Spirit in Action
Sarvodaya, Awakening Of All in Sri Lanka - Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne
Sri Lanka has been blessed by many decades of healing work under the leadership of A.T. Ariyaratne and his son, Dr. Vinya S. Ariyaratne. The organization they have led, Sarvodaya, is the largest non-governmental organization in Sri Lanka, having worked with people in 15,000 villages, combining mind, heart and spirit for the peace, health, and well-being of all citizens.
- Broadcast on:
- 05 May 2013
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- other
[music] ♪ Let us sing this song for the healing of the world ♪ ♪ That we may hear as one ♪ ♪ With every voice of every song ♪ ♪ We will move this world home ♪ ♪ And our lives will feel the echo of our healing ♪ ♪ With every voice of every song ♪ Welcome to Spirit in Action. My name is Mark Helpes Me. Each week, I'll be bringing you stories of people living lives of fruitful service, of peace, community, compassion, creative action, and progressive efforts. I'll be tracing the spiritual roots that support and nourish them in their service. Hoping to inspire and encourage you to sink deep roots and produce sacred fruit in your own life. ♪ Let us sing this song for the dreaming of the world ♪ ♪ That we may dream as one ♪ ♪ With every voice of every song ♪ ♪ We will move this world home ♪ Before I introduce you to today's Spirit in Action guest, I wanted to remind all of you listeners that we welcome your suggestions for guests, especially if you would like to raise up the world healing work of someone in your area. Although this program is syndicated nationally, we want it to be local in nature, and you can help us by connecting us up with the Peace and Justice Workers where this show is broadcast. So, all you listeners in Garberville, Madison, Vroqua, Lowell, Northampton, Yucayah, Cabool, Bellows Falls, and the cities where you listen to this program, go to nordancepiritradio.org and email or call us. Help us make this program relevant to you. Today we've got a guest who's not so very local, although he did visit my city at the end of March. Dr. Vinya Ariaradne is General Secretary of the Sarvodia Shramadana Movement in Sri Lanka, and he's the son of Sarvodia's founder. Beginning from Buddhist precepts and practices, but operating as an inter-religious and culturally diverse organization, Sarvodia has touched and empowered the lives of many millions of Sri Lankan citizens from all corners of the country. Although the struggle of the Tamil tigers, as they were called, is finally ended after more than two decades of internal war, there is still a great deal of healing and growth remaining. The kind of work Sarvodia has been doing since 1958, first under the leadership of A.T. Ariaradne, and now under his son, Dr. Vinya Ariaradne. I sat down with Vinya during his March visit to Eau Claire after listening in on one of the university classes he had presented for. Vinya, it's great to have you here today for spirit in action. It's great to be here with you, Mark. It's a long trip all the way from Sri Lanka over here. How was it that this got set up? How did you get this visit here? In USA we have been having so many friends over the years since the very inception of the movement for several decades we have had individuals who are interested in the work that we were doing back in Sri Lanka. We have also come and volunteered to help our work in Sri Lanka and they set up also an organization, a Friends of Sarvodia, called the Sarvodia USA. And we have had contacts with professors and students who are working at the University of Wisconsin. They got to know that I was visiting USA and they organized a series of interactions for me with the staff and the students. You're here as a representative of Sarvodia and part of what I note is that you are almost as old or approximately the same age as the organization. Were you a child raised in the arms of Sarvodia? Yes, very much so Mark my father was the founder of Sarvodia. He founded this organization 55 years ago and I am 51 years old. So I actually was born into the environment created by the movement and I went through decades of grooming within the Sarvodia movement. Although professionally I got qualified as a doctor and has been also practicing my own profession before full-time joining Sarvodia as a full-time worker. I'm very interested in this division of your professional responsibilities and how this relates to the mission of Sarvodia. Does being a medical doctor make it easier for you to do your work with Sarvodia or is that not necessary? Any large organization like that, a lot of what you're doing is administration organizing people some are having that connection with people. I got trained as a physician but I actually specialized in public health. I didn't opt to work in a hospital to be a clinician. So I studied public health and also back home I got specialized in the field of community medicine. So my training involved a lot of interaction with the community and looking at social dimensions of well-being. So I was still involved in the art of healing as you may say and practicing medicine in a much more holistic way bringing development also into the picture and I was working on factors that affect people's well-being and health. So I can't differentiate that this is quite a distance from my professional career but it's a very much an integral part. Of course the setting that I work as you said is an organizational setting where there are management issues, administration also has responsibilities in my hands but I don't see kind of a strong distinction between my career or the professional training versus what I'm doing now really with my life. I gathered from what I heard you speaking to the nursing class here at University of Wisconsin that one of the essential principles of Sarvodia is local administration, local power, local control and yet I think you're kind of at the pinnacle of something even though you can't have that much power if you're leaving it at the grassroots leadership. So what is your role and what's the mission that you carry into your post with Sarvodia? As you said Mark, this is a movement which is empowering communities. Empowering in the sense that we are helping these communities to organize themselves, look at their own resources, look at their own problems and try to facilitate a kind of holistic development process bringing in also where necessary external resources, financial, technical and also the inspiration for them to work within their own village and also connected with other villages in their vicinity. And that process is definitely building their own capacity and what you call building a social capital from the bottom up. But at the same time we as a national organization at one level that is at the operational level provides that guidance and linkages and transfer of resources that is essential because even if you believe in a bottom up process and a participatory process unless these community organizations are supported with some form of guidance in terms of philosophy, in terms of tools to work with people and certain technologies being introduced to the community. So we play that role as an organization. So what I do is being the general secretary which is a governance position in the organization although I started as the executive director of Sarvodia where I was much more involved at an operational level. Now I am more involved at the strategic policy level in working in the future directions of the movement and dealing with key stakeholders at national and international levels. However I am still involved in working with my team of managers at the national level to guide these villages, help these villages, raise funds where necessary to implement certain programs and also trying to make the necessary linkages at different level. The community level with the local government and provincial administrations as well as national level ministries and government departments as well as private sector linking the resources that are available and we also believe in a transformation in our economy. We are working on any alternative economic model based on microfinance, providing microfinance facilities to the village communities through these organizations, village organizations and also providing them guidance as to how they can be entrepreneurs, how they can market their products, how they can protect their environment, the kind of development has to be also based on their own values and beliefs and protect their cultural heritage and so on. So this is the kind of work that I am involved in and guiding our administration as well as the different units of the organization to support these communities. I understand that's a completely necessary theoretical and organizational structure that you need to carry this out, but it doesn't convey for me some of the power that I think is inherent in Sarvodia. Could you give me some examples of what that means in terms of really dealing with people or dealing with villages, what does it mean that you are empowering them, so what do you actually do? So how we put this philosophy into practice is by starting with what people really need in their communities. Now being a country which has a largely a Buddhist population in terms of their faith, 70% of the large majority of the people living in Sri Lanka belong to their faith is Buddhism and in Buddhism we have certain values that we practice, one of which is sharing. Now we use this concept of Dhan or sharing for village development activities. We start with a felt need in a village. For example, in the very initial stages of the movement, cutting access roads, constructing village roads was a major activity because it was one of the greatest needs that we found in a rural village in Sri Lanka. They didn't have access in the event of an emergency, most of these villages were isolated, located quite far from main roads. So if they have an access road to the village, then it helps them a lot. Traditionally these people have been dependent on government services, government or local government authorities to come and construct roads for them. What we did was using this Buddhist concept of Dhan or sharing. We got people to come together to cut roads, construct roads. Now that was done in a very planned way. Initially of course you have to plan where the road is going to be running through which part of the village where you have to take certain collective decisions and people have to also donate their land for the road to be constructed. So we bring in the generosity of even rich people, landowners and give them an opportunity to be contributing to village development. Then ordinary people will have to donate their labor. So they will decide how many days that they would require to construct a road like that and then calculate the number of days that they have to work. So it will be done as a work camp. An educational and interactive work camp where all people get together in the village and what we do, what I described earlier through our organization structure is facilitating this process by sending a very trained and experienced community worker who will explain the process of how to organize what we call a stromedan or sharing of labor camp in the village to construct this road. So when you plan the road, how to cut this road then you have to look at how you affect the environment. Sometimes there are valuable trees that you may have to remove. In that instance, you decide how to alter the route so that you save. So people get sensitized to environmental concerns as well as part of constructing the road. Then about the drainage, when you have high rainfall there can be flooding. So how do you take into account certain scientific principles of flow of water drainage? So you get the help of a person from the village who may have that knowledge rather than relying on an engineer who is coming from outside the village. So they have the ownership from the very beginning that they will be doing something that will benefit the community but they are doing it by themselves. Then they will plan how to feed the people who will be coming to the camp. So it's a temple or a covele. Some religious institution will also be a part of this planning process and will contribute in some way. They will donate rice or some other food items to cook and the women in the village will get together and see we will run a community kitchen for this period and we will all get together, take turns, some people will work in constructing the road the other people will be helping in the kitchen. So that kind of division of lay band planning is done. So in the process the whole village gets sensitized into something that is connecting the inner spirituality of that value of sharing at the same time seeing some physical work done and something getting constructed that will also benefit them immediately, benefit their families, their children and then we also spend quite a lot of time during that work camp for people to engage in dialogue. So three times a day what we call family gathering is held where all the people who participate in that work camp get together and discuss. They also start the meetings with meditation because there may be people who also belong to other religions. They are given a chance to also observe their religious practices, chant their prayers in public so that others will also get to know about other traditions and religions. So it becomes a very harmonious, spiritual activity as well. Then also we bring in the cultural elements. We give opportunity for people particularly the children to perform in public. While the work camp is going on during these meetings of family gatherings we get them to come and perform that also gives them opportunity to preserve some of the cultural practices in that particular village. Shai it with people coming from outside also to come and help. So when the road gets constructed we say that we build the road. The road builds us. Road builds us means it builds our personality. It takes out the good in ourselves and it gives such a satisfaction for the participants. It's a lifelong experience for some who come from outside who may belong to sometimes rich class living in urban cities. So it gives them exposure to the reality that is found in the villages. So using this technique we went on to satisfying what we call 10 basic human needs. Some of which are the water supply, clean water, sanitation, health care, education, particularly children's education, preschool education, then housing, energy needs, communication needs. So like that we try to with the same principle of sharing we try to fulfill. But of course the reality is that most of these villages are very poor. They can't do everything on their own. So we have to bring certain resources from outside. So that's the organizational structure that I described earlier. Also helps in identifying some resources from outside which can be brought in. We also have donations from institutions, foundations who come and help in various different programs. To individual donors who are willing to help with say building a preschool in the village or putting up a water scheme or providing some equipment to the preschool and things like that. So we have been quite successful in mobilizing the local resources, getting people the sense of ownership and building also community level organizations so that such a process get institutionalized and also provide the linkages so that they feel that they are not isolated. Even though they are doing a lot of work by themselves they need that networking, they need to feel that they are part of a large social movement and that is what this organizational structure is doing. It sounds to me like what we call in the US community organizing. It looks like it has parallel principles but the idea of starting with meditation which I think maybe makes for a space that is inter-religious. That certainly meditation can happen obviously for Buddhists and then for Hindus. Muslims too, I'm not aware of that although of course they perform a lot five times a day so maybe it's kind of like meditation. You make a common ground for everyone to meet. One of the things that we hear about in the US, we know very little about but we hear about the Tamil tigers and the problems. The way I've heard it is as somewhat of a suppression feeling like they are second class citizens. Are there Tamil people who are involved with Sarodia? I think that back at the beginning the very inception of Sarodia that your father must have been looking at something and said we need to do this differently. What was that vision and how does it include diverse people like the Tamils? Since the very inception of the movement of course my father's vision I mean he could anticipate that there could be such tensions and even lead to full blown violence. Someday if we do not address these relations between different communities living in Sri Lanka. So at the same time we started the Sarodia movement and work expanded in the south. There were similar work camps that I described also organized in the north and the east of the country where the Tamil population was in majority. So now this involved also the same kind of community mobilization. Again the spiritual dimension was brought in but not as a Buddhist value but it was more identifying common elements that are there in the Hindu tradition. And there are many elements because some of these principles although they are articulated from a Buddhist perspective they are universal. The concept of sharing which I just mentioned and also we believe in this compassionate action that is you feel a kind of concern for another person and start acting on that thought. Transly to get into action to change that situation. Now that is a Buddhist way of thinking but which is also I am sure a Hindu way of thinking, a Christian way of thinking or Islamic way of thinking. So Sarodia has been quite successful from the very beginning even creating the organizational structure to reflect religious and ethnic diversity. So it was a very inclusive organization though it was inspired by Buddhist traditions. So we have definitely over the years unfortunately we have had a very bloody war for 26 years which came to an end in 2009. Before the war we have been doing so much work trying to avoid such a disaster from happening in Sri Lanka. We have had youth exchange programs between South and the North where Singhela, Tamil and Muslim youth could get together, understand each other, what we call Emmity camps, coexistence programs between religious leaders. So before the war, during the war after the war at different levels and in different character we organized peace activities. And also during the war we initiated lot of relief and rehabilitation programs to help the people who are affected. Largely Tamil community in the northern province as well as Tamil and Muslim communities in the eastern province and also there was a significant number of Singhelis communities who were also affected. There were terrorist attacks and there was tremendous amount of violence against civilians belonging to all communities by the Tamil tigers and there were also a lot of confrontations which affected the civilian population. So we were trying to as organization which was working across all communities which has been acceptable to all communities. We continued within our means. Of course we are not as powerful as elected government so we can't influence beyond a certain point, certain decisions taken by a government. But we tried to work in partnership with government also wherever it was important or relevant to help the people. So when they have a large displacement after the war ended we worked in partnership with the Ministry of Health and the government to provide services for 300,000 people who were displaced by the war. And also now in the resettlement process we play a leading role. We help to construct houses, getting people to return back to their homes. We also educate them on things like landmines, you know we have a huge number of landmines, government is responsible for removing the landmines and it has done a tremendous job in removing the landmines in residential areas so that people can quickly return. But still there are you have to educate particularly the children about not to touch these explosive devices, how to identify them and report them to authority. So such things to nutrition related programs and so many other social programs we are doing so that we have a character of a very national inclusive organization. And we really believe that Sri Lanka can be a very prosperous and peaceful country. If we all were together, if we use this diversity in a constructive way, not in a divisive way, we know that there are extremist elements in all sides who try to keep these divisions. But as an organization which cut across all divisions, we promote the understanding that needs to be there and also try to get the best teachings of all traditions to be practiced by all communities. So that is where we are right now. It must be really exciting and also daunting to be part of this work for so many years. In the US, because Christianity is the background radiation that we live in, I think we are very used to, particularly more liberal end of the spectrum, finding fault with Christianity because even though Jesus is the consequence of peace, Christianity has raised its banner at the front of many wars and many militaries. I'm wondering, it's almost incomprehensible to me given the very rudimentary knowledge I have of Buddhism, but is there such thing as a Buddhist military? It seems so contradictory to what I say, but there's probably a military or national police force that serves Sri Lanka. I mean, you're Buddhist, Vinya. So is militarism and Buddhism, are they incompatible with one another? As a Buddhist, I do not believe in violence of any form. I do not think that we have kind of a Buddhist military concept. I don't accept that and I don't think there is something like that. However, the bottom line is that since the independence in 1948, our polity, we didn't get it right. We didn't evolve a governance system that could ensure the rights and responsibilities of all citizens living in Sri Lanka. So, if there was a trend to either use your cultural identities, religious identities or ethnic identities by any group to dominate another group or even to try to get into political power, I don't accept that and that is also at the heart of unfortunately what happened in Sri Lanka. So, the political, there was a strong political factor which led to this situation. So, what I see is that, okay, now the war is behind us. We are a post-war country, but not still post-conflict because some of the factors which led to the conflict are still there. I think we need to go back to the roots of our traditions, roots of our Buddhist teachings or Hindu traditions or Christian or Islamic and try to see how we could really relate to each other in a respectful manner as equals and bring out the humanity in us. If we bring the humanity in us, I think then we don't need to think of any kinds of militancy, whether it is militancy coming from one religion or another religion. Religion cannot be justified to impose violence on another community. I think if that is happening, I don't think that that should happen in Sri Lanka or that will happen in Sri Lanka, we need to stop that. And that is where the basic teachings of Buddhism need to be again reminded in our own minds and then find nonviolent ways of resolving this conflict rather than perpetuating violence in the name of safeguarding any religion. I don't believe in that. You've already mentioned Vinya a lot of the programs that you had to attempt to avert the war, you know, cultural sharing, getting children together, people living hand in hand with someone, it becomes much harder to kill them. Are there other peace and conflict resolution programs or techniques that are important to you? I mean, is this work that you specifically are involved in? Very much so. In addition to the more mass-based actions that we have been promoting, peace, meditation, peace marches, inter-religious activities, youth exchange programs and so on, we also try to address some of the basic problems in relation to governance. Now, when you say power sharing, it's always thought of as a national level concept of power sharing or purely as devolution. We believe that a lot of autonomy can be given to village level and villages can make their own decisions. So, you don't have to really think of a devolution on the basis of ethnicity or geography only. So, on one hand, we believe that this problem should also be addressed through a power sharing mechanism which is actually devolving power to the smallest unit of governance, that is the village community. So, we are lobbying for a constitutional change to accommodate that, that is, so we are working on the power element as well. So, we try to approach this through a change in consciousness which is through all these activities I have described earlier and also a change in the economy, creating economic opportunities because young people resort to violence because they also don't have a sense of hope or future for their lives after being educated. So, we believe that you have to also help these young people to find employment or meaningful livelihood. So, that is an integral part. Then the third element is working on power, power relationships, devolution of power. So, it is not only that we are doing this kind of conscious level activities, but we are doing a lot of activities, bringing people together, having dialogue, facilitated dialogue. We are training people for nonviolent means of communication and bringing these concepts of conflict transformation, conflict resolution, basic skills, building on our own traditional practices because there had been indigenous ways of resolving conflicts in Sri Lanka. Sometimes you go to the religious leaders or elders getting together. These type of mechanisms can be very useful in the current context. So, we are working in all these levels and all different dimensions and convergence of those I think will help to find a lasting solution to the problem that we are facing in Sri Lanka. I am very interested in one aspect that you were talking about, that because what you are trying to do with Sarvodia is to empower at the local grassroots level. That seems a very positive thing, but I recognize that from some people's point of view, people whose fiefdom is perhaps to have control of a government agency, they want the local people to be dependent on them because they have the goods and then they can get more power from them. In some ways, what you are talking about, as you encourage people to not depend on government welfare handouts, that in this country might translate to be kind of small government or get rid of the big government programs. Instead of being dependent on the government, you have got your own power. That might be seen in this country as being a conservative point of view. Do you get a lot of resistance and push back from government people who say, "No, I am in control of that program. You can't build a road without my engineers taking control of it." That kind of thing. Yes, we are now in the 21st century. When we started Sarvodia, we were in the 20th century. Not only that, Sri Lanka has also come a long way from what it was in 1958 when this movement was founded. So, we know the current reality. And also Sri Lanka is no longer classified as a poor country. It's not a low income country anymore. Our per capita GNP is over $2,800. So, we are a middle income country now, according to the World Bank classification. So, we are not eligible to even receive grant aid now. So, we face a situation where even though we have a lot of disparities and a lot of poor people and major social and economic problems affecting certain sections of the population, we don't get the kind of resources that we used to get 20-30 years ago. So, in a situation like that, we believe that the government still has a responsibility. Of course, the kind of approach that we adopt is going to go contrary to some party and political interest. Like in the US. So, in that sense, I don't think there is any difference. There is a possibility that they will interpret this type of activity as going against their political interests. But I think we are trying to see how even those resources that are being channeled through a patronage political system. Can it be absorbed by communities in a way that they aren't really not getting dependent on such aid, but then the such external aid becomes complementary to their own efforts? So, we are trying to negotiate it through rather than fighting it. So, I think it's a very delicate thing. We haven't really found the answer because it's only now that we are facing that situation after 55 years of working with the communities. So, there are very large top-down programs that are being delivered and handed over through political structures and I think it's ultimately the choices by the people. You know, if we are true to ourselves of devolving power, if people choose to accept those and go in a different path, I think it's up to them. All we could do is just magnetize them, you know, show them that these are the advantages and disadvantages, educate them and provide them with the information and knowledge. And beyond that, it is up to them to take it and form it in whatever way they want. There's a saying that I had passed me by a woman who had spent some time in Thailand and from Buddhist monk there, she heard a saying that maybe is widespread. I don't know, in Buddhism, something about a peaceful heart, makes for a peaceful man, makes for a peaceful family, peaceful family for a peaceful village, peaceful village for a peaceful nation and a peaceful nation for a peaceful world. Number one, is that widespread and is that somehow at the heart of how you work with Sarvodia? Yes, I think very much so, we capture it in a different way, we say inner peace and then outer peace. Inner peace is peace within yourself and then you initiate a process where you then contribute to building outer peace. It is very much at the heart of what we do, but I think what's really important is that how we translate those concepts into action. Now that is where we have been quite successful, that we start with peace, meditations and those things which are very spiritual in nature, but then we also go into tackling some of the hard core economic and political issues as well at some point. So, both extremes cannot be the answer on one extreme just going by a very spiritual approach alone will not be enough. At the same time going by a very rational conflict resolution through negotiations, that model is also not going to work and in fact it has failed in Sri Lanka. So, we have to look at how we combine most critical factors, bring them together and look at the indigenous local solution to the problems that we are facing. One of the things that I'm sure makes a difference, you've grown so much that Sarodia has grown so much since your father founded it back in 1958. In your presentation to the nursing class, I think you said that there are currently 15,000 different units of Sarodia villages who are organized that way. What does this translate to in terms of percentage of the population? Has this grown to the point where a cry can go up from Sarodia and a very large percentage of the nation stands up and say yes, it will be done? Well, this 15,000 villages are the cumulative number of villages which have benefited from Sarodia one way or the other. Not that all 15,000 villages have gone through this five-stage village development process and really are very vibrant communities. Out of that, about only 5,400 have organized themselves formally. In these other villages, there would have been one or two activities and people know about Sarodia, but they are really not in the path of a formal development process. But it has, we are continuing to influence those villages. Now, these villages where we have a legal entity formed as a Sarodia village society, which is an independent entity only because they affiliate philosophically to Sarodia, they use the term Sarodia, but otherwise they have a separate registration number, they are registered under the societies ordinance and they have a certificate from the company registrar. So, for all intension and purposes, they have their own constitution, elected officials managing their affairs. So, of course, there is, I mean, maybe two, three million people have directly benefited at different stages of the movement over the last five decades and they are a formidable force in the country. Yes, if they get organized and demand something, that is something that no government can ignore, but we have not used that in that kind of way for any political sort of advocacy. It is more towards development, consensus building towards good governance, peace building and we continue to do that. So, to answer your question, yes, it is a formidable force, but it is up to the people themselves to decide how they are going to use that for whatever the needs that arise in our country. For that, we are creating a new platform, that is a new stage where we are in, which is called national reawakening or they show there. We are shifting away from a structure which was facilitated by paid full-time workers. We are giving more power to those councils which come together like as kind of federations at different levels of village organizations. And also, those who have not really worked with Sarvoday but who are having interest in certain issues, mainly governance issues, to join these councils at district level and at national level. So, we hope that that movement will have its own life, which is called the Desho there movement of Sarvoday and really our role has to be to then just support that people's movement towards reconciliation, peace building, governance transformation. The governance transformation in the country and be less and less involved in direct development related work that is fulfilling basic needs in the village, which is now the responsibility of the government because government has resources. So, if we can strengthen the capacity of these organizations to tap the government resources, they can do the kind of work by themselves that we used to directly facilitate 20, 30 years ago. If I can ask you a few personal questions, Vinya, one of the things I'm aware of is you inherited to some degree this program, this work, from your father. I'm assuming that you're doing this because you love this work because it's central to your heart. I imagine there's been a lot of headaches with it too, a lot of demands and exhaustion that comes from it. Have you had your days when you said, "Why couldn't I just be a rich doctor working and just making money and isolated from all of these problems?" Honestly, yes, there have been instances where I really felt challenged that it is quite difficult under certain conditions, but I never felt that I made the wrong choice. No, I never felt that. But of course, there are formidable challenges at a personal level in the transition from, you know, every time we have to be very creative to address certain problems. So, I have felt that probably certain things would have done differently if I look back. I have been now associated with Sarvodaya on a full-time basis for the last 13 years on a part-time basis for about 8 years before that. So, I do feel that there have been instances where I felt very, very challenged to take a different course, but I always then see the results of our work. And that is also a quality that we have to develop, what we call equanimity in Buddhism, where because there are instances where I have also received extreme praise and awards for the kind of work that we are doing. So, at the same time, I shouldn't get elated also. So, maintaining a balanced mind has also been an important part of our work, but I never wanted to be a rich doctor. I think the non-attachment that you have to practice in order to be that kind of worker is so important. And as you've said, Vinya, you're rooted as a Buddhist. There's a statement that's attributed to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was so active in the civil rights organizing and peace organizing and so on in the United States that his schedule was packed from morning to night just solidly. I imagine your schedule is like that. A statement attributed to him was that he said something to the fact of, "If I didn't spend two hours each day praying, I wouldn't have time enough for everything else." That, in fact, his prayer, his centering time made it possible to carry out this extreme schedule. What's your personal practice? What's the religious spiritual support that you root yourself in? I do meditate, but not as often as I should be, to be very honest, but I spend a lot of time on reflection. Even though I have a very, very busy schedule, at least one hour or one and a half hours, I do spend on my own. Without any interruption, I try to reflect the day's work or if I miss it on a certain day, the work during a few days that passed. I sort of get feedback also from different people on how we are doing. I had made it practice a regular practice kind of self introspection, how I had also reacted to certain situations. That has been a learning experience to practice patience and withstand certain pressures from within and from outside. Also, the connection that I have to my family is also very big. I am very attached to my family. I have two children and my wife, though, is not involved in Sarvoda. She is having her own career, but we are a very, very closely-knit family. That is also, I think, a very strong spiritual bonding because they all understand my work. I do spend time with them, but probably not enough. But even the time that I spend, it's very high quality time. That is a very important fallback position for me to recharge my energy and really go on with this work. Do you also have a religious community, a Senka that you practice with? Is there a group of Buddhists that you meet with? Perhaps wider than Buddhism because one of the things I am aware of that has made for a significant amount of improvement in terms of civil rights in the United States has been kind of a reduction in our religious identity and an increase in our civic identity. In our case, I think we still rely more on the religious spiritual identity than on our civic identity. So, every month, we have at least one day to go to the temple and have collective prayers. Now, for example, yesterday was a full moon day. Now, every full moon day is a sacred day for the Buddhists and it's a holiday and usually you devote the whole day to religious practices. Now, some of us will not be able to do that the whole day, but we at least as a family go to the temple. We at Sarvoday, we have a meditation center which is open throughout the month. So, there are different spiritual activities, meditation that we participate. All our workers are also doing meditation. Now, when we start a meeting, always we spend two, three minutes meditation. Even our governing council meeting starts with a meditation. So, it's a practice which is built in. And also, I think meditation is something that you can also do in your work. It is what you call mindfulness. Do it with mindfulness. Then it's a kind of spiritual practice. So, we do it collectively. Sometimes in the headquarters, we have staff retreats. We spend a lot of time on meditation and interacting with somebody, a layperson or a priest on religious spiritual matters. So, that is how we keep the spiritual dimension very much integrated into our daily work. It's some really wonderful work that Sarvodaya has been doing in Sri Lanka. And the name of Vinya Ariya Ratna is certainly now imprinted in my memory as an important worker for peace. Now, that's not to give you praise, but that's to give you responsibility for the future. I expect to hear many great things coming from Sri Lanka because of this important seed that you are constantly planting. I'm also aware that it's not a seed that you plant and walk away from. It's a seed that you plant and you water it and then you plant more seeds. Because at the point when we stop tending the seed, it can fall into ruin and the weeds can take over. So, I'm so thankful that Sarvodaya is doing this important work in Sri Lanka. I'm so thankful that the struggle with the Tamil tigers that appears to be at an end and that you're working on the resolution of it. Because one of the things that was a bit disheartening for me was to hear that a Buddhist nation somehow didn't get it right. We're used to Christian nations getting it wrong, but we didn't want to have a Buddhist nation getting it wrong. And so, the fact that Sarvodaya and you, Vinya have been working so hard to bring things closer to that divine center is a tremendous gift to the world. So, thank you for doing that. Thank you for your visit here to the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. And thank you for joining me for Spirit in Action. Thank you very much, Sharma, for giving this opportunity for me to share my experience and thoughts with you. And it has also been an inspiring interaction for me as well. Thank you. Find Sarvodaya on the web at Sarvodaya.org. That's S-A-R-V-O-D-A-Y-A.org. Or just follow the link from this program on Nordenspiritradio.org. I want to mention my appreciation to Rita Webb, who facilitated Vinya's Eau Claire visit. One of the reasons she knew Vinya to invite him here is that Rita spent several years in Sri Lanka working with a non-violent peace force. Though I haven't yet interviewed Rita, I did speak with her husband, Marty Webb, on one of his visits back to the US while he and Rita were living in Sri Lanka. And I've also interviewed one of the two co-founders of the non-violent peace force, Mel Duncan. I want to leave you with a song about and for peace in Sri Lanka. But first, I wanted to share with you some thoughts about economics, from a market western point of view, compared with Buddhist economics. From a side-by-side comparison that Rita Webb passed on to me, because I think it's useful in understanding the assumptions we make, knowing almost nothing but our own system. Because Sri Lanka is roughly 70% Buddhist, and because Sarodia was founded from Buddhist principles, I thought the comparison could provide helpful insights into the cultural, structural and ethical roots of Sri Lanka. Western market economics, according to the handout Rita passed to me, focuses only on the money economy, regardless of damage done to peace, health, overall quality, happiness of people's lives. While Buddhist economics believes that development must be integrated into all spheres of life, spiritual, moral, cultural, social, political and economic, market econ ignores all non-quantifiable, abstract values in an effort to be scientific. Whereas Buddhist econ believes economics is, in fact, the most value-dependent of all social sciences, because it begins with want, continues with choice, and ends with satisfaction, all of which are functions of the mind. There are many more items on the list, but that's enough for now. So I'll finish off this installation of "Spirit in Action with a Song" from Sri Lanka. We could have picked out a traditional tune from Sri Lanka, but I found the following song produced by World Vision Lanka, and since it's about peace, it seemed relevant to this show. So I leave you with "Vikasita Siapat" or "Peace Song" by World Vision Lanka. Follow the link and watch the video on Nordenspiritradio.org, and we'll see you next week for "Spirit in Action." ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ The theme music for this program is "Turning of the World," performed by Sarah Thompson. This "Spirit in Action" program is an effort of Nordenspiritradio. You can listen to our programs and find links and information about us and our guests on our website, northernspiritradio.org. Thank you for listening. I am your host, Mark Helpsmeet, and I welcome your comments and stories of those leading lives of spiritual fruit. May you find deep roots to support you and grow steadily toward the light. This is "Spirit in Action." With every voice, with every song, we will move this world along. With every voice, with every song, we will move this world along. And our lives will feel the echo of our healing. (upbeat music)