, true responsibility would mean not even considering killing as an option. It’s disturbing how the teacher voted against letting the grade 3 students take over when he had the final say over P-chan’s life. Also disturbing was how the pro-life half of the class never spoke up more enthusiastically to win the teacher’s vote. How could they collectively think that an early death is better for a hale and hearty P-chan?

What if sick and aged parents are involved here? Would we send our parents to the slaughterhouse? Also in the Lankavatara Sutra, the Buddha taught that all animals (all beings in fact) had been our parents at some point in time in our many previous lives. Even more disturbing was that the grade 3 students were deliberately concealed from the fact that P-chan would be sent away to be killed.

The bitter hard truth of the source of their meat was not passed down to them. However, I hope it has been passed on to you - via this review. May all beings be free from harm and danger. May all beings be well and happy.

Website for 30-Hours Famine, Malaysia

http://www.worldvision.com.my/famine2009/index.php

Fancy Being '17 Again'?

by Shen Shi'an, The Buddhist Channel, April 14, 2009

Singapore -- In a sense, the movie ‘17 Again’ is yet another version of ‘Groundhog Day’. A 37-year-old man gets to relive being 17. His renewed adolescent angst is combined with near mid-blue crisis though, as he realises how dear his family is to him and how urgent it is to reconcile with them.

He finally tries to father her teenage daughter with appropriate brotherly advice, and relearns how to charm his estranged wife as he once did. He gets a fair second chance as they did not realise it was him redeeming himself, thus being free of prejudice against him.

The truth is, we can consciously change ourselves to be ‘reborn’ spiritually for the better here and now. There’s no need to await some freaky magical or cosmic time warp to give us the opportunity to set things right. You don’t have to wait till your next life to be 17 again! There are always second chances, but we do not always take them in time. Even when we take them a little too late, it’s better late than never.

Similar to Groundhog Day, when he finally reconciles with his family, the time warp ends and normal life ensues. As long as we are caught in senseless cycles where we do not break through our negative habits, we are already trapped in a time warp too, even if we fail to recognise this due to lack of mindfulness. Are you living a truly normal life now? If not, it’s time to change.

Farewell to a much-loved monk/artist

By Victor Chin, Malaysia Insider, April 14, 2009

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — There are quite a few festivals that fall in April. For the Chinese community, there’s the annual Ts’ing-ming when they visit the graves in honour of their ancestors.

For the Christians they observe Good Friday and Easter, the death and rebirth of their saviour Jesus Christ. And the Thais who live here celebrate Songkran, the annual water festival signalling their lunar New Year.

It is in this mixed mood of death and birth that I write about two nonagenarian Malaysian artists. The venerable Bo-Yeun, 96, passed away this week and Fung Yow Chork, 91, is critically ill in hospital (I shall write about him in another article).

In the early years, there were two well-known artists/monks in Penang. One was the late venerable Chuk Mor from the Triple Wisdom Temple and the other was Bo-Yeun from the Kek Lok Si temple. After many years, Bo-Yuen left Penang in 1961 to set up the Hu-Bin Vihara in Petaling Jaya.

They were among the first batch of young monks who migrated from Fujian, China, to serve in the local temples. Their passing marks the end of that line of descendants from China.

Apart from looking after the spiritual well-being of those who came to the temples and the duties of running those places of worship, they acquired other skills. In the old days, to be an accomplished person one had to be able to read, write, sing, paint and do martial arts.

Such was the case with Bo-Yeun, who was both respected as a monk with a large following as well as a Chinese brush painter/poet/calligrapher, and perhaps a secret martial arts expert too. The National Art Gallery honoured him with a major exhibition in July 2000 and his artworks have been collected widely over the years. A few examples of his works will explain why.

Every Chinese brush artist likes to paint landscapes; this one by Bo-Yeun is a typical example (right). It shows a bird’s eye view of the geography with the darkest black marks in the foreground being the tree tops. The middle ground, mid-black ink, is marked with buildings suggesting a village. Finally, the distant mountains are brushed in with light grey ink.

The artistry is in the void left unpainted in between the land form to suggest perhaps the lake or the river and is finished off with three junks. This painting is done with an economy of shapes, lines and colours and is so sure of hand that it can only be the work of a well-practised artist.

The Eastern tradition of aesthetics and ethics places nature and its environment at the same level the Western counterparts do for their religious and historical scenes. To the Chinese or the Japanese artist, the placement of a rock in a garden or in a painting touches upon the divine.

Then the poem over the landscape speaks of the metaphysical world of nature – the sound of wind and breeze and the fragrance in the air that hints at the promise of spring.

This ink painting of the orchids, done in 1982, is my favorite of the many that the monk has done and he did paint plants and flowers endlessly.

What I like most in this work is the clear display of his command of a process of painting called the ‘i-hua’ or ‘i-pi-hua’ (one stroke or the primordial lone). Each line of the leave is done at one go, making its turn and twist, pushing and lifting the right size brush with just the amount of ink for the journey.

The orchid flowers with their many petals are also done in this practised and elegant way and the calligraphy too. This is a faultless composition if ever there was one in his vast collection of artworks.

Finally, the most prodigious part of his artistic output is his calligraphy. He had a signature style with his brushwork to a point of abstraction.

To those in the know about Chinese written characters, his artworks are especially appealing and valued. Anyone could approach him when he was alive and actively painting to request for a number of written works, single or in pairs or within any combination. He was ever so happy to oblige.

Bo-Yeun’s artistic and spiritual contribution to Malaysia for most of his adult life is a great legacy for the country. We’ll somehow all miss his presence. But for those lucky ones who have known him and got one or more of his artworks, his ethereal presence will live on like the butterfly, flowers, mountains and streams in his art.

30 Hours Famine (World Vision Malaysia)

Would you participate?

for more information, please visit World Vision Malaysia Website.

The pursuit of happiness in a Buddhist vehicle

By Gyalsten K Dorji, Kuensel Online, April 9, 2009

Sogyal Rinpoche’s two-day instruction on meditation practice

Timphu, Bhutan -- “Hello, how are you, my darlings?” Sogyal Rinpoche beamed at his audience, many of whom were students and also included Lyonchhoen Jigmi Y Thinley, inside a hall at the YDF complex, Thimphu.

“Buddhism is cool, it’s very cool, and meditation at the highest level is chilling out.” What became immediately noticeable about Sogyal Rinpoche, author of the international bestseller, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, was his somewhat funny nature. He joked all the while and continued to refer to his audience as “my darlings”.

But also observable was the warmth and happiness in his eyes. Perhaps, this would have been reassuring to some as he was in Bhutan to talk about how to achieve happiness or inner peace using the Buddhist vehicle.

“What you need to understand isn’t only the outer, but the innermost meaning, which makes Buddhism what it is,” he said. Sogyal Rinpoche began by explaining concepts such as inner peace. “I think this is very much connected with Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness,” he said.

Inner peace may sound lofty and unattainable, reserved for learned monks meditating in a cave for years. But, in fact, the first step towards it was, “very simple: don’t harm others, don’t keep malice, always forgive.”

One of the basic principles of Buddhism is interdependence, the idea that all things are connected. “When you help others, it helps you, when you harm others, it harms you,” he said. Understanding this simple cause and effect process, he said, leads to the next step in Buddhism, the practice of tolerance, non-violence and compassion. This, he repeatedly emphasised, required examining the nature of mind, understanding it and finally “taming” it through meditation.

One of the ways to master this technique was a combination of three methods, what he referred to as, the “unifying practice.” This required gazing at an object of beauty that invoked inspiration and calmed the mind, such as an image of the Buddha or Guru Rinpoche, the sky, a mountain, or even a rock. The other two elements were focusing on the breath or reciting a prayer. Combined, this method, if persisted with, would lead to a calmer and clearer mind and, eventually, inner peace.

Besides providing many more practical meditation techniques, he also translated Buddhist prayers and terminology into English and explained their meanings and purposes.

Throughout his teachings, Sogyal Rinpoche used his tongue in cheek humour to entertain. He frequently teased audience members and made fun of himself. More importantly, he used it to sustain the attention of the audience, especially the youth, whom he was pleased to see in attendance.

He remarked that today’s younger generation in the Himalayan region needed to understand the Dharma in a more practical way. “The offerings, the rituals, some of them are quite putting off as a result of lack of explanation,” he said.

While explaining the concept of emptiness, he noticed some students talking. He gently asked them to keep still. He told them that if they wanted to understand Buddhism, “not only listen with your ears, but with your eyes, your body, your mind and your heart too, then you’ll hear more deeply and not be distracted.”

On the second day of the teachings, Sogyal Rinpoche opened the floor to questions. The first question was on not understanding the Choekyed prayers Bhutanese recited.

Rinpoche answered that change was needed. He said even some monks did not know what they recited. He thought monks firstly needed to educate themselves thoroughly and then become more involved with the community.

They need to come out of the monasteries, he said.

“Can I be frank? Well, even if you don’t want me to, I will. You need to study more, listen to teachings more.”

The Rinpoche, who is also the founder of Rigpa, a network of more than 130 Buddhist centres in 41 countries that presents Buddhism through methods more relevant to modern life, frequently travels the world holding such teachings. Although his visits to Bhutan are infrequent, he said he would come more often as he has received repeated invitations to conduct such teachings.

“I’ll make Bhutan a priority because it’s the only independent Mahayana-Vajrayana nation, it’s a rising nation with such extraordinary promise,” he said.

Rinpoche’s cheerfulness remained constant throughout his teachings. Jigme Dorji, a class 11 Mothitang student, described the teachings as “user-friendly”. Pema Rinzin, a lawyer, said this was his “most fruitful weekend”.

“I wish you all great success, and that Bhutan becomes a peaceful, developed, intelligent, and prosperous nation, but understanding the dharma in a real way is an important and an integral part to the development of Bhutan,” said Rinpoche.

The earth nurtures us all

by Daisaku Ikeda, Joy Online, 7 April 2009

Tokyo, Japan -- Life is diverse. Human beings are diverse-that is the natural way of things.

During my first visit to the United States in the '60s, I witnessed an incident at a local park where an African-American boy had been excluded from playing with his white counterparts and had run away in anger and humiliation.

It may have been a small, insignificant episode, but I felt I had caught a glimpse of the dark abyss of prejudice that lay behind it. This caused me to think deeply about the problem of racial discrimination.

Tragically, difference-of culture, nationality or religion - has time and time again been used to divide and classify people into categories and to discriminate against certain groups. History has seen members of the same human family divided and led into one endless conflict after another.

I feel that the United States is the world's most culturally diverse country, and that for this reason it has the potential to become an ideal nation, transforming the energy of different cultures into a shared effort of construction.

The Japanese still have to learn and grow a great deal in this regard. Koreans and other Asian people living in Japan still suffer terrible discrimination and the Japanese in general have little appreciation of the value of diversity.

Encounters between different culyure are not always amicable. The reality of opposing interests and even hostility must be acknowledged. So, what can be done to promote harmonious relationships?

Buddhism teaches that we must seek harmony on a more profound level. We must achieve a state of compassion deep enough to enable us to find our common humanity and transcend distinctions between ourselves and others.

This is not a denial of the individual self. It is the fusion of self and other, an expansion of the limited self which is shackled by our ego, toward a greater self whose scale is as limitless and unbounded as the universe.

I once talked to an African American man who told me how he had always been obsessed with his roots. He couldn't shake off the thought that his people had been brought to America as slaves. He continued, ''I'm sure that white people harbour similar thoughts about us.

They loathe to treat people who were once slaves as their equals. For that reason, I despised white Americans. It was impossible for me to like them when I recalled how we, our parents, our grandparents, and our ancestors before them had been exploited, abused and discriminated against by the white man."

"From childhood, each time I was bullied or suffered discrimination, it was driven home to me that I was black. I even came to deplore the blood running through my own veins. When I learned about Buddhist view of the interconnectedness of all life, it put the whole issue of racial difference into perspective. I realised that I had been caught up in stressing the differences in the colour of our skin."

To try to locate the "roots" of one’s identity in a particular racial or ethnic group is an illusion. It is like a mirage in the desert. Such a sense of identity, far from serving as a common "homeland of life" that can be shared by all, only heightens distitictions between oneself and others, and becomes an underlying cause of conflict and strife.

And indeed, if members of each group retreat, seeking only their own roots and origins, society can fracture along a thousand fissure lines, dividing neighbour against neighbour, with tragic results.

What is needed today is a fundamental transformation in our understanding of what is to be human. We must not yoke ourselves to nationality or to ethnicity. We must not think of ourselves as powerless.

We must not regard ourselves as slaves to our genes. Fundamentally, we have limitless and immense potential. Fundamentally, each human being is one with the universe. Each individual has immense power and infinite worth!

There are many people who have suffered terrible wounds, bitter sorrows and hardship as a result of discrimination. While legal and other reforms can offer some protection against this, it will not be enough to bring people happiness, because the fundamental cause is prejudice and bias rooted deeply in people's hearts. Unless people change their hearts, discrimination will continue to manifest itself in ever more despicable forms.

It is vital to establish in each person's heart a new and more profound view of the human being, 'one which stresses the inherent dignity and equality of all human' beings.

I believe that the most certain answer to the problem of racial discrimination is a human revolution, an inner reformation in the depths of people's lives to transform the egoism that justifies the subjugation of others and to replace it with a compassionate outlook that makes no distinction between self and other and strives for co-existence among all peoples.

Discrimination is absolutely an evil. Those whose minds are so trapped in delusion injure the lives of others, as well as themselves.

A student with a physical disability once asked me for advice about how to face discrimination and bullying. My advice was that he had to become stronger. That too, is part of the struggle for recognition of the value of each unique and different person, the Having our rights recognised by others is not just a matter of having people behave sympathetically toward us. We must live with dignity and be proud of ourselves as individuals, regardless of our situation.

Those who deride or make fun of us are cruel and wrong for ignor¬ing our right to be treated as human beings. We must never let their taunts get to us. Developing our own strength of character is a vic¬tory for human rights.

I have always believed that we should recognise differences and, because of them, work harder to get to know and understand each other as human beings.

Those who can enjoy differ¬ences and discover the greatest beauty and value in them are masters in life.

The Earth nurtures us all. It revitalises all people withhout dis¬tinction. A vibrant wellspring of pure compassion surges from its soil, and if we can find our deepest .roots in this spring of all-embracing life, then superticial differences of gender and race will no longer divide, but will enrich us all.

Buddhist Economics

By E. F. Schumacher. The E.F. Schumacher Society, April 5, 2009

Washington, USA -- "Right Livelihood" is one of the requirements of the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path. It is clear, therefore, that there must be such a thing as Buddhist economics.

Buddhist countries have often stated that they wish to remain faithful to their heritage. So Burma: “The New Burma sees no conflict between religious values and economic progress. Spiritual health and material well-being are not enemies: they are natural allies.”1 Or: “We can blend successfully the religious and spiritual values of our heritage with the benefits of modern technology.”2 Or: “We Burmans have a sacred duty to conform both our dreams and our acts to our faith. This we shall ever do.”3

All the same, such countries invariably assume that they can model their economic development plans in accordance with modern economics, and they call upon modern economists from so-called advanced countries to advise them, to formulate the policies to be pursued, and to construct the grand design for development, the Five-Year Plan or whatever it may be called. No one seems to think that a Buddhist way of life would call for Buddhist economics, just as the modern materialist way of life has brought forth modern economics.

Economists themselves, like most specialists, normally suffer from a kind of metaphysical blindness, assuming that theirs is a science of absolute and invariable truths, without any presuppositions. Some go as far as to claim that economic laws are as free from "metaphysics" or "values" as the law of gravitation. We need not, however, get involved in arguments of methodology. Instead, let us take some fundamentals and see what they look like when viewed by a modern economist and a Buddhist economist.

There is universal agreement that a fundamental source of wealth is human labour. Now, the modern economist has been brought up to consider "labour" or work as little more than a necessary evil. From the point of view of the employer, it is in any case simply an item of cost, to be reduced to a minimum if it can not be eliminated altogether, say, by automation. From the point of view of the workman, it is a "disutility"; to work is to make a sacrifice of one’s leisure and comfort, and wages are a kind of compensation for the sacrifice. Hence the ideal from the point of view of the employer is to have output without employees, and the ideal from the point of view of the employee is to have income without employment.

The consequences of these attitudes both in theory and in practice are, of course, extremely far-reaching. If the ideal with regard to work is to get rid of it, every method that "reduces the work load" is a good thing. The most potent method, short of automation, is the so-called "division of labour" and the classical example is the pin factory eulogised in Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations.4 Here it is not a matter of ordinary specialisation, which mankind has practiced from time immemorial, but of dividing up every complete process of production into minute parts, so that the final product can be produced at great speed without anyone having had to contribute more than a totally insignificant and, in most cases, unskilled movement of his limbs.

The Buddhist point of view takes the function of work to be at least threefold: to give man a chance to utilise and develop his faculties; to enable him to overcome his ego-centredness by joining with other people in a common task; and to bring forth the goods and services needed for a becoming existence. Again, the consequences that flow from this view are endless. To organise work in such a manner that it becomes meaningless, boring, stultifying, or nerve-racking for the worker would be little short of criminal; it would indicate a greater concern with goods than with people, an evil lack of compassion and a soul-destroying degree of attachment to the most primitive side of this worldly existence. Equally, to strive for leisure as an alternative to work would be considered a complete misunderstanding of one of the basic truths of human existence, namely that work and leisure are complementary parts of the same living process and cannot be separated without destroying the joy of work and the bliss of leisure.

From the Buddhist point of view, there are therefore two types of mechanisation which must be clearly distinguished: one that enhances a man’s skill and power and one that turns the work of man over to a mechanical slave, leaving man in a position of having to serve the slave. How to tell the one from the other? “The craftsman himself,” says Ananda Coomaraswamy, a man equally competent to talk about the modern West as the ancient East, “can always, if allowed to, draw the delicate distinction between the machine and the tool. The carpet loom is a tool, a contrivance for holding warp threads at a stretch for the pile to be woven round them by the craftsmen’s fingers; but the power loom is a machine, and its significance as a destroyer of culture lies in the fact that it does the essentially human part of the work.”5 It is clear, therefore, that Buddhist economics must be very different from the economics of modern materialism, since the Buddhist sees the essence of civilisation not in a multiplication of wants but in the purification of human character. Character, at the same time, is formed primarily by a man’s work. And work, properly conducted in conditions of human dignity and freedom, blesses those who do it and equally their products. The Indian philosopher and economist J. C. Kumarappa sums the matter up as follows:

If the nature of the work is properly appreciated and applied, it will stand in the same relation to the higher faculties as food is to the physical body. It nourishes and enlivens the higher man and urges him to produce the best he is capable of. It directs his free will along the proper course and disciplines the animal in him into progressive channels. It furnishes an excellent background for man to display his scale of values and develop his personality.6

If a man has no chance of obtaining work he is in a desperate position, not simply because he lacks an income but because he lacks this nourishing and enlivening factor of disciplined work which nothing can replace. A modern economist may engage in highly sophisticated calculations on whether full employment "pays" or whether it might be more "economic" to run an economy at less than full employment so as to insure a greater mobility of labour, a better stability of wages, and so forth. His fundamental criterion of success is simply the total quantity of goods produced during a given period of time. “If the marginal urgency of goods is low,” says Professor Galbraith in The Affluent Society, “then so is the urgency of employing the last man or the last million men in the labour force.”7 And again: “If . . . we can afford some unemployment in the interest of stability—a proposition, incidentally, of impeccably conservative antecedents—then we can afford to give those who are unemployed the goods that enable them to sustain their accustomed standard of living.”

From a Buddhist point of view, this is standing the truth on its head by considering goods as more important than people and consumption as more important than creative activity. It means shifting the emphasis from the worker to the product of work, that is, from the human to the subhuman, a surrender to the forces of evil. The very start of Buddhist economic planning would be a planning for full employment, and the primary purpose of this would in fact be employment for everyone who needs an "outside" job: it would not be the maximisation of employment nor the maximisation of production. Women, on the whole, do not need an "outside" job, and the large-scale employment of women in offices or factories would be considered a sign of serious economic failure. In particular, to let mothers of young children work in factories while the children run wild would be as uneconomic in the eyes of a Buddhist economist as the employment of a skilled worker as a soldier in the eyes of a modern economist.

While the materialist is mainly interested in goods, the Buddhist is mainly interested in liberation. But Buddhism is "The Middle Way" and therefore in no way antagonistic to physical well-being. It is not wealth that stands in the way of liberation but the attachment to wealth; not the enjoyment of pleasurable things but the craving for them. The keynote of Buddhist economics, therefore, is simplicity and non-violence. From an economist’s point of view, the marvel of the Buddhist way of life is the utter rationality of its pattern—amazingly small means leading to extraordinarily satisfactory results.

For the modern economist this is very difficult to understand. He is used to measuring the "standard of living" by the amount of annual consumption, assuming all the time that a man who consumes more is "better off" than a man who consumes less. A Buddhist economist would consider this approach excessively irrational: since consumption is merely a means to human well-being, the aim should be to obtain the maximum of well-being with the minimum of consumption. Thus, if the purpose of clothing is a certain amount of temperature comfort and an attractive appearance, the task is to attain this purpose with the smallest possible effort, that is, with the smallest annual destruction of cloth and with the help of designs that involve the smallest possible input of toil. The less toil there is, the more time and strength is left for artistic creativity. It would be highly uneconomic, for instance, to go in for complicated tailoring, like the modern West, when a much more beautiful effect can be achieved by the skillful draping of uncut material. It would be the height of folly to make material so that it should wear out quickly and the height of barbarity to make anything ugly, shabby, or mean. What has just been said about clothing applies equally to all other human requirements. The ownership and the consumption of goods is a means to an end, and Buddhist economics is the systematic study of how to attain given ends with the minimum means.

Modern economics, on the other hand, considers consumption to be the sole end and purpose of all economic activity, taking the factors of production—and, labour, and capital—as the means. The former, in short, tries to maximise human satisfactions by the optimal pattern of consumption, while the latter tries to maximise consumption by the optimal pattern of productive effort. It is easy to see that the effort needed to sustain a way of life which seeks to attain the optimal pattern of consumption is likely to be much smaller than the effort needed to sustain a drive for maximum consumption. We need not be surprised, therefore, that the pressure and strain of living is very much less in say, Burma, than it is in the United States, in spite of the fact that the amount of labour-saving machinery used in the former country is only a minute fraction of the amount used in the latter.

Simplicity and non-violence are obviously closely related. The optimal pattern of consumption, producing a high degree of human satisfaction by means of a relatively low rate of consumption, allows people to live without great pressure and strain and to fulfill the primary injunction of Buddhist teaching: “Cease to do evil; try to do good.” As physical resources are everywhere limited, people satisfying their needs by means of a modest use of resources are obviously less likely to be at each other’s throats than people depending upon a high rate of use. Equally, people who live in highly self-sufficient local communities are less likely to get involved in large-scale violence than people whose existence depends on world-wide systems of trade.

From the point of view of Buddhist economics, therefore, production from local resources for local needs is the most rational way of economic life, while dependence on imports from afar and the consequent need to produce for export to unknown and distant peoples is highly uneconomic and justifiable only in exceptional cases and on a small scale. Just as the modern economist would admit that a high rate of consumption of transport services between a man’s home and his place of work signifies a misfortune and not a high standard of life, so the Buddhist would hold that to satisfy human wants from faraway sources rather than from sources nearby signifies failure rather than success. The former tends to take statistics showing an increase in the number of ton/miles per head of the population carried by a country’s transport system as proof of economic progress, while to the latter—the Buddhist economist—the same statistics would indicate a highly undesirable deterioration in the pattern of consumption.

Another striking difference between modern economics and Buddhist economics arises over the use of natural resources. Bertrand de Jouvenel, the eminent French political philosopher, has characterised "Western man" in words which may be taken as a fair description of the modern economist:

He tends to count nothing as an expenditure, other than human effort; he does not seem to mind how much mineral matter he wastes and, far worse, how much living matter he destroys. He does not seem to realize at all that human life is a dependent part of an ecosystem of many different forms of life. As the world is ruled from towns where men are cut off from any form of life other than human, the feeling of belonging to an ecosystem is not revived. This results in a harsh and improvident treatment of things upon which we ultimately depend, such as water and trees.8

The teaching of the Buddha, on the other hand, enjoins a reverent and non-violent attitude not only to all sentient beings but also, with great emphasis, to trees. Every follower of the Buddha ought to plant a tree every few years and look after it until it is safely established, and the Buddhist economist can demonstrate without difficulty that the universal observation of this rule would result in a high rate of genuine economic development independent of any foreign aid. Much of the economic decay of southeast Asia (as of many other parts of the world) is undoubtedly due to a heedless and shameful neglect of trees.

Modern economics does not distinguish between renewable and non-renewable materials, as its very method is to equalise and quantify everything by means of a money price. Thus, taking various alternative fuels, like coal, oil, wood, or water-power: the only difference between them recognised by modern economics is relative cost per equivalent unit. The cheapest is automatically the one to be preferred, as to do otherwise would be irrational and "uneconomic." From a Buddhist point of view, of course, this will not do; the essential difference between non-renewable fuels like coal and oil on the one hand and renewable fuels like wood and water-power on the other cannot be simply overlooked. Non-renewable goods must be used only if they are indispensable, and then only with the greatest care and the most meticulous concern for conservation. To use them heedlessly or extravagantly is an act of violence, and while complete non-violence may not be attainable on this earth, there is nonetheless an ineluctable duty on man to aim at the ideal of non-violence in all he does.

Just as a modern European economist would not consider it a great achievement if all European art treasures were sold to America at attractive prices, so the Buddhist economist would insist that a population basing its economic life on non-renewable fuels is living parasitically, on capital instead of income. Such a way of life could have no permanence and could therefore be justified only as a purely temporary expedient. As the world’s resources of non-renewable fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas—are exceedingly unevenly distributed over the globe and undoubtedly limited in quantity, it is clear that their exploitation at an ever-increasing rate is an act of violence against nature which must almost inevitably lead to violence between men.

This fact alone might give food for thought even to those people in Buddhist countries who care nothing for the religious and spiritual values of their heritage and ardently desire to embrace the materialism of modern economics at the fastest possible speed. Before they dismiss Buddhist economics as nothing better than a nostalgic dream, they might wish to consider whether the path of economic development outlined by modern economics is likely to lead them to places where they really want to be. Towards the end of his courageous book The Challenge of Man’s Future, Professor Harrison Brown of the California Institute of Technology gives the following appraisal:

Thus we see that, just as industrial society is fundamentally unstable and subject to reversion to agrarian existence, so within it the conditions which offer individual freedom are unstable in their ability to avoid the conditions which impose rigid organisation and totalitarian control. Indeed, when we examine all the foreseeable difficulties which threaten the survival of industrial civilisation, it is difficult to see how the achievement of stability and the maintenance of individual liberty can be made compatible.9

Even if this were dismissed as a long-term view there is the immediate question of whether "modernisation," as currently practised without regard to religious and spiritual values, is actually producing agreeable results. As far as the masses are concerned, the results appear to be disastrous—a collapse of the rural economy, a rising tide of unemployment in town and country, and the growth of a city proletariat without nourishment for either body or soul.

It is in the light of both immediate experience and long term prospects that the study of Buddhist economics could be recommended even to those who believe that economic growth is more important than any spiritual or religious values. For it is not a question of choosing between "modern growth" and "traditional stagnation." It is a question of finding the right path of development, the Middle Way between materialist heedlessness and traditionalist immobility, in short, of finding "Right Livelihood."

Endnotes

The essay "Buddhist Economics" was first published in Asia: A Handbook, edited by Guy Wint, published by Anthony Blond Ltd., London, 1966. In 1973 it was collected with other essays by Ernest Friedrich Schumacher in Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered. The book has been translated into 27 different languages and in 1995 was named by the London Times Literary Supplement as one of the hundred most influential books written after World War II.

In December of 2001, Mrs. Vreni Schumacher and Hartley and Marks Publishers kindly extended permission to include "Buddhist Economics" in the pamphlet, An Economics of Peace, available from the E. F. Schumacher Society, 140 Jug End Road, Great Barrington, MA 01230 USA, (413) 528-1737 , www.smallisbeautiful.org.

http://www.smallisbeautiful.org/buddhist_economics/english.html