Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

The latest canard is that the LTTE represented the Hindu Tamils of Sri Lanka.
A serious analysis on Prabhakaran`s activities would clearly reveal that neither he nor his actions were anywhere near the impressive list given above! Then why are such canards being spread?

It seems that the western Christian nations and their paid agents in India, Sri Lanka and elsewhere are bent upon giving a Hindu colour to the LTTE with the purpose of branding it as a Hindu Terrorist outfit, especially at a time when the Christian hand behind the Tamil Eelam and its full fledged support to LTTE has been categorically established in the geo-political arena.

The King Pasenadi of Kosala dined off a tubful of rice.1 Then the King, replete and puffing, went to see the Blessed One, saluted him and sat down to one side. And the Blessed One, observing how he was replete and puffing, at once uttered this verse:
Those who always dwell in mindfulness, Observing measure in the food they eat, Find that their discomfort2 grows the less. Aging gently, life for them is long.

Now just then Prince Sudassana was standing behind the king. And the king said to him:

`Come, my dear Sudassana, learn this verse from the Blessed One and recite it to me when you bring me my dinner, and I will arrange for you to be paid a daily allowance of a hundred pence3 in perpetuity.`

LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran overestimated the ability of European nations and the Tamil diaspora to enforce a ceasefire as they had done in the past. This time, Sri Lanka was not going to listen to anyone


SRI LANKA WINNING THE WAR ON TWO FRONTS

When television channels across the globe began beaming visuals of Velupillai Prabhakaran`s body on 19 May, there was shock first and then, disbelief.

Even if you cannot gain concentration, at least you can be mindful. If you are always mindful you may gain concentration.

But whether you do or not, perpetual mindfulness is the remedy against depression.

If you are always mindful, even when tired or disinclined, you will have no regrets. This is your final refuge and it cannot fail but it is not achieved without perpetual effort, and perpetual effort is not easy.

Unless you determine on this effort you are lost. This is written in fair weather: read it in foul.

EXTREME` POLITICAL PARTIES SIDELINED

y Christy Mahesh de Silva

In an effort to streamline the government and give it broader scope , the government is attempting to sideline extremist elements such as the National Freedom Front (NFF) and Jathika Hela Urumaya(JHU) in order to implement the 13th Amendment as a solution to the North and East problem, LAKBIMAnEWS reliably learns.
In such a scenario the NFF headed by firebrand politician Wimal Weerawansa is likely to be deprived of the Ministerial portfolios which the government pledged to offer them, political sources said.

The physical world is a state of perpetual change. So, too, for consciousness. Are there any similarities between the way that matter changes and the way that consciousness changes ?

In the physicists` world of sub-atomic particles the relationship between matter and energy is given by Einstein`s equation : E = mc2. This equation means that matter and energy can be made interchangeable. However, there is a qualification that needs to be added. That is the ability of energy and matter to interchange is constrained by electrostatic charge.

Jun 27, 2009
A rebuttal to the latest UTHR(J) report A Marred Victory and a Defeat Pregnant with Foreboding

The recently released Special Report #32 of the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) UTHR(J) A Marred Victory and a Defeat Pregnant with Foreboding, is comparable to Monday morning quarterbacking, as they say in the US.

The UTHR(J) report`s ostensible purpose is to expose and highlight the `wrong` or `questionable` techniques, tactics and procedures (TTPs) implemented by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Sri Lankan Security Forces in defeating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). However, its real goal appears to be more sinister, which is to relegate Sri Lanka to a pariah state in the world.

TNA MPs to decide on meeting with President
by Franklin R. Satyapalan

With the decimation of the LTTE, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians have had a change of heart and is mulling over whether they should meet with President Mahinda Rajapaksa to ascertain his stand on the IDPs and the future of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka, Tamil political sources said.

General Secretary of the ITAK and TNA, Mavai Senathrajah, MP, was contacted in Jaffna yesterday said that having considered the prevailing political situation in the country, they are to decide whether to meet with the President.

The beatitudes unlocked by Hebrew parallelism, Matthew 5:3-10

Hebraic poetic parallelism

Much of the Old Testament is poetry. In fact one third of it is written in Hebrew poetic form, equivalent to more than the entire New Testament. Isaiah 40-66, Job and Lamentations are arranged poetically, as are the Psalms and Proverbs. Many of the prophecies are also poetic.

Hebrew poetry does not use rhyming words but rhyming ideas. Complementary or duplicate descriptions are written in parallel, line by line. This adds helpful insights for translation through word equivalence, and interpretation of difficult phrases by comparison with an easier to understand parallel phrase. Additionally, it acts as an aide memoire in that the idea when spoken twice is doubly memorable and like poetry or song is easier to remember than mere prose or narrative. Most believers know more hymns and choruses than Bible verses because more of their senses are involved in singing and dancing than in mere silent reading. At the very least we should get back to reading Scripture aloud so that we hear it twice, once with the mind and once with the external ear.

Opposition MPs Mangala Samaraweera, Mano Ganeshan, Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena and Gamini Jayawickrema Perera leave the Supreme Court after filing a fundamental rights petition against their being deprived of visiting the IDP camps. They had cited the Attorney General, Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and his Military Liaison Officer as respondents.
(Photo-Nishan S Priyantha)

Religion had its share in the changes of civilization and national character, of course. What share? The lion`s. In the history of the human race this has always been the case, will always be the case, to the end of time, no doubt or at least until man by the slow processes of evolution shall develop into something really fine and high -- some billions of years hence, say.

The Christian Bible is a drug store. Its contents remain the same but the medical practice changes. For eighteen hundred years these changes were slight -- scarcely noticeable. The practice was allopathic -- allopathic in its rudest and crudest form. The dull and ignorant physician day and night, and all the days and all the nights, drenched his patient with vast and hideous doses of the most repulsive drugs to be found in the store`s stock he bled him, cupped him, purged him, puked him, salivated him, never gave his system a chance to rally, nor nature a chance to help. He kept him religion sick for eighteen centuries, and allowed him not a well day during all that time. The stock in the store was made up of about equal portions of baleful and debilitating poisons, and healing and comforting medicines but the practice of the time confined the physician to the use of the former by consequence, he could only damage his patient, and that is what he did.

Posted on June 17th, 2009
Jesus in India is an English version of Masih Hindustan mein, an Urdu treatise written by the Holy Founder of the Ahmadiyya Jama`at in Islam, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835 - 1908).

The main thesis expounded in the treatise is Jesus` escape from an ignominious death on the Cross and his subsequent journey to India in quest of the lost tribes of Israel whom he had to gather into his fold as mentioned in the New Testament.

Amar (1954) was a movie starring Dilip Kumar, Nimmi and Madhubala. Few people today may have heard abut this movie. But as happened with many old movies of those days, this movie too has some very nice songs.

What remarkable lyrics ! It is sheer poetry, that too of a very high calibre. Lyrics-Shayari Shakeel Badayuni, composed by Naushad, sung by Lata and the song was picturised on Nimmi and Dilip Kumar. It is indeed a gem from the past.

ho, tamannaa lut gayi phir bhi tere dam se muhabbat hai
mubaarak ghair ko khushiyaan mujhe, gham se muhabbat hai

The Tibetan Book of the Dead, whose actual title is `The Great Liberation upon Hearing in the Intermediate State` or `Bardo Thodol`. The book acts as a guide for the dead during the state that intervenes death and the next rebirth. The Bardo Thodol is a guide that is read aloud to the dead while they are in the state between death and reincarnation in order for them to recognize the nature of their mind and attain liberation from the cycle of rebirth.

The Bardo Thodol teaches that once awareness is freed from the body, it creates its own reality as one would experience in a dream. This dream occurs in various phases (bardos) in ways both wonderful and terrifying. Overwhelming peaceful and wrathful visions and deities appear. Since the deceased`s awareness is in confusion of no longer being connected to a physical body, it needs help and guidance in order that enlightenment and liberation occurs. The Bardo Thodol teaches how we can attain Nirvana by recognizing the heavenly realms instead of entering into the lower realms where the cycle of birth and rebirth continue.

Sri Lanka And India : Both Watch Out?
Jun 14, 2009

A Commentary by L. Jayasooriya

When the Ministry of Youth Development was created in Sri Lanka and the pen that created it was given to the daughter of the minister, it caused me amusement (THAT IS TYPICAL SRI LANKA)

when I saw in the media that Mr. Yasushi Akashi has created peace courses in Japan for youth for which a few LTTE cadres may be eligible it sent a shock wave down my spine (Why Japan NEEDS HARD CORE LTTE CADRES) because we have I understand about 400 hard core LTTE cadres in rehabilitation camps. That number trained in the latest state-of-the-art in making peace and white-washed in peace thereafter would be more than sufficient for Sri Lanka. This training will be effective only on those who have the necessary devotion and dedication to the extent of sacrificing one`s own life. So it is a course tailor made for the LTTE hard core only, in the knowledge that others who are enrolled to provide credibility will drop out or use that time period for any financial benefit it provides.