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by Prof. Buddhadasa Hewavitharana , President, Centre for Buddhism (International)

Mr. Athman, Director/Secretary of the Buddhist Book Trust, Kandy, passed away recently after a prolonged illness and his remains were cremated at Mahaiyawa cemetery in the presence of a small gathering of his friends. This former American citizen who had gained prominence in the world of theatre and drama in New York City as a script writer and director had renounced all that and had come to Sri Lanka some years ago in search of truth and found what he wanted in Buddhism.

He suppressed the personal name he has had and let himself be known to the world as just "Athman" or just a "soul" or a "being". Was it egolessness that he sought by retreating to such namelessness? I would rather think that what he aimed at was not to fully suppress his ego but to sublimate it so as to provide him with the necessary drive force to do his utmost in the dhamma dana work through the Buddhist Book Trust. His motto I think was sabba danam dhamma danam jinathi of all the gifts, the noblest is the gift of dhamma; and what more would befit the giver of such gifts than to let oneself be known as just a "being" or a "living entity".

Another reason, I think, why he chose to be known just as Athman was his need for facelessness as he had hardly any personality in terms of a corporeal self to be advertised or publicised in the world by means of a personal name. He was paralysed from the waist downwards, living his life out on a wheelchair, coping with his weakening backbone, and doing his writing and communications with the world with a computer placed on level with his chest, manipulated by his hands, which too, alas, had begun to weaken. Yet his mind was brilliant, his thinking clear and the articulation of his thoughts precise with sharp (too sharp at times) cutting edges. His visitors could see how decisively his mind had gained supremacy over his material body to push aside the untold physical suffering he must have undergone, and make him manage the Buddhist Book Trust with such dedication and professionalism. Does not, Athmans style of living and work, in some ways, bring to ones mind the corporeal conditions and work of Professor Steve Hawkins, the famous Physicist Black Hole theorist, of Cambridge University?

A sublimated ego and the victory of mind over matter drove Athman in his work at his commodious bungalow on the banks of the Mahaweli at Kundasale to which he gave the name "SERENDIP", a name used historically by Arabs for his adopted country, Sri Lanka. Incidentally, a noun coined from this name is serendipity which denotes the faculty of making happy and discoveries by accident. Arguably, serendipity in this sense was there in him because when one engages in dhamma dana, one makes oneself happy and also others happy. He was indeed happy with what he was doing and that is what kept him going.

As to what unexpected discoveries he would have made by accident through his serendipity, one can only surmise considering some external signs that one has observed. There were in fact some visible signs of luminosity of his mind that may well have arisen from the pleasant mental discoveries he may have experienced while traversing the path of mental development along saddha, dana (dhamma dana), shila, and pragna. Whats in names one may ask? One could therefore venture to say that for Arthur Stuart, (his discarded name that is known only to just a few people here), the chosen names Athman for himself and SERENDIP for his dwelling, signify a path of ethical, moral, spiritual and mental development that he had attempted to traverse.

There is much evidence in support of this. Just half an hour before he breathed his last at the hospital, a member of the Centre for Buddhism (International), Mrs. Anula Jinasena, who was training nurses there went to his bedside, spoke to him and found him to be mentally alert and clear in his thoughts and speech. She arranged for the pupil nurses to chant pirith for him and soon afterwards she came to know that he had expired. All these facts she immediately informed me on the telephone. But no sooner life departed from his body it started decaying and putrefying so rapidly that the cremation had to be advanced by one and a half days from the earlier intended date.

Mr. A. B. Rathnayake, Joint Secretary of the CfB (Intl) who went to the funeral parlour just a few hours after his death informed me promptly on the telephone that he or no one could bear to look at the corpse because it had become such a horrible sight. He found in that revolting sight a nimiththa for realising the truth of jathi, jara, viyadi, marana, and the underlying cardinal truth of anichcha - impermanence. We who listened to him also could not but help reflect on the same lines. Was it then a final object lesson that Athman demonstrated and left for us? Half an hour before his last breath what Mrs. Anula Jinasena observed was a mind that was alert and vibrant. Just a few hours after his last breath what Mr. A. B. Rathnayake observed was a body that was in a horrible state of putrefaction and decomposition. Isnt there much material here in these sharp contrasts struck by the respective behaviours of mind and matter, as they get juxtaposed through these events that took place within so narrow a time frame, for reflecting on, analysing and philosophising?

Mr. Athman was the Director/Secretary, in effect the live wire and the very life and soul, of the Buddhist Book Trust. He dedicated all his life including all his energies and the aims and purposes of his very existence to this Trust. After all, he was an ardent seeker of the dhamma and the propagation of the dhamma through the distribution of dhamma books naturally became his lifes sole mission. His Spartan lifestyle as a strict vegetarian feeding mainly on fruits and his eschewing of indulgence in any sensual pleasures were not impositions on him by his physical disabilities, but were rather more out of choice arising from the philosophical bent of his mind. Such a lifestyle and such an outlook of mind made him an ideal administrator of a Trust Fund for the distribution of Buddhist books.

I came to know him about 2 years ago due to the mediation by Dr. H. S. S. Nissanka, a Vice-President of the Centre for Buddhism (International) who was Mr. Athmans neighbour and confidante. We, of the Centre prepared a proposal for a pilot project to distribute dhamma books to some disadvantaged schools in the Kandy district and to several pirivenas. We implemented this project and also few other projects for publishing Buddhist picture stories for children with Mr. Athmans blessings, assistance and patronage and were hoping to expand the project to a wider district coverage and eventually to an island-wide coverage when Mr. Athman met with his death. He had a number of ambitious projects in his mind to be designed and implemented by the Centres Project Executive Committee on dhamma dana.

Among these projects were publishing of dhamma texts in braille, publishing Amba Jathaka, on which he was keen as it provides moral guidance regarding the evils of liquor consumption, and Rahulowada Suththa, in simple language with illustrations, and more Buddhist picture stories for the benefit of the children. He also tried to push very energetically his pet project of distributing Ven. Narada theros book on Buddhism to 100 Universities and libraries in the world. This project unfortunately has so far failed to take off ground. Digressing from book distribution, he donated funds also for the development of homes and facilities for the disabled and the aged. Being a disabled person himself I can understand why he developed a benevolent attitude for the blind who are unable to read and for other disabled persons.

It is in respect of his performance in the management of the Buddhist Book Trust that Mr.Athmans life and work can be evaluated. I, as an Economist can attempt to do this evaluation using my personal knowledge of his management skills. The management of Trust Funds requires the basic qualifications of honesty that there should necessarily be plus professional skills of the highest order on the two sides of such management.

One side of trust fund management is portfolio management implying the skillful and studied management of the investments of the funds in such an optimal-mix of bonds and securities, stocks and shares, interest earning deposits in different institutions and all these perhaps in different countries and or financial markets, that could possibly produce the maximum profit gains to the Trust out of a network of transactions on a given volume of funds managed by it.

This type of management calls for maximum watchfulness and alertness regarding trends in the financial and the equity markets, their ups and downs, so as to constantly shuffle and re-shuffle the investment portfolio of the Trust. This in turn calls for the highest level of professionalism and integrity on the part of the management. This is because management of a Trust means management by some people of some other people's money, and much can go wrong on the side of portfolio management due to a lack of professional competence and or a high degree of personal honesty on the part of the management.

It has been alleged publicly, as we have read in the newspapers recently, that the Employees Provident Fund has been mismanaged to the tune of a loss of Rs. 1000 million! Now, Mr. Athman possessed the quality of honesty to the maximum possible and his skills in portfolio management were those he had acquired through practical experience and self-tutoring and playing around with the assistance of internet and websites. Nevertheless a short while before his death he became conscious of the need to obtain professional skills from outside, which he insisted should be on a voluntary basis, to help him with portfolio management. He sent word to me on this idea but, his death overtook attempts on our part to identify a source of good professional assistance for the management of a trust fund devoted to the punyakriya of dhamma dana.

The other side of Trust Fund management is to manage expenditures from the fund for its avowed purpose in such a way that a maximisation of dhamma dana taking the forms of publishing and or distributing dhamma books is achieved while simultaneously the cost of such operations is minimised. Now, Mr. Athman was a manager par excellence of Trust Funds when it came to the expenditure control and cost minimisation side of trust fund management. He went through our proposal for book distribution with a fine comb and issued a set of instructions regarding how and where to order the books and even the logistics of the purchase, transport and distribution of books, all with a sharp focus on least-cost methods.

For instance, where the Centre was planning to obtain only a discount of some 13% on purchases from the distributors, Mr. Athman shot it down with some acidic comments and pointed to the possibility of obtaining a 30% discount if we go directly to the publishers themselves for purchasing the books. He had no patience with proposals, which to him at their face value seemed to lack in pragmatism or practicality. Such proposals he would dismiss sarcastically as "so much pie in the sky". These and other letters he wrote are in my possession and will serve as guidelines to the future work of the Dhamma Dana Committee of the Centre for Buddhism (International).

A continuation of the standards of management set by Mr. Athman is a responsibility that now has to be borne by the Board of Management of the Buddhist Book Trust. It is a responsibility that must necessarily by discharged with inputs of high quality professional skills obtained from outside. It is in this way that the Buddhist Book Trust can honour Mr. Athman and acquire merit on his behalf and for all of us by protecting the Buddha Sasana, propagating the dhamma and promoting moral and ethical development through an application of Buddhist values in daily life, all of which were close to the heart and mind of the late Mr. Athman.

It is not to be thought that he was a financial manager, as hard as nails, jealously guarding his rupees and cents. He was well versed in the dhamma, books on which he read avidly and was prepared to discuss finer points with his visitors.

He had compassion in full measure but when it came to distributing the benefits of the fund he did not believe in simplistic or indiscriminate philanthropy. He rather believed in giving priority attention to those who are most in need of such benefits and delivering to select target groups. Thus he appreciated the selection that the Centre made of disadvantaged schools for book distribution and he himself gave priority to the provision of opportunities for the blind to learn the dhamma through texts in braille. His concern for the promotion of moral development is reflected in his prioritisation of Amba Jathaka for publication in simple language. Children constituted a target group for him for propagation of dhamma through books and picture stories and for their moral development through publication of well selected jathaka stories and sutras with distinct moral messages, all in simple language.

Pirith has been acknowledged by psychiatrists and medical personnel as one that could produce a calming and a soothing effect on the disturbed minds of people. After the distribution of dhamma books, the Centre organised a seth pirith for Mr. Athman in order to pass merit to him. He listened to it attentively. One could observe how peace and calm settled on him gradually and his face radiated with happiness as the chanting progressed. He later declared that this was his first experience with pirith and that it was an unforgettable one. Rupam jirathi machchanam, nama goththam najirathi The body perishes for sure but not so the name (reputation). This rare individual who came thousands of miles to our land seeking truth and earned a reputation as a dedicated propagator of dhamma, and who should be emulated by all interested in the promotion of Buddha Sasana, has certainly given to the world a personal demonstration of the truth of the above teaching of the Buddha.

We of the Centre for Buddhism (International) have firmly resolved to continue with the punyakriya that he started and pass on the merit to him so that his journey through sansara be shortened and that he attains Nibbana.

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