"Wise Speech" by Professor Mona Siddiqui

Mona Siddiqui, Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies at the University of Edinburgh, considers the impact of "hate speech" on recent events.



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Vegetarianism and veganism

This week we've heard from Oxford scientists that limiting carbon emissions and feeding a growing population should mean moving towards a more plant-based diet. The discussion's awkward but vegetarians have long argued that the choices we make around eating are intrinsically ethical. 

From a Buddhist perspective, what links these issues is the belief that the consequences of food production for both animal suffering and the planet are our responsibility. Not all Buddhists are vegetarian, but Buddhist ethics teaches that acting well means paying careful attention to the conditions from which things develop. Some Buddhist monks start a meal by reflecting on where the food has come from with a sense of gratitude to the farmers and cooks......................

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Climate Change

When I look at my own behaviour, I find that blandishments about living more simply don’t really prompt me to make lasting changes. Those only come from my underlying values, and to keep them in mind I reflect regularly on what Buddhism calls ‘The Four Reminders’..............................




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Wise Speech

Vishvapani discusses the Buddhist concept of Wise Speech in relation to diversity.




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The Call of the Forest

In this talk, Vishvapani considers the story of how Felix Dennis, the young editor of Oz magazine, following his death left £150 million to establish a broad-leafed forest in Warwickshire comprising 10 million trees.

"Most of us value nature and fear climate change, but often that’s one concern among many, and collectively we’ve been slow to act. For that to change I think we need to know the natural world more fully and love it more deeply. We need to let the call of the forest, which the poets have so often expressed, stir our imaginations with a longing for freedom and simplicity. 

The impulse to restore the forests is a response to the needs of the planet, but it also engages our own spiritual need for wholeness and renewal."



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Appreciation and Gratitude

In this Thought for the Day Vishvapani discusses the rescued boys who had been lost in the caves of Northern Thailand. Less than a fortnight after their rescue, all but one of the boys entered a Buddhist monastery for nine days, following the Thai tradition of temporary ordination.

The point of this custom is to foster a sense of appreciation and gratitude, and the boys are focusing on thankfulness to their rescuers, including the Thai diver who died when his oxygen ran out, as well as their parents and the Buddha, who they consider the ultimate source of protection.



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Climate Change and the Parable of the Burning House

The 2015 Paris Climate Change agreement was an inspiring example of the world coming together to tackle a shared problem. But talks in Bonn on implementing the deal stalled this week with poorer nations saying that the richer ones prioritise their own economic growth above reducing emissions or helping developing countries.

Fear alone can't sustain the slow and difficult changes that will reduce global emissions. We also need compelling images of a sustainable society that's more attractive than the current one, and countless initiatives around the world focus on doing that..................................



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The Paris Uprising of May 1968

"When I became a Buddhist as a teenager I found myself around people who were still fired by the radicalism that had inspired the Paris students. They also felt that something was fundamentally amiss in conventional society, but they said that changing the world started with changing people. The revolution they wanted was a transformation in human consciousness.

The Buddha's key insight was that everything humans create, from war and injustice to the belief systems that underlie our societies, express our fundamental emotions. 'Everything we experience,' he said 'is led by mind and produced by mind.' A better world therefore requires better people; and revolutions that don't take this into account risk replacing one form of oppression with another."

Vishvapani




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Responding Skilfully to Whatever Happens

To be ethically skilful in the Buddhist sense is to act with an awareness of one's motivations and sensitivity to their likely consequences. Techniques and rules only get you so far, so Buddhist ethical training means applying principles thoughtfully and fostering the emotional intelligence and sensitivity. From this perspective, what it means to be ethical is no more a matter of subjective opinion than judging mastery of a practical skill.



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