Most Venerable Bhante Walpola Piyananda's 80th Birthday Celebrating - Collected Essays

19
Righteous Rulers Never Seek Revenge
In recent years, more and more people around the world have
been affected by drought, floods, landslides, a pandemic, and countless
other varieties of natural disasters. Of course, climate change is
wreaking havoc all across the globe. The punishment inflicted on the
natural environment by human beings is, like anything else, subject to
the law of kamma. There is cause; there is effect.
The Buddha spoke of the effects of not taking good care of the
environment, which includes its living beings: “Bhikkhus, when kings
are unrighteous, the royal vassals become unrighteous…. (Likewise)
Brahmins and householders…people of the towns and countryside…
…The sun and moon proceed off course, the constellations and stars…
day and night…seasons and years blow off course….” He goes on to
point out how this affects rainfall, and therefore crops, and therefore
food supply.
As I wrote in my book, “Away from L.A.”, the Buddha’s intention
was to eradicate human suffering, so it stands to reason that he would
speak about the natural environment and our close relationship with
it. According to the Agganna Sutta, the evolution of the world, the
appearance of greed and moral degradation caused the environment
to decline. With each successive moral decline, the beings and their
environment devolved presenting an increasing challenge to feeding
themselves.
For a country to be happy, it must have a just government.
How this could be realized is explained by the Buddha in his teaching
of the “Ten Duties of the King.” Of course, this teaching is applicable
to “Governments” and therefore, applies today to all who form
governments around the world.
• The first of these duties is liberality, generosity, and charity; the
wealth and property should be used for the welfare of the people.
• The second is that those in government should have high moral
character, at least observing the Five Precepts of a layman.
• Third, he should be prepared to give up all personal comfort, name
and fame in the interest of the people.
• Fourth honesty and integrity is important; he must be free from
fear or favor in the discharge of his duties. He must be sincere in
his intentions, and must not deceive the public.
• Fifth, he should possess a genial temperament; to be kind and gentle.
• Sixth: He must have self-control; not indulging in a life of luxury.
• Seventh: He should be free from hatred, ill-will, enmity and not
bear a grudge against anybody.
• Eight: Non-violence is important; he should try to promote peace
through the avoidance and prevention of war and everything which
involves violence and the destruction of life.
• Ninth: He must be able to bear hardships, difficulties and insults
without losing his temper, he should have patience, forbearance,
toleration and understanding.
• And finally, the tenth; he should not oppose the will of the people,
should not obstruct measures that are conducive to the welfare of
the people. In other words, he should rule in harmony with his
people.
Countries with large Buddhist populations, such as Sri Lanka,
Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Japan, Cambodia, Taiwan, South
Korea and others should be the embodiment of the Buddha’s basic
instructions for living, viz. the four Brahma Viharas, known in English
as Lovingkindness (metta), Compassion (karuna), Appreciative Joy
(mudita), and Equanimity (upekkha). Successive governments in
the history of these Buddhist countries have been sometimes more
observant of these principles, sometimes less observant. But during
the last few years, the rampant disregard of these principles has become
critical, to a point where those of us who love our countries cannot
keep silent.
In Western psychology, there is a disease of character known
as sadism, where one derives pleasure from the infliction of pain.
Unfortunately, this is the current state of affairs in several countries,
and governments are still devoting countless resources to avenging
perceived slights or offenses. Their ultimate goal is to go after political
opponents in a vindictive manner. We see a continuous stream of
examples of this in the daily news cycle.
Let me tell you a little story about the Wolf and the Lamb, a
tale from Ancient Greece by Aesop in which the wolf reminds me of
political persecutions.
A wolf was drinking at a spring on a hillside. On looking up he
saw a lamb just beginning to drink lower down. “There’s my
supper,” thought he, “if only I can find some excuse to seize.”
He called out to the lamb, “how dare you muddle my drinking
water!”
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