Buddhangala Rajamaha Viharaya

Buddhangala Hermitage is a slightly remote monastery in eastern Sri Lanka. I met an interesting monk there, a retired Sri Lankan Army Major General. After he lost his wife, raised two daughters alone and finished his Army career, he returned to a calling from earlier in life. Swapping his Army uniform for monk's robes and contributing his own money to Buddhangala, building the reclining Buddha statue and improving the monastery buildings, Ven. Buddhangala Ananda Thera moved in.

The modern reclining Buddha statue.

The old stupa.

I was fortunate to spend some time with Ananda Thera. You can still see the confidence of a General, but it is wrapped in a distinct calm. He asked me why I came to Sri Lanka, helped me see some truth around that, and then gave me a very nice Dhamma lesson before I left. Such a treat.

View from the stupa.

Overheard from backpackers at a nearby table...

"You'd be surprised; we fill our day with nothing."

The road ahead

For those who are wondering....

I am currently in Kandy and plan to leave tomorrow or the next day for a tour of Buddhist historical sites in the north central area of Sri Lanka. This area, known as the Cultural Triangle, is generally described by a triangle formed by Kandy, Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. The places I have visited or plan to visit are all described at this excellent site, Sacred Island - A Buddhist Pilgrim's Guide to Sri Lanka, which is an online version of the book I brought with me as a guide to my travels in Sri Lanka. Places in that list I have already visited are Buduruvagala, Kirivehara, Maligavila, Sithalpavuva, the Temple of the Tooth, Tissamaharama and Weligama. In addition to the triangle cities, I particularly hope to visit Arankale, Avukana, Dambulla, Sigiriya, and Yapahuwa.

For this stage, since I will be traveling to many locations for relatively short visits at most of them, I will hire a car and driver\guide. One can use trains, buses, taxis and three-wheelers (auto rickshaw or tuk-tuk) and a chunk of walking, but the hired car is not terribly expensive and it is very nice to have a guide and to be able to take whatever side-trips and make whatever stops you feel like. For example, I have been assured that beaches in the Trincomalee area are the most beautiful in Sri Lanka (quite a claim, that). I will also pop in on a friend in Badulla for a small gathering.

I expect to end up back in Kandy in a couple weeks. I will probably stay at least a couple of days at the Mahavihara Maha Prirvena and may drop into the Nilambe meditation center for a while. From Kandy there is a certain train that has an observation car that reportedly provides a particularly beautiful view Sri Lankan mountains and countryside from Kandy to Colombo. Then I will spend a couple days in the greater Colombo area before leaving Sri Lanka.

I had planed to travel next to Thailand and visit a forest monastery, perhaps taking a bit of a meditation retreat; but, Thailand is in a bit of turmoil right now with their political unrest. I'm confident the places I am interested in are safe, but I'm not sure I need to go to a place where the air is so filled with anger and ill-will. It occurred to me that by the time I leave Sri Lanka I will have been two months gone from India so I have the option now of returning there. Plus I have an outstanding invitation to visit a monastery in Singapore. Ah, so many options. Well, let's take the fork in the road when we reach it; meanwhile, I will focus on the path beneath my feet.

Asgiriya Maha Vihara

In Ella, I met a monk and lay person walking the railroad tracks and ended up at the Kithalella Temple where I met the abbot, Ven. Nandaloka Thero, and some of the monks there. He was leaving the next day for Kandy and took me with him, where he deposited me in the Asgiriya Maha Vihara. The next morning we visited the Temple of the Tooth together. Everything is a little less confusing when you are being led around by a monk. Nandaloka Thero is in the center.

Asgiriya is not just a monastery and temple, but is actually a complex with multiple temples, a school for about 300 monks from age 9, and residential areas with rooms for lay people. The area I am has just one regular inhabitant: a young layman staying there while going to college. He has many friends among the monks and laypeople, so we also have a steady stream of guests. Oddly, we also have key to our bungalow and always lock it when away.

Two days ago was commencement day - first day of school. There are about 300 students, but half were off taking government exams (like India, major exams are administered by the government, not the school, so are fully standardized). The principle, Ven. Ananda Thero gave them an inspirational talk to start the term; then, after a short bit of milling about, it was off to class.

With the basic math and science, their curriculum includes Buddhism, Sinhalese, Pali, Sanskrit and English. For those on an English "stream", many of their classes are actually taught in English and their exams are in English. A number of monks wanted to talk with me just for a chance to work on their English a little. Looking for ways to help them, I may now have two new pen pals: Kassapa Thero to the right and Nanda Thero in the middle. They particularly want to do video calls over the internet to work on their English and that sounds like fun. There's a vague thought trying to hook up more pen pals with members of IMSB back home, but we'll just see what happens.

It turns out that Asgiriya is the main temple over all Sri Lankan Buddhist temples - as one monk explained, it is like the Vatican of Sri Lankan Buddhism. So, many important people come here to pay homage to the Buddha. The eve of commencement day the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka visited. Turns out my abode is right outside a key temple room so I go a bird's-eye view of the activity. Security was nothing like we see in American, but I still didn't want to use a flash so my pictures are pretty weak. Still, you can see how close I am standing on the porch of our living area as the Prime Minister and his family all passed into the temple.

Yesterday was Poya, the Buddhist holiday on the full moon (a.k.a. Uposatha), and Shane had the day off. So, we went with young Chandrananda Thero to visit tour more of the monastery grounds and a couple temples.

There is a large Buddha statue on top of a hill overlooking Kandy and we went up to that temple and inside the base of the Buddha statue. We were lucky to have great weather for the day and some nice views over Kandy.

Well, it is coming time for me to move on so I must go consider my itinerary for the next phase of my travels: the Ancient Cities north of Kandy to Anaradhapura and Polonnaruwa and many places in between

Inspiration

I have just come to understand the single word that captures my reason for this entire trip: inspiration. I have rejected religion throughout my life and as a seeker came to believe that what I seek is understanding, deep perception of reality, inner peace, happiness, equanimity, even nirvana. Yet, I think that when I threw out the bullshit of organized religion - all their unbelievable stories and dogma, their half truths and lies and worldly motives evilly cloaked in the supposed answer to peoples inner desire for peace and happiness and freedom from helplessness, hopelessness and the fear of death - I fell into a path of reason, rationalism and intellectualism supported by a core of agnosticism and bounded by an almost atheistic rejection of outlandish mysticism.

On this trip, I first read A Rude Awakening about a monk and his lay companion making a pilgrimage in India. I enjoyed this book, but I think it turned my mind a bit to a pilgrimage with taints of enduring the context in which I trudged and the environment in which found each site. I then delved into I Am That by Nisargadatta. It contains many snippets that I find very meaningful, that I feel hold great truth, and many that gave rise to mental query and contemplation; but, as a body, it does not speak to me. Nearing half way through I Am That I became a bit bored of it and want to write the author and tell him the title should be I Am Not!. However, one thought it raised in me repeatedly is "What is the motivation? Where is the inspiration?"

Meanwhile, I have been visiting many temples, shrines and holy places in Sri Lanka. I first noticed that many holy sites in Sri Lanka have been adopted by multiple religions through history and it is common for a site to enclose Buddhist, Hindu and sometimes Muslim and even Christian temples and shrines. Then I noticed that it is common for Buddhist temples and shrines to include altars to Hindu gods: Shiva, Ganesha, Hunaman, Kali, Lakshmi seem popular, plus an array of deities which I think are specific to Sri Lanka. It is even common to see active Buddhist monasteries with equally active shrine rooms for deities.

I just spent a week traveling by car with two Sri Lankan men visiting an array of holy sites in western and southern Sri Lanka. Although both men identify themselves as Buddhists, I noticed that they don't think anything odd about Buddhist holy sites being peppered with deities from various religions. I found they actually pray to the Buddha and also pray to an array of deities. In his car, my guide has an icon of the Buddha on his dash and wants to complete the display with four Hindu gods arranged two on either side of the Buddha (one of the Lakshmi! What outrage - a god of prosperity and wealth next to the Buddha?!?!). I remembered that on multiple occasions Sri Lankan people have commented to me that Buddhism and Christianity are "the same" and realized that some of the religious perspectives and practices of my companions is probably pretty common in Sri Lanka - that is, Buddhism plus worship and some notion of gods that will help us, guide us, protect us, save us, or even punish us (the dreaded Kali). I was initially slightly disappointed that Buddhism was thus corrupted, but this narrow opinion quickly gave way to my underlying belief that we all have a right to our own path, whatever it may be, and that we all need to be somewhere on the great path, thus all paths, as segments of the great path, are good. It is in this state of mind, a bit more open and accepting, that I encounter the writings of Martin Wickramasinghe.

There are many books that are interesting to read, many still that are of value to read, but just a few sections into Wickramasinghe's Buddhism and Culture, sections which I have multiply read, pondered over and marveled at, I believe that this collection of articles is an absolute must read.  He offers some very well-stated comments on a degenerative intellectualization of Buddhism, particularly of Theravada Buddhism, and offers a somewhat unnerving answer to my question, "Where is the inspiration?".

Perhaps it is just the state of mind I am in; you can see the wander that has brought me here. Like a lustful man encountering a desirable wench, perhaps after 50 or 100 intimate encounters it will loose its grip and, unfettered, I will wander off and forget where I laid this book. But, for the moment I sit slightly stunned, somewhat entranced, drawn and unsure if I am lured.