Our fellow Buddhists in Korea has won a minor respite against
the inevitable... the eventual evangelization of Korea.
It is extremely sad that the Korean Buddhists cannot
be left in peace to practice their religion... and that respects
are only grudgingly extended when they express their
anger. Incidentally, anger is one of the most destructive
emotions in Buddhism.
According to the Dhammapada, hatred is never appeased by
hatred and that hatred can only be appeased by love and
compassion. But I also recall the parable of the scorpion and the
turtle... All the love and compassion in all of the realms won't
save me from the sting of a scorpion... since it is the
scorpion's nature to sting anything other than a
scorpion.
Maybe I am being overly pessimistic here... but how
can Buddhists ensure their own survival in the face of the
spiritual equivalent of forces like the scorpion, whose
nature is to destroy and assimilate?
Yah, not easy...
Actually it's kind of a deja vu to me. I mean I remember in the
early 80s in Singapore, many of us including the Malaysians, had
the feelings that Singapore was a Christian nation too. Many
temples ( taoist and buddist) were pulled down for various reasons
while it seem that, or many felt that more churches were built
instead. And that time many christains were very active in the
community centers or RCs as well. At least I myself felt that
way...
And if I would to recall correctly, it was reported in the ST
many years ago( early 90s?) that more than 50%( or almost
70%) of the members were Christians in PAP. And
understandably, more doubts and uneasiness were cast upon the
ruling party whenever something sensitive towards traditional
culture or religions issues were involved. It was definitely
unhealthy.
However, all is well now. That's how I feel at least. Many
Buddhists and Venerables had worked hard in building up the dharma
studies centers in those difficult years and now the result is very
possitive. The govt. has been very supportive towards Buddhism
developement ( as well as other religions ) all these years and has
try to be as secular as possible for the purpose of racial and
religion harmony.
So I guess all is not lost as long as we Buddhists encourage and
support each other in the dharma path, for the good of ourselves as
well as for the good of all sentient beings. Or simply put,
just walk on no matter how tough the road is in front of us.
