Contesting Buddhist Narratives 37 one “seclude the mind from hate” (Dharmasiri 1989, 44). But this loving kindness cannot be limited to one’s own community or those who are “likeable.” The Buddha insists that one must extend loving kindness to all possible types of sentient beings (Karamiya Metta Sutta), and this practice of loving kindness is said to be the most powerful means to make merit (Itivuttaka). Equanimity, meanwhile, helps ensure that one is not acting impulsively, out of anger, greed, or ignorance, but is able to judge a situation as objectively as possible in order to correctly assess what kind of response will reduce suffering. Moreover, equanimity helps to ensure that one acts without discrimination or bias toward a group based on unwholesome attitudes or attachments (Dharmasiri 1989, 49). Compassion is a virtue that compels action—the desire to reduce the suffering of others motivates one to go out and help others. Meanwhile, sympathetic joy helps to stem resentments as one cultivates an attitude of appreciation for others’ achievements and successes, rather than begrudging them. From the perspective of the Buddha’s calculations, each of these virtues can help one respond to the current environment in Myanmar in a way that will reduce communal tensions and help drive religious pluralism. Loving kindness and compassion will reduce acCultivating the four principal virtues tions and attitudes driven by could reduce communal tensions and hate (which in turn drives “hate speech”) and encourdrive religious pluralism age action that reduces the suffering of victims of the current violence—overwhelmingly, but not exclusively, Muslims. Equanimity will help to ensure that one seeks not to respond out of fear or anger, as much as those might be natural emotional reactions to a situation of insecurity, but with a sense of fairness and care. Sympathetic joy might help to reduce anger or hatred derived from feelings of resentment about the economic successes of others, or the resentment of perceived inequities in, for example, the distribution of aid to communities affected by violence. Long-standing resentments among Buddhists concerning the development and education provided to Christian groups by missionaries, as well as the conversion of Buddhists to Christianity, and/or resentments