Buddha: Birth, Karma and Our Dharma

Author: Ankit Dhakal "Sandeept"

On the birth of Siddhartha Gautam

About 2600 years ago, on the night of Baishakh Poornima, at Lumbini, Mother Mayadevi gave birth to Siddhartha Gautam. In different times of the history, the Holy Land of Lumbini belonged to different nations. In modern times, it is within the territory of Nepal. This should not, however mean that the Buddha was a Nepali. He was not a citizen of any modern country. Making him a citizen is unfair- historically as well as morally[1].

This is an era of science and technology. Everything is evaluated according to facts and evidences. Had the culture, art and writings of the Buddha Era not been proved, the Buddha might have been declared a myth. But evidences until now have shown all the paths of the Buddha's journey. The historians have also agreed upon the fact that Lumbini was his birthplace. On the other hand, they have not been able to actually pointed out the year of his birth. That's exactly what we need to discover. The accuracy in dates will certainly bring up accurate historical data.

The actual problem is this: It's been 28 years since the "Master Plan" on development of Lumbini has come into action. The slow work means it has not been completed year. In his twenty-ninth year, even Siddhartha had realised that he needed to seek for the truth. Why haven't we been able to look for the truth? Ways have already been shown by the Buddha, after all.

On the Karma of Siddhartha and the Buddha

Siddhartha is said to have a life of comfort. If he felt the emotional comfort he needed is doubtable. His mother had passed away while he was still an infant and his father could not give him enough time. The only comfortable presence would be of Mother Prajapati. The physical comfort must have been adequate as Raja Shuddhodhan had built up three palaces to meet the needs according to the weather. They did not touch Siddhartha, though. This is one story which shows how Siddhartha behaved:

Every year, Raja Shuddhodhan ploughed fields at the beginning of ropaain (rice cultivation). Siddhartha too was taken on his sixth birthday. Instead of getting involved in the feast, he sat under a tree looking silently at the ants around him. A little farther, he saw a lizard eating them up. As he watched with interest, a snake swallowed the lizard. In no time, a hawk pounced upon the snake and took it away. It was the first time, nature had generated curiosity in him. Why did the food cycle go in the way it did? He started questioning himself. He did not care for any comfort though they were easily provided. That was when the three palaces had been built but Siddhartha always craved to return to the nature. Once out of the palace, he saw an old, a sick and a dead[2]. That inspired him to go back to the nature where he would discover the truth of our lives. And became known to the world as the Buddha.

When the Buddha discovered the cause and cessation of suffering, like a common person, he debated with himself, "Should I preach what I've discovered? What if no one believes me?" He thought he should give it a try. His first preached his thoughts to five people at Kushinagar. His voice might have been soft; he might have preached in local dialect in the simplest way. That was probably why he had a huge number of followers. Gautam Buddha is the chief inspiration to the Buddhists all around the world.

One does not become great by their birth, but by their deeds (karma). Siddhartha was born as a warrior. He should have battled all his life. But he preached peace. I bow to the Buddha who became great with his karma; not by his birth.

Our Dharma

To me, right deed is the Dharma. It was Siddhartha's Dharma to discover the truth behind our suffering. Buddha's Dharma was to teach what he knew. Would we have discusses the Buddha had he not done what he should have done? But our Dharma is not just to discuss the life of Buddha. Our Dharma is to practice what he preached. To preserve his path and messages should be our Dharma. Only then we can really respect him.

[Footnotes:
1. Great people are known by their Karma. Only those inspired by right Karma are respected by all, wherever they might have taken birth.
There has been a craze to make Buddha a Nepali. Photoshopped citizenship of the Buddha can be seen in the social media. Not only it is a mockery to the history, it is also an immoral trend. We have politicised the Buddha to conceal our inefficiency. Buddha's teaching are cying alone on in the cornered shelves of libraries.

2. Buddha's stories say that Siddhartha saw three men- an elderly, an ill and a corpse in three consequtive days. Did he actually see one person? Maybe on the first day, he saw an old man and got curious. On the second day, he might have discovered that the old man was sick. The man might have died before Siddhartha saw him the third day. He might have perceived that people suffered. And he might have set a quest to discover the ways to end suffering.]

A similar article has been published here in Nepali.

Democracy or Aristodemocracy?

Author: Ankit Dhakal (Sandeept)*

“Might is Right", the proverb goes. It was true then(when the proverb was invented), and it is true till date. From then till now, only the way of attaining might has changed and nothing else.

A mighty Emperor one would be in the past if he ruled a vast area of land with the help of his warlords and terror of weapon. He would do anything to remain in the power. He would be worshiped; people would bow their heads in front of him. Following his orders would be a compulsion; if not you might be killed in no time. All his foolish wishes had to be fulfilled; after all he had the might and he was the right. On this regard, I remember the stories of Akbar and Birbal. Akbar was a wise king, but like every other kings he had pride of his might and made his subjects do whatever he wished. Birbal, the wise often stopped him from doing so but he too used to fall in dilemma when the king used to order things like bull’s milk and building castle in the air. The stories of Akbar and Birbal may not be actual histories. A historical example of Surendra and Junge may be relevant here. Because Junge(Jung Bahadur Rana-Junge was what Surendra called him!) wanted to gain powers taking the advantage of perssuation over Surendra, he jumped into Trishuli with a horse, and jumped into a dry well . (It is also said that he jumped off the top of Dharahara with an umbrella!) Later on, when he gained his might what he did to Surendra and his children is a bitter part of history: even innocent people suffered his tyranny.

The etymology of the word “Democracy” leads us to the “rule of the people” in Greek. Democracy was practiced in Athens in the ancient times which spread to Europe with varying forms. Rome and Sparta had their own type of democracy but the main essence was that they worked in unison to the thoughts of people called citizens. To say that they followed modern democratic norms would be a mistake. The “citizens” were originally those who dwelt in the city minus the women, the slaves and the tradesmen. What we get as citizens were the rich men called ‘elites’. So, when we talk of democracy, aristocracy automatically comes into the scene.

In modern times, democracy and aristocracy(the rule of the elites) are used antonymously. This is the illusion that people have been suffering from in the developing and under-developed countries. The definition of citizen has changed and all the adults democratically cast votes to their representatives but they are ruled under aristocracy. In almost all the countries following democracy, one can become candidate in the elections easily but the winner is, in most of the cases, one who can spend money—actually distribute money among the people. Political parties that have strong support of the industrialists and capitalists usually win the elections. It is because the aid from the rich-class people can be used in campaigns to create vote-banks. Communists call this capitalism, I call this aristodemocracy—the democracy in which the elites are a little higher in status than the people of other economic classes. I am not sure if such a rule exists in the developed countries but Sir Charles Waldstein had given the term “aristodemocracy” in his book of the same name. However, the book explains vastly on the military strategies required to establish peace in the world. (The ideas seem contrasting, don't they?)

The sixteenth US President Abraham Lincoln said, “Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people.” The people elect their representatives and expect that the popular needs are fulfilled through them. When the representatives of people like parliamentarians are elected by the people on the ground of their abilities, it is certain that they will do something for the development of at least their constituency. But if they are elected by the favor of elites, the “people’s representatives” are enslaved; resulting increased corruption, class-conflict and anarchy.

In democratic countries, mightier are those who get popular votes off their abilities; they gain majority and they are the tyrants over minorities. In aristodemocratic countries, the mightier are those who get popular votes with the help of the rich-class; the minority group rules the majority group taking advantage over their inability to make apt decisions and choices. This should be impossible according to the modern democratic norms but its going on here, on the land from which I am writing this essay.

How can aristodemocracy be defeated? I am not sure there is an absolute answer to this question. Which place is there which does not have the gap between the haves and the have-nots? You might think of the USA, Obama’s country at an instant but the depictions of slum-like places in New York(Manhattan?) in movies and accounts of many tourists have showed that poor are always the poor. Another country that clicks into everyone’s mind is the UK, the kingdom of Queen Elizabeth, but I have heard a personal account of the poors’ life in slums of England from a young Bangla-originated Englishman, Sabirul Islam. There is always a great possibility that monetary resources are exploited by the election candidates. Therefore, he only way of turning over aristodemocracy  is to increase the political awareness among people or make it clear that the winner is the one who can use money to their advantage. 

If we want the citizens to be aware, when citizens vote for their representatives, they should be careful that the candidate is not under the influence of aristocrats and anarchists. Mass media and social media can be useful in raising awareness among the ordinary people and in helping them select the correct representatives. But the most essential need is that the leaders should be loyal to all the citizens; not only to the elite-class but also to the poor class.

*The article was first published on khichadi-literature.blogspot.com by the author in 2014.

My United Nations-A Vision for the Future

*Author: Roshan Bhandari

I vividly remember my childhood days when my grandfather used to narrate the famous story of a farmer and his always-quarreling sons! The farmer, to teach them a lesson, when gave a single, separate piece of stick to each of the sons, they could break those easily while when he provided those sticks in a bundle, none could break. “Unity is strength!” my grandfather used to exclaim. And yes! To the level of my understanding, this is the ‘unity’ where-upon has lied every hopes, success of the United Nations(UN) and the same will carry and materialize the strong pillars of all visions in the future!

We know, the UN‘s security council with the motto “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” is working day and night to maintain the international peace. Meanwhile, what it still needs is cent percent generous co-operations from all other members i.e. it longs for the ‘non-selfish unity’ to freely carry out ‘Conflict prevention and Peacemaking’, Peacekeeping, Peace-building, ‘Women peace and security’ and combat terrorism and organized crimes like drug trafficking, flesh trade etc. Similarly, the Human Rights Commission urges for the same unity so that it can work more strongly whether for child rights, labour rights or women empowerment and so forth. Similarly, whether it is to end hunger, poverty in all forms everywhere or to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts or to ensure equitable quality education or healthy lives i.e. to achieve all the post-2015 developmental agendas, an intensive-unified effort is a must.

In a nutshell, despite the requirement of funds, manpower etc for every agendas, the basic fruitful outcomes of all lies in the optimum ‘unity and support’. Therefore, in the days to come, the UN should and will advance to more strengthened, coordinated and intensified ‘cold war-free’ unity to achieve all, if not most, goals in time.

*This article was submitted as one of the competing essays on UNITED NATIONS' website for an essay competition few months back by the author!

Science and Technology Article

LUX/LZ Dark Matter Experiment & Neutron Calibration

Author:  Madan K. Sharma Timalsina

The LUX Dark Matter Experiment has performed the most sensitive direct search for weakly-interacting massive dark matter particles (so-called WIMPs). The successor experiment LZ will also be located underground at SURF (Sanford Underground Research Facility) in Lead/SD. The LZ central detector will not only be an order of magnitude larger than the existing LUX inner detector, but its sensitivity for direct dark matter searches will be even 100 times better than LUX. If WIMPs exist, they could interact in the cryogenic liquid xenon of the detector's core by bouncing into a xenon nucleus, which will then recoil and produce scintillation light and electric charge. The ratio of the directly detected scintillation light and the delayed charge detection is characteristic for such a nuclear recoil, and differs significantly from an electron recoil produced by undesired background reactions. However, the precise knowledge of the critical ratio value, for which the electron recoil dominated regime transitions into the nuclear recoil dominated regime, is key.
Dedicated neutron calibration sources such as a DD-generator gun, AmLi and AmBe neutron sources, as well as a new mono-energetic Y/Be neutron source are essential tools to precisely map the nuclear recoil region. That way it can be demonstrated what a possible WIMP detection would look like in the LUX/LZ detectors.
The precise neutron fluxes of the various neutron calibration sources have to be measured before the actual deployments of the sources will be performed, in order to assess the detection efficiency in the detector.
A new neutron monitor system, utilizing He-3 proportional counter tubes, is being developed within the framework of the LUX/LZ project.

Obsession

Under the canopy of

Darkened serenity

In her dismal den

Lies she, munching life

To the core

And grunting the pain inward,

Oozing drop by drop

Into the jar

Obsessed with the gluttony

Of the clan.

Frailty presses her hard

From underneath her

But she strives to hold firm

Until the last drop;

The obsession under her

Grows and sprawls around

Like a savage wilderness

Over the wall and the window

That curtains the sun

From her world;

A small portion of life

Vibrates hard from deep down

Reminding her: she flowed once

But now she only oozes.

Durga Gautam

Nostalgia

For a peppermint,

we had those big fights for

Cuffing the slippers around the palms,

we ran across that profound woods

fast, deep into, racing, aiming nothing for

Playing the soccer ball,

made from the old socks

that by the river,

Those beautiful encounters with the herds

grazing at the bank near,

Wandering the village,

the entire day around

when we fished and swam

at the dirty pound

After the daddy’s scolding ,

cuddling around mamma’s arms,

letting the every pain abate with her affection

I am caving for those days,

When I had every perfection!

Failing was worth!

When it comes to the matter of failure and success, I do always remember and cite the saying of a great scientist: Thomas Alba Edison- “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

If you ask me, as a student, whether you call it my arrogance or childishness-I had always considered myself as an extra-ordinarily talented one. Why do I not? Because, most of the times, it was I who used to get cent percent scores whether it was in Maths or in Science in my class. Whether it was an inter-school poetry competition or a district-wide essay competition, I used to be the one often at the top of the champions. Every single teacher, student, staff of my school called me ‘the genius of the geniuses!’ Many a times, I did get their compliments!

Neither Geometry nor Accountancy- or let’s say there was not a single topic that I would need to study twice! All was a cup of tea for me-I thought, I expected. ‘Failure’ was something that I had never expected to get encountered with, owing to my ‘extra-ordinarily talented nature’. It was something, I considered, that would never interrupt the success-woven path I was leading. I was proved wrong, any though!

I vividly remember the day which was indeed, I call, the toughest time I had to bear. It was when I was in my grade eight, the exam-day of ‘Computer Studies’, our last exam of the then-going District Level Examination (DLE). While in exam, after I read the question-paper, all of sudden, I found my mind going blank! I tried hard but couldn’t even think how to start with? All the questions but their answers seemed familiar. The genius of all, I, became the helpless then! Not a single answer struck my mind. And it was all the way after the first-hour bell had gone, I then realized it was the previous insomniac night’s effect that I had spent watching ‘The Tale of Jack’! I was full of remorse at wasting my time watching a movie late night and being overconfident at excelling the exam with zero preparation the next day.

Few days later, the results were out. I was handed my maiden marksheet with an asterisk (*). That moment, tears rolled down my cheeks and that bitter taste of the salty-water of my eyes is still fresh in my tongue. My life would be never the same again, I realized numbly. It was for the whole day I continued crying till Baba (my father) took me into his arms and narrated the story of the failure and success of the very Edison. His every words kept resonating around my mind. Even the great people of the centuries were once ‘the failures’ in their lives, so I mustn’t utter the cry of despair- I got reconciled, though it was hard.

Had not I failed that day, I think I would have never realized the real meaning of ‘a lost time’ and the hazards of being overconfident. That is why today too I say- “Of course, the failing was worth!”

Parents

Oxford Advanced learner’s dictionary simply defines the word ‘parent’ as- “a person’s mother or father”. However, it signifies much more. It also signifies the qualities like love, generosity, benevolence, sacrifice and so forth.

 We often do address the word ‘Parents’ rather than only using the word ‘parent’. This is because a father and a mother, both, as a parent, are the mirrors of the gods to their child. Both the men and the women try their hard to fulfill the responsibilities of being a good parent. They are always indulged in making the every demands of their child fulfilled at any cost. They are the one who do keep the desires of their child above their own needs. Both of them try to find their happiness upon the happiness of the child. When the child is hungry, they tend to make him or her eat first or when the child is crying or is upset, they forget all other worries and tend to make him or her smile. Indeed, it is the quality of every parents to be a supportive and struggling person for their children.

Nevertheless, there lies some social and, indeed some personal, differences in the ways of parenting between the women and the men parents. In most of the societies, it is seen that the men earn for the family (or the children), while the women are careful enough to expend the earned sum in the betterment of the children. In our families, the children more often tend to spend their time with their mother who looks after their most of the activities like eating, playing, clothing, cleanliness to sleeping. It is often the mother who is perfect at these all whereas, the father is often found to have less perfection in these all, compared to the mother.

The way a mother is often very close to her child than a father, is probably due to the cozy environment of her very warm hug and the breastfeeding to the child during his or her entire infancy. Whether or not it has the scientific basis, but it is often seen around that the level of the sacrifice and the love that a mother shows is hardly equated by that of a father. It is the mother who is more worried thinking whether her child has got something to eat or not, when she is not with him or her; it is she who is more tensed if her child doesn’t return home in time, and so forth. Her worries are often more, yet always caring!

 Any though, a father’s love and sacrifice are always praised all over. He is often taken as the symbol of leadership and discipline in the family, who, therefore, is to plant the same qualities in the children. More often, he is the one to interfere and scold the children if they breach the rules or if the mother is unable to make the children controlled. Despite the vast love for his children, a father is often less expressive than a mother is. While the mothers are often soft-hearted, easily emotional, the fathers, on the other hand, are considered to have firmness and to be less emotional.

In a nutshell, despite the commonness and the contrasts between the men and the women as parents, it is the matter of fact that both the parents have an incredible power of love, struggle, sacrifice, support and guidance for their children. Hence, they must always be praised and loved.