LIONEL WIJESIRI

My Dear Son,

I was so happy to hear that you have been now selected as a student member of the university and your probationary training period is over. This satisfaction, perhaps, may in some degree be attributed to the pleasing recollection of my own university life. Remember son, a university education has many and great advantages, but it also is attended with many temptations, which too many young men have yielded to, sometimes to the great injury of their character and the utter ruin of all their future prospects.

In fact, you are now entering upon the most important period, the turning point of your whole life. You have become, in a great measure, your own master. For though you will be under a certain degree of discipline and surveillance, in a multiplicity of cases you will have to act for yourself, to take your own line.

You will have to contend against the temptations of pleasure and dissipation, and you have just reached the age when the natural passions and appetites become most impatient of restraint. At the same time, you will be exposed to the influence both of the example of lively young men and women, who will try to carry you along with them in their career of thoughtlessness and folly. They will think it strange, and show you that they think it strange, if you do not run with them to the same excess of riot.

Against all these moral trials and temptations, your best safeguard will be found in a strong sense of ethical behaviour, kept present to your mind. Remember, son - the need for ethics aris from the fact that we are not perfect by nature; we have to train ourselves to be good. Thus morality becomes the most important aspect of living.

As a good Buddhist, you will understand that Buddhist ethical values are intrinsically a part of nature, and the unchanging law of cause and effect (kamma). The simple fact that Buddhist ethics are rooted in natural law makes its principles both useful and acceptable to the modern world.

The theory of Buddhist ethics finds its practical expression in the various precepts. These precepts or disciplines are nothing but general guides to show the direction which we should turn to on our way to a happy and contented life. Although many of these precepts are expressed in a negative form, we must not think that Buddhist morality consists of abstaining from evil without the complement of doing good.

The morality found in all the precepts can be summarized in three simple principles - to avoid evil; to do good, to purify the mind. This is the advice given by all the Buddhas (Dhammapada). So my son, read Dhammapada often. May that be your guide! Be ever on your guard and be guided, not by common practice, not by the example of numbers, but by what you know to be the right decision. Until next week,

Lovingly yours,

Thaththi