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Evil is easy but good is difficult

Easy to do are things that are hard and not beneficial to oneself, but very, very difficult, indeed, to do is that which is beneficial and good.
- Dharmmapada - Atta Vagga

Buddhism in Central Asia

by Sita Arunthavanathan

Central Asia recognised as the 'Cradle of Human Civilisation' connotes the Tarim Basin with the incision of neighbouring regions such as Oxus and Badakshan with the Northern limit as Siberia and the Southern as Tibet. The Eastern and Western limits are not properly defined but the Great Wall of China is generally taken as the approximate Eastern boundary and the Western is reckoned as Ukraine, spreading upto Romania and Hungary.

Date of the spread of Buddhism

Though no exact date can be fixed for the introduction of Buddhism to the Tarim Basin, it provides an interesting study because it took place right through the early period of the present era in several waves comprising various strata. However the available evidence shows that Buddhism was flourishing here at the beginning of the 1st century AD or even earlier, in the time of Demetrius and Menander and spread to China not later than the middle of the same century.

Factors that facilitated the spread of Buddhism

The two famous 'Silk Routes' of the ancient trading world passed through the Tarim Basin from Balkh to the Chinese Frontier at a place called the Jade Gate. Kashgar, Khotan and Yarkhand were important centres on the Northern route, while Kucho or Kuchi was their counterpart on the Southern route. These centres were important not only from the commercial point of view but also as the hub of the Buddhist Doctrine and culture.

The people that disseminated Buddhism and the Indian Buddhist Culture differed from the countries of the Northern Route to the Southern although they possessed common affinities in certain respects. The fact that the monks were well-versed in Sanskrit helped to weld them together. Further to the North was Bactria; its local culture had a blending of Hellenic and Indian influence with the Iranian in its substratum and this too was responsible for the spread of Buddhist learning.

Who spread Buddhism?

The process of introduction of Buddhism to Central Asia and from thence to China was gradual but steady. It was the combined effort of missionaries, scholars, savants of different nationalities and even of political exiles rather than that of zealots. Chinese annals of the Tsin Dynasty (265-316AD) mention that royal invitations were extended to Indian Buddhist scholars to visit their country and propagate Buddhism.

Besides the Indian scholars there were Saka, Parthian, Tocharian, Sogdian and Yueuchi savants providing new dimensions of thought and contributing towards the spread of Buddhism in Central Asia. In addition to these Turks and Mongols also communicated with other nationalities and transported idea and cultural trends from one region to another along with their trading activities. The people that came into contact with these races were equally receptive and acceptive because they were already well-informed of the positive contribution made by Buddhism towards the revival and transformation of Indian culture, settled life patterns of the Indians and their enormous wealth.

Literary Works

Many literary finds of extreme importance in the reconstruction of Buddhism have been discovered from Central Asia. Many manuscripts found in Brahmi, Sanskrit, Chinese, Karosthi, Persian, Tibetan, Turkish and Tocharian languages suggest the cosmopolitan nature of those who built this culture.

Portions of the lost Sanskrit Canon which correspond in substance to the Pali Canon, though not verbally, have been found. Apparently, this may have been the original text that was translated into the Chinese Tripitaka. In Tuang Huang alone 20,000 MSS have been found written in the languages mentioned above. Some palm leaves from Mingoi contain fragments of two Buddhist religious dramas, one being Sariputra-prakarana of Asvaghosa written in the script prevalent at the time of King Kanishka. It is the oldest known Sanskrit MSS as well as the oldest specimen of Indian dramatic art.

Prakrit version of the Dhammapada in Kharosthi characters was discovered by Dutrewil de Rhine near Khotan in addition to numerous other documents; the language and alphabet of these are more or less similar to those of the period of the Kushanas in India. There were also books on quasi-religious subjects like medicine, grammar and comparatively modern Mahayanist literature, in abundance. A large number of Chinese texts both religious and secular were also discovered. Some documents of the Tang Dynastry show an admixture of Buddhist and Taist ideas. The newer stratum of literature consists of Mahayanist Sutras - Saddaramapundarika and Suvarnaprabhasa translated into Uighur and Iranian. Turkish Sutras discovered contain a discourse of the Buddha delivered to the merchant brothers, Tapassu and Bhalluka.

Sarvastivada School

The adherents of this school were found especially in Kashmir and Gandhara from where they spread to Central Asia, Tibet and China. It had its own Sanskrit Canon which is similar to the Pali Canon in wordings and arrangement, in spite of certain dissimilarities. Winternitz is of opinion that both Canons were based on the same source - probably the lost Magadhi one.

The Sanskrit texts of the Sarvastivadins and the Vinaya texts of the Mahisasakas, Dharmaguptas and Mahasanghikas discovered evidently show various differences and divergences from the Pali Canon and also from one another. But the original set of rules remain the same in all the versions.

Published Manuscripts

These include Sutras from the Samyukta and Ekottara Agamas. (Nikayas), a considerable part of the Dhammapada and Patimoksha of the Sarvastivada School from Kuchi. A part of the Dirghagama Sutras and Sangitisutra are more in agreement with the Chinese translation that with the Pali. Atanatiya Sutra is also very much different from the Pali and the Mahasamaya Sutra is more related to the Chinese, while Upali Sutra of the Madhyagama and a good many Sutras of the Central Asian MSS. agree with the Chinese MSS.

Celebrities

Gotami Vihara of Khotan on the Southern Silk Route was the leading centre where erudite savants wrote Canonical works and contributed to Buddhist literature. The countries along the Northern Route from Kashgar to Chinese Frontier were equally important for dissemination of Buddhism and Buddhist Culture.

Scholars such as Dharmagupta from Kashgar, Suryabhadra and Suryasena from Yarkhand, Sikshananda and Dharmakshema were some of the scholars. The last-mentioned is said to have translated 25 texts to Chinese. Buddhaswami was a Hinayana scholar but his pupil Kumara became a Mahayanist and was responsible for introducing Mahayana to the countries of the Tarim Basin and also to China in an authoritative manner. He was not only one of the greatest exponents of Mahayana but also a renowned Madhyamika philosopher.

Of all the celebrities the name of Kumarajiva towers far above the rest. He hailed from a noble family of State Ministers in India and was a monk who had a following of 3,000 Chinese monks at Kucha. He introduced a new alphabet and translated 50 works including Pragnaparamita, Saddharmapundarika, Sarvastivada Pratimoksha etc. Kumarajiva is said to be not only a scholar but a veritable institution by itself that drew thousands of votaries to his shrines of learning both in China and Kuchi. He brought china into the intellectual glow of Buddhism and Buddhist Culture of India.

Languages

Central Asia also provided two new languages. The first was a special variety of the Brahmi Script called Nordarisch, probably the language of the Kushans and the Sakas. The base of it was Iranian but richly influenced by the Indian idioms. Many Mahayana works like Vajracchedika and Suvarnaprabha were translated into this language.

The second language was Indo-Scythian or Tocharian which was the langauge of Kuchi also called Kuchinese. Translations discovered in this langauge include Dhammapada and Vinaya Texts.

Buddhist Mythology and Imagery

Kashmir provided the largest number of Buddhist monks who were savants to Central Asia and from there to China. Greeks, Parthians, Sakas and Kushanas were greatly responsible for stimulation to Buddhist mythology and imagery. Greeks were accustomed to statuary which was an art by itself in their country. When the desire to venerate personalities grew among the people, they created figures of the Buddha and Bodhisatvas with the robes fashioned after the toga of Greek and Roman Emperors.

Monuments and Buildings

There were many libraries in Kuchi and seemed to have been well equipped and contained rare books of immense value such as Samyukta Hradaya, Abhidharama Kosha and Vibhasha. At the Jade Gate there had been over a 1000 grottos carved out for the monks proceeding to China to rest and also for scholars to hold debates and discussions. There were also many nunneries, for the nuns of the royal families and the others. One nunnery was large enough to house 180 nuns. There were hundreds of stupas as evinced by the ruins and quite a number of monasteries housed hundreds of monks. Hieun Tsang was said to have seen a vast number of monasteries and he also described a car festival where thousands of Buddha images were taken in a procession.

The foregoing account proves beyond doubt that in the early centuries of the present era Buddhism and Buddhist Culture had seeped through to Central Asia from India stamping a significant impact on the people of the 'Cradle of Human Civilization' in illuminating their lives and thoughts with the luminescence of Buddhist Doctrine and Culture.

The First Conference of Sri Lanka Association for Buddhist Studies (SLABS)

by G.A. Somaratne

The Sri Lanka Association for Buddhist Studies (SLABS) held its inaugural conference from November 15 - 16,2003 at the Palipane Sri Chandananda International Buddhist Centre for Research and Development in Kandy. This first conference was organized by the Peradeniya Forum of Buddhist Studies, the Department of Pali and Buddhist Studies of the University of Peradeniya, and was sponsored by the Ministry of Buddha Sasana. Over 130 Buddhist scholars and teachers, experts and amateurs from Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, the US, UK and Poland attended and over 30 papers on varying topics related to Buddhist religion, philosophy, psychology, history, culture, and languages were read.

The conference started with a colourful and well-planned inaugural session presided by the Most Venerable Warakawe Dhammaloka and Niyangoda Vijithasiri, the two Lekhakadhikari Mahatheras of the Asgiriya and the Malwatta Chapters, and moderated by Mr. Sumana Ratnayaka. After hoisting both the National and Buddhist flags, the lighting of the oil lamp took place in the midst of chanting of Parittas by the Mahasangha. Among the distinguished invitees were W.J.M. Lokubandara, the Minister of Buddha Sasana and Minister of Justice, Law Reform and National Integration, Monty Gopallawa, the Govenor of the Central Province, Kesara Senanayake, the Mayor of Kandy, Neranjan Wijeratne, the Diyawadena Nilame of the Tooth Relic Temple, Major Suradhaj Bunnag, the President of the World Tipitaka Project in International Scripts, Prof. Kapila Goonersekera, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Peradeniya, Prof. W.M. Sirisena, Dean Faculty of Arts, University of Peradeniya, and Mr. Nimal Weralupitiya, Secretary of the Ministry of Buddha Sasana.

The President of the Association, Prof. P.D. Premasiri welcomed the participants and Prof. Asanga Tilakaratne, Joint-Secretary of the Association introduced the keynote speaker, Dr. D.J. Kalupahana, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hawaii. Prof. Kalupahana is the author of many books on Buddhist Studies, some of which have become the textbooks in the US Universities for the study of Buddhism and Buddhist Philosophy. While delivering the keynote speech on "Sinhala Buddhism," he noted that he has spent most of his life studying, and more than forty years teaching, most philosophical traditions in the world, Eastern and Western. Yet he has not come across anything like the original Buddhist tradition anywhere in the world, even among the other countries where Buddhism has remained a viable force. He emphasized the need of reading both the Pali Nikayas and the Chinese Agamas for the study of the original form of Buddhism. He criticized those Buddhist institutions in Sri Lanka, which have conferred honorary degrees on those who even misinterpret the Buddha's teaching, and are antagonistic toward Sri Lankan Buddhism and Buddhist scholars.

Among the highlights of the conference was the showcasing of the recently completed compilation of the Theravada Buddhist scriptures into a sumptuously bound and painstakingly edited 40 volume set, which was undertaken in Thailand, under the auspices of M.L. Maniratana Bunnag Dhamma Society Fund. The World Tipitaka Project, under the leadership of leading Pali scholars of Thailand began its editing work of the Sixth Buddhist Council edition of 1956 some four years ago. In 2003, they completed part of their work, and the result is the 40 beautifully bound volumes, embossed with gold, which, "will be invaluable to Buddhist believers and scholars for many generations to come," according to Major Suradhaj Bunnag, President of the Project. It was the aim of the World Tipitika Project in International Scripts to bring the Sixth Council edition in Romanized form. At the Le Kandyan Hotel, a special dinner session of the conference was held on Saturday evening, Nov. 15. At this session, the 40 volumes were presented for the inspection of the SLABS conference participants, and a multi-media presentation of the work was given by Major Suradhaj Bunnag. Prof. Mrs. M. Kamonpatana of Chulalonkorn University, Venerable Prof. Na Bangchang (Nun Vimuttiya), a PhD graduate of the Department of Pali and Buddhist Studies, University of Peradeniya, Dr. A. Peltire, and Dr. Buja Bujadham were also among the Thai Buddhist delegation.

Other highlights of the conference included a panel discussion on Buddhist Counseling Psychology. This session was presided over by Prof. P.D. Premasiri. Prof. Padmal de Silva, Dr. H.S.H. Nissanka, Dr. D.V. J. Harishchangra, and Ven. Wetara Mahina Thera were the panellists. To be continued

Attempts to destroy Buddhism

by Lt Col A. S. Amarasekera

Continued from last week

Police who turn a blind eye at transportation of people in private lorries without the necessary permits for political meetings, were seen actively apprehending lorries engaged in such transportation. The lorry owned by G.Peter was fined Rs.200/= for transporting people to this Buddhist protest rally, without a valid permit. The home guards of Track 12, who are administered by the Police, were told to inform the villagers not to participate in the protest, as it would be tear gassed by the Police. A contingent of riot Police were fully equipped and deployed near the proposed church building, for its protection.

The massive protest however failed to induce the authorities to take necessary steps to prevent this church from being established. All of this created a reasonable doubt in the minds of many, as to whether the Police and the authorities were acting under the instructions of the Ministry of Internal Security, which is headed by the same Minister that is in charge of the Ministry of Christian Affaires. Therefore some unknown people that did not want the religious harmony in this area to be disrupted set fire to the church on 28th March 2003.

A few weeks before the protest rally was organized, Karanbankulame Siridhamma Thero of Sripura Rajamaha Viharaya, informed me that two constables from the intelligence unit of the Kebithigollewa Police Station had visited him, to inquire about my activities in the area. I therefore went to the Kebithigollewa Police Station and confronted these two constables, named Sanjeeva and Nandana, who were working in the intelligence unit. I told them that they would have no necessity to inquire from a second or third party in the future, as I had come in person to inform them of my activities in the area. I made them aware that like them, I too as a Commissioned Officer of the Sri Lanka Army Volunteer Force, had sworn allegiance to a constitution in which the 9th Article states that, " The Republic of Sri Lanka shall give to Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the state to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana, while assuring to all religions the rights granted by Article 10 and 14(1) (e)." I informed them that to do this, I need no permission from either the Police or the Ministry of Internal Security. I also gave them leaflets I was distributing in villages against unethical conversions, and requested them to forward these to the authorities that had ordered them to make inquires about me.

Using this small prayer house in Track 10 that was established over a decade ago as the base, the Ceylon Pentecostal Mission has since spread its tentacles to Sri Tissapura, Sinhapura, Kavantissapura and Parakkramapura in the Padaviya settlement. As a result there is much religious disharmony in the Padaviya settlement, as the few newly converted Christians have little or no regard for the traditional Sinhala Buddhist way of life that most settlers in the community respect and defend zealously.

The chief organizer of the Ceylon Pentecostal Mission in the Padaviya settlement is Shantha Kumara Fernando of Buddangala, Padaviya. He has Sugath Bandara of Thalathelawewa, Siyabalawewayaya, Polpitigama and H.M.Gunapala of Panwewa, Konwewa to support him in his religious proselytism endeavour. Shantha Kumara Fernando's wife Nisansala is a volunteer English teacher at the Buddangala Government School. She gives private tuition in English free of charge, to selected bright students after school hours at her residence, and uses this opportunity to entice these innocent children to her Christian belief, without the knowledge of their parents.

While such is the present situation in the Padaviya settlement another group of Christian fundamentalists are hard at work to evangelize the Sinhala Buddhist population in the adjoining Weli Oya settlement. Dr. Lalith Mendis of Christian Ministries is a qualified physician, who is now involved in fulltime pastoral work cum evangelism. He is the editor of the periodical "Flame & Sword" published in English, Sinhalese and Tamil. He does not disclose his address in the leaflets, which he distributes, but requests that all inquiries be forwarded to Post Box number 1001 in Colombo, for obvious reasons. Our investigations have however revealed that he operates from No.374, Serpentine Road Colombo 8. His telephone number is 074 619251.

Among other things in his guidelines for rural evangelism he says, "The urban churches must choose a village in prayer and send the worker to settle down in the village. In so doing duplication of Christian presence must be avoided. It is tragic to see how brethren have conflict working in the same areas when the harvest is so plenteous and labourers are few. The coastal towns in this respect have far too many workers while the interior is starved. Even the village church must have a vision of planting a new church beyond the area it presently reaches. In a rural area where travel is difficult a villager cannot be expected to travel more than 2 miles. In many instances it can be less."

In the Weli Oya settlement at Athawatunuwewa, the village temple was not functional until last month. Due to this reason Christian Ministries of Dr. Lalith Mendis became very active in this village, with Siriyawathi (Kalu Akka) as their chief organizer. Three women, Monica, Shereen and Sevandhi who hail from Meegamuwa, employed by the government for village development work in the area, have joined Siriyawathi to proselytize Sinhala Buddhists. Weli Oya when it was under threat and attack from the LTTE was never visited by these Fundamentalist Christian evangelists or their NGO front organizations, but with the dawning of the so called peace, after the signing of the MoU, they are falling head over heels to help the poor villagers in this settlement. Why have they suddenly become so compassionate towards these forgotten people of Weli Oya, who were cast aside by them during the difficult times? Some of the suspicious NGO's that have suddenly appeared in the Weli Oya settlement and adjacent areas such as Sinhapura, Paranamadawathchciya and Kolongolla to alleviate poverty are, Save the Children's Fund, World Vision etc. Their activities have to be closely monitored. My article "Challenges to Buddhism in Sinhela" proves beyond reasonable doubt that World Vision is on a crusade to destroy the Sinhala Buddhist way of life.

To be continued

The root of all things

(from the Mulapariyaya Sutta)

One, who in the Dhamma, is unskilled and undisciplined,
Perceives materiality, material form,
And the beings that arise therefrom,
Even the finer forms of the divine beings,
As bound to self, within self,
Yet apart and perceived in delight.

* *

From matter, form, and beings,
He perceives and relates,
To the base,
Of infinite Space, Infinite Consciousness,
Nothingness and neither
Perception nor non-perception,

* *

Relating it all to self.
So too external world in sensations
Of what is seen, heard or sensed,
He relates to self, as also,
All that is cognised.
He perceives unity and diversity, and all else,
As mirrored in self,
Ever so, he wrongly conceives Nibbana.
And why? Because being unskilled and undisciplined,
He has not fully understood the Buddha.

* *

A Bikkhu in higher training,
Not yet ripe in Vision,
Knowing matter as matter,
Should not conceive himself as matter,
Nor considered his,
To be viewed in delight.

* *

He knows Nibbana as Nibbana,
Should not conceive self as Nibbana,
Self in Nibbana, nor yet apart from Nibbana,
To be held in delight. Why so?
It is for full understanding of view.

* *

Now, an Arahant with taints destroyed,
Who has lived the holy life,
Done what has to be done,
Laid down the burden, reached the true goal,
Broken the fetters of being to complete liberation
Through final knowledge,
Knows materiality, but does not relate to materiality,
Yet does not conceive himself apart,
Does not hold it as his, nor derive delight. Why?
Because he has full understanding.
He is free from lust, through destruction of lust,
He is free from hate, through destruction of hate,
He is free from delusion, through destruction of delusion.

* *

And now the Tathagata, accomplished and fully enlightened,
Knows form, but does not conceive himself as form,
Nor apart from form. Craves not possession nor delight.
Why so? Because final knowledge is his, he knows,
Delight is the root of suffering, of birth, being, ageing and death.
So with destruction of craving, fading away, cessation, giving up,
The Tathagata has awakened
To Supreme, full, Enlightenment.

U. Karunatilake

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