PSRInformations - Free

Here's another non-Cambodian figure whom Cambodians admired: The fourteenth Dalai Lama,
Tenzin Gyatso, political and spiritual leader of Tibet who took exile in India in 1959 when Chinese
troops brutally suppressed a Tibetan uprising in Lhasa.
"Remain only half human"
The Dalai Lama sees nonviolent approaches by India's Gandhi, American Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Philippine People Power, the Czech Velvet Revolution, and the Tibetan and Burmese protests, as
revealing the "truth" that "freedom is the very source of creativity and human development."
Whereas people everywhere are satisfied to be able to meet basic life necessities – food, shelter,
clothing – the Dalai Lama warns, even if "food, shelter and clothing" are provided the
people, these latter "remain only half human." Those things don't sustain human
beings' "deep nature." This requires "the precious air of liberty," he says. It is the
"inherent nature of all human beings to yearn for freedom, equality and dignity, and
they have an equal right to achieve that."
His words remind us of Buddha's ancient teaching.
Former Khmer Buddhist monks speak
Six months ago, I wrote about America's youngest president (1901-1909), Theodore Roosevelt, an
avowed activist who said, "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." Those words provide
a directive but not instruction and as such encourage creativity. Cambodians have Buddha's teaching
which they can use as a guide to self-actualization and to advance personal and collective goals.
Buddhism is a philosophy. The Hindu prince Siddhartha Gautama Buddha was a philosopher. Khmer
Buddhist scholars complain that Cambodian Buddhist monks have not done their job of correctly
teaching this foundational, complex Buddhist philosophy.
A former Buddhist monk, Heng Monychenda, who holds a graduate degree from Harvard University
and leads a nonprofit, Buddhism for Development, writes in his book Preah Batr Dhammik, or "Just
Ruler" (1991), that Cambodian monks failed to teach the dhamma (the way of life) correctly. He argues
in "In Search for the Dhammika ruler" (2008), the monks' failure, and Cambodian rulers' failure to
follow Buddha's teaching (to practice the "12 duties of a great ruler"), have contributed to Cambodians'
declining "moral order" that in turn is a significant component of Cambodia's current "great
suffering."
Another former Buddhist monk, Sophoan Seng, earned a graduate degree in political science from the
University of Hawaii at Manoa and now serves as Director of KEEN Investment Groups LTD and
president of Alberta's Khmer Youth Association. He asserts that "the highest goal of Buddhism is
'liberty', not the 'four necessities', i.e., food, shelter, clothing, medicine." He says, Buddha teaches that
humankind is sustained through a balance and an equalization of "liberty" or "Nama" (the mind or
spirit) and the "four necessities" or "Rupa" (the body or physical appearance), that is economic
development (food, shelter, clothing, medicine) and spiritual development (liberty/human dignity)
must go hand and hand.
Monychenda agrees with Buddha's "Nama-Rupa" or "mind-matter" teaching which means the mind
affects matter and matter affects the mind.
According to Seng, it's true that Buddha sees humans need food (Rupa, the four necessities) to survive,
but Buddha sees Nama (the mind, liberty) as taking the lead. Humans are made by the mind and
through balancing Rupa and Nama will attain their highest level of enlightenment – the liberty of the
mind from the bondage of greed, hatred, delusion.
For former Buddhist monk Bouawat Sithi, a graduate of Thailand's Djittabhawan College, the
Buddhist term "Nibbana" or Nirvana means freedom – to free a burning fire from its agitated,
dependent, and entrapped state. Sithi says Buddha sees every person as capable of attaining Nibbana,
and by extension having the capacity to become a leader if s/he puts effort into becoming one. Buddha
PSR Informations PSR-France, 69 rue de la Chapelle, 75018 PARIS 4ème Année Page 21