Todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte is titled: and#8220;Dr. Ambedkar and Social Revolutionand#8221; from the recently released talk, and#8220;Dreaming Angels.and#8221; In this excerpt Vajratara evokes the social revolution of Dr Ambedkar. A revolution, she says, which is still needed to overthrow unhelpful attitudes in society, free the disadvantaged and give meaning to those who long for a higher life.
Talk given at the Womenand#8217;s National Order Weekend, December 2012.
[music] Dharma Bites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for your life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. Thank you, and happy listening. So I wanted to start by going back to the land of the Buddha's birth. And the bright bead here, of course, is Dr. Ambecha. And Dr. Ambecha had thought of himself as engaging in a great struggle to bring about a social revolution. And this revolution was to overthrow oppression, the oppression of the caste system, and the oppression of the enslavement of women. He used those words, enslavement of women. He wanted a revolution to change the attitude of a whole society. Now Dr. Ambecha was the most educated man in India. And he thought long and hard about how he was going to bring about this revolution. And he looked for answers in many places. He looked for political and economic solutions. But he realised that in order to bring about a revolution in society, you first need a change in mind and soul, as he put it, a change in mind and soul. And through the emancipation of minds and souls, society will change. There will be no marginalisation, no oppression, and each individual will have the freedom to grow and develop. But what can change minds and souls? Well Dr. Ambecha looked at all the major religions. He looked at all the religions of the world and he chose Buddhism. He chose Buddhism as a revolutionary force capable of changing mind and soul. Capable of freeing, confining and oppressive attitudes in society and giving freedom to the marginalised and to each individual themselves. And I've been looking a little bit into why Dr. Ambecha chose Buddhism because I think the reason that he chose Buddhism are the reasons that Buddhism works now. I do recommend that you read the Buddha and the future of his religion if you haven't already read it because I think it's as important to us as it's important to Dr. Ambecha and the Dalits of India. So there's a lot of reasons, but I just wanted to give you three. And the first one is that you can't take ethics out of Buddhism. Buddhism is based on Karenara, on compassion. It's based on the wisdom of equality. And that applies to everyone including people who aren't Buddhism. Buddhist, sorry, you aren't Buddhist. So with other ethical systems, sometimes you can take out that ethical system if it doesn't apply to your own tribe or your own religion. You know, you can treat your brothers and sisters in your religion with ethics, but you know, someone's outside your religion, well, they're on their own. But with Buddhism, ethics is part of Buddhism. You cannot take ethics out of Buddhism. The second reason is that Buddhism recognises liberty, equality and fraternity. And there's quite a lot in this, what Dr. Ambecha means by this. But just to sum up, Buddhism speaks to the individual man and woman, each as being in control of their own destiny. It speaks to the individual as being capable of growth and development, as being capable of taking responsibility for their own lives and for their relationships with other people. So there is this emphasis in Buddhism on being responsible for yourself, of being able to lift yourself out of oppressive attitudes of mind, lifting yourself out of greed, hatred and delusion, changing your own mind and soul. And Buddhism gives you the confidence and the responsibility to do this. And Buddhism accords with reason and science. Dr. Ambecha made the point that if you can't take it seriously, it cannot be a governing force in people's lives. If you can't take religion seriously, it cannot be a governing force in your life. But with Buddhism, the modern man and woman can take Buddhism seriously because it's not a superstitious belief system. You can think about it. As Bunty says, you use your intuition, your reason and your experience to fully understand the Buddha's teachings. So he chose Buddhism. He chose Buddhism as a tool to ignite the revolution. And he saw the Sangha as the first rank in the fighting forces. And he put that phrase in a letter to a young monk who was living in the foothills of the Himalayas in Kalimpong. And I can imagine that you all know who that young monk was. So yes, he wrote that to Bunty. He actually said, "Well yes, I'm glad you've set up the Young Men's Association in Kalimpong, but really you should do much more than that." The bikus should be in the first rank of the fighting forces. Now who knows what effect that letter had on Bunty? Who knows what effect that kind of discourse had on Bunty? But I'd like us to look perhaps in our groups about what effect that kind of discourse has on us. Do we think of ourselves as part of a revolution? Do we think of the Sangha as the first rank of the fighting forces in that revolution? Does that kind of language inspire you? Or do you see your life about your own growth and happiness and contentment? And if you do see yourself as part of a revolution, what is your revolution for? What is our revolution for? We hope you enjoyed today's Dharma Bite. Please help us keep this screen. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. And thank you. [music fades out] [music fades out] [music fades out] [BLANK_AUDIO]
