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The other day a friend asked me ‘so what is Buddhism?’ For me it is like opening a can of worms or the opening of the Pandora’s Box. Prince Siddhartha, who went on to become the Buddha, on attaining enlightenment, explained the first noble truth as the truth of suffering. He meant that whatever we like or are attached to, will make us unhappy and bring suffering, with hundred percent certainty. That is why it feels like a can of worms or a Pandora’s Box when you set out to explain what is Buddhism.

Although our attachment brings suffering, it is not the original cause of suffering. It is important for us to understand this. The original cause of suffering is the ‘I-ness’ or the ego that we are deeply attached to. These are in our thoughts and ideas and in the people, places and things that we are connected to. So if this ‘I’ is absent, where is the question of attachment?

Attachment essentially causes suffering in bewildering ways. Take the case of an impoverished yogi who is presented with a new loincloth. He begins to worry that the mice running around his hut could bite holes into it and therefore keeps a cat; to feed the cat with milk, he has to keep a cow; to protect the cow from wild beasts while grazing in the forest, he himself has to keep watch over the cow; and so eventually his attachment to his brand new loincloth robs him of the time for yogic practices. So attachment arising from our ‘I-ness' can be a huge distraction.

If desire, attachment, greed form one side of the coin, the other side is anger, aversion, fear. Whatever we desire deeply or pine for greedily has a shelf life after we have got it. There is the law of diminishing returns. There is also entropy and deterioration. So when ‘the time comes’ for us to lose it or part from it we get into negative moods and behaviors. Losing becomes very painful and we suffer.

So getting separated from what we like, becomes a cause of suffering. In his second noble truth, the Buddha says there is cause of suffering. Once there was a lady who was very distraught when her son passed away. She came to the Buddha with hopes that he would make him alive again. In Greek mythology, we have Orpheus, who tried to bring his wife Eurydice back from the dead with his enchanting music. We basically want to enchant, bribe, cajole, and beg that the status quo of our attachments prevail beyond all else, realizing little that our ability to ‘play enchanting music’ diminishes over time. The reaper threshes all asunder, irrespective of our worldly resources, pretensions, and the masks we adorn.

Gautama Buddha advised that we could actually get out of this loop of suffering. This was his third noble truth. In the fourth noble truth he elucidated a path that one could travel on, to free ourselves from pain, anguish and suffering, caused by attachment to the idea of self and the objects of desires that we incessantly and relentless craves and pine for.

According to him, there was a misunderstanding on how we see ourselves and perceived our ‘I-ness’. It was not about negating or disowning the ‘I’ but to know how the ‘I’ actually exists.

However, the manner in which we usually live our lives with loads of attachments only feeds our current sense of ego. it is not really possible to explore who we actually are or how we really exist. It is as though we are moving in the wrong direction and we first need to stop, before we can begin our journey on the right pat again.

Our customary proclivities, passions, dreams and desires are like gusts of breeze that keeps the flame of our consciousness fluttering in all directions. When we try to look within to know who we are with the help of superficial ‘spiritual’ practices that we pick up in the bazaar, they only allow us to see flickering glimpses of distorted images of our self. If we are really serious to find our true self, the first stage is to attain calm abiding or samatha. It requires us to distance ourselves from all materialism, expressly those of the religious and ‘spiritual’ kind.

The steady flame of consciousness resulting from distancing ourselves from distracting thoughts, and getting immersed in the practice of meditations such as samatha or vipassana allows a special clarity to dawn on our consciousness. This clarity provides special insights into how we really exist. We then get answers to who we are, how we exist and how the cosmos exists.

We also know then how to connect meaningfully with one another, respect the spaces we dwell in, and fortify our own bodies and minds. We become capable then to want to sustain all things both within and without. When we realize the essence of living, our ‘I-ness’, attachments and desires do not affect us. 

The author is a master trainer of NLP and faculty at Srishti Institute of Design, Bangalore

BP, in his Atmavritanta, rates the Kathmandu intellectuals very low. They are, according to him, 'making hue and cry over senseless issues, creating problems where there are none and hardly of any help for the cause.' He was talking about the Kathmandu society of the late forties. But his observation is as true today when it comes to what the neo-elites of the valley have to offer.

At a time when national politics has disappointed us badly, once again, how the intelligentsia has behaved should be of great concern. Caught in a pitiful yet laughable quagmire of power struggles and backstabbing, the course taken by our first parliament after the promulgation of the constitution is unfortunate. Hopes of stable government, connected to the future of 30 million people, have been washed away. But the intellectuals are either in deep slumber or deeply invested in the power equation already to even have an iota of critical and independent outlook.

Who is shaping opinions today in Nepal for the future? And, how are they behaving? These are important questions. Of course, times are different than in the forties, and the privilege that comes with access to even basic information about state and politics is no more exclusive to the intellectuals. But away from the cheap click-bait pop feeds in YouTube and social media, a large section of the society still looks up to the intelligentsia to make sense of things. And these elite Kathmandu intellectuals, sadly, are way off the mark when it comes to sensing the pulse of our society and identifying its real problems. Even the newer generation is already showing disappointing symptoms.

Recently, a young activist called leaders like KP Oli and Sher Bahadur Deuba lwade 'ल्वाँदे'. She wrote in her social media post: 'Who is a ल्वाँदे? The entitled mediocre men who take the space and power way bigger than their share. Ambition not fueled by purpose but unbounded greed. Their rise not powered by competence but a total lack of self-awareness. And they do rise, in a country such as Nepal, as our whole system of power has been mediocre, entitled men puffing up other mediocre entitled men. This lineup of clueless ल्वाँदेs would have looked hilarious had it not been so tragic and dangerous. Thus the need to identify these dangerous ल्वाँदेs.'

The language and the intonation suggests the mindset of a frustrated youth. But Dovan Rai is not just any frustrated youth from the streets. She is a PhD in Computer Science from the US, and is actively involved in public discourse, ironically, as a political expert.

Rai is a representative of a new breed of young and sad to say—'entitled'—youth in the public discourse who not only display a lack of understanding of the complex Nepali society and politics, but also have no penchant for learning about it. They do not want to learn about the layered power equations at different levels that form the superstructure of our society, nor do they even consider it important to travel their own nation, outside Kathmandu, to make sense of the politics at the top. They can simply make tall claims with a sense of entitlement that emanates from their 'western degree'. Craving for a sanitized 'meritocracy' of their own preference, rooted in their basic western orientation, they forget that to complain without a commitment to fight for the change that's needed in our society and politics, borders hypocrisy.

Anyone with a basic understanding of politics in our society would know that the politicians who have managed to rise in power are not stupid. But, by calling names that suggest that our society, and politics in general, rewards stupid people, youths like Rai can walk away with a sense of gratification without doing much to change the reality. The reality is grimmer. The politics is in control of shrewd manipulators who are not 'Lwade' or stupid, but masterminds of the political game. Accepting that they are what they are also adds an onus on the avant-garde youth of the society to build an army to fight against them. But such denial is the easier option that these privileged youths have fallen for.

The comfort of collective negligence, and easy complaining without a deep commitment to fight for justice is being taken as an easy route by many talented, privileged, and capable young intellectuals in Nepal. Sadly, the leaders who are at the forefront of the fight for establishing an alternative to the criminal gangs that are misruling the country today are equally naive. They believe a sense of entitled puritan moral pitch will be enough to wrestle power from these established politicians. What BP said about the Kathmandu of the forties still holds.

The Americans are the enemy, and their influence in the region must be minimized at any cost. This single logic guides China’s foreign policy under Xi Jinping. So even as the Chinese want to punish the Indians for daring to stand up to them on the border, they hold back. The fear is that a potent show of force could further solidify the already troublingly close US-India strategic ties. The same Chinese calculus may be at play in Nepal. China was unhappy that Prime Minister KP Oli was not doing enough to push the BRI projects, even as he embraced the American anti-China MCC compact. China promptly shut its two important border points with Nepal. 

But following the Biden administration’s recent efforts to alternately woo and warn the Nepali political class, the Chinese are having a rethink. PM Oli has just inaugurated the ‘China-Nepal Friendship Industrial Park’ in his home district of Jhapa. Meanwhile, a 10-billion-rupee contract for a diversion tunnel on Sunkoshi River has gone to the China Overseas Engineering Co. On China’s part, as the fear of ‘American encirclement’ grows, they have had to play nice and keep engaging and investing in the neighborhood. 

It’s a tricky balance. Even six months ago, most Chinese were unaware of their country’s checkered dealings with India. But then the border conflict spiraled to a level the Chinese state could not keep under wraps. So it belatedly acknowledged the killing of five PLA soldiers in last year’s clash near the Pangong Lake, and posthumously awarded them gallantry medals. This prompted a rabid anti-India reaction on Chinese social media, with most Chinese apparently in favor of teaching India a harsh lesson. 

Even in Nepal, China wanted to punish the Oli government. But when the American State Department strongly urged Kathmandu not to forcibly return Tibetan refugees and the US Congress voted to increase support for Tibetans, China had to recalculate. The US Ambassador to Nepal Randy Berry started visiting individual Nepali leaders to appraise them on new American priorities. The Chinese were doubly spooked. 

Thankfully for the Chinese, the Indians realize the cost of completely alienating its big neighbor to please a distant friend. (And this is exactly the case with Nepal too.) There has always been a strong anti-US lobby in India which fears giving a strong external actor like the US greater sway in its traditional backyard, not when China is already usurping the old Indian strategic space. The Modi government moreover fears the nationalist backlash should India suffer big reverses in a conflict with China. Hence there is a level of mutual readiness to de-escalate the border crisis. 

India and China are both struggling to calibrate their relations with the US. And they have relatively stable governments, which is far from the case in Nepal. As Oli’s PM chair appeared shaky, foreign powers here were already jockeying for influence. Nepal is under increasing American pressure not to act tough on the Tibetans—and the Chinese want precisely the opposite. The Indians too have outlined the ‘red lines’ Nepal cannot cross while dealing with foreign powers.  

At the end of the day, Nepal has no option but to heed the concerns of its two giant neighbors, even at the cost of alienating the US. But then Nepal diversified away from the two giant neighbors precisely to escape being swallowed up by one or the other. So, again, a difficult balancing act. Yet right now it’s hard to see Kathmandu accommodating American concerns over Chinese ones. 

A new draft rule requiring all Nepali women under 40 years to get written consent from their family and local government office for travelling abroad is so absurd that when I first learned about it, I was convinced it was fake news.

Then protestors poured onto the streets. Domestic and international mainstream media began reporting on it. The whole thing felt like a bad dream, but it was totally real!

The draft rules were so outlandish and extraordinarily absurd that it even led The Guardian, a leading British daily, to insert the word “ridiculous” in the headline for the story. Clearly, even the editors couldn’t hold back on judging Nepal’s draft rule despite violating their own norms for reporting the news neutrally.

Immigration officials have been quick to respond that these rules are only a draft, and, if enacted, would apply only to vulnerable women.

Where do such absurd and outrageous rules, even if just a draft, come from? The story in this story isn’t just in the ridiculousness of the draft rules but the darker realities lurking below them.

Long before, women travelling abroad were routinely subjected to humiliating questions about why and with whom they were travelling, or how they could afford to do so. Things were already ‘ridiculous’ a long time ago. The draft rules, if enacted, will make the informal formal, plus a whole lot more draconian.

Through the proposed rules, the government was attempting to respond to Nepal’s human trafficking crisis. The National Human Rights Commission estimated that in 2018 approximately 35,000 people, which included 15,000 women and 5,000 girls, were trafficked primarily for the purpose of sexual exploitation, forced labor and organ removal.

Although human traffickers typically target girls and women from rural areas with limited economic opportunities, recent studies indicate that it has now spread to all districts. A few years ago, only half the districts appeared to have been affected.

Human trafficking isn’t limited to females. In Nepal’s case, male and transnational labor are an equally large group of trafficking victims, exacerbated in part by the rigid rules for outbound labor and the absence of safeguards.   

The 2020 trafficking report by the United States found that Nepal had made significant efforts to meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. It had, for instance, recently ratified the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons and previously the UN Anti-Trafficking-in-Persons Bureau Protocol. But Nepal still needs to do significantly more on building its institutional, legal, and law-enforcement capabilities to profile trafficking, enhance prevention, prosecution, and protection. Nepal remains far from meeting the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.      

Many Nepali non-governmental organizations work alongside the government, supplementing efforts on prevention, identification, rescue, and prosecution, in addition to providing victims with shelter and reintegration support. Working out of makeshift tin sheds in border crossings, often without adequate financial support, the commitment of these NGOs is an example of civil participation in the national effort to end human trafficking.

But Nepal’s civil society must also do more to deepen its engagement in reducing both internal and transnational human trafficking.

At its core, human trafficking emerges from the failure to provide Nepali men and women adequate and meaningful economic opportunities. While government policy and intervention are critical to addressing these challenges, there is an important role for civilian society in building and mobilizing the pressure for change.

The failure to provide opportunities, particularly for vulnerable communities, to the extent that it forces or tricks someone into being trafficked, is more a statement about our social failure than the government’s. Our economy thrives solely, and only, because we force millions of our men and women to sell their labor—and often their bodies—overseas: could there be any bigger national shame?

The “ridiculous” tragedy in the draft rules is that it unfairly requires written consent for overseas travel only from women. The real tragedy was that it didn’t require that from all Nepalis. It should have asked all Nepalis—men, women, old, young, everyone—to have written consent from families and local government for overseas travel.

As civil society we must all do more to acknowledge the deepening crisis of human trafficking. Absurd rules are not the answer. A meaning answer will only come when each one of us feels a direct sense of responsibility every time a Nepali becomes a victim of human trafficking.  

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