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Over half a million people, according to the island’s Sunday
Observer newspaper, came from all parts of the country to share
in one hour’s silent meditation for peace. Just imagine,
five hundred thousand people, dressed in white, sitting in silence,
radiating energies of peace and loving kindness. Their purpose:
'to change the collective consciousness about war and peace –
to make war unthinkable and peace inevitable'. If anything deserves
banner headlines it must be this.
For twenty years Sri Lanka has been plagued by the most violent
civil/ethnic war in which over 60,000 people have lost their lives,
and more than a million become refugees. But in recent months
the atmosphere has changed. There has been a cessation of hostilities,
and peace is very much on people’s minds.
The peace gathering was part of a People’s Peace Initiative
begun in 1999 by the Gandhian, Buddhist development movement in
the island, Sarvodaya Shramadana. In 1999 the movement drew 170,000
people to a park in Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka. Subsequently
meditations attended by thousands of people have been held in
regions throughout the island. Who knows the role that this work,
irradiating consciousness with energies of peace and loving kindness,
has played in the transformation of the political atmosphere?
The aim of the peace gathering in Colombo was clear:
… to create peace within the ‘psychosphere’
through meditational practices. By extending loving kindness to
all beings while meditating (metta meditation), the 'field of
peace expands in one’s mind, synchronizing with others. As
the field of peace gradually fills thousands of inner-selves,
negative sentiments that feed the war come to cease. The optimum
impact will be that war becomes unthinkable.'
The 'inner' face
The People’s Peace Initiative was planned with great care.
It has had an ‘inner’ and an ‘outer’ face.
The major inner project has been a series of meditation gatherings,
beginning with the Colombo event, continuing with a number of
regional events each attracting thousands of participants, and
culminating on March 15th in the vast event at the ancient Buddhist
centre and power point of Anuradhapura.
The Colombo event is typical of the insight and care taken to
ensure that the energies radiated would be potent. People came
to the event from all parts of the island. They travelled by bus,
covering the costs of their fares and food themselves (a sacrifice
for many who came from economically deprived villages). In the
buses each was given a booklet to encourage reflection on the
meaning and significance of the peace meditation. 'From the time
you leave home, guard all your thoughts, words and actions and
be mindful.' The buses stopped at four points on the edge of the
city and participants walked, in silence, in three columns, into
the park – a peace meditation walk.
Focusing the eyes at the tip of your nose,
lifting one foot, putting it down, lifting the other foot and
putting it down, without looking elsewhere, mindfully disciplining
yourself on the meditation walk, proceed onwards. Do not pay any
attention to any sound or incident but watching your breath in
and breath out walk forward. Enter the mass peace meditation premises
extending loving kindness to all beings, humans, animals and plants.
On reaching the premises without disturbing others sit in a comfortable
posture.
In the concluding period of the one hour peace meditation:
Everybody extended their loving kindness
to all living beings and directed the spiritual energies to raise
their spiritual consciousness, praying for the unity of all people
so that an end to the war could be brought about.
All the participants took this pledge:
I am a participant in the mass meditational
effort to bring about spiritual awakening within the country and
across the entire planet. I make my contribution to unite people
of all ethnic backgrounds, nationalities, religions, political
views, without any difference whatsoever. Through this endeavour
of mine, ours, may violence and war cease to exist.
Practical programmes
What makes these meditation gatherings of extra significance
is that they are just one aspect of Sarvodaya’s work for
peace. As the largest people’s development movement in the
island, the group has been continually working with practical
programmes of relief and reconstruction in the areas that have
suffered most throughout the war. In addition to the meditation
on March 15th, the movement launched, on that day, a ‘Sister
Village Link-Up Programme’. One thousand villages in the
war-torn north and east of the country linked with a thousand
villages in the south – becoming sister villages. The southern
villages are pledged to go continuously to the war zone villages,
bringing skilled and unskilled labour and materials, and helping
in the rehabilitation of houses, wells, tanks, schools, toilets
and places of worship. Villages from different ethnic, religious
and language groups are being linked together in this way under
the slogan: ‘village to village: heart to heart’.
As a symbol of this heart to heart between communities the peace
meditation in Anuradhapura began with a ceremony in which representatives
of the northern village of Pawatkulam and the southern Matuwagala
village, ritually fed each other pongol rice and kevun. The Pawatkulam
delegates then presented a document to the delegates from their
sister village listing their needs. The Matuwagala team responded
by presenting a paper outlining how they would help in meeting
those needs.
People's development movement
The Peace Action Plan is just the latest development in the inspiring
story of this remarkable movement which has been quietly working
for over forty years to build a new society and a new consciousness
in Sri Lanka and the world.
In 1958 a young teacher, AT Ariyaratne, organized a work camp
in one of the most socially and economically deprived villages
in Sri Lanka. A group of his fellow-teachers and students from
Colombo volunteered to spend part of their vacation in the village.
They asked if the villagers would 'co-operate with us to awaken
our personalities by allowing us to live with [the villagers]
for a few days to share our thoughts, efforts, skills and whatever
other resources we would bring with us'. The villagers discussed
amongst themselves what would be the most useful task for the
work camp to do. It was a great success and more camps were held
in other parts of the island. Each event was planned 'in such
a way that everyone felt that he or she was engaged in the noblest
task that any human being can conceive of: building a truly human
society even for a few days where nothing but the best in them
manifested itself. Volunteers from outside, and men, women and
children from the village would all live together, wake up together,
meditate together, cook and eat together, work together, sing
and dance together, and learn from one another without being formally
taught'.
Out of this initial experience the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement
has grown to become Sri Lanka’s largest, perhaps the world’s
largest, people’s development movement. Today over 15,000
villages are actively involved in Sarvodaya projects and a significant
portion of the country’s villages have their own independent
Sarvodaya Societies. Shramadana camps are held in every part of
the country. Roads are built, along with irrigation canals, schools
and other much needed facilities. Yet at the shramadana camps
something else happens as well. A spiritual and psychological
awakening takes place in individuals and in the community. It
is this awakening which is the key to the Sarvodaya experience
of development.
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The field of peace expands in
one’s mind,
synchronizing with others
.....................................................
The shramadana camps led to demands from village communities
for ‘something more’, a continual, on-going process
in which villagers could take responsibility for a total transformation
in their quality of life. Local people wanted training in basic
health care, community leadership, vocational skills and more.
The training was provided. Villagers began to organize themselves
into local self-reliant support groups providing services that
had never before been available to them. Children’s Groups,
Mothers’ Groups, Youth Groups and Farmers’ Groups formed.
Members of the Mothers’ Groups were given two-weeks training
and on their return to the village organized nurseries for pre-school
children. Today five out of every six pre-schools in Sri Lanka
have been established and are run by villagers in the movement.
As village communities became involved in these various activities,
so the awakening process continued. Villages which, not so many
years ago, had passively accepted their poverty and powerlessness
have now become thriving centres of participatory democracy. Local,
legally independent Sarvodaya Shramadana Societies have been formed
at village level to manage their affairs and be a force for development
at a regional and national level. The villages with the strongest
democratic structures and most advanced development programmes
have become Pioneering villages, taking on the responsibility
to give leadership and support to a group of surrounding Sarvodaya
villages. With the support of an economic enterprises division
of the national movement, local societies are involved in the
creation of new opportunities for economic development. Training
is provided in business skills and in the establishment of self-employment
programmes and small enterprise projects. In addition Sarvodaya
has launched a rural banking system providing credit, and full
banking facilities to members of the local Sarvodaya Shramadana
Societies.
Loving kindness in action
The movement’s goal is to liberate the goodness that is
inherent in every person, releasing loving kindness in thought
and action and leading to the awakening of all. On New Year's
Day in 1997, Dr Ariyaratne (known by his countless friends throughout
the world as Ari) was awarded the prestigious Gandhi Peace Prize
by the Indian government. In his acceptance speech he noted that
'a global transformation of human consciousness' is needed to
'bring humanity closer to peace and justice'. The structural violence
that oppresses poor people around the world must be 'tackled non-violently',
and this requires a total transformation of human relationships.
'Metta or Loving Kindness towards all sentient beings is the core
spiritual consciousness which can transform global human relationships
so that they are based on non-violence in thought, word and deed.'
.......................................................
The movement’s goal is to
liberate
the goodness that is inherent in every person
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Sarvodaya has a clear view of the role that all of us have to
play in the path to world awakening. Concerned individuals and
groups in all countries are encouraged to promote and intensify
individual, family, community, national and international awakening
according to their historical and cultural realities. Individuals
and groups are encouraged to share in mutually supportive networks
in the process of building a no-poverty, peaceful society.
Peace plan for Sri Lanka
Meditation and consciousness change has always been at the heart
of what Sarvodaya is about. A recent paper by the Executive Director
of the movement, Dr Vinya Ariyaratne – Ari’s eldest
son and leader of a new breed of inspired professionals –
lays out a peace plan for Sri Lanka. It includes analysis of the
causes of conflict and of peace, goals for the future, and immediate
steps as well as longer-term actions to be taken. Each of these
areas is explored in terms of three fields: The Consciousness
Solution; Economics: The ‘Zones of Hope’ Solution; and
Power: The Political Solution. Thus the Sarvodaya goal of ending
war and the causes of war in Sri Lanka is discussed in the Consciousness
field in terms of:
encouraging a spiritual awakening; mobilizing
grassroots efforts to end the war; removing the consciousness
of war and violence as a means to resolve conflict – make
war unthinkable…
In the Economics field, the goal is:
removing the economic supports for war
by developing sustainable village economies which meet the ten
basic needs of all Sri Lankans …
And in the Power field, the goal is:
Supporting power at the lowest possible
level by encouraging village self-governance; empowering people
and encouraging village-level democracy.
In 1999 Ari established an exciting new center for peace and meditation:
the Vishva Niketan Global Peace Meditation Centre. In Sanskrit
Vishva Niketan means 'Universal Abode'. Set amidst beautiful gardens,
with stunning architecture, the Centre provides an atmosphere
of tranquility and serenity. It is hoped that those who participate
in its programmes will be awakened to their inner spirituality
and so become more effective peace-builders. Meditation retreats
are held, together with discussion groups and training workshops.
Students, leaders and followers of all faiths come together in
carefully designed programmes to discover their common wisdom,
and then apply that wisdom to the tasks of resolving conflict
in themselves and the people around them. Among the most successful
programmes to date have been a series of courses teaching meditation
to prisoners, and workshops for corporate managers, business personnel
and youth leaders.
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Postscript May 2002
Since this article was
written, the Norwegian-brokered truce between government forces
and Tamil Tiger fighters has continued to hold. Plans are underway
for peace talks in Thailand in June – this will be the first
time the two parties have had face to face talks since 1995.
Yet the truce is fragile.
Early in May boats claimed to be bringing in illegal weapons were
destroyed by the navy and the President of Sri Lanka (who, in
opposition to the Prime Minister, opposes the cease-fire) told
Buddhist monks that the truce poses ‘a grave threat to the
security of the state’.
In this situation Sarvodaya’s
People’s Peace Initiative is playing a vital role. The meditation
gathering in Anuradhapura was attended by an estimated 650,000
people. They came from all parts of the island, and from both
sides of conflict, demonstrating that there is a groundswell of
opinion in the country that wants an end to the violence. It is
difficult to imagine the potency of the radiation of positive
energy that will have been released by the hour-long meditation,
but we can imagine the effect it will have on the consciousness
of peace. Large numbers of people will be feeling a sense of personal
responsibility for the creation of peace. And the fiery, healing
energies of the Sister Village Link-Up Programme are a sign that
‘ordinary villagers’ are prepared to make sacrifices
and to work for peace.
In further news of the Peace Meditation,
Joanna Macy writes of the crowd of meditators: ‘Sitting on
the grass as far as the eye could see, in the hot sun and pools
of tree shade, they made the biggest silence I ever heard. In
the intervals between Dr Ariyaratne’s words, leading us in
mindfulness of breath and body, in lovingkindness and firm resolve
for peace, the silence deepened. It was mighty. I thought: this
is the sound of bombs and landmines not exploding, of rockets
not launched and machine guns laid aside. And I realized, this
sound is possible, for all of us.’
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For more information:
1. Visit the Sarvodaya website: www.sarvodaya.org
2. Read World as Lover, World as Self by American Buddhist writer
Joanna Macy – incidentally Joanna Macy, who was one of the
participants addressing the meditation gathering at Anuradhapura,
is a Resource Person on some of the gatherings at Vishva Niketan.
3. Read the fine book by AT Ariyaratne, Buddhist Economics in
Practice, based on lectures given at a Schumacher College course.
(Published by Sarvodaya Support Group, 1999. ISBN 0953 653 501)
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Jan and Steve Nation visited the Sarvodaya
Shramadana Movement in Sri Lanka in 1974. They were inspired by
what they found and over the years kept in touch and supported
the movement in various ways. In 1997 they helped to establish
a Sarvodaya Support Group UK. Steve now lives in New Zealand where
he is actively involved with an international non-profit project,
Intuition in Service and a local group, the Triangle Centre. In
2001, following Jan's transition, Steve returned to Sri Lanka
for a brief visit with friends in the movement.
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Back to ISSUE 56 Archive
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© Caduceus, 2002.
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