“Sinhala Buddhists do not have a theorising tradition such as the Brahmin tradition in the ancient Bharath. The Brahmins had been good at abstract theorising from the Vedic times, and have created elaborate theories in sociology, medicine (Ayurveda), science, mathematics, music and other fields. The Varna theory on social sects (classes) is a consistent theory within the Vedic chinthanaya, though the westerners and even the Buddhists would object to it. Buddha came from a different tradition and was based on pre Vedic chinthanaya found in not only in pre Vedic Bharath but in China and other countries in Asia.”_________________________________
by Prof. Nalin de Silva
(March 17, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The nationalist movement lacked abstract general theories based on the national or "jathika chinthanaya" from the very beginning. That does not mean that there were no theories based on the "jathika chinthanaya", as there were concrete theories applicable to specific instances. In fact the "jathika chinthanaya" does not encourage abstract general theories as Sinhala Buddhist culture does not provide a fertile ground for abstract creations. Sinhala Buddhists have never been good at abstract theorising and this is something that they have to learn if they want to survive on this planet as a nation.
Sinhala Buddhists do not have a theorising tradition such as the Brahmin tradition in the ancient Bharath. The Brahmins had been good at abstract theorising from the Vedic times, and have created elaborate theories in sociology, medicine (Ayurveda), science, mathematics, music and other fields. The Varna theory on social sects (classes) is a consistent theory within the Vedic chinthanaya, though the westerners and even the Buddhists would object to it. Buddha came from a different tradition and was based on pre Vedic chinthanaya found in not only in pre Vedic Bharath but in China and other countries in Asia. These pre Vedic cultures did not give rise to abstract theories as could be seen from the Chinese science and other sciences in Asia. If the Aryans (treated as a cultural group) did not come to Bharath there would not have been a Brahamin tradition in India and there would not have been abstract theories. On the other hand what would have happened if the Aryans, for some reason or other, went to China instead of going to Bharath? In any event it has to be emphasised that the Vedic chinthanaya, in spite of giving rise to abstract theories, was not as abstract as the present day Greek Judaic Christian chinthanaya that came into existence about five hundred years ago in Europe.
Most of the Vedic people who came to Sri Lanka, around ninth century B.C. according to Dr. Shiran Deraniyagala, were from Vanga and Kalinga (Bengal and Orissa) and would not have been Aryanised to a great extent. The people in the eastern areas of Bharath including present Nepal would have ben slow to absorb the Aryan culture. It has to be remembered that Buddha also came from this region and more "Vas" (rainy seasons) had been spent in Shravasti closer to Nepal than in Madhya Desha that would have come under the influence of the Aryans by that time. (I am thankful to a former student of mine who drew my attention to this fact.) Those Vedic people who came to Sri Lanka would not have been capable of Aryanising the pre Vedic people who were already living in Sri Lanka to a large extent, and as a result no Brahmin tradition was evolved in this country. (Details are to be found in the series of articles published in "Vidusara" under the theme "Ape Pravada".) On the other hand the Brahamin tradition was so powerful in Bharath, it even "infiltrated" Buddhism resulting in abstract theorising in Buddhism in the form of Mahayana. Almost all the "theorists" in Mahayana from Ven. Nagarjuna to Ven. Vasubandu had come from Brahmin families and it is clear that they had brought with them the Brahmin tradition to Buddhism. Even in Theravada Buddhism the "theorists" such as Ven. Buddhagosha had come from Brahmin families and one could easily identify abstract theorising in the Abhidhamma created long before the Buddhagoshas, that is not found in the Suttas. What I am trying to point out is that abstract theorising is alien to pre Vedic Chinthanayas and early Buddha Dhamma. (Strictly speaking Buddha Dhamma is not an "ism" and it is not correct to use the word Buddhism in respect of Dhamma. Words such as Buddhism were created by the westerners who tried to understand the east in terms of their concepts and even if we have to use such terms we have to be conscious of the fact that those terms are not accurate.) Theorising in Buddha Dhamma that emphasises "prathyaksha", is a later phenomenon introduced by the Bhikkus who came from Brahmin families.
When Mahayana reached China and the other countries in the east it was absorbed into those cultures without much of the abstract theories, and became more practical. It is significant that Buddha Sasana has survived in countries with what could be called Mongolian cultures or non Vedic cultures. One could say that the only exception is Sri Lanka or Sinhale as it was known then, where Sasana has survived for more than two thousand three hundred years. However, it has to be pointed out that Sinhale never became a Vedic country and the Sinhala people had been able to create a unique culture in this country independent of the Bharath Vedic culture. In that sense one could say that Buddha Sasana has survived in those countries with non Vedic cultures, and in India the Vedic culture has been strong enough to wipe out Buddhism (in the sense of a theoretical Buddha Dhamma due to Brahmin teachers). This does not mean that Buddhism disappeared from India due to this reason alone, as there were political reasons contributing to it, but one should consider this cultural aspect as well when discussing the emergence of Hinduism, another "ism" coined by the westerners, after Shankaracharya who was able to construct a Nirgun Brahaman by "inverting" the concept of Sunyatha in Madhyamikavada.
Sinhala people from the very beginning (and even before that as the tribes that after mixing with the Vedic people who came from Bharath, went on to form the Sinhala nation) had been very good at "shilpa" than at "shasthra" (in the sense of theories) and to date this tradition could be found among them. It is said that when the Europeans came to the east as colonialists the Asians did not have guns but very soon the Sinhalas and the Japanese made the best guns in the world. Both Japanese and the Sinhalas are good at "shilpa" but after "independence", it is sad that the Sinhalas have neglected their abilities in that field while the Japanese have gone from strength to strength in the field that they can excel. Instead of developing "shilpa", the Sinhalas, in the name of "shasthra", have imitated the western theorists "cutting" (fitting) data according to the theories of the west. In the present world neither the Japanese nor the Sinhalas could neglect theorising. However, they should create their own theories with respect to their cultures without "cutting" data to fit into the theories of the westerners. The Sinhalas may have to start from scratch as they do not have a tradition of abstract theorising expect for what has been absorbed into their culture in the form of Abhidhamma. However in the process of theorising they should not lose their ability in "shilpa" and also should not go to the extremes that the westerners have gone during the last five hundred years or so.
The "intellectual" traditions that began in the nineteenth century among the Sinhalas consisted broadly of two trends. The so-called indigenous traditions that were formed around Vidyodaya and Vidyalankara pirivenas concentrated on Sinhala literature and Dhamma studies and on Ayurvedic medicine and may be Astrology. However, as there was no tradition of theorising the "indigenous" school was not interested in creating new knowledge. They were satisfied with learning what was already there and "correcting" (writing "shuddhi") the ancient works found in "ola leaf books". On the other hand those who had a western education were devoid of the Sinhala "aranyavasi" tradition and became the "data cutters" imitating western theories. These people who thought that they were creative were very often the worst imitators that the country had produced. Though they may have come first in various examinations from the kindergarten to the civil service and may have ended up with first classes and doctorates, they were the most sterile when it came to creating knowledge. Though they may have become professors here and abroad none of them has been able to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, that august body in London held in high esteem by them. Instead they have formed their own national academy of science again imitating the Royal Society, London. As a well known professor in the University of Colombo, who is a fellow of the academy and a "sales rep" keeps on reminding me I am neither a professor nor a fellow of the academy, and I am not unhappy about it. The "data cutters" may have had a very good education in English and the western culture in the schools and the universities that they attended but they have not been able to absorb that culture into their system. They do not have a "gut" feeling about that culture which they have "learnt" from books. As a result they are not able to create knowledge in the western cultures and have been restricted to "data cutters".
When western knowledge was introduced to Sri Lanka what the Sinhalas (and Tamils and Muslims) should have done was to absorb that knowledge into their system without imitating it. However, in defense of "data cutters", I must say that there were two factors that prevented them from doing so. Both these factors are operative even today and unless one is conscious about them one is bound to end up as a "data cutter". One is the western cultural colonialism that forces the "intellectuals" in Asia and Africa to become mere imitators of the western knowledge. Western cultural colonialism together with other forms of western Christian colonialism has established a hegemonic system and enforces western creations on the others. The second factor has to do with the tradition among the "gramavasi" Sinhala intellectuals as against the "aranyavasi" intellectuals. The "gramavasis" had in general been imitators of the Bharath knowledge and the "aranyavasis" had not been abstract theorists though they had been creative in their own way. The "nagaravasi" intellectuals who had a western education only copied the "gramavasis" substituting England and English knowledge for Bharath and knowledge associated with that country.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
I honour you Sir, You are a great Sinhalyek.It is a shame,some media and NGO,s become Dollar Bulgers by wagging tail for Dollars.
Please expose the truth to the world.
Sadness of our country is that most of the so called educated people do not have the ability to absorb what Prof Nalin explain here. Even a person trained in western tradition should be able to see the beauty of how he develop these ideas/theories (Pravada) and fine tune the intricacies over the years.
This is a true genus of our time.
Jathika Chinthanaya (JC) is a double edged sward. The street Sinhalese idiots can run away with JC and get arrogant and violent. We Sri Lankans should develop our own traditions consciously and should NOT be violent against non-conformers. JC should be promoted with the tolerance. Otherwise, it will be like what JVP used to be. Sometimes I feel the message of Prf. Nalin sound more arrogant than compassionate.
Recently a female underwear exposure took the center stage in Kelaniya campus, perhaps by inspirations of JC. One of the poster created based on a picture of a young woman sitting (with about one centimeter of the waste of her underwear exposed on the back) said, “it is the style of prostitutes in USA”. In fact, most garment manufacturers in the world now make ‘low-cut’ jeans and they are quite popular around the world. When you wear one and sit down, the underwear pops up. Prostitutes in US wear various clothing’s and these days you see lot of school children wearing pants that way. The poster therefore was degrading for young women as well as misinforming. Many women don’t like this kind of pants and exposing underwear is accidental than intentional.
I am afraid, JC is a vehicle that promote ignorance than a progressive nation since many people use that for relative growth than vertical growth.
The biggest question is whether we can afford to have our own chinthanaya being a small island and a multicultural multi religious nation. If Sinhalese wants to restrict themselves to a path away from the mainstream avenues in the world and other minorities are aliening their interests with the world, Sinhalese will be a forever poor group just watching others are taking off. We will never have Sinhalese who are motivated to be world leaders in various disciplines.
Most JC gurus such as Prof. Nalin have send their children to USA for higher education. It is quite likely these children will never follow or promote JC. The idiots who gets trapped within JC will never see a social escape and will be in a perpetual hateful cycle.
It seems like above commenter is blindly trying to throw those same old cliché Anti-JC arguments one more time, without trying to understand very point of this article. As a person who studied from Dr. Nalin I can assure you that, he never told any body not to go to USA for higher education or such thing. The truth is he always says that you should learn western science throughly, if that is what you are learning. If you want a proof read his book "Vidya Katandara". (And at the same time he explains how to be critical about it. ) Studying in USA and being a idiotic western imitator are quite different things. Of cause Dr. Nalin ridicules those idiotic western imitators. That does not mean his view is not compassionate. In fact he is the most truly compassionate intellectual you can find in Sri Lanka in current times in a true sense. Now the question about, Dr. Nalin's children. What is the problem even if they do not follow JC, does it prove that JC is incorrect? These are the kind of theories these western imitators have to come up, since the creativity is not in their tool chest.
Being a small island nation can we afford to develop over own chintanaya, and be separate from the so called main stream?
So by following the so called mainstream path can we be world leaders? If it is possible what have we achieved so far by following the main stream path?
It is obvious that we have only one way to get out of this vicious cycle. Many nations are leaning that lesson one way or the other around the world today. Dr. Nalin is trying put that in to a formulate a consistent model for that path. In fact I think through these articles Dr. Nalin explains some philosophical limitations we have in our Chinthanaya and how to overcome those. So one should understand that JC is not a bonapartist ideology that assumes Sinhala is the supreme nation etc. On the contrary we think in a very pragmatic and relatively optimal way to solve our problems, not only for Sinhala but also the other ethnic minorities in this country.
The world is flat. That means, Sri Lanka is connected to the whole world. For the first time in our history, we are no longer an Island. When we are all wired, it is impossible to have our own cultural identity. That means, we have to force a Jathika Chinthanaya (JC) upon fellow Sri Lankans.
Since people are exposed to cultures around the world, how do we convince Sri Lankans to think Jathika? I don’t think it can’t be done through arrogance.
If you look at the status of Sinhalese Buddhist today, can we be happy about ourselves? The morals of the society is going down every day just like our educational system. We are the largest ethnic group, however we are not the most effective leaders. We have let ourselves govern by socially under achieving the most corrupt bunch in the South asia. We have been privileged to the path of wisdom that some people strive for lifetimes, which we never make an effort to follow. Our universities consist of students who will achieve much less than our counterparts in other Asian countries.
How we progress from the state we are in now?
Can JC provide answers?
Perhaps JC is an old school concept, quite suitable when the world is round and we are isolated from the rest. Today, thanks for the internet, the world is flat and we are no longer Sri Lanka; we are the world. The world is ready to imitate and follow us just as much as we like to imitate and follow the world. We just need to find out how we fit in and what our role should be. We are just as capable as those who rule the world 180 degrees away from us.
We need to develop a culture that challenge each and every one of us to achieve to our fullest. Late Indian PM Neru built the institution IIT with his vision to create world leaders. That institution is doing just that right now. Indians went abroad, learned the western wisdom, and brought back the high tech revolution home. Today, India can rule the world at the comfort of their home. We, on the other hand had been left behind. The good news is that, it is not too late for us to change our course, follow the path of Indians and bring back opportunities for the rest.
Today we blame English and westerners. What is English? It is just a mode of communication. Who are westerners? Just people like us with a different skin tone. Why do we have so many issues with those who imitate western cultures? Suppose we learn English and develop a lifestyle that back bone less western imitators want to follow?
The bottom line is, English is the ticket to opportunities around the world. It transport Sri Lankans to a different space or a culture and they can grow to a very different level from it. Why anyone would wants to hinder the progress of our fellow human being by asking not to learn English?
The English speaking white man today is very interested in our Buddhism. He likes our Dhall curry as well as pol sambol. He will teach you how to respect the views of our fellow human being. He will encourage you to achieve to your fullest without fighting with your neighbor. The English west is not what you see on TV or what you read from newspapers. You have to go there to experience what it is by yourselves. It is a place where you want to grow without losing who you are and then bring back something to your fellow citizens.
One can spend lot of time analyzing or re-discovering who we are and who we should be. What will that do to us? Do you think that will create a culture that will bring back the glorious past?
Dr. Nalin is a national treasure. No one writes or speak like him. I hope he will try to find a more practical and compassionate path to take this nation out of darkness. Let’s get together and define a national purpose? Do we want to go forward or backward in time?
We need to develop a confident and smart nation who wants to be proud of who we are ignoring the madness around us. It is time to stop thinking national and think global.
I have never written against JC publicly until now. Therefore saying throwing same old cliché Anti-JC arguments is incorrect.
I don’t say Dr. Nalin directly ask people not to go abroad and get a higher education. From the way he present his anti-western thinking, it makes people stick too much to Sinhala and not pursue mastery of the English language. I would want Dr. Nalin to tell people to think of being Sinhalese Buddhists in English.
According to Darwin’t theory, the best serving human is the most adaptive one. Embracing English or any foreign language is trying to be adaptive for our own survival. That is being pragmatic without getting too involved with Buddhism or a JC.
There is a direct relationship between one’s quality of life and English language. Those who can speak and write English well with other things gets paid more than anyone else. That is pragmatic talk.
I would like to ask what JC has achieved to Sinhalese Buddhists? Number of JC promoters I have met have been under achievers and always angry with someone. They always project dark energy towards humanity. Why someone carry JC on their head gets angry seeing a small band of an underware? Where is the pragmatism in that behavior?
Speaking of western imitators one thing. Building walls against and keeping things all Sinhala is another. JC will make our hesitancy towards English justified. This will make us underperformers against those who want to pursue English. If you understand this, let’s talk about how to promote English and not western imitators. If you want to stop making western imitators, you have to shut down the Internet and TV with advertising. Is it a pragmatic approach?
Let’s accept the fact that most of us are western imitators. Then let’s understand why they imitate the west and not ourselves. Do you know the west likes to imitate us? Let’s hire bunch of white people, teach them Sinhalese, how to appreciate the sarone and sari. Let our people imitate the Sinhalese inspired west. This is how you can get to the hearts and minds of imitators. JC’s approach is to create the phobia and that will result in pockets of cultural separation. Isn’t it that you don’t want?
Most of us are insecure about something. Some get into clicks or groups just to feel secure within that group. Usually those who are in the group have self imposed rules on achieving into higher levels. I am sure JC will create under achieving groups if we are not careful.
Saying that being a small nation we can develop our own things is the Ideologist’s approach, not the pragmatic one. We have to assume we are a multi cultural and multi religious nation. Even within Buddhism, there are a ton of differences. By being Buddhists, over 95% of don’t even know what Buddhism is.
Dr. Nalin is too intelligent and some of his views are highly one-dimensional. Majority of people in any nation are not intelligent. They don’t want to be people like Dr. Nalin. Therefore Dr. Nalin can’t appeal to a wider audience since he doesn’t understand their wishes. That is why it hasn’t produced results. He perhaps think the vision of the population should be his vision. It is very difficult to change a culture completely. You can only guide people by inspiration, not through intellectual arrogance.
People are stupid anyway. Let them be western imitated stupid. That way, we take social friction out of our lives.
Being positioned on crucial point on the world map, SL was always well connected with outside world from ancient times. We were always exposed to other cultures. We should not get fooled by the cover-up slogans of new wave of the western colonization such as “you are no longer isolated in this internet age”. It was no impossible to continue our own identity for thousands of years, because we were able to be creatively bend, adapt and absorb new changes/trend in to our culture. But that was not a back to back wining game for us always, there were many down turns. As some one mentioned earlier Prof Nalin is trying to analyze those weak points and device some new ways to engage in the process.
Once these suddenly enlightened spine-less western imitators wanted us to follow NICs economic model, Now they want us to follow India. Without trying to understand the local realities, they just want to follow their day dreams. That’s not how cultures evolve. India having a large population and many other factors which Dr. Nalin also explains here, can afford to experiment new model. (Quantity over quality) Singapore being a so small place can follow certain economic/cultural model. Being a small unique island nation we have to find our own ways which suits our skills and capabilities and culture.
It is naive to believe that world is flat. That is utter BS. The point is world is heavily diverse and there is always this perpetual clashes of civilizations. New tools and media have brought this battle in to just a new level. But it is the same game. Confused ones give-in quickly. It is true we have certain things to patch-up in our foundation, but that is not a reason to give-up.
This is the same argument some time back, brought against defeating LTTE militarily. They said we are such a poor country who can’t afford to fight world no 1 terrorist group. Only Prof Nalin said those days that it can be done if we give proper political leadership. See the situation today.
Since JC has very few people pushing their agenda, one or two hard core JC followers are writing under different aliases to show Sri Lanka there is wide spread support for JC ideology.
I can confietntly say here Sam and Namal are the same people. In fact, they both belong to Jasonsociety of Kalaya web site who got caught dating a white girl in America while preaching JC to Sri Lankans.
My point is, most JC followers are hypocrites. They say one thing to Sri Lankans, do another in their personal lives. That is why they justify sending their children to America for higher education while criticizing people in the West.
Yes, we were connected with the outside world, but not with this magnitude. Even my grandmother is looking at Yahoo content coming from England. I still need to see the answer on how are we going to have our own identity with TV and Internet.
The glory once we had thousands of years ago is gone. The modern Sri Lankans are mostly morally corrupt than ever before in our history. Moral values in a society is tied with the economic success. If people aren’t well off, one can’t expect good morals from them. Our responsibility therefore to recover people economically. JC and JVP leaders send their children abroad just for that reason. They are not ready to share their secrets of success of their children with the rest of the world.
What Prof. Nalin provides are not solutions. They are attacks and are counterproductive. That is why JC can’t achieve too much in our society.
Obviously one can talk about the cultures. Those who talk about our cultures are secretly fascinated about western cultures. I still fail to see how a guy living in USA talks about contributing to Sri Lankan culture using our roots.
There is a difference between imitating and adapting west. When people talk about spineless, what they don’t talk about is flexibility or adaptability.
Having a strong spine can make you vulnerable in certain situations. It reflect the less confidence to change.
People have written books being how flat the world is. Today, a Sri Lankan computer professional can be as successful as his counterpart in USA while living in Sri Lanka. A physics teacher in Bangladesh can tutor a student in USA in real time and can make a good income. A Sri Lankan in USA can teach urban classroom in Sri Lanka from his living room. That is because the world is flat. The naive view is not believing the world is flat.
I am not sure who said LTTE can’t be military defeated. I always maintained that it is easy to defeat them if we take the corruption away. Speaking of which, look where we are now. Yes we made significant gains. However the gains we had internationally over the years are gone. We are making it difficult to fight with LTTE anymore since we are behaving like idiots.
Again, please mention what JC has achieved to us Sri Lankans.
JC movement was the only group for last 20 some years consistently fought against Tamil Extremism on ideological and various organizational fronts. JC has pushed all other Sri Lankan political movements to accept in some way or the other that defeating LTTE militarily is the only solution for current problem in SL. All in all it is the only complete and consistent knowledge system so far we have for our survival as a sovereign nation. What Jatika Chinthanaya have achieved can not be measured by counting how many people are writing to blogs like this or other web sites. JC is not a political party or movement, and it does not have any conventional political power. But its voice has resonated in majority of progressive countrymen's harts and minds in SL and on most critical moments in our recent history JC has inspired and regrouped people around a common cause.
On the other hand if JC cant achieve any thing and does not have solutions, then there is nothing for Anti-JC'rs to worry about. It has to be already dead by now. People who are not born yesterday know the truth.
It seems like this commenter "ReallyCold"(heart) is suffering from some kind of depression. That is obvious looking at the scattered inconsistent arguments he/she is making here. I do not know what the problem with dating a white girl being a JC follower (JC have not restricted dating/marring/having sex with people of other race/color/country/relieon, has it? ). But one thing I have noticed is, many western worshipers in SL who come to US and don't get accepted by whites, realizes what JC people have said. And I have no idea who those people Namal and Jasonsociety are. I am Sam :) and I live in USA and I appreciate Prof Nalins views. Almost all the JC followers I have seen in SL and here are extremely successful at what ever they are doing and where ever they live they are not foolish western imitators. There is no secret if you are smart enough to get a good first degree, you can get a scholarship to a good university in USA (or anywhere in the world for that matter) It is not because hypocrisy of JC people that they or their children do Phd's in USA. They are smart/inteligent people who did their studies well.
One need to understand that living in/Dating person of/Studing in/working in western country and being western imitator are quit different things. If you cant understand these simple facts, I do not expect you to understand the stuff Prof Nalin talks about. You are just scratching the surface.
One more thing JC have always criticized the JVP's opportunistic politics. JVP may use what ever JC says time to time, but that does not mean JC and JVP is same.
Dear "ReallyCold", You need to read little bit more about JC before criticizing it. I guess you should read VIdusara mag first, if you cant understand Mage Lokaya or Vidya Katandar. You need to sit down and learn what it is before you raise against JC. If you do not do that than that is what I call arrogance.
Looking at your arguments you have not done your home work. May be you got pissed off by poster or some thing. If you are university student then may be you got defeated by JC inspired student group. I have seen so many people like you while I was in Uni of Col long time back. I feel sorry for you.
By the way thanks for pointing me to Kalaya.org.
This blog title is way past its life in LG. No point posting here any more.
Why JC has no political power? Is it because they are not widely accepted? Why can’t you be a political force? If you are not a political force, how can you expect to change policies?
There is lot of room left in Sri Lanka to be good politicians. If JC wishes to be clean and sincere politicians without being hypocrites, people will follow you.
A person suffering from depression can’t write like the way I write here. You can use that kind of retreat to misinform a puppet fan base. I have seen how JC followers praise each other even for stupid comments some make.
So you are justifying a multiracial relationship well, only someone in such a relationship does that. If you accept who are rather than trying to deny, people will embrace you as a sincere person with a vision than a blind follower.
Is there a difference between western imitator and western dater? If you don’t want people to imitate west, why falling in love with white girls? Remember Anton Balasingham fighting for Tamil rights and his white wife? If I am fighting for Tamil rights, I’d marry a Tamil woman first since they are in a worst situation than the men.
If a person is in love with a white woman, there is no way you can bring Jathika values to the relationship. You have to compromise your Sinhalese values with Western American Christian inspired values. A person in such a relationship can never promote a Jathika Chinthanaya to Sinhalese people.
There is a good chance a person goes to USA or UK for higher studies will embrace some of the western thinking. It is perfectly ok for that person to bring that thinking back to Sri Lanka. That person will then have the best of the both worlds and we can call that the Loca Chinthanaya. Loca Chinthanaya can accommodate both Jathika Chinthanaya as well as Western Chinthanaya. This is the perfect wisdom for Sri Lanka to progress without starting from square one. This chinthanaya will accommodate falling in love with beautiful white woman and having fun with them with Champaign in swimming pools as well as participant in a local pirith ceremony.
How often JC/JVP/LSSP leaders/followers who sent their children to USA/UK openly talk about where their children study?
How many times they openly preach others encouraging sending their children to western universities?
How often they disclose how to get these so called scholarships?
Why these things are done in a secret?
The best way to help a fellow Sri Lankan is helping that person go abroad for studies or for a professional career. Rather than preaching people on how to re-invent our traditional values, I suggest you open up public forums to help people go abroad. I am not asking anything outrageous. Simply asking to share the prosper that you share with your children.
The hypocrisy is sending your children abroad and preaching other’s children about national values. Isn’t that what Prabhakaran did too?
JC may have done some work against Tamil extremism in Sri Lanka. The showdown is in foreign countries. Today international pressure is mounted against us due to work by Tamil diaspora. What is the answer from JC for their propaganda? Does JC has foreign lobbying groups telling others the truth about LTTE? Basically, you guys are getting beaten by others at other fronts while you are busy defending at the home front. If you widen your vision, you will know how to address these major problems. Send people abroad, teach them how to maintain our national values, train them to communicate well in English, make them wealthy so that they can network policy makers around the world. This is how you build a visionary global force that help Sri Lanka.
That is why it is dangerous to inspire our students with nationalism, that way they stop developing the potential they get by going global. Pumping JC into young minds can actually hurt our population.
You have to stop beating people up for imitating the west and find a way to integrate them and make them work for you. When you do that, you can actually date white people without being a hypocrite.
Calling people western imitators is a judgment call that may or may not be correct.
I did not point you to kalaya.org. I only said kalaya. Since you are running it, you knew what I was talking about right away. Chasing UFOs in USA is a very western trendy thing. Going to a Sri Lankan Buddhist temple while in USA and observing sil is a very Jathika thing. I hope you will not run away from the truth and continue this dialog. Hopefully you can learn about something new from what I write as well.
Some questions to think about.
Why is it important for us to have our own Chinthanaya?
Is it because of our own ultra ego?
What are we scared of?
What worries us?
What’s wrong with western Chinthanaya?
Wouldn’t it be easier to copy the west (not imitation) and use the western wisdom for our own advantage?
Let’s say some people don’t have the backbone and likes to imitate the west. What’s wrong with that? Why are we judging them for being western imitators?
Who has done the most damage to Sri Lanka? Western imitators or any Jathika promoters (I am not talking about just JC forks)?
Why can’t we make let people be themselves, do whatever they want to do within legal limits?
If we ground ourselves, let go our ego, be humble and accept the west is good, wouldn’t that take us to a higher economic level than the one we are in now?
We have to accept the culture is a dynamic entity and therefore we have to allow it to grow or mix with other cultures.
What cultures are considered the best in the world?
Do we have the best culture in the world?
Is simply living our fullest helping others is enough than creating everything Jathika?
Is creating a Jathika Chinthanaya is an trying to live in a fantasy world?
Can a person wearing a Jathika cloths and speaking to us Jathika is trying to fool us to achieve his personal objectives and therefore can take us for a ride around?
Can we be victimized being Jathika too much?
What is important to us, being economically successful or being Jathika 100% or a blend of both?
I don’t think any body else reads these comments now other than me and this ReallyCold person. This is my last post and I can’t waste any more time in this old article.
I just skimmed thru all your posts here and what I found is that instead of arguing about the intellectual side of JC, you are more interested in gossip like cliché around/against JC. I don’t think it happens not just because you want to throw mud on JC. As Prof Nalin pointed out, it is a common weakness of our culture. We are very week to build abstract ideas, think in terms of abstract concepts. So every where what we see is just concrete observations only. Many times these observations fool you if you look at them exclusively (without trying to mold it in to a abstract level).
See some of your comments:
1. There is a direct relationship between one’s quality of life and English language. Those who can speak and write English well with other things gets paid more than anyone else.
2. Yes, we were connected with the outside world, but not with this magnitude. Even my grandmother is looking at Yahoo content coming from England. I still need to see the answer on how are we going to have our own identity with TV and Internet.
3. Moral values in a society is tied with the economic success. If people aren’t well off, one can’t expect good morals from them. Our responsibility therefore to recover people economically.
4. Having a strong spine can make you vulnerable in certain situations. It reflect the less confidence to change.
5. I always maintained that it is easy to defeat them if we take the corruption away.
6. Is there a difference between western imitator and western dater? If you don’t want people to imitate west, why falling in love with white girls?
7. Why JC has no political power? Is it because they are not widely accepted? Why can’t you be a political force? If you are not a political force, how can you expect to change policies?
8. I am not even going to talk about your underwear problem :)
Even if you ignore the immature childishness of these points, all these points exemplifies the common weakness I mentioned above. You get too excited by the (some times false)observation and come to conclusion too quickly. Learn how to think abstract and not get carried away by the concrete observations all the time, and use it as a tool to come up with strong argument at least.
You simply can’t distinguish the difference between criticizing the western ideology and JC follower dating white girl (what do you know about that white girl). Western ideology is more of a abstract concept and we do not use that abstract idea to identify stereotypically each and every (concrete) white human beings each and every behavior. But when Bush opens his mouth to talk about democratizing Iraq it simply coincides with that abstract concept.
If you can’t understand what abstract and concrete means, then you have lot more home work to do before we continue this discussion. Let me show one more occurrence of this ignorance in your responses/arguments.
You say that “There is a direct relationship between one’s quality of life and English language. Those who can speak and write English well with other things gets paid more than anyone else” this is a very simple (and incorrect too) concrete observation you have seen in our society. But you don’t try to form any abstract idea around it, (for that you need to collect some other similar observations). And then you get unnecessarily carried away with this single concrete observation, and come to a conclusion that if you want to be reach then you should just learn how to read and write English at any cost. Before jumping into conclusions, if you investigate even this single observation little bit more you should find,
1. Most of so called English speaking people will be rich even if they could not speak English. In fact many of these people are rich even before the were born :) If you know what I mean.
2. Otherwise these successful people have some professional skills, other than their English knowledge. (Even if you take special case like a English writer or a Journalist, what is more important is their creative skills than the English.)
This list can go on. But the fact of the matter is it is not English that make some one above others but it’s his/her professional(what ever that is) skills. Even in the case of communication skills, what is more important is how good your ideas/facts and how you organize/analyze it, not the medium/language you use. (This reminds me of a saying in Sinhala that “Natanna bari minihata polowa edai kiwwa wage!”) But still we are playing with this single concrete observation. Now let’s try to develop it a little bit more. Let’s take a hypothetical scenario. Since many say that our Singhala medium art graduates do not get private sector management jobs because, they don’t have English knowledge. Now just assume all the Singhala/English Art graduates have same level of English knowledge and professional skills. Even then the majority of the jobs will be gone to the same people those who get them in the previous scenario. Because most of the time it is not English/Skills any more, it is social favoritism and so called contacts. Now do you think it is fare to mislead a poor rural singhala medium art student, by asking just go learn English and all your problems will go away. (I am not against that people try to fight this battle by learning English, only few courageous can even win that. But asking people to follow that rout as a stratergy/policy is like asking every one to go get LOTTO to get rich or asking people to join so called Pyramid schemes.) Is that pragmatic solution to you?
Now this will force us to not get stuck in one single concrete observation, and move on and build an abstract idea. Even with this simple exercise you can think thru and end up in JC. One other thing if you stop half way thru you can end up in JVP too :) So it is very important it has to be complete and consistent!!!
One last comment, I do not think you have read any of the Prof Nalins works. But you are already against JC. So it is useless explaining these stuff to you.
What is your solution?
Do you think if I read Prof. Nalin's books, I will be an instant success? Who has achieved the life success by reading his books?
If I am not reading what he present, I wouldn't be here today. Even you know lot many people don't want to read his work and that is why you keep on saying people don't read this blog and comments.
You are an ideologist and a dreamer. How can we transform that to make our society productive than warming seats on a round table discussion?
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