Features | Online edition of Daily News

This month the world will witness the 2600th Sambuddhatva ceremony on a grand scale. As a mainstream Theravada country, Sri Lanka too will shoulder a number of responsibilities to implement Buddhist policies along with the forthcoming celebrations. Speaking to Daily News ‘Buddhist Spectrum’, Buddhist Affairs Department Chief Chandrapema Gamage explained his role in view of the much anticipated event.

What are the initial measures of the Buddhist Affairs Department to mark the forthcoming celebrations?

One initial programme focuses on constructing underdeveloped temples throughout the country. About 2600 underdeveloped temples come under this project.

The Department has initiated reconstructing 1000 temples. Details have been gathered and hopefully the programme will be a success.

Another project is to launch religious programmes at every temple. The objective is encouraging Buddhists to join the national religious event. The national Buddhist programme will be held under the patronage of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

I will be supervising the programme in my capacity as the Buddhist Affairs Commissioner General at the premises of Sri Maha Bodhi.

The event will be held on May 14. A sil and meditation programme will also be held in Matara.

Through each and every divisional secretariat and provincial secretariat we have planned to launch various Buddhist religious programmes.

A national programme usually has the participation of schoolchildren. Do you have plans to make them take part too?

No, it doesn’t come under our purview. However the Education Ministry will handle this section. The Presidential Sambuddhathwa Jayanthi Steering Committee has called ministries such as Education and Culture for awareness programmes. The Committee has sent circulars to other Ministries emphasizing on their participation in the national programme.

Disrobing is now a widely discussed issue. Do you have any systematic plan to prevent this trend?

The Department has identified some reasons behind the trend. Some monks are actually compelled to disrobe for the sake of looking after their parents.

To solve this the Department and All Ceylon Buddhism Protection Board have taken certain procedures. We have commenced a trust depositing Rs 5 million in the Public Trustee Department. It is called Trust for Welfare of Monks.

The Ministry and the Department have planned to build houses for parents of monks. The planning also offers educational equipment for their siblings.

What are the steps your department has taken to make the theme ‘let us be principled’ a reality?

We have explained to every temple and all Buddhists centres on the importance of this historic event. We have established a communication system through Dhamma schools as well. We have made sure the temples organize sil and meditation programmes. Enthusiasm among children is also important to reach the expected target. Every Buddhist parent must be aware of that.

Liquor shops and slaughterhouses are still in operation. Has your department taken any action against this situation?

With the Ministry’s mediation, the government is implementing programmes such as Matata Thita which eradicate drug and liquor related issues. No one can stop such activities forcibly. It is essential to have understanding.

On the other hand, this is a great event for Buddhists. Importantly we were lucky to witness this in our lifetime. So it must influence us to think back and forward.

If we consider the Buddha’s teachings, then we must understand no one likes to be anyone’s victim. This thinking leads to a world sans harm.

At the outset the society should follow the Buddha’s teachings. It’s not an easy task to make a river flow against the tide. But if you try, that would be possible. Even though this is a Buddhist country, the majority don’t seem to be following the basic teachings. Some tend to think they are strong Buddhists. But they don’t follow the five precepts at least.

Basking in sinful activities, they think they are correct. They have turned the principles the way they want.

Now this is a must in today’s context. Many generations have passed down bad customs which are now rooted in our soil. It is difficult, but rebuilding the society is not impossible.

Initially we should pay attention to the younger generation. Presently the Department has taken measures to make sure children go to Dhamma schools. Now around 70 percent of Buddhist children participate in Dhamma schools in Colombo.

Secondly teachers should be role models. They should naturally make students follow them.

Few decades of noble mission

Born into a high caste family of Ambewela Keppetipola in Badulla district, K M Gunasekera entered priesthood under the auspices of Ven Sri Sumangala Somananda Thera of Subadrarama temple, Palugama, and assumed the Buddhist name of Ambewela Pangnasara. With unflinching obedience to his teachers, adorned with far sightedness, patience and untiring efforts, the young monk sought his basic education at Badulla Vidyoththansa Pirivena and went on for higher studies at Sri Lanka Vidyodaya University, which was regarded as ‘knowledge treasury’. He also had valuable association, guidance and advice of a circle of scholarly monks who shone with knowledge of Pali canons.

Having obtained BA from Sri Lanka Vidyodaya University, Ven Pangnasara Thera strived to improve the Buddhist education of children and thereby got appointed to the post of Buddhism teacher in Mampe-Piliyandala Sri Sobhita Maha Vidyalaya. Subsequently, the Venerable Thera joined the public service and served as a teacher and a principal in central schools and continued promoting education among a vast number of students. He commenced his teaching profession in 1961 from Bakamune Vidyalaya, Polonnaruwa, and retired in 1986 from Piliyandala Central School.

When Ven Pangnasara was serving as a teacher he built a Buddhist monastery with his own funds. He continued to serve villagers of the area by residing in the same monastery. The Thera pioneered an electricity project which was a great necessity for the village. His monastery was first supplied with electricity within a short period.

Ven Ambewela Pangnasara Thera is always busy in Buddhist activities, sermons, meditation, sil campaign thereby building up an environment-friendly life in the village. He is also responsible for a number of alms-giving campaigns with the willing participation of villagers.

The monastery commenced in the 1970 decade in a small scale, which is now a fully-fledged large Vihara today. A few monks now reside here in Buddhaloka Maha Viharaya which remains a living monument to the untiring efforts, dedication and sound leadership of Ven Pangnasara, who has thus gifted an invaluable legacy to residents of this village.

Ready to go: Ready to die

This heart of ours is much like a child. The child is unable to take care of itself and so has to depend on mother and father, on guardians and nursemaids, holding on to various people. But the child at least has parents and guardians to look after it, to make sure it seldom meets with harm. Whereas although the heart is always grasping and clinging to various things, it doesn’t find any such safety and security.

The heart can’t rely on itself and therefore always likes to cling onto things. For the most part, it tends to reach for wrong things, for things that do it harm. The reason it likes to search for and hold on to things, is so that it can find safety, security and comfort for itself. The things it clings to however, are not dependable and so they pose a constant danger for the heart. Whether we are children or already grown up, this is the way our minds tend to be.

Instead of trying to rely on ourselves we always put our hopes in other things, other people. We can’t stand on own two feet. This is because the heart isn’t wise enough to check whether the objects it grasps hold of are right or wrong, good or bad. It doesn’t know how to care for itself, how to help itself, because there’s no one to teach it. There’s nobody to advise on how to know which things are dangerous and which are beneficial, which things should be held on to and which things shouldn’t. The heart therefore continues indiscriminately to grasp hold of anything, whether good or bad, as long as it likes the look of it. Even if it isn’t gratifying, the heart’s characteristic trait is still to keep on grasping and clinging. Why should it be like this?

Normally, one wouldn’t think that a mood or a thing that’s displeasing is worth clinging to. Yet the heart continues to grasp hold of such things. It clings to anger, to delusion and lust, hatred and disgust, because it becomes involved and caught up in them. We can never say that the heart simply knows an object, for it always gets caught up in it and clings to it. For the most part, those things have nothing good in them.

Why does the heart have to go and grasp at things? It’s because it is attracted without realizing the repercussions of its attachment. Even though you may wish to break away from it you can’t, because there’s something else which is powerful enough to force the heart to grasp and hang on. The object then becomes caught up in emotions, which continually overcloud and obscure yourself. Here we’re talking about emotional objects1 and moods.

Now I’ll speak about material objects. The heart will grasp at and cling to whatever object is present. It doesn’t matter how trifling or significant, how valuable or worthless it might be; the heart can and will attach itself. We wouldn’t be wrong if we were to call the heart an expert ‘hanger-on’. This is because it’s still unable to rely on itself, and so must depend on outside things, until the end of the body that has led one through the changing situations. It may even forget itself by surrendering to the power of external objects, even though their control is baseless and leads the wrong way.

The Buddha taught that, “self is the protector of self”. Try to cure the heart of its dependency, of the tendency it has of always hoping to rely on other things. Disengage yourself from such objects and turn inward to rely more on your own resources and abilities. Don’t depend on your parents, friends and others, so much that you forget yourself. Our human trait of continually seeking support in other people develops eventually into a personal habit. It’s like this all over the world, and in this regard we can hardly even measure up to some kinds of animals. This, then, is why the Buddha taught about self-reliance.

In our commonplace and coarse affairs, like work and other such responsibilities, we should try to be more self-reliant. Coming in towards Dhamma — the practice of meditation in the heart — we need to have had sufficient training under a Teacher to know the right direction in which to proceed. The actual practice though, is the duty of each one of us, to find assurance in our self-reliance following the principles of Dhamma. The Buddha taught, for example, about cultivating goodness and virtue through generosity, precepts and meditation. This is so that we can develop self-reliance, which is the heart firmly holding to good and wholesome objects. There is then peace and happiness in both the present and future lives, because they are beneficial things and originate from wholesome actions. They make up fine objects or superior quality food for the heart.

We are taught to meditate, which is a step higher in refinement. This effort to train ourselves in meditation is a way of self-reliance that is steadily taken onto a firmer and more dependable level. We use a meditation-word as the means to direct and control the heart. For, as the mind is not yet able to sustain itself, we have to rely on the meditation-word as the object to soothe and bring peace and calm. The settling of the mind in “buddho buddho buddho...” is one example of this. It is an object for the heart to occupy itself with, which is correct and right and appropriate to finding refuge in Dhamma.

In the beginning of the practice the heart is still restless and distracted, still unable to settle itself on Dhamma principles and become self-reliant. It has to depend on a meditation-word to direct it until it merges in with that meditation-word and gathers into stillness. When it enters calm, even the meditation-word itself ceases to be an issue. This is one step towards self-reliance for the meditation-word can be released at this stage, as the heart is well settled in calm. This is a foundation and refuge for the heart that can be clearly seen. Even with just this much, there’s calm and ease in the heart that used to be restless and distracted, unable to find any peace. This is because the heart normally does not know peace but only trouble and unrest, hunger and thirst, worries and concerns over affairs that are of no use to it at all. For the most part these affairs are the heart’s own thoughts and imaginings, which poison and burn oneself — without anyone else being involved.

The Buddha discovered the correct way to practice and achieved results to his heart’s contentment. He was therefore able to explain about the causes, or the way to practice, together with their fulfillment and fruits. He taught us that the way to depend on oneself is through meditation and that this is the direct route to a firmly established self-reliance. Basing the heart in calm, to whatever degree, brings increasingly self-assurance and confidence — without having to ask anyone else about it. You will know from within yourself. This is termed paccata.m or sandi.t.thiko. The knowledge of good or bad, what needs remedying, removing or developing, will then arise in the heart. This will be understood by oneself and for oneself, as the heart is more and more firmly established.

The level of concentration, once reached, is already sufficient to form a foundation for the heart, a home where the heart can find shelter and peace. At the moment when we think so much that we feel faint-hearted and weary, we should turn inwards and meditate.

The heart can then rest and be stilled from all its preoccupations, finding peace and calm. This is called going inward for refuge, to find a resting place of comfort and ease. This is one level of refuge for the heart.

The next steps, even though they’re still concerned with samadhi, are proceeding into more subtle and refined aspects of the heart. The levels of momentary concentration, access concentration and attainment concentration show the refining of samadhi. This culminates in attainment concentration, and beyond that samadhi can’t advance.

Once the heart has some degree of calm, according to the level of samadhi achieved, it is stilled and refined. However, without developing mindfulness and wisdom it will just remain at that level, lacking wisdom radically to uproot its defilements. If we compare the defilements to a tree, although we may have pruned the branches the main trunk remains uncut and is still capable of sending out new branches.

Chief Incumbent of Jayanthi Maha Viharaya, Anuradhapura, Ven Nugetenne Pannananda Thera has been appointed Chief Sanghanayake Thera of the Northern and North Central Provinces by the Asgiriya Chapter. This was awarded by Most Ven Galagama Sri Aththadassi Anunayake Thera of the Asgiriya Chapter at the Asgiriya Maha Viharaya premises recently. Picture by Amila Prabath Wanasinghe

Rajakeeya Panditha Naramane Buddharakkhitha Nayake Thera, laid the foundation stone for the proposed, Sanghawasa building at Galgoda Sri Maha Viharaya, Panadura recently. Here Ven Buddharakkhitha Thera awaits the auspicious moment to lay the stone. Ven Meegaswewe Somarathana Thera, the Chief Prelate of Sri Parama Vishuddharamaya, Gangula, Panadura and Ven Pothupitiye Pannasekera Thera the Chief Incumbent of Galgoda Sri Maha Vihara, Panadura are also in the picture. Susil Ratnaweera, Panadura North Group corr.

Preserving Buddhism for posterity

Few decades of noble mission

Ready to go: Ready to die