By Matthew Gindin
Apr 02, 2019
Conditions deteriorate for Rohingya in Myanmar and Bangladesh’s refugee camps as countries around the globe close their doors.
Construction site for a new section of the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar,
Bangladesh. Photo by Mohammad Tauheed | https://flic.kr/p/NxPq7C
When taken up, the rod of violence
breeds danger and fear.
Seeing people in strife,
I will tell you how I experienced terror.
Seeing people like fish in a pool with little water
competing with one another.
As I saw this, fear came.
The world was entirely without substance.
Every direction was in tumult.
Wanting a haven for myself,
I didn’t see any place unoccupied.
It’s easy to imagine the above lines written by a Rohingya refugee caught between the guns of Myanmar and the ramshackle camps of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. They weren’t. They were spoken by Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, around 2,500 years ago as he went out into the wider world and saw the terrible toll of human violence and inter-communal conflict (SN 4:15, Attadandasutta; author’s translation).