Eminent scholars analyse aspects of Buddhism

Review: Professor A. D. P. Kalansuriya

Buddha Pradeepa

Daily News Vesak Annual

Edited by Malani Govinnage

Price: Rs. 100

BUDDHISM: It is a pleasure to see the inaugural Daily News Vesak Annual in the year of 2550 Buddha Jayanthi, edited by Ms Malani Govinnage of Daily News Editorial.

The Annual is named Buddha Pradeepa. It comprises 32 papers and articles by well-known scholars, professors and intellectuals covering different aspects of Buddhism.

To start with, Prof. Asanga Tilekeratne correctly visions some aspects of "Emerging New Buddhism in the World (pp. 33-5)." Regrettably, the significance of such new academic disciplines as Sociology of Buddhism, Buddhist Psychology, Buddhist Philosophy are not emphasised.

The Buddhist Studies Departments of the Sri Lankan university system have to inaugurate a new methodology pertaining to them.

Prof. Nandasena Ratnapala (pp.37-9) writes an interesting and thought-provoking paper on "Social Change and Individual Change."

In the process he deals with the contemporary concept of Sri Lankan education which implies, I presume, the medium of instruction in schools in this island in the Indian ocean.

The late Mr. C. W. W. Kannangara is recalled by the professor, very correctly. In this regard, Sri Lanka has started a difficult journey but has arrived at a signboardless junction!

Realistic approach

In his paper entitled "Buddhism: Message of Joy and Hope", Mr. Rajah Kuruppu notes: "Buddhism adopts a realistic approach as it recognises both happiness and unhappiness in life though even considering happiness as unsatisfactory in view of its ephemeral nature (pp. 45)." The glory of "Sri Lanka's Ancient Cave Monasteries" is dealt with by Ven. S. Dhammika Thera.

His illustrations are penetrative. "Status of Buddhism under Portuguese rule in Sri Lanka" by Dr. K. D. Paranavitana and "The Bleakest Period in Lanka's history of Buddhism" by Padma Edirisinghe take up the issue of destruction of places of Buddhist worship by the Portuguese.

These two history-oriented papers by the two scholars are well placed in the Vesak Annual. Rohan Lal de Alwis's "Buddhist Philosophy and Modern Notion of Management" comprises a timely touch but very sketchy.

It needs elaboration. Again, certainly, modern business and commercial activity in Sri Lanka need to be subjected to serious thought at a very high paradigm. The concept of a feed-back, a necessity, yet is basically missing. Because, possibly, its conceptual structure remains untouched by the author.

The story of Buddhism losing its place in its own birth-place and regaining its lost glory is dealt with by E. M. G. Edirisinghe. Prof. Tissa Kariyawasam in his paper entitled "Buddhism in Sri Lankan Folklore" highlights his theme with appropriate illustrations from Sri Naga Vihara and Indian Museum, Calcutta.

"Buddhist Insights into Happiness" related to Sukha Vagga are made explicit by Prof. Sunanda Mahendra. It is a well written paper.

Important index

Olcott Gunasekera's article on "Practices harmful to human beings" is timely. An important index is also included in his paper. Dr. D. P. D. Wijesinghe's contributions in his article entitled "Physiology and Psychology of Meditation" not only is academic but is also very useful to the readers who are interested in meditation.

In addition to these papers, worthy of note are the well-written contributions of Rev. Prof. Bellanwila Wimalaratana, Rev. Prof. Dhammavihari, Prof. Oliver Abeynayaka, Prof. C. Wickramagamage and S. Nanayakkara.

After thought: Finally, I may note that the volume of this Vesak Annual next year ought to cover papers and articles comprising much wider spectrum concerned in Sociology of Buddhism.

Buddhist Psychology and Buddhist Philosophy. If so, it not only shall make explicit better scholarship but an unprecedented academic touch is also contained.

Author on a voyage of discovery

Review: R. S. Karunaratne

Japanese Folk Drama & Sarachchandra's Drama

Author: Senior Professor Kulatilaka Kumarasinghe

S. Godage International Publishers (Pvt) Ltd., Colombo 10

98 pp. Price Rs. 450

DRAMA: Following in the footsteps of the late Professor E. R. Sarachchandra, Senior Professor Kulatilaka Kumarasinghe too has done extensive research into folk drama and Japanese culture.

Both of them lived long periods in Japan studying the intracies of the Japanese culture. Hence their views on this subject are authoritative and authentic.

Professor Kumarasinghe proceeded to Japan in 2002 on a fellowship to do research on Japanese folk drama under the supervision of Prof. Mamoru Takakuwa at the University of Daito Bunka in Tokyo. The book shows the fruits of his extensive research on the subject.

Tracing the history of Japanese theatre, the author says that folk arts have been bequeathed from the past religious performances coupled with the social life patterns of a mass of agricultural people.

Unlike in other countries certain forms of theatrical arts such as Kagura and Bugaku are performed for those who appreciate them. On the other hand, various forms of contemporary drama are presented for other audiences.

Kagura

In a long chapter, the author explains what Kagura means and its significance in theatrical art. It is symbolically a re-enactment of the dance before the sun-goddess. At times it expresses sacred moods that may sometimes be awesome, frightening and solemn. It can also be happy, joyful and comic.

This is followed by an enlightening chapter on Gigaku, a dance and musical entertainment performed with a mask. However, it disappeared from Japan during the Kamakura period.

This chapter is followed by a treatment of Bugaku, a form of musical entertainment that came to Japan in the 7th century. Although Bugaku has disappeared from the scene, some of its old masks can be seen at Todaiji and other temples even today.

Prof. Kumarasinghe devotes the next few chapters to shed light on new Sarugaku, Ennen No, Sarugaku No, Denguku No, Shugen No, Furyu, Bunraku and modern Japanese drama.

The dissolution of Japan's feudal social structure, the return of the Emperor to power and the impact of Western civilization mark the development of Japanese theatre in the modern period.

Insight

Then comes the most important chapter of the book entitled "Ediriweera Sarachchandra and his drama." Sarachchandra's long stay in Japan gave him an insight into the traditional theatre of Japan, especially the Kabuki and the No. forms.

He discovered certain affinities between the Japanese theatre and the original Sanskrit theatre and its off-shoots in other countries. Sarachchandra was thrilled by Kabuki which is full of heroism and performed with wonderful expressions.

He was also impressed by the serenity evoked by No theatre. He said, "If there is a Buddhist dramaturgy in any part of the world, that is the No drama in Japan."

When Sarachchandra produced his pathbreaking Sinhala play Maname, he was influenced by Akira Kurasowa's Rashomon. The drama reinterpreted the old Jataka story - Chulla Danuddhara - and put forward his sense of responsibility, the social view and approach to drama.

Thereafter, Sarachchandra produced a string of Sinhala dramas such as Rattaran, Kadawalalu and Elova Gihin Melova Ava heralding the renaissance of Sinhala theatre.

Prof. Kumarasinghe is at pains to show how Sarachchandra was influenced by the Japanese theatre as well as the folk theatre of Sri Lanka.

He also imbibed a lot from the Sanskrit dramaturgy. In the closing chapter the author traces the real impact of Japanese traditional theatre on Sarachchandra's drama.

Taken as a whole, Prof. Kulatilaka Kumarasinghe's Japanese Folk Drama and Sarachchandra's Drama fills a vacuum in the literature relating to local theatre. The book has been produced with utmost care and concern for the learner and the scholar.

Buddhist meditative experiences fictionalised

Review: Prof. Nandasena Ratnapala

Mind Travellers

Author: W. S. Ranasinghe

Published by Sarvodaya Vishva Lekha

271 pages, Price: Rs. 460

FICTION: This novel has a rare theme. It deals with the Buddhist meditation. The result of meditation is the acquiring of skill to read others' minds. Travelling by air becomes possible because of the meditation skill and it is described in the novel.

It is an attempt to illustrate Buddhist meditation and the practical results that could be obtained by the diligent meditative process.

Rohana, a university lecturer, is the central character of the novel. He meets Ven. Rewatha, a Buddhist monk, who practises meditation. Rewatha has mastered the mind and is able to control the body totally.

Rohana has come to Thailand to attend a World Buddhist Congress. He had made friends with the young monk who came with the team. Ven. Rewatha was fascinated by the vast knowledge that Rohana possessed.

Rohana and Ven. Rewatha discuss meditation. They discuss the role of science and realize that science is far behind religion. In this sphere Rohana was interested in the revelations the Ven. Rewatha was making.

At the Thai temple Chote and his daughter provide meals and other necessaries to Ven. Rewatha and the other monks. They also invite Rohana to partake of their food.

Psychology

Ven. Rewatha and Rohana discuss psychology. Dr. Seehavanga, a Thai professor, joins them. Ven. Rewatha starts his experiments in meditation. Ven. Rewatha describes how the Buddha acquired the power of the mind.

The Buddha could disintegrate his body and disappear from where he was and reconstitute his body and reappear in another place. Reading others' minds was simple for him.

First thing in meditation was to read other people's minds. The skill they have achieved, the ability to read others mind, was picked-up by Thai newspapers in Thailand. Reporters and cameramen crowded them.

The headlines of the newspapers cried, "Sri Lankan professor reads minds", "Thai and Sri Lankan professors achieve mind power".

Ven. Rewatha was able to float through the air and this float was observed by Rohana, Usha and others. Usha also joins Rohana in this experiment. Their emotional involvement adds colour to the story. Through meditation Rohana and Usha achieve different skills.

Rohana was able to cure a pain in Usha's father's leg. Through meditation he was able to create a golden Buddha statue on his palm. Later on even Usha was able to develop that skill.

The young couple although emotionally close to each other maintained strict control over their desires until they achieve their goal.

Experiments

Rohana and Usha continuetheir meditation experiments. Usha, in meditation sees Rohana floating in the air. Not only could he raise himself but also he could float in the air. Usha says, "I am happy that I lived to hear this kind of achievements. This is the first time we have heard this kind of news after 2,500 years, after the Buddha's time:.

Their experiments are discussed at the Thai University to which both Rohana and Usha are invited. The Thai University intellectuals question them.

Through meditation Rohana and Usha are able to float in the air "Hand in Hand".

At the same time their intimacy grows. But they continue their meditation experiments. Rohana and Usha begin experiment in disappearing. At first they remain disintegrated for a minute. They were successful in their experiment. Through meditation they could disappear from one place and appear in another place.

Rohana gets his family's consent to marry her. She agrees when Rohana asks "Can we marry some day", she was overjoyed.

The mental powers achieved through meditation were displayed. They had come to Sri Lanka by this time. All Sri Lanka television and radio channels brought the story of their rare achievement and the world media broadcast.

The seminar to illustrate their achievements was held in the BMICH. The seminar started in the morning. Rohana at the outset says that the experiment was a research on psychology.

He also states that the credit of their achievements should go to Abhidhamma, which the Buddha preached 2,500 years ago. Rohana states that he was inspired by the Buddhist monk Rewatha who visited Thailand.

Concentration

Rohana and Usha commenced their meditation and entered into a trance through concentration. Chess pieces were created by them out of nothing.

Rohana and Usha perform a disappearing feat too. They disappeared and appeared clad in different clothes entered the hall through a side entrance.

After all this a discussion followed. Everyone was fascinated by their experiments, questions were asked and answered.

Usha started a mind-training centre at home. Twelve participants selected from different countries took part in it. The participants developed the power to disappear and reappear. They started floating like flying saucers.

Ven. Anando floated all the way to his country. Although Rohana proposed to start a mind travel system Ven. Anando indicated that he was interested in reaching nibbana and not in such mind travel. Rohana and others gave their blessing to him.

Rohana's travel system was established. The travellers could float like flying saucers from one country to another.

The novel ends stating how those who practised meditation entered into trances and floated in the air. They floated away higher and higher in the air widening their parameters. They floated in different directions in the sky. Some towards their home in India, some to Thailand, the USA and the UK.

Reading the Novel "Mind Travellers" is a unique experience. Never have I read Buddhist meditative experience treated as a theme of a novel.

The meditative experience is indeed a practical experience. The novel should be read by all. Those interested in Buddhist teachings should read and enjoy this novel. My thanks to Vishva Lekha for publishing a good novel.

There is nothing behind the mask

Review: Saman Wickramaarachchi

Dootha Geethaya

Author: Darshana Rathnayaka

FICTION: The protagonist in the film The Mask, directed by Charles Russel and Jim Carrey, was an idiot. But when he discovers, his idiocy he becomes a completely different person. In fact, in the film, the mask is a signifier.

His metamorphosis, resulting in wearing the mask, is none other than his Jouissance Enjoyment. it has a sexual connotation lacking not found in the English word "enjoyment": What actually happens is not that he changes into a new form by wearing the mask but that jouissance itself transforms him to a mask.

According to Renata Salecl, the author of Perversions of Love and Hate and whose writings are based on Lacanian psychoanalysis, there is nothing behind the mask and it is in the veil that seemingly covers the essence of the subject. If we are to search for this essence for Selecl, we must search that veil itself for the mask.

Darshana Rathnayaka's Dootha Geethaya (The Song of the Messenger) for me, is none other than a mask of language. According to Jaque Lacan, a well-known psychoanalyst, the unconscious is structured like a language.

In that context, reading of the language of this poetry, which is considered as highly poetic by some of our critics, is a reading of a mask.

In other words in reading this book, as unconscious is structured like a language, we read unconscious of the poet or inner part of his psyche where the repressed desire is hidden.

The protagonist in Dootha Geethaya, laments about his wife who eloped with her paramour, begs a squirrel to convey his pathetic pleadings to his beloved. Thus Dootha Geethaya is a poetry book which has been written like a Sundesha Kavya.

This style is how illogical and obsolete, I have a different opinion of Dootha Geethaya. The context of my reading is structured by a question raised by Reneta Salecl in her book Perversions of Love and Hate. She asks:

"And why does the subject persist in loving a person who has no intention of returning love?"

It is true that Salecl's question is the last following a number of questions she raised. She seeks, raising these questions in a psychoanalytical reading of several artworks, to answer some problems of the beauty of art. In fact, the pathetic position our protagonist faces is reflected in the question I quoted above.

This is how Darshana Rathnayaka converts the pathos of his protagonist into a poetic form.

"A day will come to realize a fault ending desire for lust and she will definitely shed tears on that day when she gets freed from her promiscuous behaviour.

But still she is spending her life, even though it is poisonous, thinking as she is in heaven having divine foods. So it is better if you may go to her delaying at least about seven years.

What the protagonist does here is that he places his own chastity against his wife by appearing himself as a good husband. But in this ex-parte narration he hides pains, whatsoever, his wife suffered. Thus our hero sacrifices his desire to the Ego Ideal.

The Ego Ideal is, as Salecl explains clearly, the place in the symbolic order with which the subject identifies itself. It is the place from which the subject observes himself in the way he or she would like to be seen. At this junction I may be permitted to quote from Salecl:

"When the subject sacrifices its desire to the ideal, when he completely subordinates himself to the symbolic identity and takes on a symbolic mask, it is in this mask that one can discern his desire.

Now only we can realize what our hero's so called chastity really is. It is none other than the social mask of chastity and that mask itself reveals its desire. What our lover tries to show us is, that he would never even look at a woman, is, for me, only a mask.

The Ideal is the other of the subject's desire; the traits of the mask, our lover's so-called ignorance of other women can be thus read as his desire for women. That is exactly what I mean of reading mask. There is nothing behind the mask. The mask itself reveals, if we can read, subject's suppressed world of passions.

But if we take this text of poetry as a story of romantic love what I should prompt you, is to understand the mechanism of love.

In Lacanian jargon the love is defined as something the subject gives to the other what he or she does not have. It is called in that jargon objet petit or the object cause of desire and any lover (subject) what he seeks in other (he or she) is for something that more than himself or herself.

If we return to the story that we are reading, now we can find a sufficient answer why the wife of our protagonist eloped with another man. If love is the object cause of desire, for Lacan, the love becomes problematic because the lover hastens to create fantasies in the object or the other.

The wife elopes with her paramour to get her fantasy fulfilled. Fantasy constantly intervenes between the symbolic structure and the reality. Thus we should read Dootha Geethaya as the mask of agony any lover faces when he or she is in love.