Books
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to a better world I did not think it was possible that a 268-page book, even by an erudite religious scholar, could be written about the 56 words of the Lord's Prayer. This is exactly what Judge Christopher Weeramantry, Sri Lanka's pre-eminent jurist, former Vice President of the International Court of Justice has done. The notion of relating the Lord's Prayer to the varied complexities of modern life is startlingly original. The book has a breathtaking sweep. Judge Weeramantry has devoted to each word of the celebrated Prayer a whole chapter or sub-chapter of the book. In analyzing the text of the Prayer he has rigorously applied the powerful analytical skills acquired over a lifetime of immersion in the law - as counsel, national judge, university teacher, prolific author, international lecturer and a member of the highest Court in the world. But why did he embark on this gargantuan task? Can the Lord's Prayer really support the far reaching theses that Judge Weeramantry proposes? The book has a fascinating variety of features that make it compulsive reading. I would like to concentrate on two that have great appeal for me. One is Judge Weeramantry's assertion that the developing principles of international law need to be nourished by drawing continually upon equity, ethics and the moral sense of mankind. Here, the Lord's Prayer as one of the foundations of Christian thought and civilization has a major role to play. Judge Weeramantry points out that every word resonates with law and justice. The word "our" casts all humanity in one group without difference of race, sex, colour, language, learning or rank. "Father" implies love, brotherhood and sisterhood, peace, dispute resolution, collective responsibility, impartial justice, affirmative action, cooperation, non-violence and social rights. "Kingdom" denotes a kingdom of justice, equality, dignity, compassion, fair dealing where there is no forced labour, no discrimination, no exploitation, no torture, no slavery. "Come" is a call to action, to end moral paralysis in the face of injustice. "They will be done" involves another commitment but this one would only be acceptable to those who believe in God - not only to accept God's will but also to do God's will; not merely to abstain from evil but to do good. "Daily Bread" clearly embraces economic rights - food, clothing, shelter and by extension fair wages, employment, the right to development and as the author points out the need to conserve our environment because we cannot stretch out one hand for food and with the other destroy the environment that creates it. "Trespass" comprises the whole domain of moral conduct. "Forgive" cleanses social poison through forgiveness, no retaliation, no vendettas, no lingering hatred, no blood feuds. "Temptation" tells us that we enjoy free will - to do good, to abstain from evil or to commit evil actively. The choice is ours. "Deliver us from evil" highlights the need for spiritual values, to guide us away from the multifarious sources of evil that beset modern society. The judge directs a sharp spotlight on the relationship between the Lord's Prayer and human rights. He has identified and formulated a large number of concepts derived from, or tangentially related, to the Prayer-30 relating to basic human rights, 21 relating to judicial process, 18 relating to social rights and responsibilities, 28 relating to individual conduct, 19 relating to international law. As Judge Weeramantry says in the first paragraph of his preface: "this book is about justice-justice for all people, justice at all levels of society, justice that avoids tension and war, justice that is the path to peace. It finds its inspiration in a concentration of practical wisdom, unrivalled in the width of coverage and brevity of expression: the Lord's Prayer." The second feature that attracts me is the Judge's belief, and who can challenge it, that "tomorrow's world order will be based on active cooperation. Seeking to fuse out of the world's different historical and cultural backgrounds a set of common principles, all must cooperate, or all will perish. “This era of cooperation demands that the legal essence distilled from each culture be brought to the common service of the international order". He has a deep commitment to the law in all its varied facets. Having spent a lifetime of work on the dissemination of the basic principles of law culled from all the judicial systems and philosophies the world has known, he argues that the "law need no longer distance itself from the values of religion ( as opposed to dogma and ritual)". Only the irretrievably prejudiced could argue against the validity of that proposition. Thus, in the search for the practical wisdom underlying the Prayer his book draws upon the literature of all religions. The book is replete with apt references to the literature of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism which reinforces the argument that there is a central core of beliefs shared by all the major religions of the world that will unite millions of adherents of separate faiths if only they know that the beliefs which unite them far outweigh those that divide them. For a student of comparative religion his book is a treasure trove of citations and insights. Judge Weeramantry has succeeded admirably in producing a work devoid of the slightest trace, even unwitting, of evangelical bias or fervour. Judge Weeramantry answers the question I raised at the outset. Why did he undertake the monumental task of writing this book? In his words: "In the hope of reaching people of goodwill of all faiths and walks of life this book has been written free of doctrinal assumptions. “It does not claim to be a theoretical and juristic work and it requires no theoretical and juristic knowledge of its readers. It is addressed to humanity at large, and not to Christians alone, for the Prayer is the common inheritance of all sections of the human family - not the exclusive possession of some. " Those who turn away from this book because of its title will only be doing themselves a great dis-service. English
boardings, aunts and weddings I have reached that stage in life when I am actually aware of the importance of one's heritage, past and culture and collect books that help fill out the hazy mind's eye pictures I have of my wonderful early years in Ceylon when my homeland was known by that name. A Gaggle of Aunts does that and much more. It is a wonderful observed, carefully crafted portrait of a family and the ins and outs of their daily lives before the winds of change shattered the foundations of this social milieu, which was unique in its time and place. In the author's note, Srini Peries says: "When I set out to write these stories my idea was provide a pen portrait of many folk now mostly passed on whose lives were interwoven with mine. I wished to portray a social snapshot of the 1940's and 1950's when I was growing up." She achieves this very ingeniously by a collection of vignettes and asides skilfully collated into seven chapters with uncomplicated, self-explanatory headings. It kicks off with 'A Gaggle of Aunts' and ends with 'My Wedding'. In between is a chapter headed 'An English Boarding School' which is an inspired inclusion as it give an insight into the rigors and pleasures of English convent school life. 'Travels with My Mother' is another chapter packed with interesting details of going on holiday when even short car journeys were major expeditions, before hotels dotted the countryside and package tourists descended en masse. The author recalls with absolute clarity what life was really like for young girls of her background half a century ago. Simultaneously she has brought many of her family members uncannily to life so that we become familiar with their views, habits and eccentricities and get an idea of the social customs of times in this privileged section of Ceylonese society that was a quaint but unique blend of East and West. Reading it, I was so overcome with deja vu that I began to wonder about the author. Although I share her surname spelled in the same way, I have no relations who do so. In the second chapter the conundrum was solved. I realized that the author is the daughter of one of my mother's numerous cousins. No wonder so many of the people and places in the book rang bells in my head! I last remember seeing the author when I attended her wedding as an eight-year-old in one of those frilly party dresses that she loathed so much. Her mother who I called Auntie Renee was someone I was very fond of and kept in touch with until she passed away. I was a frequent visitor to both the houses mentioned in the book but my memories of them are sketchy. That's why I wish the author had given us more detailed descriptions of her childhood homes because they were outstanding examples of grand houses of that lost era. That is my only criticism. Apart from this, 'A Gaggle of Aunts' is a carefully crafted, candid autobiography written in a succinct style that will give older readers, particularly of our clan, a glimpse of their own past and the young an idea of what things were really like a few decades ago. I am truly glad that I picked up the book on the strength of its cover. Light
of Dhamma In an era when newsstands are flooded by magazines, which cease publication as frequently as they start, is there a need for another? This was the question before the publishers of Dhamsiri, a magazine mainly with a thrust on the dissemination of Buddhist information. But if the publication is unique, with articles of interest and of course at a reasonable price, it still has a chance of sustaining itself. With this in view, the group - comprising veterans and amateurs - have put in their collective efforts to come out with a fairly good publication. Led by the Venerable Pitiduwe Siridhamma Thera, a degree holder in Microbiology from the Kelaniya University, the panel of editors includes versatile personalities like the civil servant and former ministry-secretary Amara Hewamadduma, Lalitha Sarachchandra - wife of Dr. Ediriweera Sarachchandra, poetess Kalyani Herath Menike, management expert Nandalal Malagoda to name a few. The current issue carries articles on how Buddhism helps life. The editors expect to continue with information not only about the Dhamma but other religions as well. The magazine, and through it the Samma Samadhi Foundation, intends to grasp the common vein that courses through every religion and bind them together for the greater benefit of Sri Lankans, and mankind at large. The magazine with a full colour picture of the Polonnaruwa Gal Vihara Samadhi Buddha statue as its cover page is well printed and presented. With a single article in English there is a promise of more in the future. The initial step has been a success as witnessed at the launch recently where a distinguished gathering was present. Poetic
prose in a backdrop unique What I found interesting about them is two-fold - that, though the settings, the characters and their interactions - one can hardly refer to "plots" - in the stories are varied, they have a common thread binding them: love - and that their endings were unexpected or rather that they were not what I expected! I also had the feeling that the emotion of love was paramount and the prime force that drove Jeanne's characters to do what they do - it was God's love, love of God or romantic love. In one short story, two people whose love was unfulfilled in their youth, re-live their romance through his son falling in love with her daughter; in another, the unbelievable happens: all the negative factors in the mind of a teacher about his pupil's political philosophy and way of life cannot resist and he succumbs to the power of his love for her. In yet another, the love of a priest for a woman makes him break his vow of celibacy and the vortex of the river in which he starts his day, revelling in the coolness and splash of its waters, drags him down to his watery grave, perhaps oblivious of the fact that he has fathered a son. Again, two people fall in love, but she stands firm in her prior decision to become a nun and he throws himself into his legal profession, embracing work and bachelorhood - "her memory he would wish not to erase". This is the imprint Jeanne's novels had on me; reading time is brief, so see what they leave on you! |
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