My OperaArmed Forces Buddhist Community Conference
Saturday, April 28, 2007 8:10:28 AM
Last weekend, from Friday to Sunday, the first ever Armed Forces Buddhist Community Conference was held at Amport House, the Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre.
I attended on the Friday afternoon to support the opening and introductory session and again on Saturday afternoon when I gave a talk.
Amport House lies deep in the Hampshire countryside and is not easy to find or get to. Nor is it easy to escape from and on Friday I'm afraid I thought that just as well as we laboured through one speech of welcome and introduction after another. Of course it was very kind and very nice of so many from the Amed Forces Chaplaincy and the MOD to be there to wish us well and impress on us all the importance of this historic occasion. It was interesting too to hear the Jewish version of that old chestnut about members of different faiths all going up the same mountain by different paths. In his version, the good rabbi had us all shopping at Harrods when a fire alarm goes off and we all have to find our way out, some down the escalators, some in the lifts, some in various other ways, all to the one and only exit. Well, in its way this is all very nice and yes, we do share some things in common but different religions do differ from each other and Buddhism is especially different from the rest.
That was how I began my presentation the next day on the Saturday afternoon when I pointed out that the other great religions all have a God and believe in God, while we do not. For them their morality depends on what they believe God sanctions or wants them to do while for Buddhists it's the principle of harmlessness and close attention to what is intended that is important. This means, for example, that some who believe in God see killing and violence as acceptable but for us that's never the case. I talked about the formation of a multifaith chaplaincy in the Prison Service and how I saw the importance in that of being able to be on friendly terms even with those with whom you disagreed. And I spoke of the difficulty some Buddhists still have with the idea of a Buddhist chaplaincy to the Armed Forces. Buddhism is after all essentially pacifist and unlike other religions gives no justification whatsoever for violence and warfare. I told how I had had to explain that a Buddhist chaplaincy to the Armed Forces was not there for what the Forces were there for but for the people in the Forces, people who suffered and who might benefit by hearing and practising the Dhamma. I have never forgotten visiting the wounded in Ubon Hospital during the war in Vietnam and Laos nor seeing anguished high ranking soldiers sitting at Ajahn Chah's feet. Then I spoke about my thirty years of Buddhism in the prisons and Angulimala, the Buddhist Prison Chaplaincy. Of course I told them the story of Angulimala, the serial killer who became a bhikkhu and an arahant. And I told them of the admirable tenacity and commitment with which many prisoners practise meditation and Buddhist teaching against odds and in conditions that your average middle class Buddhist would scarcely imagine. I concluded my presentation by trying to make things a little more interactive and asked if any of my audience would care to say what they felt about their job now that they were exploring Buddhism.
On our way back on Friday we stopped at Avebury and strolled for a few minutes amongst the stones; and on Saturday we made a bit of a detour to the coast to enjoy a wonderful evening walk and a breath or two of invigorating sea air.
I attended on the Friday afternoon to support the opening and introductory session and again on Saturday afternoon when I gave a talk.
Amport House lies deep in the Hampshire countryside and is not easy to find or get to. Nor is it easy to escape from and on Friday I'm afraid I thought that just as well as we laboured through one speech of welcome and introduction after another. Of course it was very kind and very nice of so many from the Amed Forces Chaplaincy and the MOD to be there to wish us well and impress on us all the importance of this historic occasion. It was interesting too to hear the Jewish version of that old chestnut about members of different faiths all going up the same mountain by different paths. In his version, the good rabbi had us all shopping at Harrods when a fire alarm goes off and we all have to find our way out, some down the escalators, some in the lifts, some in various other ways, all to the one and only exit. Well, in its way this is all very nice and yes, we do share some things in common but different religions do differ from each other and Buddhism is especially different from the rest.
That was how I began my presentation the next day on the Saturday afternoon when I pointed out that the other great religions all have a God and believe in God, while we do not. For them their morality depends on what they believe God sanctions or wants them to do while for Buddhists it's the principle of harmlessness and close attention to what is intended that is important. This means, for example, that some who believe in God see killing and violence as acceptable but for us that's never the case. I talked about the formation of a multifaith chaplaincy in the Prison Service and how I saw the importance in that of being able to be on friendly terms even with those with whom you disagreed. And I spoke of the difficulty some Buddhists still have with the idea of a Buddhist chaplaincy to the Armed Forces. Buddhism is after all essentially pacifist and unlike other religions gives no justification whatsoever for violence and warfare. I told how I had had to explain that a Buddhist chaplaincy to the Armed Forces was not there for what the Forces were there for but for the people in the Forces, people who suffered and who might benefit by hearing and practising the Dhamma. I have never forgotten visiting the wounded in Ubon Hospital during the war in Vietnam and Laos nor seeing anguished high ranking soldiers sitting at Ajahn Chah's feet. Then I spoke about my thirty years of Buddhism in the prisons and Angulimala, the Buddhist Prison Chaplaincy. Of course I told them the story of Angulimala, the serial killer who became a bhikkhu and an arahant. And I told them of the admirable tenacity and commitment with which many prisoners practise meditation and Buddhist teaching against odds and in conditions that your average middle class Buddhist would scarcely imagine. I concluded my presentation by trying to make things a little more interactive and asked if any of my audience would care to say what they felt about their job now that they were exploring Buddhism.
On our way back on Friday we stopped at Avebury and strolled for a few minutes amongst the stones; and on Saturday we made a bit of a detour to the coast to enjoy a wonderful evening walk and a breath or two of invigorating sea air.
