Buddha’s teachings can resolve today’s conflicts too – President

The teachings of the Buddha are relevant even today as they were 26 centuries ago. If the leaders of our modern world embrace this advice, many of today’s domestic and international conflicts could be resolved, said President Mahinda Rajapaksa. He was addressing the United Nations Day Vesak celebrations in Bangkok yesterday.

“Justice and the Rule of Law are not alien concepts for those of us who from our childhood are nurtured by the doctrine of the Buddha.

These are, therefore not concepts that need to be preached to the converted,” President Rajapaksa said.

The President said, “The Buddha has advised on the aspects of governance, in which are incorporated all the seemingly modern concepts of democracy, justice, human rights and the rule of law; those very values that we today perceive to be the foundations of a free and democratic society.”

The President said that different nations, ethno-religious groups and communities are competing over land, economic resources and political space, destroying the solidarity and the need to establish a sense of common humanity. Religion, unfortunately, is becoming one of the fundamental forces of this division. Instead of being a great unifier and a source of spiritual enrichment, organised religion is increasingly becoming a tool in the hands of extremists, to create divisions among fellow humans, and in extreme cases to invoke violence against other groups.

"We, as Buddhists have a responsibility to arrest this dangerous development. Let us spread that message of peace to all corners of the globe, let the light of Buddhism shine and quell the darkness of ignorance.”

The President paid tribute to the late Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar for getting Vesak declared as a UN event.