|
DAILY NEWS ONLINE |
|
|
|
OTHER EDITIONS |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
OTHER LINKS |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
All these monks came from a different era of education which produced erudite monks who have been able to be shining stars of the Dhamma. Unfortunately the training that monks of Sri Lanka receive today will not enable them to emulate their outstanding seniors. The senior monks currently serving outside Sri Lanka need to seriously sit down together and propose some concrete steps to redress this regress in the education system.
Today, less than 1% of Sri Lanka's 30,000 monks are serving abroad. Their breakdown is estimated as follows:
North America 100
Europe 60
Asia and Australia 60
South America 2
Africa 2
While many of these monks conduct many Dhammaduta activities in the country they serve, the activities of a significant number are limited to perform chanting rites and rituals only.
They would want to do more but unfortunately their lack of missionary training stop them. Their failure is not the lack training but the Sri Lankan education system that does not adequately prepare monks for their chosen destiny.
For a start, Sri Lankan monks have to be more proficient in an additional language other than Sinhala in order to be able to serve Buddhism in Sri Lanka or abroad better. They could perhaps choose one of the other major languages of the world such as English, Mandarin, Hindi, French, Spanish, Dutch, German, Japanese, Malay, etc. English is ideal to serve abroad and perhaps teaching Buddhism in English or a foreign language must be a compulsory subject in the syllabi.
I would also recommend learning Tamil as this will serve as an important bridge to reach out to the Tamil speaking community of Sri Lanka and reduce the division in the Sri Lankan society. Reaching out to the Tamil speaking community will endear the monks to this community well enough to break current communication barriers and misconceptions orchestrated by sections with vested interest who want to keep the Sinhala and Tamil speaking communities divided for their own political ends.
It is indeed a stark contrast to see that Tamils make up almost 40% of the crowd in the Sri Lankan Buddhist temples in Malaysia while in Sri Lanka it is the Sinhalese who flock to the temples and very few Tamils go to a Buddhist temple.
Reaching out does not mean converting but seeking to create understanding, tolerance and unity. After all, the last bastion of Buddhism in India was in Tamil Nadu and not North India. Some of the most famous Buddhist scholars such as Buddhagosha who assisted Buddhism significantly in the island of Lanka is Tamil. Some of the most famous Tamil poetry is Buddhist inspired due to the strong influence of Buddhism up to the 10th century in Tamil Nadu. Interestingly, there is a rapid growth of Buddhism in Tamil Nadu today. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said across the Palk Straits the Northern or Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka.
In Singapore, the late Ven. Mahaweera could converse in Sinhala, English, Chinese and Malay. There are stories of courageous Sinhala monks who are carrying out a yeoman service among the Tamil community in Sri Lanka. More monks should join them and reach out to the Tamil community.
In the spirit of the Arana Vibhanga Sutta, monks in Sri Lanka must be proficient enough in a foreign language to undertake translation works and give talks in a foreign language. People will get closer to a monk if he could speak the language of the land.
The Bible has been translated to hundreds of languages while the number of languages in Buddhist booklets and texts are available in less than fifty. Even the remote natives of Papua New Guinea could read the Bible in their mother tongue. Such is the passion of the missioners!
Buddhist apologetics is another important field that monks should be well trained in addition to acquiring a good understanding of the tenets of the major religions of the world. The Sri Lankan monks should take great pride in the great debate of Panadura where monks safeguarded and defended the fortress of Buddhism in Sri Lanka in the wake of the evangelical onslaught.
This was the turning point for the revival of Buddhism within Sri Lanka itself that then paved the way for the eventual modern spread of Buddhism to other countries by Lankan monks. Monks should also acquire good skills in public relations, counselling, meditation, communication skills, counselling public speaking, ability to conduct Sutta studies, study of world geo-politics, cultural assimilation, conducting critical reviews, etc.
Monks should also take up academic research in Buddhism for valuable comparisons and critique with contemporary fields of science and arts. Research should be conducted on comparative studies of Buddhism and science, the Buddha's management techniques, Buddhism and Law, etc.
Monks should also learn the success stories of Buddhist propagation overseas by Sri Lankan and other Buddhist monks from other lands. The Fo Kuang San, Tzu Chi Merit Society, the Bukkyo Dendo group, Tibetan Buddhist groups are few examples.
Fo Kuang San is a good example of Buddhist missionary work par excellence. It runs more than 210 Buddhist universities, seminaries, monasteries and lay Buddhist societies worldwide that are actively propagating the Buddha Dhamma. Tzu Chi Merit Society is the most widely known Buddhist humanitarian group serving many countries worldwide including war-torn countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq. The Corporate Body of Buddha Education group is another model example of Buddhist propagation. They print millions of Dhamma books yearly for free distribution worldwide in about 10 languages.
The Bukkyo Dendo group of Japan has produced millions of copies of the book "Teachings of the Buddha" to be placed in hotel rooms worldwide for the perusal of guests just like the Bible and Quran.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama's personality and the migration of Excellent Dhamma teachers from Tibet have endeared Buddhism to the Westerners. It is no exaggeration that the Dalai Lama has made the Western world become a fertile ground for Dhammaduta work.
Another important field long neglected is Buddhist education for children. Monks should venture into the field of education and fill the dearth of educational aids and materials for Buddhist education. We should produce stories on the leading disciples of the Buddha and Jataka stories in animation form.
We should have Buddhist educational aid and games such as jigsaw puzzles, Buddhist value games, etc. Animation, documentaries and feature films with Buddhist values should also be produced.
Truly, our Sri Lankan monks have a big challenge to be well equipped on the home front and abroad in the spread of the Buddha Dhamma. It cannot continue to claim to be a Dhammadeepa if it cannot continue the noble tradition that its earlier generations of monks have performed in the field of Dhammaduta.
The miniature Buddhist Vihara of Botswana
The Republic of Botswana is a tiny landlocked country neighboured by Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia, and Sout Africa. It was formerly a British Protectorate known as Bechuanaland, with a current population of 1.6 million.
Most sadly Botswana has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS. However, the country has a booming industry in diamond and beef exports. The capital is Gaborone. The capital Gaborone has all the modern state-of-the-art buildings, roads and other facilities.
The commercial sector is monopolised by the Whites, Indians and Chinese. There are about five Myanmar Buddhist families in Gaborone, who have become naturalised in their new homeland. The climate of the country varies from sweltering heat to dry and biting cold.
There is a small Buddhist Vihara in West Gaborone, with no resident monk, and a Myanmar bhikkhu from Pretoria, South Africa comes to Gaborone to conduct religious activities and meditation retreats on special days like Vesak and New Year.
This Vihara came up due to the efforts of Sri Lankan Buddhists resident in Gaborone and a few Myanmar and Thai Buddhist. The Sri Lankan community is around one thousand and it was through their generosity the land was purchased and the Vihara built.
There is a small stupa in Sri Lankan tradition, an open assembly hall with a marble Buddha image and a bell. The bell weighing 76 kgs and cast at Tampawaddy in Mandalay, Myanmar, was donated by the Myanmar members of the Botswana Buddhist Association. There are two Bodhi trees in the precincts, one planted by the Sri Lankans and the other by Myanmar Buddhists. This is a Theravada Buddhist Vihara, as Myanmar like Sri Lanka is a Theravada Buddhist country.
Any Sri Lankan or Myanmar Buddhist in Botswana, reading this website, (www.dailynews.lk), contact the writer through Daily News and provide more details of their Viharas and the contact address of the Botswana Buddhist Association.
Mind, its nature and function as described in Buddhism
Mind and its behaviour loom large in the Buddhist analysis of the individual. Cyclic existence which causes him to suffer now here and now there, until he gains release from it, is described in relation to the individual's mind and its improper function due to defiling unwholesome thoughts.
Until the bonds by which he is bound to the cycle of births and deaths are torn apart through the purification of his mind, he will ever be in the cycle being subjected to suffering in numerous states of births.
Hence, in the Buddhist scheme of morality leading to supreme Bliss, mind plays a prominent role and the entire teaching of the Buddha can be termed as a system of psychoanalysis. Because of the tendency of analysing the mind and its functions in minute details Buddhism's psychological and ethical nature is more real than apparent.
What is mind?
In the fundamental analysis of the individual into mind and form (namarupa), mind (nama) refers to mind and other mental factors.
The classification of the individual into five factors as form (rupa), sensation (vedana), perception (sanna), mental formations (samkhara) and consciousness (vinnana) is somewhat exhaustive and there the consciousness is mind while sensation, perception and mental formations are mental factors related to the functions of the mind. There is yet another classification where mental function are classified in accordance with the sense faculties.
In this classification of the individual into twelve faculties, eye (cakkhu), ear (sota), nose (ghana), tongue (jivha), body (kaya) and mind (mana), there are six kinds of consciousness by way of their relationship to sense faculties.
Hence mind becomes sixfold thus making the classification twelvefold together with eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness and mind consciousness.
The nature and function of the mind
Very many functions of the mind are recorded in the Canon revealing its nature and function in different contexts. The mind's active and passive characteristics are brought to light in these references of the Cannon:
* It gives pleasure, propitiates and convinces (aradheti).
* It stretches forth, holds out, takes up,exerts, strains and vigorously applies in relation to its objects (pagganhati).
* It disposes, collects, brings together, heaps up, gathers, arranges, focuses and concentrates in numerous ways (upasambarati).
* It bends, directs and applies (namati).
* Its springs forward, jumps onto, takes to and rejoices in its object (pakkandati, pasidati, santitthati).
* It calms down and quietens (passambhati).
* It agitates, disturbs, crushes, harasses and upsets an individual (matheti).
* It shakes, unsettles, wavers and is in doubt (vikampate).
* It holds back, obstructs, restrains, forbids (nivareti).
* It can strike, kill, destroy and beat down (pahannati)
* It aspires, longs for, prays for and intends (panidahati).
* It clings to and gets bound up with its objects (sajjati, gayhati, bajjati)
* It defiles, corrupts and tarnishes (uyasincati).
* It is drawn to, feels attached to, is inclined towards and indulges in its object (adhimuccati)
According to the foregoing definitions of the multifaceted nature and function of the mind, it is quite clear that Buddhism recognizes three functions of it:
1. affective
2. conative
3. cognitive
The affective aspect of the mind refers to the function of feeling that mind engages in. The conative function of the mind is acting, willing striving and desiring and the cognitive aspect deals with the functions of knowing, believing, reasoning and perceiving.
As these functions of the mind are not separable and detectable individually due to simultaneous action and interaction, the mental process becomes complicated, involved and complex.
The words popularly used for mind are 'citta', 'mana', 'vinnana', 'manasa' and 'hadaya', out of these, in the pali canonical texts, the first three are often used to denote the mind. 'citta' is from cit - to think, 'mana' as well as 'manasa' is from man-to think and 'vinnana' is from na-to know. 'hadaya' is heart; as the heart is considered the seat of mind, consciousness or mind is also understood by the word 'hadaya'.
However, the three terms, 'citta', 'mana', and vinnana', are described as synonymous. Mind's functions of feeling, perceiving, conation and cognition are laid bare in many instances.
It includes all sensory, perceptive, rational and subjective aspects of mind. In early Buddhism, all the aspects of mind are discussed in psychological, moral and naturalistic perspective.
There is an attempt in pali to bring out different functions of it with a number of verbs coined from na-to know. Thus to denote the function of knowing many verbal forms have been used:
Janati knows
Vijanati knows with discrimination
Sanjanati recognizes
Pajanati knows with wisdom
Parijanati knows comprehensively
Abhijanati knows with extra sensory perception
Ajanati learns or grasps
Patijanati admits or approves
|
|
