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Wisdom and Compassion: Two Paradigms of Humanistic Buddhist(14)

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   This emphasis on the power of his dhamma sermons represents one way of emphasizing the authority of the guru. But there is another mystical element at work here. Guru F attributes the effectiveness of his dhamma sermons to something he calls the "Universal Power." This Universal Power is what enables large numbers of people to hear and understand the dhamma. He says that it is because of the Universal Power that people are interested in the dhamma today and it is this power that can correct the false teaching and bring people to the truth. This Universal Power seems to be some kind of ultimate force that operates through the guru and can be realized by others. What is not entirely clear is whether the force is truly universal and can be found everywhere or whether it represents the power of this guru that he can manifest as he

 

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wills.

   Through this power Guru F claims to be able to perform miraculous works such as healing and divination. For example, Guru F claims that when people come to him with questions and problems, he knows and gives the answers before they ask their questions. This guru also claims to have performed healings through his Universal Power. He says that people have come to him after their doctors had given up and he has sent them home cured of their illnesses. His words have healing power and the people are cured as they listen to his sermons or discuss their problems with him.

 

Summary:

   In many ways, Guru F resembles the other gurus we have examined. His dhamma teaching is not too unusual, stressing, for example, the need to awaken one's mind and recognize the cause and effect of mental states, or the need to recognize that the world is not real as it appears. His followers, like the followers of the other gurus, find these teachings helpful in coping with life today. But clearly, what attracts the huge crowds to Guru F is not his Buddhist psychology alone, what attracts them is the guru himself and the beliefs about his powers. His followers believe that they can be enlightened simply by hearing this guru preach his dhamma. This belief causes people to flock to hear him by the thousands everywhere he goes in the country. His meetings, advertised only by word of mouth and held in large halls without air conditioning or loud speakers, are jammed with people who sit in these crowded conditions for hours to hear their guru. One of his disciples expressed the sentiment of many when she described how she had been to various teachers and centers and even thought she had attained some higher spiritual states but now she sees that was all false because she has a "great master" in Guru F who has brought her to the true realization. Now although she does not study the texts or read books, she too has become a teacher through the Universal Power that he manifests.

   In Guru F we see: the emergence of the Guru in the full Indian form. He supplants the path of meditation with the power of the guru; he even preaches against the other meditation teachers and seeks to convert their followers by showing that they are following the wrong path. Guru F has become a true guru and heads a movement that takes on the characteristics of sectarianism within the parameters of Buddhism.

 

III. Paradigm II: Socially Engaged Buddhist Movement
   The other contemporary Buddhist movement that has worked to express compassion in Sri Lanka is the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, which represents socially engaged Buddhism. This movement clearly embodies the ideals of humanistic Buddhism. The Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement arose in 1958, founded by a Buddhist layman. Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne. As did the meditation movement, the Sarvodaya movement began as a lay Buddhist movement that has at its center a belief in the human potential for spiritual achievement and the implications of the Dhamma for social change. [6]

 

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   Like the meditation movement, Sarvodaya was influenced by Anagarika Dharmapala. Dharmapala described Buddhism as a "Gospel of Activity" preached by the Buddha who "was engaged in doing good in the world of gods and men for twenty-two hours each day." He proclaimed that "Greater than the bliss of sweet Nirvana is the life of moral activity." [7] Building upon Dharmapala's example, the leaders of Sarvodaya reinterpreted both the path and the goal of Buddhism to develop a blueprint for the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement. The path became a path of selfless service in the world and the goal became the development of a new social structure that embodied the Buddhist ideals and facilitated a dual liberation process.

   The goal of the path for Sarvodaya is signified by its name, which it translates to mean "the awakening of all" or "the uplift of all." It represents a dual liberation because it is the awakening of both the individual and the society. These two forms of liberation are integrally related as a dual process. An individual living in a society that is poor materially as well as spiritually will have great difficulty awakening to the reality of his/her own greed, hatred and delusion. But unless some individuals awaken to these problems, social change and alleviation of poverty will never be sought. Ariyaratne explains this dual process saying, "I cannot awaken myself unless I help awaken others. Others cannot awaken unless I do." [8] Ariyaratne contends that both of these forms of liberation have continuity with the original goals of the Buddha's path.