Letters - 20 October 2023
From Heeding authenticity to Hardship within Meetings
Heeding authenticity
It is without much surprise that I saw a fake Buddha quote in ‘The Secret’s Out’ by Tony D’Souza (15 September): ‘The Buddha rightly observed, “We are not punished for our anger, we are punished by it”.’
This is one of hundreds of utterances falsely attributed to the Buddha that will pop up if you type ‘Buddha quotes’ into an internet search engine.
The Pali cannon is four times the volume of the King James’ Bible, and, just like when the Bible or Quran are referred to, each Buddhist quote should ideally have diacritic marks or some other verifiable reference.
A website solely dedicated to fake Buddha quotes, https://fakebuddhaquotes.com, has a page on the above quote with a detailed investigation as to how it came to be. So far it has been traced down to the saying ‘We are punished by our sins, not for them’ found on page twelve of The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927). It then went through several permutations arriving at its current variation. The website features at least 350 fake Buddha quotes proliferating on the internet and the number is growing.
What makes this particular quote an immediate suspect is the word ‘punished’, so ubiquitous in Abrahamic religions, yet hardly ever mentioned in Buddhist teachings. Even though the law of karma, that is, the process of cause and effect, is spoken of in the discourses – all it ultimately means is that actions, words and thoughts have consequences. It’s nothing to do with punishment or reward for anyone.
One may argue that this is unimportant as long as the quote sounds nice and may be in line with the teachings.
The Pali canon scriptures disagree, however, and show that the Buddha expressed concern, on several occasions, about misrepresentation, in future times, of his teachings which may be substituted by ‘discourses composed by poets – poetry, with fancy words and phrases, composed by outsiders’ (2.47 in the Anguttara Nikāya, a selection of the Buddha’s sayings). He also warned that when ‘the words and phrases [of the teaching] are misplaced’ and ‘the meaning is misinterpreted’, ‘the decline and disappearance of the true teaching’ will follow (2.20 in the Anguttara Nikāya).
And what can be a more poignant reference to the importance of heeding authenticity of sacred texts than this pithy exaltation of indisputable provenance: ‘Blessed are the cheesemakers!’ (Monty Python’s Life of Brian, 1979).
Vitaly Yerenkov
Relationships manager,
the Friend
Editor’s note: Apologies, Friends, Vitaly spotted this error too late for correction. We’ll be sure to check all quotes at a more reputable source in future.
Peace
Peace, as Quakers know well, is a process not a destination. It is well served as we also know, by quiet voices, in small circles, lovingly seeking the other’s view and understanding.
Oh please, when reading Ol Rappaport’s interesting book review (6 October), can we all remember that in 1948 some eighty per cent of the population of the Palestine lands which the Israeli army took, were driven out to be refugees?
About 700,000 people of all ages. They and their descendants have lived in refugee camps in Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank (occupied by Israel in 1967) and have lived elsewhere in the Palestine diaspora ever since.
Peace can come when they are granted the right to return to their land and homes.
Not until then, it seems reasonable to foresee.
Let us hold them in the Light.
Timothy Phillips
Israelophobia
This is a very sad week for the Middle East. The murderous attack by Hamas forces from Gaza has drawn the predictable murderous response from the Israeli government. We cannot help but feel sorrow for those on both sides (and none) who are suffering as a result. As I write it is not clear how much worse the situation will get before a new stalemate of misery emerges.
But I feel I must protest at the recent book review of Israelophobia from Ol Rappaport (6 October). We are tired of the relentless propaganda trying to label those critical of the Israeli government plus those who are against Zionism as anti-Semitist. There may be some who are both but by no means all.
The newly-coined term ‘Israelophobia’ does nothing to enlighten the impasse. Bending the truth to suit a particular position only serves to entrench the issues. Truth and understanding are the only ways to bridge the stalemate.
Two statements by Ol Rappaport are particularly misleading: ‘Wallis Simons… does point out how, in so many ways, [Israel] is treated differently, discriminatorily, not just a little more harshly but hugely so.’ This is not so, the apartheid regime in South Africa was subject to much wider and fierce campaigning in the UK than Israel has ever been. There has been an element of pussy-footing around Israel, at least in our and most European states.
‘Most of the accusations thrown at Israel today date from the Nazi and Soviet era’ is also patently untrue. I am quite old but my own knowledge of Israel has all been gained more recently than that.
Please could all Friends avoid making partisan claims or myths.
Barney Smith
Hardship within Meetings
I read about a child at school pretending to eat from an empty lunch box because they didn’t want to admit to having no food. It broke my heart – but I know how that child felt. Thankfully I have enough to eat lunch, but if someone asks if I’m coming to a social event, say, I’ll generally reply ‘Thanks but I can’t make it’ instead of ‘Thanks, but I can’t afford it’.
It’s a truism that Quakers are generally well-off. But is there an assumption that those who need our help are outside Friends? Have we considered that there may be those suffering hardship within our Meetings? Is the assumption that it is we who are well-off and they who are suffering.
As a member of a Meeting it can be difficult to ask for help; it can feel like ‘outing’ yourself as somehow different. To ask for help is to make yourself vulnerable; perhaps to being pitied, patronised or even ignored. People may not know what to do or say. They may be embarrassed you brought up the subject of money. There are those who respond with tact, sympathy and understanding. I honour those Friends.
It’s hard to empathise if you have never had to struggle for daily necessities. It’s hard to know what it’s like to wake up in the night and worry about the gas bill or the council tax. It’s hard to know what it’s like to be afraid that debt is just around the corner and that once you start getting overdrawn or putting the weekly shop on the credit card you are on a slippery downward slope. I’m not suggesting Friends aren’t aware of these problems, but being aware and empathising are not the same thing. Poverty is a daily battle and if on top of this is the difficulty of ‘outing yourself’ in order to ask for help, it becomes a double struggle. You may feel a need to explain or justify your situation. Why are you hard-up? Why haven’t you managed to make a good living like the rest of us? Nobody actually says these things but you may feel sometimes that they are thinking them.
There can be a sense of not belonging; of not being able to join in activities because of the cost. Most of us don’t want to feel like a charity case. But if we can’t afford to go to an event it’s hard to say so. It can help if there’s a quid pro quo; let us do something for you in exchange, as we are able. All we want is to feel a part of things.
There can be a sense of shame in ‘not managing’, not being ‘able to cope’. You can feel that you are not quite grown-up because you’ve never ‘made it’. I’m not suggesting Friends think this, yet the assumption that ‘We are all comfortably-off’ can cause us to feel like outsiders. In this context, it can be difficult to ask for help. Will people understand? Will they refuse to help? Worst of all, will they prevaricate so that you don’t know where you are?
I am only too aware that there are many, many people worse off than I am. Yet I am a Quaker – and in the midst of this group of relatively wealthy people I find it very hard to say ‘Friends, I am suffering. I need your help’.
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