Born into a Buddhist family, I grew up considering myself a Buddhist. And growing up I did believe and practice the philosophical side of this so called “more of a philosophy than a religion” religion. Which I genuinely believed in the past, was to be an honest; good hearted, intellectual, kind, caring, loving, open-minded, understanding, empathetic, humane; human being. But having lived in Sri Lanka, a so called Buddhist country for 19½ years altogether (6 years in a row in my teens; between the ages of 12½ to 18½; and now, for just over 8 years so far, plus short periods of times in between), I found the practice of Lankan Buddhists as the most evil practice anywhere; with the most cruel, inhumane, Buddhist people I’ve come across (so far as I am concerned at least) in the world. A Buddhist country that has given me sooooo much of stress, depression and misery; I’d be an idiot to have any love for this country or this extremist religion.
Lankan people, in general tend to possess, very extremist ideologies; no matter what the religion or race (after all, there was an almost 30 year unnecessary civil war between the Sinhalese and the Tamil, which could have been resolved eons ago without so much bloodshed, death and destruction). One can understand illiteracy and poverty as a core reason for such ignorance and hatred (although poverty is no excuse for cruelty), but the more educated, so called intellectual, rich, sophisticated (whether one is actually sophisticated and hold any form intellect, among Lanka’s rich n’ pretentious elite, is quite debatable; money does not bring about intellect or sophistication) society of Sri Lanka, are no better; when it comes to religious and racial extremism. Especially when it comes to foreign delegates; you’ll find Lankan’s all smiles and welcoming (but these smiles might not be genuine); behind a foreigners back, Lankan’s can be sarcastic, with crude humour. Or, they might directly say something utterly insulting and racist, in their own mother tongue; but with a plastic smile pasted on their face; so as to not let the foreigner know, how locals actually feel about their alien presence here. Why? you wonder. One, Travel is a major industry in SL, and the country’s economy grows through tourism; as well as foreign aid (another reason to have kept the war going on for so long, from both sides). Of course, this reason mainly applies to people with an actual understanding of economical growth (or lack of it), in the country. And Two, Sri Lankan people are rarely honest. They can be sadistically blunt and sarcastically insulting to other Lankan’s quite directly; and never necessarily show any genuine friendship and love to anyone, in general. A fake friendship could exist, if it reaps benefits. People here are not ashamed of doing anything wrong, just getting caught. Of course all this is in general sense, that applies, not to everyone, but, to the majority of this hellish country. A country that’s quite literally “hot as HELL”, although that’s not the only thing that makes this country hell on Earth. Paradise, it definitely is not!!!!!
What’s worse is this ingenuine hypocritical traits are passed down by parents to their young. I’ve met and heard people, especially Sri Lankan’s living abroad in secrecy (illegal immigrants), who are teaching their children, to do wrong; but not get caught. Plus, Lankan’s tend to teach kids all these false customary acts of tradition, but no real respect and/or etiquette. In fact, the tradition of going down on all fours in front of elders, as if to give them a blow job, is pretty distasteful. The way heavily cleavage women, squat down with their heaving breasts sweeping the floor, in front of horny orange robed monks, the hypocrisy and fakeness of it, is pathetically disgusting. Oh, it doesn’t matter how indecent people are in behaviour; and how disrespectful their actions tend to be; so long as, end of the day, they squat and pretend to show respect in front of their elders and other fraudulent monkeys (umm!! I mean monks). Respect should lie in one’s heart, without real respect, all these brainwashed robotic customary acts are baseless and utterly ridiculous.
Look at all the Temple Bullshit, in Sri Lanka. All blindly following customary acts, given down by traditions, which are less to do with Buddhism, and more to do with fear motivation. So basically if I don’t go and worship at the temple, and get blessings from a dead man (for the Buddha died centuries ago), bad things will happen to me, no matter how good a human I might be. Doesn’t that make Buddhism, Evil???? I highly doubt religion is meant to be so vengeful. In fact according to Buddhism, one is not to blindly accept everything given down by tradition. There is so much unnecessary evils that take place in this country in the name of culture, false pride, fake sense of patriotism and inhumane archaic traditions. The simple act of piercing a baby girl’s ears, ’cause girls are supposed to have holes, including in their ears, is quite a distasteful tradition. If a girl (or even a guy) want’s to wear rings, they’d pierce all over their body if they desire to, when they grow up. Why put a baby girl through so much of pain and tears in the name of tradition????
Premarital sex is a no no. Yet people do practice it, in secrecy, and then they hypocritically talk about Lankan culture, and all that nonsense, as if the utmost devout. Marriage is a license for people to have sex here. Most men here being Mama’s boys; the mother is the servant and the wife the prostitute (or the wife could encompass both traits, equally). Virginity, especially in (unmarried) women, is held with high regard. A married couple indulging in a sexual relationship (immaterial if they procreate, or just have sex for sexual pleasure) is acceptable; but a decent good person, who might want to be in a proper relationship with one person (but does not believe in the concept of marriage), is shunned if he desires to have sex, even if it’s just with one partner. A man being a bachelor, does not mean he’s a playboy. There are more promiscuous individuals, who are actually in wedlock, than out of it. Not that there is anything wrong with being promiscuous, if one is open about it, and doesn’t use people, to their advantage. I, aged 42, am still a virgin; partially by choice. And I’m neither ashamed nor proud, of the fact that I don’t have sex life, and never had one. And nobody has the right to judge me for it. And I don’t believe in the fact one should stay a virgin, till they get married, either. Marriage is not a necessity for me, neither is sex. But yes, the desire for sex exists. Of course, I want to have sex, it’s normal, but with a person I am attracted to. I have fallen in love many times, but ’twas always unrequited love, thus nothing happened. The point is, being a pretty decent fellow, I don’t believe in jumping into bed with any Tom, Dick, or Hariendre, walking down the street. Nor do I believe in the concept marriage (it’s not a necessity for me to legalize a sexual relationship, not that I’m against it). So I find myself fighting both worlds, the side that thinks I’m a loser for not having sex, for not having gone on a date, and the side that thinks I ought to get married. I don’t believe in getting married for the sake of it either. Wouldn’t I be ruining two lives, if I did so??? I am as open minded as you get. Way too open minded an individual, with a brain of my own, thank you, for such a narrow minded country. So basically, neither do I believe in jumping into bed, or taking the plunge into matrimony, to please others. Period!!! Anyway, if I had a partner ( I wish I did, or do, in the near future, at least once); and we wish to get married, I highly doubt we’ll be able to get married the way we’d want, in a society still residing in the dark ages.
Plus the hypocrisy of weddings in this country, where do I even begin. The show and pomp weddings in the name of tradition, or worse Buddhism (as Buddhism is the exact opposite); tend to be the worst. It’s interesting how so many couples climb the Poruwa (wedding altar) in their glittery gaudy traditional attire, as if they were the virgin Mary, prior to the ceremony. Makes old hags very happy. Don’t get me started on how people suck up to the older generation here, and then degradingly make fun of them behind their back. As I stated earlier, no real respect exists here. Plus, the so called Lankan traditional weddings have very little do with this disgraceful country’s traditions or actual religion. The Bride dressed in white (a western tradition started by Queen Victoria); of course here it’s a Kandyan Osariya worn in white by the bride, with a lot of jewelry, and one long necklace, appropriately placed as if cover their breasts and vagina (whilst the lusty blood red Osariya actually feels more traditional; and appropriate, considering the fact, how many brides are actual virgins to don the virginal white on their wedding day); the bestman/men, pageboy/s, bridesmaid/s and flowergirl/s; the pouring of milk of clay pots stacked on top of each other (à la the champagne being poured on stacked up crystalware, in the west); the cutting of Kiribath (milk-rice pudding) since the late 90’s (similar to cutting the wedding cake, another copied western tradition); etc etc ….. An elegant grand wedding, if one desires it, is fine; but hypocriticality of calling it as per Lankan culture, or worse as per Buddhist culture (where as Buddhism is about simplicity, and grand scale weddings are not); and the use of the Nilamé kit/Tuppotia (a traditional show off garb worn by Kandyan Lankan’s attributed to the temple known as the Dalada Malgawa; especially donned at the Dalada Malgawa Perehara (parade)) is what’s wrong. Again the fact that the Nilamé kit, is attributed to Kandyan Buddhists, itself is a wrong concept. Buddhism is the exact opposite of the show and pomp, practiced by the Dalada Malgawa; where Buddha’s tooth relic is placed inside a gold gilded mini stupa, and no one can actually see the relic, but the admire the gold casing it’s covered up in. It definitely looks beautiful, but how do we really know, their is a relic in there, let alone a Buddha’s tooth??? And the treatment, torture and use of chained up Elephants by the Dalada Malgawa; to be showcased at the Perehara; is pure Animal Cruelty!!!!!! Completely goes against the teachings of Buddhism.
Of course, Animal rights activists in Colombo argue that these Elephant in Sri Lanka should be protected because it’s a Sub Species; found nowhere else in the world (which is an argument more to do with a Sri Lankan ego, than Animal Rights). BUT, Sub species or not, imprisonment and maltreatment of animals is still imprisonment and maltreatment; be it Elephants, Oxen or Dogs. Animal torture is still animal torture, be it a unique Sri Lankan species of Elephants or not. Besides the Dalda Maligawa Perehara is all show and pomp, in the name of Buddhism. That’s the biggest irony; again, “Buddhism is the exact opposite of showing off”!! Going back to the hypocrisy of Lankan weddings for instance; what’s worse is that they have weddings at temples as well (temples never had weddings here in the past, but it’s like Buddhists are competing with Christians, for Christians do have Church Weddings). The wedding, in the proper sense, was meant to be at the Bride’s family home, and Home Coming function, at the Grooms. What’s even worse is that, at these weddings sometimes the groom comes to wedding seated on a chained suffering elephant. Or even a teary frightened little baby elephant. Surly people can’t be that ignorant, not to notice an animal suffering. No animals should be used in this manner!!!
And getting back to the ridiculous show and pomp padres in the name Buddhism, hosted by the famed Buddhist temple in Kandy; the act of participating in the perahara is also very traumatic for the elephants. Elephants don’t like bright lights and loud noises, and they are alarmed by objects moving rapidly at the edge of their field of vision. Even a tourist watching the show should realize how stressed these elephants in deep distress are. So these animals that are among the most intelligent on the planet are being repeatedly subjected to traumatic experiences in the name of human pageantry. And, as I stated earlier, according to Buddhism people aren’t suppose to blindly carry traditions, handed down by ancestors. If the use of/harming of, Animals, were officially banned; then this Perehara nonsense would have to stop, automatically. It won’t completely put an end to ill treatment of animals; but it’s a start. Look at Canary Islands and Catalonia, they banned bullfighting, despite it being a brutally famed Spanish tradition. Animals, be it Elephants or bulls, aren’t lucky to take part in these festivities, for they’ve been tortured to a point they don’t even know that they are elephants/bulls. These animals are meant to be wild and free, with their own families, not meant to used for sick pleasures of the inhumane human beings. Eating meat might be a necessary evil (though that’s also debatable), ill treatment of animals is not!!
Everything from illtreatment of wild animals, to illtreatment of domesticated animals exists. How Cattle and Poultry are treated here, is a different argument; but let’s get to the fact how pets are mistreated here, especially Cats & Dogs. Doggism exists to the utmost in this Doggist nation of so called Buddhists. There have been many factual articles of how dog meat was being sold as venison, and other meats; and small fish from dirty canals were being sold as seafood. Most victims of these cons, happen to be foreign tourists, who love to try out local delicacies (and they sure do, unknowingly). In July this year, many prestigious Sri lankan Universities, poisoned stray dogs in the most inhumane manner and watched them screeching in pain for hours as they died. Pregnant cats were being buried alive. And many more stories emerged with pictures and video clips in newspapers and social media. What a lovely Buddhist country this is?? Yes, they can be so proud of this nation???
Of course, local Buddhists believe, humans are a superior being, and that humans that have been bad in previous births, are reborn as animals; thus they feel it’s OK to illtreat animals, and to turn a blind eye to animal suffering. Buddhism does NOT SAY, it’s OK to illtreat animals, even though the theory of Karma and rebirth, exists in Buddhist scriptures.
Karma itself is a questionable subject. Karma sounds really great in theory. So people who ill treat you, will get it back someday. It could be in their next birth. But their is dark side to this. So if you have apparently done something unthinkable in your past life, you are doomed in this life no matter what you do? nor matter what a good human you are? I’m not taking about rewards, but just to be content with life. But apparently I can’t because I was apparently a monster in my past birth?? That’s terrible!! So basically there is no hope what so ever for a peaceful happy life. Karma is a bitch!!!! Of course I don’t believe in re-birth. In the sense, that there is no factual proof of it’s existence. But I keep an open mind, so I don’t really say, that re-birth does not exist per se, but that I don’t know. And to be quite honest, nobody really knows what happens after one dies, until they actually die. It might be the end of it, or heaven and hell (as Christians believe), or re-birth, or something else entirely. Nobody really knows, with a 100% assuracy. And I’m in no hurry to find out (even though there have been times so depressing, that I’ve felt the desire to find out, but no, not in any real hurry).
And getting back to dogs, and concept of apparently humans being re-born as dogs, or other, according to their karma, brought forward from their previous life. If being born a dog, is to atone for a sin committed in your past birth; one ought to wonder, aren’t dogs way kinder and innocent than humans. In fact, Dog is better than God. Of course, the Buddha is not a god, but supposedly a great human being, who walked the earth centuries ago. Yet all humans are flawed creatures, nobody is perfect. BUT the Buddha was supposedly a perfect mortal being. Yet, if you think of it, as Prince Siddhartha, he got tired of having sex with his woman, and thus finally abandoned his wife, and new born baby. Sure, he gained enlightenment or whatever later; BUT what he did at that moment is unapologetic. To leave his wife, at such a crucial moment in their life. A very selfish act. And for all you know, the Buddha was gay; that might be the reason he grew tired of constantly screwing a woman. Yet ironically, Homosexuality is frowned upon, specifically by Lankan Buddhist. Further proof of his sexuality could be the fact, when the Mara (a demon in Buddhist mythology, considered as fact, by most Buddhists) sent his beautiful daughters to seduce the Buddha, he wasn’t perturbed. Because he was so pure, or was there another reason for it? Jokes apart, if Buddha, or any religious leaders were actually homosexual (and there is NOTHING wrong with being gay), the irony is, that the Most homophobic societies exists within these religious circles. While religious people ought to be more open, accepting, kind, generous and non-judgemental.
People here tend to show prejudice to everything possible. Let’s take a look at peoples preference towards the fairer skin tones, as an acceptance of beauty. Buddha was supposedly beautiful, because of his fair skin. What proof is there, that he was fair??? It’s pretty much similar to the portrayal of Christ as white. Christ wasn’t Caucasian, as he was from the middle east, but he could’ve been fair skinned. And Buddha being from Northern India (he was born in Lumbini, Nepal of today, back then Lumbini was part of India), it’s possible that he was fairer. But fairness does not necessarily mean attractiveness. There are lot of dark skinned, or jet black, people with sharp beautiful features, who tend to be just as attractive, or even prettier. The Indian sub-continent tends to be favourable towards the fair skin tones. But, North India, Nepal & Pakistan, tend to be fairer skinned anyway. Sri Lanka is a BLACK Country (or at least dark skinned); here the prejudice is far more absurd, of “the pot calling the kettle black” syndrome, quite literally. But being black skinned is not a fault. Fairer skinned people here insult Dark skinned people & Dark skinned people here tend to insult darker skinned people, and so on, even with the use of the ‘N’ word (used in a more derogatory sense, than a friendly manner). Once when somebody, almost as dark as me, called me a Nigger; I told him, if he actually said that to a black person (meaning people of actual African decent) he would have got it. The irony is, that whilst studying in New Delhi, a group of Africans, called me “White”!!!! Back in my mid-20’s, when I came to Sri Lanka, with a superb Modeling Portfolio, done in Delhi; I tried give it a try here. I was asked to bleach my skin. Am not ashamed of my dark skin, but Lankan’s do have a major complex about their complexion. And I wasn’t as dark as I am today. The guy, who called me a “Nigger”, bleached his skin, went onto be a quite good looking model (endorsing ‘Fair & Handsome’ fairness creams) and a pathetic actor (that people adore), in Sri Lanka. Am glad of my decision not to take that false route.
Whether Buddha was fair skinned or not, nobody would really know, but I doubt he would have differentiated among skin tones, or put labels on standards of Beauty. Sri Lanka’s racism is far worse, than that of the British, America or Australia; where too racism exists, besides being multicultural societies. Of course Sri Lankan’s do have a dislike for Caucasians as well, but just that (as I mentioned above), they bow down to white skin, but back bite like anything. They are not genuine about their racism. European tourists are called Sudha/Sudhi (a derogatory term for white skinned male/female), or Karapota (Cockroach, maybe ’cause of the white blood roaches tend to have); but Karapota is more of a term used for the Dutch & Portuguese Burgher communities here. Muslims are called Tambia, and so on. You find Racism in SL, towards skin tones, other religions besides their own, and other races besides their own; et al, and is far worse, than anywhere else. The rest of the world, most people know about it, be it corruption, racism, violence etc etc … Very few have even heard of the insignificant dot of island on the world’s map, or it’s disturbingly negative attributes.
Of course, this actor I brought up earlier wasn’t a bad person, as such. I just brought him up as an example, how dark skinned people insult other, even slightly darker than them, to the extent of using the “N” word (I’ve gone through far worse psychological, and to some extent physical, abuse, especially through the hands of Sri Lankan’s, and more specifically by Lankan Buddhists, residing all over the world). No, the untalented superstar of Lankan cinema, in not a bad person, but just a bloody fool, and quite an unhygienic one at that (the irony of people disliking dogs, and other animals, because they feel animals are unclean, is quite laughable; my dogs are way cleaner than most people in this country). And this person is an advocate of Buddhism in the country. And a vegetarian (how much of a vegetarian is another debatable fact, a lot of fishertarians call themselves vegetarians. Fish are living things that can feel too, and they suffer the most, caught in a net, as they die; and don’t get me started on seafood that are boiled alive). I am not a vegetarian, but I don’t behave like I’m going to die without meat. I can go for/and have gone for, months without eating any meat. But most non-vegetarian Buddhist here behave as if they are die without meat. Their greed for animal flesh, or in any other manner, is revolting. Of course, this does not mean, just ’cause a person is vegetarian, they are better people, or that they treat animals with love and kindness. All religions, and races, within this country prefer to believe, only their beliefs/race is right, and the best. But Buddhism, which is not meant to discriminate, tends to be the worse kind of supremacist attitude prevalent in this so called Buddhist nation.
Look at the Sri Lankan flag itself, with a devilish looking Lion holding the sword, and archaic representation of Sinhalese supremacy (thus the country itself has this archaic mentality of the dark ages, respecting a royal lion of an non-progressive nation), with the Bo-leaf on the four corners (symbolic of Buddhism), of the maroon background (maroon colour represents the Sinhalese race). But what’s worse is, who or what is the lion showing the sword to?? The Green & Saffron stripes, representing the Hindu’s & the Muslims, respectively. So basically, instead of protecting the minority groups of the country (the Christians & the Catholic Burgher’s are not even touched upon) the lion is saying, don’t fuck with us Sinhalese Buddhist, we rule!!! Either way, why should the flag have something to say for, or against, any religion or race. Shouldn’t it represent something a bit more universally significant, blending harmoniously with flags of other nations, in simplicity; without trying to ape an archaic royal mentality.
The Swastika, is an ancient symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, attributed to the Aryan race. Again peoples fascination for fairer skin, can date back to the Buddha’s era. The Buddha himself being from the Aryan race (non-Buddhist are known as anāryas) was supposedly beautifully fair skinned (as mentioned above). So the Aryan race is fair skinned, and our own roots are Indo-Aryan, but through evolution under the hellish sun, we have really dark skin, yet our sharp features give away our Aryan roots. But what’s wrong is the Swastika’s racist roots, that gave way to Hitler’s Nazi regime to use it as the symbol of Aryan supremacy. And even today white supremacists, neo-Nazi groups, use it. And in Sri Lanka, it has become a symbol of Buddhist supremacy. And it’s interesting to note, how a lot Sri Lankan’s believe Hitler was right to cleanse the world of Jews. Plus local Buddhists attitudes towards the Muslims is pretty much the same as Nazi attitudes towards the Jews!!! And there are various schools of thought when it comes to Buddhism, and Sri Lankan’s feel, only their Buddhism is correct; even which they don’t really practice properly.
Even still, what proof is there, what Buddha was to have said, was actually said. Buddhist preaching were never written down at the time of the Buddha. Buddhists text were first said to be written down about 400 years after the death of Buddha. Prior to that, doctrines were passed down orally, from generation to generation. And like Chinese Whispers, the doctrines would have changed completely by the time the texts were finally written down. The best religion to me is humanity, to be a good decent human being. Something badly missing in this country. And that’s what the crux of any religion is, which has been distorted by time. More so, in this narrow minded country where a falsified Buddhism is held with high regard.
The irony of it all. In my late 20’s whilst living in England, I was so much more into Buddhism (without ever looking down on any other religion), that practically every Sunday, if possible, I’d go to a Thai Buddhist Monastery there (which again for Sri Lankan’s is a problem, as that is not supposed to be our kind of Buddhism), to meditate. So in England I was more of a practicing Buddhist, and when I came to Sri Lanka, the hypocrisy of it all here, got me off it. By my 30’s I was more of a Free Thinker than a Buddhist, but I still had respect for the religion I was born into. But just over two years ago, I was being so stressed by cruel Buddhists of this country, that I finally renounced the religion and denounced the practice of it in Sri Lanka. I lost any love I had for this country in my mid-30’s, after having being patient for so long; and finally removed Buddhism and lost all respect for the hypocritical sadistic practices and attitudes of Sri Lankan Buddhism, a few months after I turned 40!!!!! In fact, I had gone through so much pain, that particular day, that I did a kind of personal blog post, that I had never posted before, despite all the stress and depression I’ve gone through most of my life, surviving on my own. See my post Day of Depression from September 2015. The day I finally removed Buddhism!!!!!!
Evil forces of Sri Lankan Buddhism, prevented me from working on this post (as it has been doing for ages anyway, trying to prevent me from Blogging about anything, period); but I persevered. I started working on this over a month ago, but I finally got to finish it today. Hope I’ve manged to make all the necessary points I needed to.
Nuwan Sen n’ Social Issues
No Nonsense with Nuwan Sen 