Forwarded By
JW Buganga
Kampala-Uganda
Most Uganda
Buddhists are affiliated to an organization called the Uganda Buddhist Center.
It is registered as a national non-government organization, with
responsibilities of inculcating peace through the teaching of Dhamma, and the
practices of meditation and yoga. But because attaining of peace also manifests
through material satisfaction and livelihood development, the center finds itself
busy with the noble work of extending essential life-support facilities to
communities-in-need such as clean and safe water. It is provided free of
charge. It has got a resource center for students, curious individuals, and
institutions to research on Dhamma. It has also gone ahead to nurture young
university students, through provision of management and humanitarian service
skills, knowledge, and experience, and with a critical emphasis of ethical and
moral issues in application of those newly acquired attributes.
Inter-religious, Inter-cultural and
Inter-traditional Work
Over the years,
we integrated the aspect of
inter-religious/faith/spiritual/traditional/cultural in our work. So far we
have been working closely with two famous Kingdoms, namely; the Kingdom of
Tooro and Buganda. These, until now, act as mediums through which to express
uniqueness of their respective cultures and traditions, and subsequently;
developing and preserving them. This has proved very useful economically. Eco-tourism
is now growing rapidly in the country, which provides additional revenue to the
Kingdoms and country in general. With equal resistance, we have been facing
serious disappearance of forests due to insensitive ‘developments’ around the
country.
Inter-cultural and Inter-Tradition
Conflicts
It can be noted
that the world we live had got problems arising from dominance of one culture
or tradition over multitude of others in utilization of the natural resources
and access to development opportunities, and greedily ensuring status quo. As
Marxists say, ‘the oppressed will always rise against the oppressor.’ As such,
the world will always be assured of the trouble of violence. But then, violence
by Man is not only targeting fellow men; it is sharply being experienced by the
physical environment, characterized by over exploitation of nonrenewable
resources and destruction of the green cover. Since violence yields violence,
the consequences to such actions have been dire. Natural disasters have been
widespread, in the forms of food shortage and starvation, uncomfortable very
cold or very hot weather, destructive floods and hailstorms, and so on.
Our Plans on Inter-religious,
Inter-cultural and Inter-traditional for Peace
We have plans to
undertake forestry recovery programme around the country with cooperation from
local leaders, and private land owners. We are already part of partnerships
with local universities, and environment bodies to help recover the threatened
nature. While we have direct contacts and closely working with the two Kingdoms
above, we are working around the clock to open links and working relationships
with other monarchs and chiefdoms. In doing this, we aim at demystifying myths
about Buddhism mission in Africa, and only work together towards making
communities and environment better.
For Man to be
happy, he must deal with his culture of violence. Buddhism provides a mechanism
of dealing with self destructive or aggressive impulses by letting sufferer to
rise above them, and prompting consistently Dhamma-friendly decisions.
Essentially, all cultures and traditions agree to peaceful existence and
co-existence. And they can use their diverse experiences to improve on
relations among men, and that with the physical environment as well as wild
life. We are working on instituting a collection facility of all such
traditions and cultures, so that we can continue to nurture life through right
understanding of the principles of Dhamma, which are collectively known to all
other traditions.
Aspects to Consider
We all know that
Dhamma represents diversity of things and beings, which cannot necessarily be
the same; thinking, feeling, and acting that way. No. Unfortunately, some
groups break off from mainstream cultures and traditions to specialize in
promotion of misconceived Dhamma knowledge and practices. Mainstream traditions
have the duty to help provide platform to them with the aim of causing
reinstatement, through means that resuscitate right mindfulness, and right
administration of Dhamma principles, through meditation. In this way the
realities of diversity would not be fought to cause accelerated misery and
destructions, instead. The mainland traditions have an equal responsibility;
through their unique strategies engage the lost world in ways that help to
shape wrong intentions in favor of those that propagate peace. Forums as these
(tradition and cultural exchange) help to identify those unique endowments in
every tradition and culture to meet the common development needs of men,
sustainably. Besides, it provide an avenue to express each other views before
others, to listen to one another, to be understood, to be respected, to learn
from one another, and to develop universal principles for future cooperation
and peace. I urge you and everyone
involved to continue with this kind spirit for a peaceful and prosperous world,
and to even to spread, and involve other traditions and cultures that are not
here today.
Conclusion
With those few
remarks, I end here by thanking you all for listening to me and inviting Dhamma
teachers with a background of interreligious, cross-traditional, and
cross-cultural approaches, to volunteer with us in Uganda. We allow a
volunteering period of between three to six months. Uganda is one of the
leading culturally diverse countries in the world. With such a background, it
provides volunteers with the right experience of working across cultures and
traditions. Among other roles, will be to write reports, to create archives
about universal aspects of cultures, and to development and participate in
community development programmes.
