Duruthu Poya

Buddha’s first visit to Sri Lanka

Premasara Epasinghe

Peeping into Sri Lanka's proud history, our chronicles record, Siddhartha Gautama Buddha visited Sri Lanka thrice, first to Mahiyangana in the 9th month of His Enlightenment, the second to Nagadipa in the North, the third and last visit to Kelaniya in the eighth year of His Enlightenment.

The important significance of Duruthu Pura Paslosvaka Poya Day, marks Buddhas first visit to Sri Lanka. His mission was to restore peace. The chronicle Mahavamsa records “His mission way to free the beautiful land from the Evil doings of Yakkas.

Buddha was supposed to have arrived at Mahiyanganaya, where the stupa now stands. Yakkas of Bintenna-Mahiyangana sounded the Battle Gongs and Drums. When they witnessed Buddha and the Sravakas of “Dharmarya” the yakkas fled away to nearby jungles. Some of them returned. After listening to the sermon delivered by the Blessed One, they became the followers of Buddhism. A Titular Deity named Sumana was also present.

He requested from Buddha a souvenir, to pay homage to the Blessed One in his absence. Buddha, the Great Master offered God Sumana some locks of Hair. He placed it in a golden urn. This valuable relic, was supposed to be enshrined in the Mahiyangana stupa.

However, the focus of Duruthu Poya Festival is presently centred round Kelaniya, because of the Annual Duruthu Perahera conducted by the Kelaniya Raja Maha Viharaya. The arrival of Buddha to SL on Duruthu Poya was a beginning of Buddhist Perahera Culture.

The Buddhist believed after the passing away of Buddha, Arahat Sarabhu Maha Thera, brought the collar bone relic of Gautama Buddha and deposited in the Mahiyangana stupa. This event also took place on a Duruthu Full Moon Poya Day. Therefore, on the Duruthu Purapaslosvaka Poya day, thousands and thousands flock to the Buddhist Temples to pay their gratitude and homage to the Triple Gem. As this is the first Purapaslosvaka Poya Day of the year 2013, the temples of Sri Lanka, will be filled to the rafters.

The Sri Lankan Buddhists consider 16 (sixteen) important places of worship. Many devotees recite a popular stanza. It starts with Mahiyangana Chetiya. It shows the importance of Mahiyangana Chetiya.

Mahiyanganam, Nagadipam
Kalyanam Padalanchanam
Divaguhan Digavapiam
Chetiyam Muthiyanganam
Tissmaha Viharancha
Bodhi, Maricavathiyam
Thuparma Bhayagirim
Jetavanam Selachattiyam
Thatha Kachara Gamakan
Ete Solasa Tanani
Ahan Vandami Sabbada

On the blessed day of Duruthu Poya, the devotees very specially flock to Mahiyangana, will pay their homage to Mahiyangana Chetiya with reciting this stanza.

Quote:

Lankayan Yatha Patamam
Sugatho Nissajja
Yakkhe Dhamesi Nija
Sasana Palanaya
Tine Thahi Nihiti
Kuntala Geevadhatu
Vandami Sadhu Mahiyangana Thuparaja

The teachings of Buddha are deeply rooted with the spirit of peace. The two are inseparable. To live a peaceful life without fear, hatred is the wish of vast majority of people.

The teachings of Buddha are deeply imbued with the spirit of peace (Santi) that two cannot be separated. The terms of peace, He expounded at Mahiyangana on Duruthu Poya included calmness (Sama). Tranquility (Samatha), contentment (Santutthi) Harmlessness (Ahimsa)

non-violence (Avihimsa) and peacefulness (Vupasama)

According to Anguttara Nikaya 4:128, people generally find pleasure in life of excitement, take delight in excitement, and enjoy excitement. But, when the peaceful Dhamma is taught by the Tathagata, people wish to listen to it, give ear to it and try to understand it.

The Buddha always urged all who listened to Him, to strive to live by His teachings at all times, on all occasions and in relation to all people. This was clearly proved by the Blessed One's first visit to Sri Lanka on the Duruthu Poya Day. Buddhism is a religion of tolerance. Rev Joseph Wain, highly respected Priest once remarked, “Buddhism taught a life of beauty, and as a consequence, it was a Religion of Tolerance. It was the most charitable system under the sun. Never and nowhere had blood been shed for its propagation. It has never persecuted or maltreated.

The scholar and renowned Indian Prime Minister Shri Jawaharlal Nehru, stated in the glimpses of the world history, “Buddhism is one of the Religions of the greatest number of people in the world and Prince Siddhartha Gautama was the Greatest Son of India”. I presume, there are about six billion Buddhists who follow Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism in the world.

The year 2013 dawned. I quote the following stanza to bless all Sri Lankans and all other individuals who belong to all other religions.

Sabbava Mangala
Mupaddava Dunni-mittam
Sabbiti Roga Gahadosa Masesa Ninda
Sabbantaraya Bhaya
Dussupinam Akantam
Buddhanu, Dhammanu, Sanganu Bhavana
Pavarena Payatu Nasam

All ill-luck, misfortunes, ill-omens, diseases, evil planetary influences, blame, dangers, fears, undesirable dreams may they all disappear, come to naught by the Power of the Triple Gem.

Ever present truth

Ajahn Mun Bhuridatto

Has anyone ever been ordained in the Buddha’s religion without having studied meditation? We can say categorically no — there hasn’t. There isn’t a single preceptor who doesn’t teach meditation to the ordinand before presenting him with his robes. If a preceptor doesn’t teach meditation beforehand, he can no longer continue being a preceptor. So every person who has been ordained can be said to have studied meditation. There is no reason to doubt this.

The preceptor teaches the five meditation themes: kesa, hair of the head; loma, hair of the body; nakha, nails; danta, teeth; and taco, skin. These five meditation themes end with the skin.

Why are we taught only as far as the skin? Because the skin is an especially important part of the body. Each and every one of us has to have skin as our wrapping. If we didn’t have skin, our head-hairs, body-hairs, nails, and teeth wouldn’t hold together. They’d have to scatter. Our flesh, bones, tendons, and all the other parts of the body wouldn’t be able to stay together at all.

They’d have to separate, to fall apart. When we get infatuated with the human body, the skin is what we are infatuated with. When we conceive of the body as being beautiful and attractive, and develop love, desire, and longing for it, it’s because of what we conceive of the skin. When we see a body, we suppose it to have a complexion — fair, ruddy, dark, etc. — because of what we conceive the color of the skin to be. If the body didn’t have skin, who would conceive it to be beautiful or attractive? Who would love it, like it, or desire it? We’d regard it with nothing but hatred, loathing, and disgust. If it weren’t wrapped in skin, the flesh, tendons, and other parts of the body wouldn’t hold together and couldn’t be used to accomplish anything at all — which is why we say the skin is especially important.

The fact that we can keep on living is because of the skin. The fact that we get deluded into seeing the body as beautiful and attractive is because it has skin. This is why preceptors teach only as far as the skin.

If we set our minds on considering the skin until we see it as disgusting and gain a vision of its unloveliness appearing unmistakably to the heart, we are bound to see the inherent truths of inconstancy, stress, and not-selfness. This will cure our delusions of beauty and attractiveness that are fixated on the skin. We will no longer focus any conceivings on it or find it appealing or desirable, for we have seen it for what it is.

Only when we heed our preceptors’ instructions and not take them lightly will we see these inherent truths. If we don’t heed our preceptors’ instructions, we won’t be able to cure our delusions, and instead will fall into the snares of enticing preoccupations — into the wheels of the cycle of rebirth.

So we’ve already been well-taught by our preceptors since the day of our ordination. There is no reason to look for anything further. If we’re still unsure, if we’re still looking for something more, that shows that we are still confused and lost. If we weren’t confused, what would we be looking for? An unconfused person doesn’t have to look for anything. Only a confused person has to go looking. The more he goes looking, the further he gets lost.

If a person doesn’t go looking, but simply considers what is already present, he will see clearly the reality that is inherently primal and unmoving, free from the yokes and fermentations of defilement.

This subject is not something thought up by the preceptors to be taught to the ordinand in line with anyone’s opinion. It comes from the word of the Lord Buddha, who decreed that the preceptor should teach the ordinand these essential meditation themes for his constant consideration.

Otherwise, our ordination wouldn’t be in keeping with the fact that we have relinquished the life of home and family and have come out to practice renunciation for the sake of freedom.

Our ordination would be nothing more than a sham. But since the Buddha has decreed this matter, every preceptor has continued this tradition down to the present. What our preceptors have taught us isn’t wrong. It’s absolutely true. But we simply haven’t taken their teachings to heart. We’ve stayed complacent and deluded of our own accord — for people of discretion have affirmed that these teachings are the genuine path to purity.

Virtue

Virtue is like rock.

Virtue — normalcy — is like rock, which is solid and forms the basis of the ground. No matter how much the wind may buffet and blow, rock doesn’t waver or flinch.

If we simply hold to the word “virtue,” though, we can still go astray. We need to know where virtue lies, what it is, and who maintains it. If we know the factor maintaining it, we will see how that factor forms the essence of virtue. If we don’t understand virtue, we’ll end up going astray and holding just to the externals of virtue, believing that we have to look for virtue here or ask for the precepts there before we can have virtue. If we have to look for it and ask for it, doesn’t that show that we’re confused about it? Isn’t that a sign of attachment to the externals of precepts and practices?

People who aren’t confused about virtue don’t have to go looking or asking for it, because they know that virtue exists within themselves. They themselves are the ones who maintain their virtue by avoiding faults of various kinds.

Intention is what forms the essence of virtue. What is intention (cetana)? We have to play with this word cetana in order to understand it. Change the “e” to an “i,” and add another “t.” That gives us citta, the mind. A person without a mind can’t be called a person. If we had only a body, what could we accomplish? The body and mind have to rely on each other. If the mind isn’t virtuous, the body will misbehave in all sorts of ways. This is why we say that there is only one virtue: that of the mind.

The precepts deal simply with the flaws we should avoid. Whether you avoid the five flaws, the eight, the ten, or the 227, you succeed in maintaining the one and the same virtue. If you can maintain this one virtue, your words and deeds will be flawless. The mind will be at normalcy — simple, solid, and unwavering.

This sort of virtue isn’t something you go looking or asking for. When people go looking and asking, it’s a sign they’re poor and destitute. They don’t have anything, so they have to go begging. They keep requesting the precepts, over and over again. The more they request them, the more they lack them. The poorer they become.

We are already endowed with body and mind. Our body we have received from our parents; our mind is already with us, so we have everything we need in full measure. If we want to make the body and mind virtuous, we should go right ahead and do it. We don’t have to think that virtue lies here or there, at this or that time. Virtue already lies right here with us. Akaliko: If we maintain it at all times, we will reap its rewards at all times.

This point can be confirmed with reference to the time of the Buddha. When the five brethren; Ven. Yasa, his parents, and his former wife; the Kassapa brothers and their disciples; King Bimbisara and his following, etc., listened to the Buddha’s teachings, they didn’t ask for the precepts beforehand. The Buddha started right in teaching them.

So why were they able to attain the noble paths and fruitions? Where did their virtue, concentration, and discernment come from? The Buddha never told them to ask him for virtue, concentration, and discernment. Once they had savored the taste of his teachings, then virtue, concentration, and discernment developed within them of their own accord, without any asking or giving taking place. No one had to take the various factors of the path and put them together into a whole, for in each case, virtue, concentration, and discernment were qualities of one and the same heart.

So only if we aren’t deluded into searching outside for virtue can we be ranked as truly discerning.

Potential

The traits that people have carried over from the past differ in being good, bad, and neutral. Their potential follows along with their traits — i.e., higher than what they currently are, lower, or on a par. Some people have developed a high potential to be good, but if they associate with fools, their potential will develop into that of a fool. Some people are weak in terms of their potential, but if they associate with sages, their potential improves and they become sages, too. Some people associate with friends who are neither good nor bad, who lead them neither up nor down, and so their potential stays on a mediocre level.

For this reason, we should try to associate with sages and wise people so as to raise the level of our potential progressively higher and higher, step by step.

Contemplating the body

We have all come here to study of our own accord. Not one of us was invited to come. So, as we have come to study and practice, we should really give ourselves to the practice, in line with the example set by the Buddha and his arahant disciples.

At the very beginning, you should contemplate all four truths — birth, aging, illness, and death — that all the Noble Ones have contemplated before us. Birth: We have already been born. What is your body if not a heap of birth? Illness, aging, and death are all an affair of this heap. When we contemplate these things in all four positions — by practicing sitting meditation, walking meditation, meditation while standing or lying down — the mind will gather into concentration.

If it gathers briefly, that’s called momentary concentration. In other words, the mind gathers and reverts to its underlying level for a short while and then withdraws.

(Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu)

Duruthu Poya: red-letter day for Lankans

Nilanka Perera

Duruthu Poya which falls on the full moon day of January the first month of the year is very significant in Buddhist history. This poya day is a great religious and historical day specially for Sri Lankans because it marks the Buddha's first visit to Sri Lanka on the ninth month after attaining the Buddhahood (Enlightenment).

With his vast wisdom (Sarvaghnatha ghana), the Buddha knew that Sri Lanka will protect the real Theravada Buddhism. In order to lay down the foundation for such a precious situation, the Buddha himself visited this island on three occassions and prepared the ground. On the day of Parinibbana, the Buddha assigned Sakra, the king of gods, the prime and the precious duty of protecting the island Sri Lanka and the Buddha Sasana.

The Buddha first visited Mahiyanganaya in the Uva Province of Sri Lanka. This was remarkable and unique as it is the first place intimately associated with the Buddha. During the visit, the Buddha delivered sermons of Dhamma to 'Yakkas' (Hela tribe who lived in Sri Lanka during that time). After listening to the Buddha's sermons, Yakkas gave up fighting with each other and started to respect each other with dignity. Not only the Yakkas, but also God Sumana Saman (The God who looks after the territory of Samanala Mountain Range/ Samanala Adaviya) listened to the sermons and embraced Buddhism with so much of respect.

Later the God Sumana Saman invited the Buddha to engrave his sacred footprint on the surface of a huge gemstone and it is safely preserved on the peak of the Samanala Mountain. Each year the devotees climb the Samanala Mountain with respect in order to worship the most sacred footprint of the Buddha.

Upon the request of God Sumana Saman, the Buddha gave his hair relics (Kesha Dhathu) to the god and those relics are enshrined in the Mahiyangana Stupa. (Miyuguna Seya) As per legends this stupa was firstly built by God Sumana Saman by enshrining the hair relics (Kesha Dhathu). This Stupa is so precious and sacred because the hair relics enshrined in the Mahiyangana Stupa was gifted by the Buddha himself out of his body. The sacred relics of the Buddha are regarded by Buddhists as supreme objects of reverence and veneration.

Considering all these facts, it is very clear that Duruthu full moon poya day is a very significant one for Sri Lanka the land which was offered for the triple gem by great kings during the ancient past. As a result, the country has its own huge stupas, temples and Buddha statues of ancient times as well as of modern days. Not only Buddhists but also the great thinkers and philosophers had been inspired by the calm and composed, serene and noble personality of the Buddha represented in the form of these images. The compassion and the serenity of Buddha statues helped mould the human mind to cultivate utmost spiritual values from generation to generation.