Buddhasavika Foundation

Yasodhara newsletter on international buddhist woman's activities
Vol.19 No.2 (no.74) January-March, B.E. 2546 (2003)

November 25-27, 2002, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
International Movement for a Just World (JUST)

Nov.25-27, 2002 Ven.Dhammananda was invited to participate at the International Roundtable on "The Challenge of Globalization" Towards a shared Universal Spiritual and Moral Ethic "at Genting Permai Resort, Malaysia. She participated as an initiator of Session 5" Military Hegemony vs Peaceful transformation. Her issue note is as follows:

          We come here together as one humankind. We may differ in the color of our skin, but that is not what we are. It is not essential to our existence as human beings.
          We come together because all of us suffer alike. We come together because all of us seek happiness. But the problem is I am concern only for my happiness and not yours. This is the root cause of social suffering. Our society at large carry on with a total misconception that my happiness is mine alone. In fact my happiness is your happiness and its our happiness. You and I are the same specie of humankind, when you suffer I also suffer. When the eyes cry, the nose leaks, as each of us is but a part of that whole.
          We must come to this universal concern and be able to open our hearts to experience the suffering of others as much as our own. Stating from this group together, we can start doing something on our own scale but connect with the rest of the world.
          Let us watch our mothers how they nurture us and let us re-enact that feminine principle to address the ills of the world the same way our mothers have successfully addressed our need and cries. Let us hear the need and cries of our sisters. Let us put aside our pride, remember when you are completely deserted and isolated, its always your wives and your mothers who never abandoned you. Nourish them and cherish them in your words and action, provide them space that they deserve.
           Let us reconsider the values long taken as tradition, if they have become concretized and stumbling blocks to our progress, spiritually and socially.
           Let us not look for the culprits and put the blame on others but rather address the wrong together and work out how to we can best heal the wound.
          We in the East have a rich spiritual culture to share with the rest of the world, if we care to look in our own spiritual tradition. Live our lives as an example of each one's tradition.
            Let us not think globally, if thinking globally means we want to exploit others globally with our own value as the crux of that globalization. Think small in our own context, start now, in my heart, in your heart, in our heart but together, towards the same goal. Let the Divine light and consciousness lead us towards the shared responsibility long overdue.