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| Tuesday, 1 July 2003 |
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Asoka Weeraratna Remembrance Day : Promoting right livelihood and Buddhist economics The fourth death anniversary of Asoka Weeraratna, the founder of the German Dharmaduata Society and the Berlin Buddhist Vihara, will be commemorated at a public meeting, organized by the German Dharmaduta Society, to be held on Saturday, July 5, commencing at 3.00 p.m. in the Mahaweli Centre Auditorium, 86, Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha, Colombo 7. Asoka Weeraratna, an indefatigable Buddhist worker, also founded the Mitirigala Forest Hermitage (Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaye), which is nearly 500 acres in extent and constitutes the largest Buddhist Meditation Retreat in Sri Lanka. He passed away on July 2,1999 as Ven. Mitirigala Dhammanisanthi Thera having spent nearly 27 years in robes mostly as a forest monk. He was 80 years at the time of his death. In his later years Ven. Dhammanisanthi Thera led a public campaign against State sponsorship of Inland Fisheries and the State promotion of wrong livelihood among Buddhists, and this campaign eventually resulted in President R. Premadasa withdrawing State support for the Inland Fisheries scheme in 1990. Dr. Mahinda Palihawadana, Emeritus Professor of Sanskrit, University of Sri Jayewardenepura and President, Sri Lanka Vegetarian Society, will deliver thekey note address on the topic 'Right Livelihood and the Buddhist Vision of Human Development'. The events of approximately the past five hundred years have culminated in the rise to dominance of a single economic and political ideology in the world, which erodes and attempts to eliminate all alternate visions of 'civilisation'. Arguably, this development has been accompanied by an unprecedented challenge to the fragile balance of the planetary eco-system itself. This talk by Professor Palihawadana will be an attempt to comment on some aspects of this situation from a Buddhist perspective. A Panel discussion led by Mr. Olcott Gunasekera will follow. Mr. Dharmasiri Gamage, Journalist and Media Consultant, will deliver a commemorative talk on Asoka Weeraratna and the Berlin Buddhist Vihara'. Ven. Bellana Gnanawimala Maha Nayaka Thera of the Kotte Chapter of the Siam Nikaya will preside at the function. The German Dharmaduta Society will release two new CDs on this occasion. The two CDs are entitled 1) Insight Meditation, and 2) Buddhist studies for Schools. These CDs have been produced in Australia by Ven. Pannyavaro, the webmaster of the Buddha Net. They have been replicated in Sri Lanka under the sponsorship of the German Dharmaduta Society. A Documentary film on the 'Berlin Buddhist Vihara' is also expected to be screened on this occasion. |
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