H.H. the Dalai Lama is patron of the Sathirakoses-Nagapradipa Foundation, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last year. His Holiness is also patron of International Network Engaged Buddhists, which reaches its 20th anniversary this year. We are grateful to his patronage. As a simple Buddhist monk, his teaching and his livelihood inspire all of us to cultivate peace within and from inner peace, we should help establish world peace and environmental balance nonviolently. We should learn to love and honour all sentient beings. Even those who exploit us ruthlessly, we should learn not to hate them, but to respect them and to understand them as well as to forgive them. His Holiness and a good number of his followers really practice this towards the Chinese who have ruthlessly occupied Tibet for over 50 years. We are sure that the force of truth and compassion will eventually win over the force of violence, greed, hypocrisy and delusion.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is another example of some one who practices freedom from fear in the land of military junta and one of the worst forms of dictatorship. We would really like to ask her to be our patron, but so doing would harm her even more. So we regard her as a shining example for all of us in the family of socially engaged Buddhists. The movement of the Sangha in Burma that challenges the ruling elites with metta and ahimsa despite the violent and ruthless practices of the Burmese government is also most inspiring. We firmly believe that one of these days Burma will be a free country without Chinese domination behind the scene. The various peoples in Burma will really share their responsibility in running their country politically, economically and culturally. This will hopefully be true in our southern Muslim provinces of Siam as well.
Vol.25-No.3-Sept.-Dec.-2552-2009_compressed
