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He has not changed his religion but says that the experience is soothing and relaxing. "In short," he comments, "I become a different man each year."
We see that the technique of Vipassana Meditation has travelled round the world. Intellectuals, scientists, engineers, doctors, psychiatrists-all are learning it and benefiting from it.
Even people from communities that have been traditionally opposed to the Buddha, when they come to Vipassana courses, find it acceptable.
This is the beauty of the Buddha's Teaching. It is so simple, pragmatic, universal, and acceptable to all. One just practises Sila, Samadhi and Pragna. It is so pure that nothing needs to be taken out.
Nobody can point out anything wrong in Sila. Nobody can point out anything wrong in Samadhi. Nobody can point out anything wrong in Pragna.
All religions have an inner core, an inner essence that focuses on the purification of mind. All religions also have an outer shell that is concerned more with appearances, festivals, rites, and rituals.
So long as one gives importance to the inner essence, it doesn't matter if the outer shell differs from one religion to another. However, when the outer shell is given the priority treatment, the inner core is lost and a religion fails to bring peace and harmony.
The Buddha's Teaching helps to live according to the inner essence. It gives benefits here and now.
Another cause of this surge of interest in Buddhism from the Western World is the scientific approach of the Buddha, His infinite compassion to all living beings, and His Teaching by example. Buddhism addresses both the intellect and the heart.
Buddhists are not expected believe in his teachings simply because of tradition, because it is spoken and appreciated by many, because it is found written in the religious books or even because we respect the teacher or elder who teaches it. The Buddha always insisted on discriminative examination and intelligent inquiry.
In no uncertain terms he urged critical investigation when He addressed the inquiring Kalamas in a discourse that has been rightly called the first charter of free thought.
He said to Kalamas, "If you do not understand something by yourselves then you will always have suspicions and doubts about it. I therefore, say to you, Ehi Passiko - 'Come and See', for yourselves before you decide to accept it".
The French philosopher Voltaire said, "Faith is to believe in something which your reason tells you can not be true." Before acceptance the Buddha invited us to come, see and experience the Truth.
There is no blind faith in Buddhism. This scientific approach of test and experience has throughout history, attracted many an intellectual to the Buddha's teachings.
Albert Einstein went so far as to claim that; "The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God, avoid dogmas and theology.
Covering both the natural and spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things natural and spiritual and a meaningful unity.
Buddhism answers this description. If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism."
However, people require more than just intellectual stimulation from a religion. A religion must have truth, compassion, tolerance, and be uplifting to help mankind reach their highest potential. It should bring calm and inner peace to individuals living in a world that is crumbling with greed, hatred and materialism.
The Buddha through example elevated man to his highest potential by teaching a path of wisdom, infinite compassion and loving-kindness.
It is this combination of wisdom and compassion, the benefits of which can be experienced in this very life, that has attracted mankind to Buddhism throughout all ages.
It is also this that has led to the peaceful existence and spread of Buddhism without bloodshed or evangelizing over two thousand five hundred years.
My friend says "I have invited many of my friends to 'Ehi Passiko', "Come and See" the Buddha's Teachings for themselves before they even try to think about acceptance.
Sixteen of them did and today they are really happy that they took up my invitation and keep on coming every year. They have understood that Buddhism is not, strictly speaking, a religion in the sense in which the word religion is generally understood; rather a way of life based on the cultivation of Wisdom."
As a footnote, let me add a quote from the book "The Soul of a People" written in 1898 by H. Fielding Hall (who was a District Magistrate) on the Buddha's creed of compassion: "There can never be a War of Buddhism.
No ravished country has ever borne witness to the prowess of the followers of the Buddha; no murdered men have poured out their blood on their hearth-stones, killed in his name; no ruined women have cursed His name to high heaven.
He and His faith are clean of the stain of blood. He was the Preacher of the Great Peace, of love of charity, of compassion, and so clear is His Teaching that it can never be misunderstood."
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Why Are French people attracted by Buddhism?
IN France, Buddhism is considered the fourth largest faith - after Christianity, Islam and Judaism - with an estimated 550,000 practitioners. Many French Buddhists are Asian immigrants, who retain the religion of their ancestors.
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Year-round, hundreds of French and foreign visitors enrol for professional retreats and individual study and meditation sessions offered in different Buddhist centres in France, among them, the Temple of the 1,000 Buddhas in Bourgogne (see picture) or the sprawling Buddhist centre in Dordogne.
There, in the deepest heart of France, the students of Karma Kagyu are colourful new visitors to regions famed for foie gras and hearty red wine, thick-stoned villages and winding country roads.
More broadly, however, the surging attendance at Buddhist establishments testifies to the religion's stunning growth in France, and elsewhere in Europe.
"A lot of Buddhist masters consider France to be somewhat the centre of Europe, both geographically and perhaps symbolically," aid Louis Hourmant, a specialist on Buddhism for the Paris-based Group on Religion and Secularity.
Hourmant attributes the phenomenon partly to France's colonial past in Southeast Asia, partly to the popularity of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader who won the Noble Peace Prize in 1989.
A weekly French TV program, "Buddhist Voices", draws about 250,000 viewers, according to the Buddhist Union of France, an umbrella group representing the different Buddhist currents. Hundreds of Buddhist centres have also opened across the country over the last few decades.
Frederic Lenoir, a French philosopher has carried out some studies to understand this new trend in France.
In his book, Buddhism in France (1999), he explains that Buddhism attracts French people as it is considered more as a philosophy than a religion. Without any God and dogma, French people feel attracted to this way of thinking.
According to Frederic Lenoir, Buddhism goes hand in hand with modernity. This image can be explained by different factors. Firstly, the non-dogmatic view of Buddha's learning.
Each person should follow the Buddha's principles according to their own feelings.
The individual experience is in the very heart of Buddhism whereas Catholicism has a much more dogmatic speech on what one should believe or not.
Besides, Buddhism's philosophy and techniques are interesting to scientists who are working on Human thought and emotions. Buddhism is a real science dedicated to human being, and this does not exist in Western countries.
For Frederic Lenoir, Western people are trying to understand the world through external phenomenon whereas Buddhism tends to observe one's mind, psychology and body. A lot is to be Learnt from this philosophy.
According to a survey led by Frederic lenoir in 1999, French people explain their attraction to Buddhism through 6 factors: moral values, such as compassion, liberty, respect and tolerance, is one such factor.
The advantages of the practice: the exercise on mind and body, and the serenity it brings, are also reasons explaining this attraction.
Answers related to rationality and pragmatism are also often given.
The need to have spiritual guidelines seems to have an important place for them while in a less important way, Buddhism attracts French people for its exotic side.
Courtesy - News from France
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Appreciating an illustrious Buddhist writer
ON December 27, 2004, the day after the tsunami disaster struck Sri Lanka, another disaster struck the small world of Buddhist publishing in this island-nation. The prolific Buddhist writer and editor, A.G.S. Kariyawasam, passed away at his home due to heart failure.
His death left his wife and two daughters without a loving husband and father, it left the Buddhist Publication Society, the island's respected publisher of Buddhist books, destitute of a capable and diligent editor.
During my tenure as editor for the Buddhist Publication Society, I worked very closely with Kariyawasam for nine years, from the time he joined our staff in early 1992 until I left Sri Lanka for health reasons in 2001.
Even before he joined us, I had already heard about his service to the Encyclopedia of Buddhism.
After I left the island, he continued to work for the BPS right up until his sudden death half a year ago, at the age of 71.
During our nine years together, I always found Kariyawasam an extremely easy person to work with. He had immense knowledge-both of classical languages including literary Sinhala, Sanskrit, and Pali and of Buddhist doctrine-yet he bore this knowledge lightly, without undue pride or ostentation.
Though not exuberantly extroverted, he was friendly when approached and when one brought up a topic in the Dhamma to discuss with him he always showed keen interest and a willingness to learn, not merely to use the occasion as an opportunity to display his own formidable erudition.
When he first joined the BPS, he became my assistant in the English-language division of the Society and he helped me greatly in editing and proofing our books.
But because Ven. Piyadassi, the editor of the Sinhala-language division, was often overseas or burdened with commitments in Colombo, Kariyawasam soon assumed the greater share of work in the Sinhala-language division as well.
He edited many of the Damsaks, both new booklets and reprints, and took the initiative in selecting titles for the BPS's new line of full-size Sinhala publications, Kalyana Mithuru books.
When I left the island he managed both domains simultaneously, the Sinhala and English, though by this time he also had assistance in both domains.
He was an indefatigable worker and could re-edit old books, read proofs, correct manuscripts, etc. with relentless energy.
Yet despite the volume of literary work he handled, he would always be available when a visitor to the BPS came with questions about the Dhamma that other staff members could not answer or when a correspondent asked Dhamma questions in a letter.
Apart from his editorial assignments, Kariyawasam translated two important treatises by Sri Lankan monastic authors: Ven. Matara Sri Gnanarama's The Seven Contemplations of Insight (Sattanupassana) and Ven. Rerukane Chandavimala's Analysis of the Perfections (Paramitaprakaranaya).
He also published a Wheel booklet of his own, Buddhist Ceremonies and Rituals of Sri Lanka, and a Bodhi Leaf, The Bodhisattva Concept.
At the present time, persons with the knowledge about Dhamma of the kind that Kariyawasam possessed are rarities, whether in the Sangha or amongst the lay community.
His death at an age when he might still have been active for another decade is thus a great loss to the Buddhist Publication Society, the readership it served, and Sri Lanka's own position of eminence in the Theravada Buddhist world.
May A.G.S. Kariyawasam reap the fruits of the great merits he must have acquired through his selfless service to the Dhamma and may these merits lead him smoothy to the supreme peace of Nibbana.
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