Declaration of Independence of the United Buddhist Nations Organization

 

Declaration of Independence of the United Buddhist Nations Organization

 

Faced with the events of the contemporary civilization, plagued with war, poverty, ignorance and pollution, it is essential for the Buddhist people to manifestly and explicitly dissolve any political bond that links it to other States, assuming a position of Liberty and Independence in the world. This kind of detachment is based on the ethics taught by Siddhartha Gautama, founding father of the Buddhist Nations, but is also based on the Human Right to autonomy and self-determination. The causes of the present Declaration of Independence are therefore ethical and humanitarian reasons.

Evidently, the Buddhist People is sustained in noble truths different from those of the international community, such as the spiritual rights to Awakening (Bodhi), to Wisdom (Prajna) and to Ethics (Sila). These spiritual rights include simultaneously the right to appropriate understanding, the right to appropriate attitude, the right to appropriate discourse, the right to appropriate action, the right to an appropriate lifestyle, the right to appropriate effort, the right to appropriate concentration, the right to appropriate mindfulness, the right to appropriate knowledge and the right to appropriate liberation. These spiritual rights guarantee for the Buddhist People the search for a free, happy and enlightened life. Buddhist nations, therefore, should be detached from the links of political domination exercised by other States whose forms of government are destructive of these principles of spiritual rights and should consider these domination links as illegitimate. Thus, the Buddhist People have the right to its own form of government that is based on these spiritual principles, organizing its institutions in a way that ensures the highest possibilities to achieve peace, justice, education and health. Although the status quo advises to maintain a bond of attachment to the political and economic power of States, two thousand six hundred years of experience of the Free and Enlightened Beings (Arhats-Bodhisattvas) have shown that the human being must be independent, abolishing oppression in order to survive and evolve. The most powerful States in the international community have maintained a series of grave human rights abuses, conducting genocides and ethnic cleansings against defenseless populations, subjecting communities to crimes against humanity and war while were conducting ecocides against thousands of species and ecosystems. In this way, faced with all this suffering that has gone unpunished, it is the duty of the Buddhist People to constitute itself as an government that is independent from these States, establishing an ethical and spiritual voice that safeguards future generations. For thousands of years the spiritual communities of the Buddhist Nations have received grievance, usurpation and control by the political power of the States. Therefore, it is now necessary for the United Buddhist Nations Organization to declare that the communities and institutions of the Buddhist People are independent from the tyranny of States, having the right to establish their own administrative, economic, educational and juridical systems. In order to demonstrate the need for independence of the Buddhist Nations with respect to States, it is imperative the ethical and impartial judgment of spiritual masters:

The States of the international community have refused to implement the treaties, conventions, declarations and instruments of human rights and fundamental freedoms which are the most necessary laws for world justice and peace.

The States of the international community have omitted to implement Mindfulness, to arrest and judge the innumerable genocides occurred during XX and XXI centuries, violating the supreme right to life even against the Buddhist Peoples.

The States of the international community have refused to enact measures to arrest and prosecute a large number of ethnic cleansings and exterminations against various cultural minorities.

The States of the international community have repeatedly and widespreadly carried out crimes against humanity, attacking the most essential human rights.

The States of the international community have called Peace Corps to resolve conflicts, although they have subsequently carried out war crimes against civilian populations with total impunity.

The States of the international community have kept and strengthened their armies, repeatedly violating the supreme right to world peace.

The States of the international community have allowed some countries to commit crimes of aggression without being held accountable under the jurisdiction of International Law.

The States of the international community have set themselves that militarism is interdependent with the political power and that it is even above Law.

The States of the international community have obstructed the administration of global justice by refusing to prosecute powerful countries that have committed terrible atrocities, which has established a system of widespread impunity that violates the human right to justice.

The States of the international community have subjected the peoples of the world to a system of corruption, by keeping an elite of power that becomes rich while societies become impoverished and die of starvation and disease.

The States of the international community have prevented and obstructed the development of democratic and republican systems on many occasions, establishing authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, thus violating the right to civil participation in government systems.

The States of the international community have imposed nationalist systems rather than fostering global citizenship.

The States of the international community have in many cases deprived peoples of their right to equality by benefiting fascist regimes.

The States of the international community have allowed the emergence of populist governments that manipulate the poor in order to accumulate political power.

The States of the international community have provided money and arms to terrorist organizations.

The States of the international community have exponentially limited the freedom of expression.

The States of the international community have violated the Right to the Truth by deceiving and transmitting a false version of world events.

The States of the international community have not respected the civil rights of citizens belonging to minorities, constantly subjecting them to discrimination.

The States of the international community have unprotected and violated the rights of the child.

The States of the international community have treated women as inferior human beings than men.

The States of the international community have plundered territories, destroyed resources and destroyed the homes of tribal peoples, subjecting them to desolation, tyranny, and death.

The States of the international community have allowed new forms of colonialism by means of the harmful influence of transnational corporations.

The States of the international community have created a materialistic civilization that economically oppresses humanity, devouring natural resources and keeping more than half of the world’s population in poverty with almost no access to food and water.

The States of the international community have violated animal rights, making them mere objects of consumption.

The States of the international community have allowed the creation of human-animal hybrids, violating both the sacredness of human life and the animal rights.

The States of the international community have refused for a long time to resolve global warming, and as a result have continued to maintain a system of global pollution and ecocide that has wiped out thousands of ecosystems and millions of species, in addition to exposing humankind at the highest temperatures in human history by preventing the self-regulation and self-healing cycles of Mother Earth from functioning properly.

The States of the international community have not protected the health of the planetary body, violating the rights of Mother Earth in carrying out one of the greatest mass extinctions in planetary history.

In this worldwide stage of decline of civilization, the Buddhist Peoples have humbly requested that there be peace and justice, to which the international community has responded with indifference, grievances and oppression, demonstrating that no State is worthy to govern the Buddhist Nation, which declares itself as Free and Independent. At the same time, the United Buddhist Nations Organization declares as brothers both the Tribal Peoples of the world as well as the spiritual communities of all traditions, to which it is sought to protect within the special jurisdiction of ethical justice and the compassionate wisdom (karuna-prajña). In addition, the United Buddhist Nations Organization develops an interconnected link with all sentient beings, protecting plants, animals and ecosystems, since Buddhist Peoples are not deaf to the voice of peace and justice. In this way, this Declaration of Independence establishes a separation between the States and the Buddhist Nations, while seeking to strengthen the unity between the Truth and the Buddhist Peoples.

Therefore, members of the United Buddhist Nations Organization, called on the Path of Awakening, declare that the Spiritual Path of Reconciliation and Righteousness is the sole supreme judge of the world, being the most important authority of the Buddhist Peoples by acting on behalf of Goodness. The United Buddhist Nations Organization declares that Buddhist Peoples are and should always be Free and Independent Communities, being autonomous of all political ties with States, so that they have full liberty, self-determination and rights to make peace, to bring about justice, to establish education and to carry out acts of ecological healing.

This Declaration of Independence is a sacred and solemn emancipation from the despotic powers, being supported with absolute confidence by Buddhist Nations’ representative authorities and members, who dedicate their lives, vows and honor to pursue the highest spiritual values as a way to live a righteous existence and as a way to save all beings from suffering. In acclaiming the holy Path of World Peace and Social Justice, it is determined the will of the United Buddhist Nations Organization in order that the Buddhist Peoples should detach themselves from the violent ties that bound them to kings or governments, having to recover the rights from which they have been stripped, proclaiming themselves with the high ethical character of a Nation Free and Independent from States. Through this commitment it is accomplished the fulfillment of the will of Siddhartha Gautama, the founding father of the Buddhist Peoples, endorsing this decision under the protection of the Awakened Being (Buddha), the Law (Dharma) and the Spiritual Commune (Sangha).

 

Creator of the Declaration: President Master Maitreya Samyaksambuddha

Date:  February 6, 2017