Aliens are invading our national parks
Sustained campaigns needed to remove introduced species Yesterday, May 22, was World Biodiversity Day. Sri Lanka is a globally recognised biodiversity hotspot with a number of natural sites designated as world heritage and globally important birding areas. 30% of Sri Lanka’s land area is already protected as forest or wildlife reserves. However, the viability of [...]
Let the true meaning of Vesak light up your homes
We are in the month of Vesak – the month most precious for Buddhists throughout the world. Vesak marks the Birth of Prince Siddhartha (later he became the Buddha), the Enlightenment or Attainment of Buddhahood, and the ‘parinirvana’ (death) of the Buddha. These events fall on the Full Moon Poya Day in the month of [...]
Letters to the Editor
Destroying two unique school cultures in the name of a merger Many questions baffle us on the proposed school merger of Sri Wijayarama Maha Vidyalaya and Devi Balika Maha Vidyalaya. There is no transparency in this so-called ‘surprise project’. Listening to the arguments of the representatives of Sri Wijayarama Maha Vidyalaya and Devi Balika Maha Vidyalaya, [...]
Appreciations
A big man with a big heart, he gave his all Jeff Schucroft Jeff Schucroft, who recently passed away, was a gentleman to his fingertips and touched my life at three different times. Firstly his father and my father were colleagues at the Colombo Port and our families lived in Modera (Colombo 15). When I [...]
A little known Englishman’s role in shaping Buddhist history
It was something to write home about. Dr. Rohan Fernando, a scientist living in the UK, was pottering about as usual amongst old Ceylon books (his pet hobby being researching on colonial Ceylon) when a plate from a clothbound volume dumbfounded him. It was a faded, 19th Century image, showing a Buddhist prelate seated outside [...]
Drawing on Buddhist practices to help deal with pandemics
Around our interconnected world, we have all been dealing with a shared threat from the COVID-19 virus. We share this world with many other forms of life, whose over-exploitation seems to have triggered the virus spreading to humans, so this situation was predicted by scientists to arise at some time, and will probably do so [...]
How the Buddha’s Jewel Discourse quelled Indian city’s trilogy of fear
Manu Gunasena writes on the inspiring Rathane Suthraya that defines the three refuges of all Buddhists: Who the Buddha is, what the Dhamma is and who the Sangha really are Even as shocking scenes of mass sickness and deaths unfold daily to reveal the full horror of present day India, flashback to 2,500 years ago, [...]
The importance of meditation in these difficult times
Very often we hear our elders say “Society today is not what it used to be. People are always busy. Life is a ‘rat-race’.” Not only adults, even schoolchildren are running a race in this competitive world to achieve their educational goals. People crave for material wealth and forget about their mental and spiritual well-being. [...]
A paean to Upeka on her seventieth
My introduction to the Chitrasena world of dance was when I was invited by the maestro to attend a performance of his latest creation (at the time), Kinkini Kolama. Having lived for several years abroad, I had no idea of the endemic dance forms of Sri Lanka except for what I had seen at the [...]
Spotlight on breaking uneasy silence over mental illness
Trapped in a mausoleum of a house, Joyce is a schizophrenic. Victim to hallucinations, she is covered in a blanket of paranoia which makes her suspect her husband, Rajeev, of infidelity and even being responsible for the death of their daughter Nicky. Her one ally is art, which she uses to give wings to her [...]