Buddha and the suppression of desire

By MT Webmaster Last updated Nov 26, 2017

Buddhism, which in essence is ‘Protestantism-Hinduism’ (for want of a better term), is probably the most philosophical of all the main religions. Nevertheless, Buddhism has deviated much from what Buddha intended and today it has become a religion of ritualism, symbolism and iconism, just like the ‘original’ Hinduism that gave birth to Buddhism.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid, a professor at Universiti Sains Malaysia, said students sent overseas could get easily influenced by hardline ideas because their early education in Malaysia did not prepare them to think critically.

“Because we fail in our education system to inculcate critical awareness and critical thinking, our students who go to some foreign countries follow everything they hear without any critical consideration for what is feasible, what is appropriate and what is good for back home,” said Ahmad Fauzi (READ MORE BELOW).

What the good professor said sounds like a Muslim apologist talking (meaning it is not the fault of Islam but the fault of those who wrongly interpret Islam). Nevertheless, what he said is very true and my last three articles have proven this.

1. When religion is more trouble than good

2. Do not comment on Islam if you are not an ulamak

3. Muslims are the most ignorant people in the world

Most readers, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, saw what they would like to see in those articles rather than saw what I wrote. They read the titles of those articles and had already made up their minds about what the articles were about and whatever they read and saw thereafter was with blinkers, not only over their eyes but over their hearts and minds as well.

So much for Professor Ahmad Fauzi’s ‘critical awareness and critical thinking’.

And that is what happens when you suffer from mental-block, which is what most people who believe in God and religion suffer from: mental-block. Your minds are closed and nothing can penetrate your thoughts other than what you have been indoctrinated and brainwashed into believing. And if someone tells you he witnessed the word ‘ALLAH’ written across the sky last night, or he witnessed the image of Jesus in the fungus on a hospital window, you would believe that.

You can see all sorts of things written or drawn in the sky if you look hard enough

Buddhism is supposed to be the most peaceful religion compared to the other major religions, or what Oxford University calls ‘world religions’, such as Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. (Taoism, Shintoism, Falun Gong, Sikhism, Judaism, etc., are classified as medium-sized religions). However, of late events in Myanmar have proven that this is a fallacy and Amnesty International has condemned Myanmar for the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims (which even Buddhist monks are guilty of).

The Abrahamic faiths of Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, a.k.a. the Religions of the Book, are violent religions that place God above everything else. You serve God. You are God’s slave or creation. Your very existence is to obey God. Those who defy God must be exterminated. Those who violate God’s commands will be sent to Hell for eternity.

The entire focus of Judaism, Christianity and Islam is God and everything revolves around what God wants and what God does not want.

Christians will argue that this may be true for Judaism and Islam but Christianity has since the last 200 years moved on and that is no longer true. These Christians are living in denial and just because it is okay to commit blasphemy and heresy in the west since 200 years ago — and you no longer get put to death for these crimes — it does not mean God came out with a new Bible expunging the old Bible of the Jews and Christians. The first two humans are still Adam and Eve and not Adam and Steve as far as the Bible is concerned.

The Bible still talks about Adam and Eve and not Adam and Steve

Buddhism, which in essence is ‘Protestantism-Hinduism’ (for want of a better term), is probably the most philosophical of all the main religions. Nevertheless, Buddhism has deviated much from what Buddha intended and today it has become a religion of ritualism, symbolism and iconism, just like the ‘original’ Hinduism that gave birth to Buddhism.

Buddha spent many long years traveling in poverty all over India and at one point even starved himself to near-death in search of the truth. Christianity has listed down the seven cardinal sins as pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth. Basically all these are sins involving emotions. After a long search for the truth Buddha finally came to the conclusion that the one sin that leads to man’s downfall is desire.

In short, you can say that Buddha summed up Christianity’s seven sins into one, and that sin is desire.

You desire pleasure. You desire wealth. You desire revenge. You desire power. You desire position. You desire comfort. You desire food and drink. You desire respect. You desire recognition. You desire fame. You desire beautiful clothes. You desire an expensive car. You desire a big and lavish home. You desire leadership. You desire that people listen to you and obey you. You desire that your children succeed. You desire being idolised.

In short, name it and you desire it.

Stores like Selfridges survive on human desires

But then you cannot get everything you desire (and you desire a hell of a lot). So this makes you unhappy and unsatisfied. You forgot that you already exist and that is a lot already. But being alive is not enough. You must also be alive and with all your desires fulfilled as well.

But then Buddha saw that some people have nothing and have to beg on the streets. Some do not have health and suffer from diseases. Some are dead and are being carried to the funeral pyre (or grave). You, however, do not live in poverty, or are lying sick in bed, or are dead, and yet you are unhappy because your desires are not fulfilled.

Buddha realised if you can suppress desire or live with absolutely no desire you will be very happy and will be very grateful and satisfied merely being alive and in good health. But 32 million Malaysians are not happy because they desire more than just being alive and in good health. They also desire the latest iPhone and a BMW and to holiday in the Swiss Alps this Christmas.

So there you are, professor Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid of Universiti Sains Malaysia. Maybe before you send these students overseas you should make them take a quick course in the life of Buddha. Teach Malaysian students what Buddha stood for. Then maybe we will not have a problem with people allowing their desires to take control of their hearts and minds and end up like what those Buddhist monks are doing to the Muslims in Myanmar, which is not what Buddha intended.

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Education system partly to blame for rise of extremism, says prof

(FMT) – Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid, a professor at Universiti Sains Malaysia, said students sent overseas could get easily influenced by hardline ideas because their early education in Malaysia did not prepare them to think critically.

He said the inculcation of critical awareness could be done through the teaching of the social sciences, but he alleged that the education system did not encourage the study of such subjects as much as it encouraged the applied sciences.

“We don’t emphasise the social sciences because we have become too materialistic and we think that such subjects are not good for the future of our students.”

The indoctrination of children is a human rights abuse

Citing a book entitled Engineers of Jihad: The Curious Connection Between Violent Extremism and Education by Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog, he said violent extremists, whether in religious or right-wing movements, were over-represented by those who were students of the applied sciences such as engineering and medicine.

“They are not people of the arts and humanities, or of the pure sciences,” he said. “The statistics are all there, based on empirical data.

“We’re not saying that one shouldn’t study the applied sciences, but it’s important to know that those who study these subjects, just like others, might one day be hit by the desire to follow the Islamic path. But the problem with them is that they have not been taught to think critically.”

In a recent news report, the chairman of the London-based Maqasid Institute, Jasser Auda, was quoted as saying that the practice of sending students to learn about Islam in the Middle East should be stopped because they might end up with their beliefs corrupted by the political culture there.

According to Fauzi, however, it is not important where a student studies as long as he knows which elements of the foreign culture are suitable for Malaysia and which are not. “If we say that there is bad in the Middle East, there is also bad in the West,” he said.

“What smart students will do is to take all that is good from not only the education but also the culture. And whatever is bad or negative for Malaysian society, they can avoid bringing that back.”

“For example, Middle Eastern countries are not plural. They are not multicultural. In many of them, almost 90% of the people are Muslim. The question of rights and responsibilities towards non-Muslims that we get from their understanding of Islam may be different from what is suitable for us.”

“This is not to say that their sources or ulama are outdated. They base their interpretations on their own local conditions. It’s our responsibility to think about what’s suitable for us in our country. That is why critical thinking and critical introspection are important. And I think it is in the Islamic spirit to give this inductive examination of society.”