Thoughts of a spiritual teacher
 The thoughts recorded over the ages, such as sayings, dictums,
wisecracks and phrases of goodwill, have always helped the masses gauge
the living standpoint of their day to day life. This ranges from the
basic expressions in the ethical codes of day to day life to the
profound philosophies of the great people of the calibre of religious
leaders saints and thinkers all round the world.
With the advent of the printing press the writers had the chance of
collecting the broad spectrum of sayings and classify them into various
subject areas they belong to and to arrange them in the alphabetical
order enhancing a better grasp of the subject matter enveloped. As such
the utterances of great beings have evolved into a new subject area or
doctrinal area where the classification itself is a time consuming
research project.
Correct attitudes
Some publishers are fond of making small books containing good
utterances which help the reader grasp correct attitudes easily and help
himself or herself for a better living condition. The intention is
indeed commendable as most people are benefitted. I have come across
readers who collect such small books to take them out from time to time
and help themselves get into a better frame of mind. Then there are gift
books framed out of the same intention, as a good gift, like a
collection of good sayings, will be a lasting gift.
The greatest gift I can afford to give if chance occurs is a work of
the type like Dhammapada. The scholarly priests belonging to various
religious sectors have produced such books. But the scribes have the
chance of collecting them and classify them into groups enabling the
reader to select at the material easily. This may be a primary function
of a good editor in the context of modern publishing scene, but in the
past it required a lot of patience on the part of the collector cum
compiler.
The work before me is one such example. The original title of the
book is found in English as ‘365 Dalai lama- Daily Advice from the
heart’, a collection of sayings on the part of a Tibetan high priest
collected and compiled by a scholar named Matthieu Ricard and translated
into Sinhala by the veteran translator of various types of creative
works from Sinhala to English and vice versa over the years. He is
Premaranjith Tillakaratne who titles his translation in Sinhala as
‘Dalai Lama Chintavali’ (Samudra Wettasinghe publishers, 2012).
Religious tenor
One cannot easily undermine the content of the work as it is
categorized into sub groups in keeping with a socio religious tenor
which addresses the conscience of human beings living in all parts of
the world. The first category is titled as thoughts connected with life.
In this group of thoughts the learned priest tries to visualize the
nature of the human being as against the more inferior creatures in the
evolution process and focuses attention on human attitudes where the
mind is shown as the forerunner of all good and evil thoughts.
The human beings have to live with the human beings as well as the
other creatures. He is called human as he has the supreme capacity to
grasp humane world issues. The failure to do so makes the humans suffer
and fall off from the human pedestal. This group contains 35 learned
instructions. The second group is titled as thoughts on being elderly.
The learned priest pinpoints the value of a person becoming mature
and passing the correct judgment as against more evil judgments
detrimental to other creatures. It is continued from 36 to 48. The focal
point as I discerned is the need to be matured in one’s own behaviour as
an adult beneficial to others. The third group is titled as thoughts on
men and women or males and females. The main issue is to depict the
necessity to understand the role of being in such groups. The role of
the mother, father, wife, husband and other aspects are taken into
consideration.
Though without dragging forth the more modern issues of controversial
gender problems, the learned priest tries to show the equalities in the
two categories [54-70]. Then emerges the forth group titled as family
thoughts quite a number of books have written on the subject but these
sayings are more Buddhistic in content and approach. It could have been
titled as the Buddhist attitude to the family concept.
Simple discussion
The themes such as moral behavior the disintegration of the family
lineages and the allied issues connected with the more modern living
conditions in a world of technology are taken into discussion in simple
terms. There are issues pertaining to the standard of living in poverty
and in riches and the need to raise a good family is pinpointed as the
need of the day. Living in isolation or living alone is the next topic
[71-74] which visualizes the need for some people to remain as bachelors
and some bachelors who visualize themselves as failures in their search
for a marital partner. It is the free will of an individual that matters
or the freedom that one searches and yearns for that makes a person
remain either married or live single.
The other subject headings go as thoughts on living with other people
or masses [75-79]. The reader is made to realize the value of being in a
company of like- minded individual to develop living conditions. The
efforts that go into the making of a better society depends on civil
activities which are more valuable than being in isolation or cut off
from the central web of social activities. Questions on such issues as
welfare measures are raised [80-92].
Examples from various countries such as America are taken into
consideration. Welfare measures in a society depend on the social and
economic conditions prevailing in a particular society. As such one
cannot compare the living conditions of one country with those of
another country. A number of penetrative insights are brought to the
forefront. The thoughts on looking after invalids is pointed as a noble
function of cultured people in a country [98-105].Two significant
elements on the aspects of living in a relaxed mood and living in a busy
unrelaxed mood is discussed concurrently with examples [119-120].
I felt that a significant layer of insights are found on the thoughts
on technology and science [151-153]. The priest says that science and
technology, though essential to the human existence should be understood
in its correct perspectives. The overuse of science and technology may
result in disasters and environmental pollutions and hazards. I was also
moved by the thoughts on writing and journalism [157-161]. Avoiding as
far as possible the use of the more known jargons linked to the subject,
the learned priest underlines the need for a better communication
culture, where the high point should be the democratic standpoint in the
moulding of the public opinion and safe guarding the human rights.
A number of other issues like alcoholism and drug addiction are
selected. The reader may read from any page he or she desires to scan.
The translation is simple and lucid in flavour and reads like an
original work. This is a commendable function as the present day book
market is full of unreadable translations. This, for me, is a
resourceful New Year gift.
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