By Ranjani Rao

Destination Sri Lanka

It felt strange to get on a flight from Singapore, head westwards towards India, and stop just short of the Indian airspace, alighting instead in Colombo. Sri Lanka had been on my destination list for a long time, yet it lost out to more exotic and faraway destinations competing for my attention. It wasn’t until a friend invited us for a milestone birthday celebration on this tiny, drop-shaped island on India’s Southeast side that we finally headed there.

The airport looked busy at midnight. When we stepped out of the terminal, the weather, the people, and the vehicles looked similar to any Indian city. Yet, there was a major difference – fewer people, less noise, and an overall slower pace that was refreshing.

Our first stop was at a nice hotel near the Ahungalla beach, on the Southwestern shore of Sri Lanka. On the drive from Colombo, we passed through quaint towns and narrow but excellent roads, which we shared with red, blue, green, and, of course, black autos, also known as tuk tuks, that reminded us of the yellow-black autos we see in India. Seemingly sturdier and in better shape inside and out, they added a pleasant dash of color. The route offered glimpses of the ocean on the right, with the other side clustered with garment factories that manufacture cotton clothes for export.

At the end of a hot and humid day spent in the car, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset from a small elevated viewing spot at the rocky stretch of Ahungalla beach. Despite a couple of big resorts nearby, the beach was clean and uncluttered, and the waters refreshingly warm.

Heading to Galle

We drove to Galle after a hot traditional breakfast of string hoppers, potato stew, and pol sambol, a fresh coconut chutney. The picturesque roads took us to the turquoise waters of Hikkaduwa beach. We stood in the calm, shallow waters sharing space with large sea turtles that boldly swam between curious tourists. Their size and agility, as well as their comfort in waters teeming with tourists, were a wonderful sight.

Further south, we visited Peraliya Village, where an 18-meter-high Buddha statue in the Bamiyan style has been erected in memory of the nearly 1,600 people who lost their lives during the 2004 tsunami. That tragedy occurred when the second wave toppled the Samudra Devi, the train that connects Galle with Colombo.

The height of the Buddha statue is said to coincide with the height of the tsunami wave that swept through this tiny village. A small photo gallery features photographs of the destruction, yet the quiet pond in which the benevolent Buddha looks down on us seems to be a harbinger of hope and reconstruction that has revived this stretch of the coastline in the two decades since the event.

Galle, a beautiful town on the Southwest coast of Sri Lanka, is a great place to spend a clear sunny day where the clouds and wind play hide and seek. The Galle Fort is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the views from the ramparts are breathtaking. An elderly busker sang us a Jagjit Singh ghazal while we ate lunch at a cafe with ocean views. With architectural elements from the Portuguese and Dutch settlers, the town has many interesting side streets lined with cafes, souvenir stores, and gelato shops filled with tourists from many countries. We walked into the Dutch and the English churches and admired the Galle cricket stadium, considered to be one of the most picturesque stadiums in the world.

We reached our birthday party destination by evening. It was a beautiful house at Wadduwa, with a view of the ocean. Vegetarian food had been a little bit of an issue for me during the trip. But the staff here cooked an amazing array of fresh vegetarian dishes for each meal, including appam and stew, pol roti, pol sambol, veg skewers, roasted potatoes, fried eggplant, dal, and a refreshing salad of pennywort leaves that I loved.

Dambulla, Sigiriya, and a whole lot of elephants

The next leg was inland towards central Sri Lanka. The Dambulla cave temple, a World Heritage site, is an ancient temple from the first century BC. The five temples are accessed by climbing over 500 steps and offer a panoramic view of the area, including Sigiriya rock. Each cave features several statues of Buddha with the hands in various mudras. The walls and ceilings feature intricate paintings. Visitors offer water lilies and lotuses at several shrines in the temple complex.

Sigiriya Rock Fortress

The Sigiriya rock fortress, another World Heritage site, is an important part of Sri Lankan history. Despite evidence indicating the area was inhabited by Buddhist monks in the third century BC, the current state of this striking geographical location comes from the constructions of King Kasyapa in the fifth century AD. The extensive gardens, fountains and water bodies are being renovated but the main attractions include the view from the summit of the 180 m tall rock and the cave paintings of damsels that depict Sri Lankan art.

Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage was on the route back to Colombo. We arrived in time for the morning excursion of the elephants to the Maha Oya river, where they spend a couple of hours bathing, frolicking, and relaxing before walking back peacefully through a street lined with souvenir shop, crossing a busy road (where traffic comes to a halt) and back into the sanctuary. There was something soothing about watching a herd of elephants with the little ones roughhousing in the water while a couple of mother elephants kept an eye on them.

Colombo tuk tuk tour

The highlight of the final day was a tuk-tuk tour of the capital, and it was a fun way to check out the city. In four hours, we were able to cover the major sites, including the Gangarama Temple, Lotus Tower, Town Hall, Pettah Market, Independence Memorial Hall, and spend an hour at the National Museum, which captures the history and evolution of this island nation in an extremely user-friendly and captivating way. My favorite spot was the Seema Malaka, a small Buddhist temple which is located on Beira Lake and is used more for meditation than for worship. It had a beautiful ambience and a calming quality with its location and architecture.

On this trip, we could not visit Anuradhapura and Kandy, and of course, the tea plantations, but that gives me an opportunity to return to this pearl of the Indian Ocean.

Read: Where the Wind Meets the Water

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Ranjani Rao is a scientist by training, writer by avocation, originally from Mumbai, and a former resident of USA, who now lives in Singapore with her family. Ranjani Rao is the author of Rewriting My Happily Ever After — A memoir of divorce and discovery and The Coherent Writer newsletter.

Courtesy: India Currents (Posted on April 28, 2025)

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[The Taliban, an Islamic extremist armed group, has ruled Afghanistan twice (1996-2001 and 2021-present). The Taliban’s first term in power in Afghanistan was marred by tyranny that suppressed all freedoms. The Taliban, who entered their second term in power in 2021, say they are different from before, but the West’s gaze towards them is not much different from the past. Which is the real face of the Taliban: what the Taliban say they are or what the West’s observers say about them?

In December 2023, Lee Shin-seok, a reporter specializing in reporting conflict areas for ‘The AsiaN’; who faced Afghanistan under the Taliban with his body and mind, tells the story of the Taliban and Afghanistan as they are. –editor]

By Lee Shin-seok

Conflict zone reporter – ‘Journey through The Wrong Side of the Tracks’

SEOUL

‘Golden Age of the Buddhist Culture’

Buddhism is one of the most important religions in Korea and has a long history. Even in Afghanistan, which is known as an Islamic country, there are records of Buddhism being prevalent in the past. Korea and Afghanistan have a surprising common denominator: the Buddhist culture.

While covering Afghanistan, I deliberately took time to visit the Kandahar Museum and the National Museum in Kabul. The two museums displayed artifacts that proved that Afghan Buddhist culture prospered by merging with Hellenism.

In the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great of Macedon advanced as far as Uzbekistan in Central Asia. His army stopped on its way back home in Baluchistan province, located between present-day Afghanistan and Iran.

It is said that until Alexander the Great spread Hellenistic culture to this region, there was no culture that symbolized Buddha, and it was limited to embroidering lotuses or digging caves in the walls. As Hellenistic culture merged with Buddhism, Buddha began to be embodied around the 1st century, and the center of this was the Greco-Bactrian kingdom established in the northern region of present-day Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, the Afghan government began damaging the ruins of Balkh Province, the center of Bactria, since the time of former President Ashraf Ghani, and this behavior is said to have worsened since the Taliban came back to power in 2021

The Kingdom of Bactria, which was established after the expedition of Alexander the Great, had a great influence on the current Afghan region. Coins were minted and it had a great influence on culture and art, leading to the emergence of the Hellenistic style. Afterwards, through the Kushan Dynasty, the Buddhist culture became richer and more brilliant.

The Kandahar Museum I visited exhibited sculptures from the 1st century AD depicting snakes. According to museum officials, the statues with curly hair are artifacts of Hellenistic influence. Buddhist culture, which reached its heyday during the Kushan Dynasty, left behind a diverse range of legacies from the 4th to 6th centuries, and most of the Buddha statues and murals remaining in Afghanistan are presumed to have been created at that time.

In the first article of this series, the author mentioned that there are traces of Buddhism throughout Afghanistan. In particular, many heritage sites, including stone Buddhas, remain in the Bamiyan area, which served as a passageway between Gandhara and the Silk Road. In fact, the Bamiyan Stone Buddha had a tabernacle containing a Buddha statue and murals surrounding the space painted here and there.

There is an opinion that Buddhism in Korea originated when the Indian monk Marananta spread the word in Yeonggwang, Beopseongpo during the Baekje Dynasty. The Gandhara region where he worked is an area bordering Afghanistan in the area of present-day Peshawar, Pakistan. Therefore, in the Gandhara region and the areas influenced by it, a unique Buddhist culture was able to develop through the fusion of Hellenism, totemism, and animism on the basis of ancient Buddhism.

For this reason, there are similar aspects between Afghan Buddhist culture and the Buddhist culture of the Silla-Unified Silla period. Additionally, Afghanistan and Unified Silla have something in common: a gold culture developed at the same time under the influence of the northern Scythian civilization. In fact, crowns and accessories cast in gold during the Unified Silla period have some similarities with Afghanistan’s gold culture, and the similarities between the two countries’ cultures have attracted the attention of academics. The staff at the Kabul National Museum, which the author visited, also visited the GYEONGJU NATIONAL MUSEUM a few years ago and confirmed the homogeneity of Buddhist golden culture.

Unfortunately, the Afghan government began damaging the ruins of Balkh Province, the center of Bactria, since the time of former President Ashraf Ghani, and this behavior is said to have worsened since the Taliban came back to power in 2021. For whom is the destruction of the cultural heritage of Afghanistan’s golden age, when the Greco-Bactrian kingdom flourished, for whom?

Related article: The Two Faces of the Taliban: Crossing checkpoints in Afghanistan

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All photos provided by the author 

Courtesy: The AsiaN (English and Arabic), Seoul, South Korea (Posted on June 14, 2024)

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Ashraf Aboul-Yazid (Ashraf Dali)

AJA President, Egypt

One of the teachers of Zen philosophy wrote that Buddha’s disciples gathered around him and waited for him to begin his teachings, but Buddha remained silent. The disciples felt confused. After a long time of waiting, Buddha grabbed a lotus flower and raised it silently, and then returned it in similar silence! None of the disciples understood what was meant. Only the disciple Mahākāśyapa understood the teachings and smiled. Then finally Buddha spoke and said: Mahākāśyapa, the Dharma has been transformed into you.

The Flower Sutra is the primary source of Zen teachings (it was called Dhyana in India, then Chan in China, and then Zen in Japan). Mahākāśyapa was the first Zen teacher, after he understood the Zen Dharma taught by Buddha. Buddha taught various Dharma teachings, whether philosophical, moral, or other Buddhist teachings, but in this sutra the Buddha began to teach the Zen Dharma, and no one understood it except him.

Mahākāśyapa, then it was carried by disciples after him in India, then to China by Bodhidharma, then his six disciples, then to Rinzai, and finally to Japan by Master Eisai and then by Master Dogen. In this sutra, the Buddha remained in a state of silence and did not use words or any system of thought. He certainly remained in a state of complete silence, so in Zen words or thought systems are not dealt with, because words become an obstacle to understanding the truth as it is and so freedom from looking through the filter of words or thoughts is freedom from the false ego, as well Bodhidharma said, “Freedom from words is true liberation.”

Zen is not a complex philosophy like other Buddhist schools. It is, as it is called, “the school of meditation.” In Zen, it does not matter how many sacred texts you have memorized or how much of them you have understood, as much as the depth of your understanding of yourself is at this moment, and the depth of your awareness, here and now. The essence of Zen: “To study the Buddha’s path is to study yourself, to study yourself is to forget yourself, and to forget yourself is to become enlightened in everything.”

But today we chose to search for some words, not silence, poetic words that were inspired by the life of Buddha and illuminated by his message, teachings, and meditation, in Arabic poetry.

We can observe that influence of Buddha starts with inspiration of his life biography, or the contact with his teachings and principles, or a subjective or personal connection between Buddha and others, and finally a kind of attack and criticism for those interested in Buddha or his life.

Egypt

In 1971, the Egyptian General Book Authority, in Cairo, published a collection of poems by the Egyptian poet Ahmed Mukhaymar, in which he discussed the biography of Buddha, which Arab poetry made a symbol of asceticism and a sign of victory over desires. The book says that we approach the shore of Buddha’s longings and carry the lamp that illuminates its paths for us, and helps us to cross its path and see the dimensions in it.

In 1971, the Egyptian General Book Authority, in Cairo, published a collection of poems by the Egyptian poet Ahmed Mukhaymar, in which he discussed the biography of Buddha, which Arab poetry made a symbol of asceticism and a sign of victory over desires

It is as if this is the same as the issue of commitment in its true sense, as the artist is committed to aesthetic knowledge, to the purpose of art, and to achieving its purposes… and in this way he serves the human cause a beneficial service, and has a decisive influence on the development of society, just as Buddha saw that the immortal thirst for truth would end in his departure:

The truth is that the immortality of Buddha calls for Makhimar’s verse:

“He said, ‘Immortality… to the one whose wings embrace his heart… if his longings are true… is joy.'”

“The eternal thirst in the nights

“It’s like the migration of eternity.”

He also wrote:

The worshipers come to Him… as if they were birds… He called them… after thirst… to irrigate.

They crowd at the outskirts of its door… Immortality is the reward of those who worship…

Lebanon

In Lebanon, the poet Shawqi Bezia has a collection of poetry titled (Butterflies for Buddha’s Smile), published by (Dar al-Adab) in Beirut, 2013, and the title is from his main poem “Butterflies for Buddha’s Smiles,” in which Shawqi Bezia released his butterflies to draw inspiration from the legend, in a three-dimensional poem. ; A linguistic dimension, an epic dimension, and a third spiritual dimension as if he was in a meditation session on Buddha’s profound experience in which he tested himself, by erasing the desires of the flesh with the Brahmins, and mysticism before turning towards absolute desires, to reach reconciliation between the body and the spirit:

“In the silence of statues, he sits / while time sleeps on his knees / like a young child, and butterflies play joyfully / in the range of his eternal smile / and where young girls throw their keys into the void / he comes back from time to time / happy memories sing, and the earth extends beneath him / like a table / and he laughs secretly, mockingly/ Like someone who remembers something that happened and mumbles: “What’s the point?”

Hence, the powerful rationality of Buddha’s philosophy gives the vivid image its balance, especially in the eloquence of a poet like Shawqi Bezi’, who delved a lot into myths and meditated before writing his poetry collection in which his butterflies fly according to their own rhythm.

Jordan

In Jordan, the poetess Nabila Al-Khatib (1962) wrote a poem entitled ‘Buddha’s Head’, and here she invokes Buddha’s asceticism, making him a Palestinian who was hit by the enemy in the land of prophecies, and wonders who will uphold his values after him, the land of figs and olives, in reference to his homeland, Palestine.

These are paradoxes. Buddha…and a martyr who breathed his last on the soil of the land of prophecies:

“He was as calm as ever / and the traveling gleam in the eyes arose / The worried world is concerned with redressing Buddha / Buddha… O symbol of nobility and dignity, if they destroy you / who will take care of you yet? Your face in the land of figs and olives, those sacrifices? / Who will turn away the grievances from Buddha… and sprinkle the face of this universe with the law? / And to whom will I consecrate after this day, O Buddha, my offerings? / And to whom will I drink after your death the abundance that has flowed through my veins? / It has become soothed what has been drained/ The doctor’s shirt is a faded field / his ribs shook and his weak breath diminished / as if he were an army that retreated in retreat before the end of the battle and they took flight… / the heart is weaker than the echo of a distant dream / nothing remains of his blood / except a delicious wind / sweat oozed from his vein and no one paid attention to it / everyone is busy with Buddha / Excuse me, Buddha.. I will denounce as long as I live / so how could Buddha’s cover be torn like this simply like a Bosnian girl who became without family or shelter? / How do you gouge out a Buddha’s eye? / How did Buddha’s head fall like a children’s stone into the dust? / Indeed, Buddha.. / I see a time when deer howl / while wolves bleat…”

In Jordan, the poetess Nabila Al-Khatib (1962) wrote a poem entitled ‘Buddha’s Head’, and here she invokes Buddha’s asceticism, making him a Palestinian who was hit by the enemy in the land of prophecies, and wonders who will uphold his values after him, the land of figs and olives, in reference to his homeland, Palestine.

Saudi Arabia

In Saudi Arabia, the inspiration was different, as Saud bin Ibrahim Al-Shuraim, one of the imams of the Grand Mosque and with a PhD in comparative jurisprudence from Umm Al-Qura University, wrote a traditional poem denouncing the world’s interest in and influence over the demolition of the Buddha statues in Bamyan, Afghanistan, while they did not give interest to children who suffered from wars in that country: “You write about the statues whose likes have passed the time and whose likes have passed the time and whose likes have passed the time and which revive the dead and awaken the ignorant / have become Afghans life is a captivity, children are orphaned and women are bereaved / they have become poverty-stricken throughout all their homes and hunger covers its people in humble cloth / they have folded their bellies out of patience, and they may have lost food. / And they saw in Muslims ignorance, so they swallowed belittlement and omission / until when Buddha touched them and wailed, their mouths opened and gossiped.”

Diaspora, Canada

In a poem entitled “Imitating Buddha”, the poet Osama Al-Khawad writes from Monterey, California: “They saw the “enlightened” Buddha, imitating Zoroaster, and Christ, and Gandhi, and Teresa, and Noor Muhammad, and Al-Khidr, and Moses, and the jewels of spirit”.

Iraq

It is interesting to see the critic Ahmed Al-Kinani, who wrote that there are comparisons drawn between the lassos created by Abu Al-Ala Al-Maarri, and the quatrains formulated by Omar Khayyam, “their origin is the intellectual commonalities between the Arab poet and the Persian poet and their view of existence and the universe to a long extent that moved them far from the religious necessities to which they belong, or this is how they are understood from the literary heritage transmitted from them.

Perhaps the pessimistic view of life and the most severe symptoms of it, and thus the denial of alternatives in the other world, is the prominent feature of these comparisons, but something new emerges in studies of the poetic influence of the Khayyam’s Quatrains, and there is a mature interpretation that sees the bright side in Khayyam’s warning about this world. And the call to seize the opportunity of the present moment and live in it, and this is a secret that no one who looks at the tip of his nose understands. How, when spiritual trainers today are working to understand and teach people the practice of stopping thinking about the past and the future and focusing on the present moment and enjoying it, because the mind does not stop thinking about the past and the future and forgetting about the present.

In the moment, you are sitting now and are either thinking about something past or about something to come, such as committing to an appointment. Both thoughts spoil the immediate moment for you and prevent you from enjoying it. The focus began on special sports and specific rituals that help seize and enjoy the present moment, even if it requires the use of worship rituals belonging to Buddha and others to achieve that goal. If the Buddhist influence is in this sense, then the quatrains exude a Buddhist fragrance without the slightest doubt.”

However, what is even more exciting in this theoretical connection between Al-Ma’arri, Khayyam, and Buddha is the linking of a form of Arabic poetry to the image of Buddha and the heritage of Buddhists.

This type of poetry called Buddhism may have its origins in Buddhist literature,” but how did it reach southern Iraq? “It is most likely that it was transmitted through merchants who were moving between India and Basra, and so on, between the philosophies of asceticism.

The Iraqi researcher Nadir Al-Khazraji mentioned, under the title The Movement of Buddhism Poetry between Aboudah and Buddha, that popular Arabic poetry does not differ from classical poetry in the multiplicity of its poetic purposes, nor in its forms and terms. It is like traditional Arabic poetry, but the word used is the local colloquial language, not what distinguishes popular poetry is that its sweetness when heard is greater than when reading.

Al-Khazraji chose the book “Diwan al-Buddhiya,” which consists of four parts, each part of which is composed of three verbs. The first three parts, the second, and the third, adhere to alliteration, and the fourth part must end with a yā’. Stressed, open, concomitant with a consonant “ha.” And Buddhism, as the Iraqi historian Thamer bin Abdul Hussein Al-Amiri says in his book “Rural Singers and the Phases of Iraqi Buddhism”: An example of Buddhism is the saying of the master of contemporary Husseini poetry, Hajj Jaber bin Jalil Al-Kadhimi:

From your groove, the daughters of the branch rose

Luxury and your customs, the most loving and ardent

I want to squeeze the grapes of your lips and roses

Put out your fire that is raging with it

There are many opinions regarding the origin of the word “Buddhism.” What is the relationship between Buddhist poetry and the Indian sage Buddha, the founder of Buddhist religion around the year (566-486 BC).

The answer came through an idea that fermented and flourished in the mind of the investigator, Dr. Al-Karbasi, where: “We memorized it and it came to our mind from the verbal correspondence between the two names, and as a result we conducted research and exploration. We also suspected that this color of poetry was something that was sung in their religious rituals,” and the journey had ended. Research and exploration: “They have four-part poetic verses that they chant in their religious rituals” that are completely similar to Buddhist poetry, which encouraged the investigator to contact the cultural attachés of the embassies of a number of countries with a heavy Buddhist presence, and he also contacted the chief priest of the Buddhist temple in London (Dr. Medagama Vajiragnana After a series of literary deliberations, investigation and comparison conducted by the researcher Al-Karbasi, he noticed that there are commonalities between the poetic texts circulated by Buddhism and Buddhist poetry, which are: the unification of the number of parts, the unification of the rhymes of the first three parts, the ending of the fourth part with “yeh”, and the unity in the use of the type of activators and “man”.

All of this concluded with: “This type of poetry called Buddhism may have its origins in Buddhist literature,” but how did it reach southern Iraq? “It is most likely that it was transmitted through merchants who were moving between India and Basra, and so on, between the philosophies of asceticism.”

The silence of wisdom, and the connection of myth to reality. Arab poetry, throughout its generations and arts, revolved around Buddha. He thought and expressed, and it was contemplation. The poem was waiting to shine, just as history was waiting for verification.

Read: Ashraf Aboul-Yazid: I Consider Myself a Builder of Cultural Bridges

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Ashraf Aboul-Yazid (Ashraf Dali) is an eminent writer, journalist, poet, novelist and travelogue writer of Egypt. He is author of over three dozen books. 

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Sushant Thapa

A poet from Biratnagar, Nepal holds a Master’s degree in English literature from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. He has published three books of poetry namely: The Poetic Burden and Other Poems (New Delhi, 2020), Abstraction and Other Poems (UK, 2021) and Minutes of Merit (Kolkata, 2021). Sushant has been published in several national and international newspapers and magazines. His work has also appeared in national and International anthologies. One of his poems is included in Paragon English book for Grade 6 students in Nepal. He teaches Business English to students of BBA and BIT at Nepal Business College, Biratnagar, Nepal.                              

Richness

With loss

I am not poor. 

With richness

I am not rich.

My intellectual attire

When it becomes a perception

Makes me stand among the crowd

And still find myself.

The content soul when it speaks

It is the happiest sunrise

Of eternity.

The humanity, grief, tough life

They all make a struggle awake.

The journey to begin is like a flower

Growing in the way to salvation.

Mind that matters

Isn’t a worried moon.

She is destined to shine even in the dark

And stand out.

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Rupsingh Bhandari

Poetry does not bracket into any definition, and it also does not have the universal understanding but, fundamentally, it is the vibration of humans’ souls with the cosmic connectivity and has been practicing for goodness. It is a subtle way of expressing the unsaid truth through human experiences. Poetry has been written from ancient times, it has crossed the myriads of the historic epoch and has been used for different purposes even though it does not have any specific aim. As Aristotle argues in his book Poetics, “poetry, in general, seems to have sprung from imitation and harmony.” This makes it easy to comprehend that the human’s inner world imitates nature and searches to be balanced with comic music.

In the same way in this beautiful handy book ‘The Selfish City’ by Bhoj Kumar Dhamala, the poet surmounts and fathoms in the selfish world with his own experiences and telescopes the better world through his verses. As I had got an opportunity earlier to paint this beautiful anthology’s cover art. Now, as the critic for me, it is not easy to evaluate it surgically. But, I am daring to do it as his good friend.

The Selfish City debut book by the poet is recently published from Amber Publication, New Delhi, India, with fifty-four radiant dense poems. In most of his poems, the poet seems a radical critic of the current human’s extreme individualistic society. Poet tries to depict fearlessly the unbalanced pony world, through the Marxist maxims and purposes the self-realization; the discovery of righteousness. Through this unique circumference, he takes up his poetic flight in search of his original world. As he accepts reality and still reaches a solution in his poem “Infinite”:

Public backbiting you know, I know they know…

                     Merriment is infinite so be compassionate.

These lines undress the façade reality of the mundane and suggest for be kind because the world of happiness is limitless. Perhaps, these connote the selfish world’s short introduction and the simple therapy of liberation, in human world, there are many choices to be free from the externally entangled world, but he asks to be compassionate. His blended solution, in fact, is necessary to this hollow world. I have seen his anger in his poems, but his solution is metaphysical. Therefore, in his poems, readers encounter both Marx and Buddha.

In the same way, Poet is a straightforward man, he loves to write the unrest of modern society and the evils of the political and socio-psychological backdrop. Especially, in South Asian nations, political deviations and unrest is common, we all are not far from this chagrin. The liquidation of their ideology and the corrupted mentality people have insomnia. Politics coiled up here as the toxic in every person’s mind. Therefore, His lexicon unfurls indirectly political frustration, fragility, and fissures in the inner complexity of society and at the same time philosophically marinates towards positivity through his words. Therefore, many of his poems conceive from this dirty hypocritical quandary.  In short, he churns the contemporary world through his churner of conscience and angles his though. He displays this necked truth in his poem “A Degree Holder”:

    In the country whose pride is overwhelmed

                              By nepotism, and favoritism, he finds valueless…

                              His dream, like a moth in the neon light.

This is a stark reality of our nation, where politics pollutes everything. And poet debunks this reality without any hesitations. He delves into the whirlpool of evils of society and searches the solace through his creations. Therefore, in his poems, the underlined revel is hiding becoming, metaphors, symbols, and similes.

On the other hand, the poet extremely doubts the disturbed inner consciousness of the human world. Many of his poems psychologically erupt and search the moral solution, therefore by reviewing his poems it would not be reasonless, poet as the moral teacher guiding the society toward the virtuous, as P.B. Shelly believes that the poet is a moral teacher. He encapsulates his poetic wisdom in his poem

“Panacea”:

                         Everything would be a symphony, a grain

                         Of creation, peace of mind with an avid

                         Will power within or without a panacea.

Poet just does not adorns the things, but internally, tries to unfold the mysterious creation and answer the intricacy. He compares this mundane as the mere reflection of harmonized cosmic melody, where he urges humanity to peace of mind.

Moreover, his poetic garland is full of distinct subject matter, he is able to write about multilayered dilemmas of human endeavors. His poetic tank seems button up against all evils of the world. From ecology to the essence of the human world. From unbalanced society to disturbed modern love. Indeed, He seems all-rounder, who is able to thrash out the crux of life and word. He has full of potentiality he can still brew up many daring poems for society to beautify the human consciousness. Poetry does not cover against everything, but unquestionably it makes to think about everyone. Humans have many faculties inside to be quenched. It demands all the beautiful fragrances of creation, literature, music and arts has own significance and importance in human life.  Sometimes we cannot diagnose hunger inside us and we run after many things and remain unfulfilled. I believe that the poet is attempting to unknot this hidden scrambles through different lenses in his anthology.

But, besides these poetic attributes, while going through his poem, readers can encounter the perplexity of distinct subject matter. His words play sometimes seem uncomfortable to comprehend the meaning of poems. Readers need to contemplate more in his short and succinct poems. Poet can deploy gliding words to express this deep wisdom, but he seems to love to choose those words.

Meticulously, the collection is an embarkation of the poet himself. He tries to demonstrate his inner core and convince himself as the motivator of self. He expresses the entire human’s ballooned hogwash and redirects the reader and himself to the beautiful land.  Reading these poems sometimes, somewhere you would like to meet this poet as personally. I promise, he is far better and sweeter than his poems.

Now, in conclusion, without confounding and confusing you, by vivifying his poetic heart, I don’t like to butter more about him. I would like to ask, please, read Bhoj Kumar Dhamala’s poems and you can find his many different incarnations in his short anthology, which is available on Amazon.

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Rupsingh Bhandari is a poet, short story writer, social activist, critic and translator from the Karnali province of Nepal. He writes in English, Nepali and Hindi. Rupsingh has published several poems, articles, short stories, as well as translated poems and stories. He is the author of the Conscience’s Quantum poetry book. He served as editor of the International Anthology of Pandemic Poetry 2020. His creations are worldwide anthologized and published. He is founder of Words Highway International (Writers Association). Rupsingh does painting and music and loves to travel.

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Nasir Aijaz

It was chilling winter of 2008. The sun had almost set behind the Korea’s Mt. Seoraksan and the dusk had enveloped the entire area – the thick forest spread all over the mountain, the stream flowing down with sounds resembling to musical notes along the spiral-shaped track and the structures of historic Baekdamsa Temple. I stood mesmerized by the serenity of the ambiance gazing at some people sitting in the bed of stream erecting small towers of pebbles. The curiosity took me close to those people to inquire about placing the pebbles in Pagoda style. Although we didn’t understand each other’s language, but the universal language of signs helped me to know that this was the way of praying for realization of their wishes. Soon, they all left down the valley by foot, as the darkness of falling night was fast covering the area into its arms.

With intense feeling of calmness, I stood there alone looking at thousands of stone towers, locally called as ‘Wishing Stone Towers’, spread all over the stream bed. I had first visited the Baekdamsa Temple in 2007 and had experienced a ‘Buddhist Lunch’ at the temple hosted by the Chief Monk for the delegates of Asia Journalists Association (AJA) but the second visit again organized by AJA included a night stay at temple, which provided opportunity to observe ‘Wishing Stone Towers’.

“A unique way of faith-healing,” I thought, which took me back to my country-Pakistan where the people use to visit shrines of Sufi (Mystic) saints for the same purpose, as the Sufism offers more space to the people – be it a Muslim, Hindu or hailing from any other religion or faith.  Majority of people from different religions, mostly in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Nepal as well as some other neighboring countries, visit shrines (the graves of those whom people ‘believe’ were pious) and ask the souls of the ‘pious’ for health, birth of children, wealth, and things that only God can provide. These people claim that they’re really not asking the dead for these things, but using them as intercessors with God. Their belief is that because the pious did well in this world when they were alive, they are now in a position to act as intercessors with God for those who invoke them. During their pilgrimage to the shrines, the people use to tie colored threads or strips of cloth to the tree branches and offer prayers besides taking part in Dhamal, the mystic dance at the drum beating. The hours-long meditation at the secluded places near the shrines is also part of the faith-healing in Indo-Pakistan region.

Faith healing is the ritualistic practice of prayer and gestures that are claimed to elicit divine intervention in spiritual and physical healing. Believers assert that the healing of disease and disability can be brought about by religious faith through prayer and/or other rituals that, according to adherents, stimulate a divine presence and power. Belief in such divine intervention is derived from religious belief.

There have been claims that faith can cure blindness, deafness, cancer, AIDS, developmental disorders, mental disorders, anemia, arthritis, corns, defective speech, multiple sclerosis, skin rashes, total body paralysis, and various injuries. Miraculous recoveries have been attributed to many techniques commonly classified as faith healing. It can involve prayer, a visit to a religious shrine, or simply a strong belief in a supreme being.

Faith healing can be classified as a spiritual, supernatural, or paranormal event, and, in some cases, belief in faith healing can be classified as magical thinking. The American Cancer Society states “available scientific evidence does not support claims that faith healing can actually cure physical ailments.”

Personally, I know many of the well-educated people, who spent several months at shrines abandoning their luxurious city life for spiritual satisfaction, but unfortunately, this entire region has also lots of the fake faith-healers who use to exploit the beliefs of pilgrims for their mileage, and for this reason, I always avoided visiting such places. However, the Buddhist temples presented a different character, which attracted me a lot.

The AJA offered me a third opportunity on April 01, 2017 when it arranged a night stay at Baekdamsa Temple along with several other friends from different countries of Middle, South, Central and East Asia. Besides visit to various sections of Temple Complex, holding lectures, meditation session and taking part in candle-light procession, led by a nun, up to Susimgyo Bridge, we were also taken to the stream bed for witnessing the Wishing Stone Towers.

We came across the unique scene of Wishing Stone Towers in the valley beneath and on both sides of Susimgyo Bridge on the way to Baekdamsa Temple. “In rainy season of summer, these towers get washed away, yet more towers spring up,” the nun told.

“They are famous part of the landscape of Baekdamsa. The snowy mountain of Seorak, seen from Susimgyo Bridge, reminds you of lotus buds. The stone towers look like stamens,” she briefed.

It is said that the wishing stone towers can only be seen by the people with a pure heart. The believers use to come here for erecting the pagoda-shaped stone towers, as Buddha’s ‘sarira’ (Sanskrit language word sarir, which means human body. Here this word is used for Buddha’s remains) are placed at a stone pagoda located at highest point of Seoraksan Mountain, at a distance of six-hour walk, and is the most-visited place for believers.

While leaving the Baekdamsa Temple on the morning of April 02, I gazed again at the Wishing Stone Towers in admiration and conviction that this place offers a lot to get away from the materialist world and achieving inner spiritual satisfaction.

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Nasir Aijaz is a senior journalist, author of nine books and Chief Editor of Sindh Courier                                                                                                                                                     

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By Nazarul Islam

The way of faith is always an integrated, single way. Whereas, the way of wisdom is always a highly differentiated, capricious way

The full moon night of this month (May 26, the Purnima) carries special significance in the history of the land my forefathers belonged—and of Buddhism, in particular. This was the day when Gautama Siddhartha who was to become the Enlightened One, the Buddha— was born 2,561 years ago. This was also the day he attained enlightenment and the day he departed from this earth.

What a coincidence of stars and events in the life of a person who chose to give up the luxuries of a prince and the power of the palace to enlighten the world about the meaning of suffering and the path to liberation!

As the world is caught up in the vortex of a virus and people are passing through the pains of a pandemic, tossed from the ICU of a hospital to the isolation of a room at home, seeking refuge in vaccines, ventilators and drugs, the message of Buddha comes like a balm to soothe the nerves and calm the mind. His teachings, more than ever before, seem strikingly relevant for the present troubled times.

They provide an answer to the individual suffering from disease, anxiety and fear, to the society divided by caste, color and religion, and to the ruling class torn asunder by polarized ideologies and a mad struggle for power.

According to the Buddha, everything in the world is transient, nothing endures; birth and death, growth and decay are part of the natural process. So there is no meaning in any kind of panic flight from pain and death. The root cause of suffering is desire, not the desire to live a happy and good life but the desire born of selfishness which in turn causes hatred, slander and violence.

Overcome suffering by following the ‘middle path’ (madhyamaka) which steers clear of the extremes of asceticism and sensual indulgence. This can be achieved by adopting the eight-fold path that consists of: right view, right aspiration, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.

The middle path is the core of Buddha’s teaching and can be adopted in all walks of life. It essentially implies avoiding extremes, such as what we are witnessing today-narrow nationalism and unbridled liberalism, religious bigotry and decrying religion, obsession with a glorious past and justifying all things considered modern; in short, blind faith in what one considers right without consideration for the other’s point of view.

Buddha’s call to avoid extreme ways of practice and walk the middle way of reasonableness is the need of the hour. Buddhism inculcates a lofty system of ethics and what is enunciated in the eight-fold path is a simple yet powerful guide for all individuals including those in high places-political and business leaders, religious seers, bureaucrats and professionals.

Buddha was a great social reformer and sent out a strong message of social equality, perhaps the first great historical personage to do so – that everyone, regardless of caste, creed, gender or status had the capacity for enlightenment and translated his precept into practice.

One day, as he came across an untouchable, Nadhi, carrying excrement, conscious of his lowly status, the poor man tried to avoid the Master but the latter intercepted him and in the jostle, Nadhi fell down and the excrement spilled over. With great compassion, the Buddha not only helped him rise but exhorted him to become his disciple. He also prohibited discrimination against women.

Though initially reluctant, after being persuaded by his step-mother and his close disciple, Ananda, he admitted females into the Buddhist monastic order and even praised their attainments. And to those who ruled the kingdoms of his days, this is what the Buddha had to say: Lead others, not by violence, but by righteousness and equity.

Although Buddhism has little presence in the land of its birth, it has left a deep impact on the artistic and cultural heritage of the country through magnificent architecture, paintings and scholarly literature. The Buddha is venerated as an avatar by the Hindus and adored by all sections as a messenger of peace, love and non-violence. Buddha’s ‘doctrine of equality’ so impressed Babasaheb Ambedkar that he, along with 365000 followers, converted to Buddhism on October 14, 1956.

He also penned a book titled Buddha and the Dhamma. Interest in Buddhist teachings has revived in India with large numbers of people taking to the practice of Vipasana, a Buddhistic technique of meditation. Music lovers may be interested to know about a rock band called Dhamma Wings, consisting of five Mumbai musicians who are spreading Buddha’s teaching on equality and campaigning against the injustice of the caste system through their songs.

The influence of Buddhism beyond India’s borders has been more profound, with its wings spread across the neighboring nations of China, Japan, Tibet, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. Dalai Lama (Tibet) and Thic Nat Hahn (Vietnam) are recognized as world religious leaders.

In today’s world of bitter religious and political conflicts, increasing inequalities and inequities, and unscrupulous commercial competition, the ‘middle path’ laid out by the Buddha is the only way to save mankind from the evils of hatred, vituperation and violence. The Light of Asia, as Edwin Arnold called Buddha in his poetical masterpiece of the same name, is also the Light of the World holding out the torch of hope for peace and harmony.

One of the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations to be achieved by 2030 is ‘Peace and Justice’. It would be appropriate for the UN to declare the birth anniversary of Buddha as the Day of the Middle Path to remind world leaders of their responsibility in moving towards its lofty goal.

Let me recall what Buddha told his disciples: Teach this triple truth to all: a generous heart, kind speech and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.

Lord Buddha himself taught that basically, human nature is pure, egoless, just as the sky is by nature clear, not cloudy. Clouds come and go, but the blue sky is always there; clouds don’t alter the fundamental nature of the sky. Similarly, the human mind is fundamentally pure.

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About the Author

The Bengal-born writer Nazarul Islam is a senior educationist based in USA. He writes for Sindh Courier and the newspapers of Bangladesh, India and America. He is author of a recently published book ‘Chasing Hope’ – a compilation of his 119 articles.

The post The Purnima in our lives…. first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Let’s not forget South Asia is a geographical notion, and as such straddles political divides as well cultural ones. The term is also neutral with regard to time and people – South Asia was what it was before any humans lived there (since the Indian subcontinent collided with Asia, that is)

By Nazarul Islam

The largest Continent on our planet credits itself with a disproportionate share of global fame, for countries grouped together to form a noisy neighborhood, known as ‘South Asia’. In school text books, I rarely got to read about North Asia. The ‘typical-neighbors’ identity has rustled many Indians to dislike the expression “South Asia” and the halo projected around it. They feel this has diluted the central role played by India on the subcontinent, both historically and in the present context.

Then again, some people in countries like Pakistan and Nepal are allergic to the overuse of the word “India,” feeling that it indicates India’s overgrown ambitions to dominate the region – both in the present as well as in the past.

One of the best instances of such identity skirmishes are the recurrent discussions between Indians and Nepalese over the birthplace of Buddha. The people of Nepal are often unhappy when somebody claims that Buddha was born “in India.” His birthplace, now called Lumbini, is located in Nepal (even if just a stone’s throw from the border with India). There was no India, they point out – in the sense of a political entity, a sovereign state called India – when Buddha was born, several centuries before Christ.

But this line of argument is a back-and-forth swinging blade that leaves no survivors. The modern state of Nepal also did not exist at the time of Buddha.

If we really need to be precise historically, and if we need to refer to political entities, then Siddhartha Gautama, later titled Buddha, was born in a place called Rumminidei in the territory ruled by the clan of Shakyas (who formed an independent political entity) and the same Rumminidei was identified with Lumbini in the territory of the present-day Republic of Nepal. It is easy to understand why, outside the world of academia, we often cannot afford such lengthy explanations and must resort to simplifications.

But even this is just the starting point of such challenges. Suppose we have thus pin-pointed Buddha’s birthplace in space, time, and in political terms. But given that he spent most of his life in present-day northern India, where he searched for knowledge and salvation, taught, and eventually died, what was the territory he lived in? India? South Asia? We could certainly use the latter term, as it is geographically correct and thus neutral — but it is also very general. It does not tell us anything valuable about the cultural milieu in which he operated.

Buddha’s teachings were a part of Indian philosophy and they built on and referred to (and sometimes rebelled against) earlier Indian thought and religious customs. The Buddhist canon was preserved in Indian languages (mostly in Pali, to some degree also in Sanskrit). If, instead of this, we would say that these were “South Asian philosophy” and “South Asian languages,” such descriptions, even though theoretically correct, would fail to explain anything, to paint any context, to understand linkages.

Is there a good solution to this? It depends on the case, but the above instance of Buddha is as much a review of some naming challenges as an indication of how we can solve them.

Let’s not forget South Asia is a geographical notion, and as such straddles political divides as well cultural ones. The term is also neutral with regard to time and people – South Asia was what it was before any humans lived there (since the Indian subcontinent collided with Asia, that is).

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About the Author

The Bengal-born writer Nazarul Islam is a senior educationist based in USA. He writes for Sindh Courier and the newspapers of Bangladesh, India and America.

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