Buddhist extols virtues of 'bad'

By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion & Ethics Writer

•	Peace activist to speak "Social Justice and Global Peace: Inter-Religious Commentary by an Engaged Buddhist" Lecture by Sulak Sivaraksa 5 p.m. tomorrow Grand Manoa Ballroom, Japanese Cultural Center, 2454 S. Beretania St. Free 735-4822 (Poranee Natadecha-Sponsel) Also: $100 fund-raising dinner for the lecture series at 6:45 p.m.

"A lot of Buddhists, when they become Buddhist, become a nice person," said the scholar and activist who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 and 1994 and won the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the Alternative Nobel) in 1995.

"For me, that's not enough. ... Buddhists should not only meditate, not only be goody-goody; they should be a little bit naughty, like me. The essential teaching of Buddha is we must work not only for personal transformation, but for social transformation."

That means standing up for what you believe in, even if it gets you in trouble, as Sivaraksa did in 1977. He was arrested in absentia while in the United States during a bloody coup in Thailand. He couldn't return home, and his wife was lucky she wasn't arrested. Their home and bookshop were ransacked.

Sivaraksa is here at the behest of his "best friend," former Buddhist Bishop Yoshi Fujitani, for whom the endowed series of lectures is named ("He had been kind to me in my second exile, in 1991," Sivaraksa said) and Chaminade University's religion professor Poranee Natadecha-Sponsel ("who was my student a hundred years ago").

He has been exiled for criticizing the military junta for interfering in drafting a new constitution; charged with defaming the royal family — when he was, he said, criticizing the leader of a coup, Gen. Suchinda Kraprayoon; and he's currently on bail for demonstrating against a much-criticized gas pipeline from Myanmar into his country, after being arrested four years ago.

"We must confront suffering and overcome suffering," the activist said. "I work with the poor, not just in my country, but in Burma (Myanmar), Lao, Sri Lanka, India. Buddhists in India are untouchables, the poorest of the poor."