Faith heals body and mind
 By ANG SEE RENE, The Star, June 8, 2004

Petaling Jaya, Malaysia -- AT THE age of 29, Reverend Ti Zheng was at the peak of life having properties, being a director of four companies and was worth about TWD$1bil (RM114mil).

She was also to marry her childhood sweetheart.

But her life took a drastic turn when a lump on her middle finger turned out to be cancerous and she was diagnosed with bone cancer and given only seven months to live.

“The doctors told me then that the cancer had spread to the rest of body. When I heard the news, I was both angry and scared.

“I was enjoying life to the fullest at that time. ‘Why me? Why at this young age?’ I asked myself,” she said.
With slightly more than half a year to live, Ti realised that nothing else mattered except to find inner peace and tranquility.

Although she frequently prayed in temples and donated to charities at that time, Ti admitted that she was practising Buddhism externally without understanding.

“Within three months after I got the news, I made the decision to give up my life of glamour and success in exchange for a yellow robe to become a nun. I learned to understand and to embrace Buddhism then,” she said. But again, all was not well for Ti.

When her parents found out about her decision to become a nun, her now 78-year-old father became mentally unstable and was admitted to the mental hospital while her mother, who died last year, was admitted to the intensive care unit for various diseases.
 
“Being the youngest daughter, I could not do anything much but to press on and walk the step of faith,” she said, adding that she constantly prayed and sought blessings for her parents.

At that point, her boyfriend had also wanted to rekindle their relationship, she said.

“I was at the crossroads and I had to choose my path and what I wanted for the future.”

And she did. Today, after 18 years, Ti, now the abbot of the Nan Tou Oriental Temple in Taiwan is still very much alive and she attributes her health to the inner peace, which she found in her faith.

“After I became a nun, I constantly prayed besides chanting the Medicine Buddha mantra,” said the 47-year-old, adding that she would wake up at 3am daily for prayers.

“After a year of becoming a nun, the doctors told me that the cancer cells had miraculously vanished. However, I continued to suffer various diseases and had to undergo operations to remove part of my intestine and my cervix,” she said.

Today, Ti is very much engrossed in her work to spread the message of inner peace and also the teachings of Buddhism while relating her success story in overcoming the disease.

“If the body is sick, it is important not to let the mind be affected as well,” she said, adding that there were three types of sicknesses according to Buddhism teachings.

“Physical sickness happens when one does not take care of the body while mental sickness can happen due to the lack of inner peace.

“There are also sicknesses which can happen due to one’s karma,” Ti said in an interview after giving a dharma talk to about 200 Buddhist devotees at the Caring Complex in Jalan Utama, Penang, on May 28.

“Thus, besides seeking medical advice from doctors, the patient also has to repent and seek forgiveness besides doing good deeds to accumulate merits and virtues.”

Ti also advised cancer patients to share their problems with loved ones.

“Many are reluctant to talk about their sicknesses. However, they should realise that sharing is a form of relief to release their anger and hatred, which could be hazardous to their health,” she said.

“Cancer is not a dead end. I was told that there is no tomorrow, but I’m still here today.”

Courtesy:  Buddhist News Network ( BNN )

Buddhism linked with traders in South India: Lankan scholar

COLOMBO DIARY | PK Balachanddran

Colombo, August 30

Buddhism, which flourished in South India between 3rd century BC and 4th century AD, was essentially an urban phenomenon closely associated with traders and other urban groups, says Prof Sudharshan Seneviratne, a leading Lankan expert on South Indian Buddhism.

Seneviratne, who is the Head of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Peradeniya, told Hindustan Times that the story of Buddhism in South India could be linked to the rise and fall of trade and the fortunes of the mercantile community in the region.

The Lankan scholar had worked under the renowned Indian historian, Romila Thapar, for his doctoral thesis entitled: "Social Base of early Buddhism in southeast India and Sri Lanka: 3rd century BC to 3rd century AD."

Seniveratne says that Buddhism, both in its birth place in North India, and later, in South India, was identified with new social and economic forces that were emerging at that time.

In North India, Buddhism was one of the movements of dissent against the brahmanical hegemony. It had given a new rallying point for non-Brahmin castes like the Kshatriya and Vaishyas. In the South, it came to be the ideology of a new class of merchants, long-distance and overseas traders, and craftsman, who were coming up in the newly formed urban centres in the coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

In the Early Iron Age (EIA) prior to 8th century BC, communities in South India were pastoral and subsistence economies, supplemented by hunting and foraging. But after 8th century BC, population pressure pushed the communities to the fertile delta areas like those of Krishna (in Andhra Pradesh) and Cauvery and Tambraparani (in Tamil Nadu). Now, these communities also had access to copper, diamonds, chank and pearls and could participate in the East Coast trade.

This period also saw the emergence of complex societies based on division of labour, economic exchange, and settled agriculture. States and cities were formed. By 6th.century BC, there was long distance trade linking Dhanyakataka on the Krishna River with Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka.

There were also extraneous political and economic pressures to change. Iron-age urbanisation in North India had created a demand for raw material and luxury goods, and the Mauryan kings made inroads into the south in search of these. Seneviratne says that this phenomenon finds mention in the Arthashastra - the ancient Indian economic treatise.

With the inroad of north Indians came Buddhism. And because of Buddhism's association with long distance trade, it took root in the coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, Seneviratne points out.

The earliest Buddhist inscriptions in Amaravati (in present day Andhra Pradesh) recorded donations made to Buddhist establishments by the sethi or the merchant bankers associated with long distance trade.

The inscriptions in southern Deccan and the Tamil Brahmi inscriptions in the far south, clearly recorded donations made by merchants and ship captains, members of craft and city guilds and other urban-based professionals.

In the great Tamil Buddhist work Cilappadikaram (3rd century AD) the heroine Kannagi's father is identified as a manaikan or a great mariner, and her husband as macattuvan or long distance trader, Seneviratne points out.

The expansion of the Mediterranean trade to the South had a great deal to do with the spread of Buddhism here. Buddhist sites came up in new urban centres like Vijayapuri in Andhra Pradesh, Kanchipuram in north Tamil Nadu and Ariyankuppam in the deep South, the archaeologist said.

"The Buddhist temple was not merely a place of worship. It brought into contact foreign merchants and local groups. It funnelled resources and endowed wealth for investment by acting as a bank where merchants and guilds deposited money. The temples used to lend money for interest and the interest was used to maintain the temples," he said.

Seneviratne revealed that the Buddhist temples in Ajanta and Ellora on the Indian west coast had also functioned as investment banks!

"If the order of monks was to maintained, the surrounding economy had to generate a surplus," he said, explaining why the monks and the temples actively participated in economic activity.

Conspicuous consumption, which is an aspect of urban mercantile culture, was given a fillip by the Buddhist establishment.

"The stunning material remains in the Buddhist sites in southern and eastern Deccan, which came to be identified as the Amaravati school of art, is a reflection of the new found affluence generated by trade and commerce in the post-Mauryan period. By the early Christian period, the Deccan and South India had been transformed into a commercial and production hub linked to the West and the East through emporiums located along the coastal and inland routes," Seneviratne said.

The local political chieftains were a vital link in the mercantile chain, and they too became adherents of Buddhism, contributing generously to Buddhist temples.

"The political expansion of the north Indian Magadhan state, under the Nandas and Mauryas, to the southern Deccan, is another important factor in the establishment of Buddhism in the South. Provincial seats of the Mauryas were located in resource centres such as Suvarnagiri.The location of Ashokan inscription near gold mines is to be noted," Seneviratne said.

The mercantile community had found Buddhist philosophy acceptable and suitable.
Trade is a rational activity and Buddhism is a rational religion. It does not revile against the pursuit of wealth and well-being, but only urges moderation. The two gelled remarkably.

Though the members of the monastic order (Sangha) had to live a life of renunciation, they were expected to situate themselves within society. The laity is expected to live a normal life, though following the "middle path" (majjhimapatipada) and avoiding all extremes. For the Buddha, hedonistic self-indulgence as well as self-mortification or extreme denial was equally unacceptable.

In Buddhism, everything in the world is impermanent (anitta) and illusory (moha). Attachment gives rise to dissatisfaction or sorrow (dukka). "But the Buddha said that dukka could be eliminated with the development of a humane and intellectual personality through the practice of morality (sila) and meditation (Samadhi) and through a search for wisdom (panna). The realisation of dispassionateness (viraga) through this path provides complete mastery over mind and matter resulting in the ultimate cessation of the mental process or the realization of nibbana (nirvana)," Seneviratne explained.

Despite the exhortation not to have attachment to material things, Buddhism was not an otherworldly religion of self-abnegation. It only sought a realistic approach to life. The Buddhist theory of knowledge is a very progressive one. It serves as a good basis for modern scientific inquiry and indeed all-rational activity.

"In Buddhism, knowledge is the understanding of things in their true perspective. Knowledge or wisdom is equated with truth or reality," Seneviratne said.

The Buddha wanted the truth or reality to be realised by oneself, through investigation and inquiry, and not by following what is said to have been revealed to someone, or going by tradition or a teacher's word.

He enjoined seekers of truth to break the four fetters, namely, bias (chanda), prejudice (dosha), fear (bhaya) and delusion (moha) and inquire into any phenomenon untrammelled by these chains.

"This is, in fact, a sound recipe for modern research, methodology, freedom of thought and _expression," Seneviratne pointed out.

Apart from these general principles, which helped take a rational and realistic view of life, the Buddha gave a list of practical dos and don'ts for lay people called the pancha seela and dasa seela. He gave detailed instructions on how trade and business should be conducted in a fair manner, and how the merchant or entrepreneur should treat his subordinates or clients so that the latter's welfare was safeguarded.

New and revolutionary though it was, Buddhism in South India did not try to obliterate pre-existing cults, but incorporated them. This, in turn, ensured its acceptance and survival, says Seneviratne.

The social and political stability that the Buddhist kings provided helped economic activity and commerce. According to Seneviratne, Ashoka enforced social stability by enjoining his subjects to respect elders and religious leaders and follow customs.

And backing all this up was a threat of use of force. "It is noteworthy that the non- violent and missionary Ashoka never disbanded his army! The Tamil Sangam literature mentions the Mauryans coming in their shining armour," points out Seneviratne.

But Buddhism in South India withered after the 4th.century AD because of the emergence on Brahminism, the coming of the land grant economy, and the decline of the Mediterranean trade.

One of the reasons was that the kings began to seek legitimacy in the traditional Brahminical order by seeking Kshatriya status. And only the Brahmins could confer this status! Seneviratne notes that some Satvahana and Ikshavaku kings of South India found it convenient to adhere to Brahminism while allowing their wives to be Buddhist!

In course of time, the Satvahanas, Ikshavakus and the Pallavas pushed for Brahminism, relegating Buddhism to the background.

In this period, political and social legitimacy came to be based on control over land rather than wealth through trade. Over time, the economy became land-based rather than trade based. This worked against the Buddhists, because in South India, unlike in Sri Lanka, the Buddhists were not in agricultural tracts at all, says Seneviratne.

And the Mediterranean trade, so crucial for the survival of the urban Buddhist trading communities of South India, shifted to Sri Lanka. This was a mortal blow.

(PK.Balachanddran is correspondent of Hindustan Times in Sri Lanka)

Courtesy :  Hindustan Times