12/8/09
I was sitting in a session yesterday, and I was mesmerized by how fancy the Powerpoint presentation was; all these custom graphics, even bullet points. All this in one huge room of probably about 20, with chairs set up perfectly, such that red chairs made diagonal lines throughout the room. Then three volunteers were disagreeing on how best to run the lights.

A self-identified Hindu Christian on the panel expressed his appreciation for the fact that people were willing to come from all over the world to do the work here (a sentiment that I’ve heard expressed in probably every session). The American rabbi, in summarizing and reorienting the conversation, made a passing comment about “all of us schlepping over here,” and the woman two seats to my right scoffed a few times before commenting scornfully, “We didn’t all have to travel far.” Then, a bit louder, “America’s not the center of the universe, you know!” We were at the back, so the speaker couldn’t hear her, but people a few rows up likely could have.

Clearly, her emotions were not directed simply to the rabbi. The comment initially struck me as being insensitive to the individuals from Europe, India, and Asia, and perhaps those outside of Melbourne. Seems like it had been boiling for some time; I don’t know if there’s a larger Australian resentment (seems like there might be; I saw maps posted at one table with a “corrected map” of the globe in which Australia is depicted at the top right rather than the bottom right), or if it was more at the conference itself (pretty likely: apparently most of the scholars here are Americans).

Rev. suggested that she was also pissed off at the way the rabbi was leading the panel: he was often brought the panelists back on track with a dry sense of humor. I liked him a lot, even if I was a bit intimidated by his incredible intelligence and communication skills. But I could see how such a person could get on one’s nerves.

The first session I went to was about the Sarvodaya Shramasena movement, and it was actually presented by A.T. Ariyaratne himself. Though literally hundreds of thousands of people attend his meditation retreats in Sri Lanka, there were only about 25 people in the session. He’s doing some incredible work, and he had a number of movies to talk about it. I was left with a lot of questions, however. He made it sound very simple in the beginning, but as he went on, a complex portrait of government interaction came into being, and the complex system of village organization became apparent, with the organization owning farms, property, and the like. It sounds like a lot more than the simple grassroots movement that he put it forth to be, and I’d like to know how he went about deciding what to do.

The idealized movies about their successes put me off. One opened up with children running through a field, with idyllic music playing. “In the beginning, there was peace… Everyone got along” or some such. “Then… the war began.”

Was it really perfect before? Perhaps it was a lot more harmonious, I don’t know. But I nevertheless am doubtful when folks make claims about how things were perfect at one time; it seems like it could set a dangerous precedent which could shift to a fundamentalism once things get worse. Conditions change; there’s not a “past” we can get back to. And so I’m also doubtful about people working together on some service projects and then concluding that peace has been won. The video talked about how Tamils, Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims all came together to cooperate on projects, and what a wonderful effect this had for mutual respect. I don’t know that just working together could truly smooth things out; I think they could easily overestimate their success. Building a road together doesn’t mean that the resentments have cleared.

And yet, I think it does create a sense of shared identity, it promotes humility and listening. It sounds like they weren’t just building roads; the kids played sports together, and men and women work on the same projects. Perhaps when people come together like that, it really can smooth tensions.

Looking back, this is a similar problem I have with the conference as a whole. Yes, people are coming from all over the world “to do the work.” But it’s often superficial, in the way that religion is for a lot of people. It can be lip service, and leave underlying tensions unaddressed. Is it the case that flying a bunch of people to Australia will really make things any better with regard to water and food supply? No. It might open up some networking, but I think that among religious, there’s often a willingness to look like one is acting compassionate, because that is mandated in the tenets, but that does not reach the depths of the heart’s commitment. People do it because they are supposed to do it, and as a result, if no one is holding them accountable, the job will not be done in the way it needs to be.