Hatred is the blemish of mankind Weeds are the bane of fields, hatred is the bane of mankind. Hence what is given to those rid of hatred yields abundant fruit. Tanha Vagga - The Dhammapada

When East meets West

Ajahn PIYASILO

Ajahn Piyasilo is a Thai monk who is now living in England. His abode in England, Cittaviveka gives shelter for many monks and novices of many nationalities. In this article Ajahn Piyasilo shares his impressions - the pros and cons of the cultures of the East and the West.

Having been a monk in a rural part of Thailand for more than eleven years, I never thought that one day I would find myself living in the West. But here I am, thanks to a recommendation from one of my venerable Ajahns and the generous support of a lay Buddhist.

People often ask how I see the differences between the East and the West and about my impression of living in England. It took me a while to reflect upon these questions and here are my responses.

When I think of the most memorable experience I have had while living in England, the first thing that comes to my mind is the chanting at Luang Por Sumedho’s 72nd birthday celebration.

Since I’ve been a monk I have chanted the anumodana, the expression of appreciation for giving and generosity, numerous times, but none were like when I chanted in the Amaravati eating hall with my fellow monks, nuns and novices of various nationalities.

I was so impressed that I almost cried. It was wonderful to be among a group of more than 50 people from different backgrounds and cultures, sharing the same aspiration and living in a harmonious way.

The unison of the chanting was a clear example of that harmony. With 13 nationalities represented during the vassa, Chithurst is the biggest community that I have ever lived in.

For most of my years in the yellow robe, I stayed in a small monastery in the forest or lived by myself in a hermitage. It was a drastic change in my life to come to the West. One can see how it could be a cultural shock for me.

However, I have been surprised by how easily I’ve been able to fit in to this Western community-just taking to it like a duck to water, as one would say.

In doing so, I am very grateful to the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha and all my teachers who have provided me with an excellent way of practice, enabling me to adjust to any environment without much difficulty.

To me, one of the crucial aspects of Dhamma practice is to develop the ability to go beyond the conditioned mind.

Since we tend not to see how we have been conditioned by our own culture, we then have to meditate to see ourselves more clearly.

Like good singers who learn to use their voice in a wider range to be able to sing better, Dhamma practitioners learn to expand beyond limitations in their own mind to find more freedom and inner happiness.

Living in England provides me with more chances to reflect on my own cultural conditioning and helps me to understand more about the Western mind. Here is just one of many observations that have helped in such a way.

During late June, about a month after arriving in England, I noticed that the grass in the field near the monastery had all been cut down. It was later stacked into a big square block wrapped in black plastic.

An English friend of mine explanied that the hay would be kept for cattle and horses during winter. This small incident may be nothing special for westerners, but to someone from rural Thailand it is quite unusual. I’ve never seen any Thai farmer use such good planning.

In England the climate is very different from Thailand. In over 800 years of known history the people in my homeland never experienced winters severe enough to cause much death and starvation.

The Thai people do not have a comparable need to be so well prepared; even in the middle of winter Thai villagers can still go out to get wild vegetables and leaves which can be used as food. Their cows and buffaloes are allowed to roam freely, feeding on the plentiful grass in the paddy fields.

Having had some experience with the cold weather in England even in late autumn, I can imagine how difficult life would be through a long winter. There must be no way to take it easy like Thai farmers do.

The reason for being well prepared and organized seems obvious to me. And no doubt anyone who has grown up in a things have-to-be-planned environment will adopt this attitude towards other aspects of life. This helps me understand the often-made observation that westerners are a lot better than Thais at planning and organization.

While we can all appreciate the many good points of being highly organised and well-managed, perhaps deep down in the mind there is a greater potential for suffering due to expectations and fear. When things do not turn out as expected, many westerners find it difficult to cope.

They sometimes make the problem even worse by seeing it in a negative way. Many blame themselves when things go wrong or not as planned. In order to avoid problems that might only potentially occur, they can put even more effort into planning-which can end up in more suffering.

Thais are not any better than westerners in coping with life’s problems - and there are some harsh climates there, believe me. Yet they tend to differently define what could be called “problems”. There is generally more acceptance of physical discomfort, feeling hot and sweaty, mosquito bites, pain and so on.

Since many of their activities are not well planned, there is nothing wrong when things do not go as planned. When life presents the unexpected, they then find it is not so difficult to accept and are able to make the best of it.

Because these habitual approaches to life are deeply ingrained, we bring them with us when we enter the monastery. They clearly influence the ways our monasteries run. While monasteries in the Thai tradition tend to have a family-like administration, the Western Sangha is more like an organization.

In the Western context, responsibilities are delegated to make them more efficient. Here at Chithurst monastery there are the Guest Monk/Nun, Work Monk/Nun, chores Monk/Nun, Librarian Monk/Nun, etc. Everyone has responsibilities in running the monastery in some way regardless of how long they have been in the community.

Not only does each person have their own responsibility in a particular area, but they also take it quite seriously, I have witnessed occasions where people were offended or annoyed when someone went beyond their own area of responsibility, even with good intentions - like helping with another person’s chores.

Recently the persons responsible for the community white board was offended when someone wrote information on the board without asking him. There was then a community discussion about what should be done when there is important information which had not yet been written on the board by the official board-writer.

I believe that many Thais would not find this topic serious enough to be discussed. They would just be happy to help or to be helped by others. Merit can be made that way, they would think.

Apart from sharing out responsibilities, the Western Sangha also adopts a democratic way of decision-making. In the West now for not yet six months, I have attended more meetings here than I had during the entirety of my 11 years as a monk in Thailand. There are a lot of management issues I never saw brought up for discussion in the Thai tradition, where most of the responsibilities lie with the abbot. The whole community can just let the abbot decide and then they follow.

My first five years passed without having to take part in any decision in the Sangha at all. I did not even have to relate to any lay supporters. During that period, I quite enjoyed the space and time to focus mainly on my meditation practice.

Though there are differences between the two sanghas, it doesn’t seem useful for me to assess which is a better model. We have to take the larger cultural context into consideration.

The Western branches of Ajahn Chah’s tradition have developed their ways of fitting into this cultural context in 30 years of adjustment and experimentation, and it is still an ongoing project.

At the same time, as Luang Por Sumedho recently put it, we always have the Thai tradition as a prototype.

We cannot neglect the connection with the Thai Sangha, and can continue to learn from it. This strong connection between East and West will be fruitful in terms of Dhamma-vinaya practice both for each individual and the community as a whole.

The main purpose of the Buddha in creating the sangha is to support growth in spiritual life.

Reflecting on this means that from time to time we must re-examine our basic needs in living a renunciant life and ask ourselves if we are still on the same track. Despite the differences in culture, those who join the Sangha share similar aspirations.

In this life there will always be a common ground where everyone can meet. The message of the Buddha goes beyond any boundary, ‘East’ or ‘West’.

Courtesy: Forest Sangha newsletter.

More New Zealanders seek solace in Buddhism

Anura WIDANAPATHIRANA

Predominantly a Christian country, the Buddhist population in New Zealand began to increase mainly due to the migrants from Asian countries such as Sri Lanka, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, etc. among others.

A new trend however, is emerging whereby the local people in this industrialised nation are slowly and steadily becoming Buddhists.

An article published in The New Zealand Herald (21st July 2007) recognised this trend in the following words “Thousands of New Zealanders from all walks of life have one thing in common: they are followers of Buddhism.”

According to the latest census 52,394 people have identified themselves as Buddhists, an increase of

 approximately 11,000 since the previous census in 2001.

Of the Buddhists 37,590 people were already Buddhists when they migrated into the country. Matching above numbers reveals that about 15,000 New Zealanders have converted themselves to Buddhism, a philosophy with which they have only had little connection.

The already referred article quoting a PhD Thesis at the Victoria University of Wellington, states that the converts are largely the European subjects (known locally as Pakeha) and about 1,800 Maori (the indigenous people of New Zealand).

The people from all walks of the country have found Buddhism, mainly the meditation, to provide answers to cope with their busy lifestyles.

The converts have largely “convinced” of the benefits of Buddhism in their daily life.

The growing number of Buddhist temples, organisations and meditation centres spread out in several parts of New Zealand is a testimony to the increasing numbers of Buddhists.

One of the more recent centres providing Buddhist learning facilities is the Auckland Centre for Buddhist Learning (ACBL) which completed a full-year of very successful operations in February this year.

The Auckland Centre for Buddhist Learning

The ACBL provides services for both Buddhists as well as non-Buddhists. It runs programmes to suit the needs of both groups, the main focus however is on the teaching, learning and provide facilities for the practice of Theravada Buddhism.

Established in 2005 as a registered charitable Trust in New Zealand, the ACBL is in the forefront of undertaking a range of activities and providing a unique set of services to its clients which are over 1,000 people. The evening pooja which is conducted every evening is attended by many.

This activity has caught the attention of every visitor to the centre. According to observations by visiting monks, it has been extremely difficult to conduct this activity continuously on a daily basis given the busy life-style of people in other industrialised countries.

However, the ACBL has proved that this is possible and is one of the few centres in the world offering this service. The daily evening pooja is followed by a brief Dhamma discourse, a meditation, chanting pirith followed by Pin anumodana (transfer of merits)

Among the other important activities of the ACBL which are making a significant contribution in the lives of people associated with the Centre are: religious (observing Ashta Seela on every full moon day, Atavisi pooja, pirith chanting, alms giving, conducting Wassana Pinkama, etc.), cultural activities (religious observances at funeral ceremonies, conducting avurudu rituals, arts and songs, dance, food fair), educational (Sunday school for learning of Dhamma, culture and languages including Sinhala for youth between 6-16 years brought up mainly in New Zealand, arts and essays, educational competitions), Vesak decorations and greeting cards, and welfare (attention for sick and elderly, blood donation campaigns).

The work towards developing a course of studies accredited by the New Zealand Qualification Authority is another significant activity being actively pursued by the Centre. It is to be highlighted that the directions and activities of the Centre have contributed towards streamlining programmes of work offered by other Buddhist centres in the country.

The clients of ACBL come from all walks which make up the wider New Zealand society. In terms of ethnicity the clients include those from Sri Lnaka, India, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea, Myanmar, South Africa and New Zealand’s kiwi people. The ACBL Trust is grateful to the services provides by a pool of resource persons and teachers from Malaysia and New Zealand in addition to our own fellow Sri Lankans.

The Learning Centre

Addressing to the need of the modern society, the Centre has diversified its activities from being purely conventional to research-based Buddhism and culture learning as well as information dissemination.

The new services of ACBL include the web site (www.nzbuddhistcentre.org), e-learning Centre, meditation facility, dissemination of a monthly print bulletin comprising of Dhamma articles and news, in addition to the other services that have been in operation for the past year and half.

The Centre is also planning towards conservation of the pristine environment in New Zealand by reserve planting, raising native plants, among other activities.

The centre’s web site, the e-learning facility and the long-term development plan will be inaugurated in Auckland on the 28th July 2007. To mark this event, a ceremony packed with a variety of events is scheduled to the place.

The events include Bhakthy Gee, sing songs, dancing, awards of certificates for the performing artists, Was Aradhana and the new phase of the stage drama “Kala Gola”.

Another unique event will be the performance of the indigenous Haka (a traditional Maori dance) performed entirely by young artists of Sri Lankan origin.

The Ven. Rajakeeya Panditha Dr. Melpitiye Wimalakitty Thera of the Asgiri Chapter will also begin to function as the first Director of the Centre on this same day. A large group of volunteers have been working for over three months to make the inauguration ceremony a great success.

On the occasion of the inauguration of the new phase of ACBL activities, The Trustees pay their due respects to the Patron Monk Ven Elle Chandawimala Thera, who now resides at Pokunuwita, Sri Lanka.

The other resident monks who work extremely hard and continue to make a significant contribution towards the success of the Centre include: Ven. Maturata Pagngnarathana Thera of the Asgiri Chapter and the visiting monk of the New Zealand’s Hamilton Buddhist Vihara, Ven. Dunuwila Metteyya Thera.

The Centre continues to seek the services of scholarly monks who possess the skills and capacity to provide needs and services based on Buddhist principles demanded by a modern society. The contact email address for the Centre is [email protected].

The ACBL Trust sincerely thanks for the generous grants and material donations it continue to receive from the government and private organizations in New Zealand which are a driving force for its activities.

Special thanks are also due to the large number of New Zealanders for their generous financial, material and labour support on a continued basis without the centre is not able to deliver the programme of work.

The writer is Trustee ACBL