Point of view

The bigger picture

By Sam Wickramasinghe

In 1973, Bamiyan was a desolate outpost in the middle of the Afghanistan desert, and this Buddha statue, somewhat like ours at Buddhuruwagala, except that it was within a rocky alcove on the face of a huge cliff, gazed serenely at the vast emptiness all-round. No one took any notice of it. It was there, perhaps sadly contemplating a monument of man's atrocities nearby, which was the main attraction to all foreign tourists.

This monument was called the 'Pillar of Death' and it took travellers back to the 15th-16th centuries, when Genghis Khan and his hordes of Mogul invaders arrived pillaging, plundering and pillorying the local captives. It is said that the prisoners were tethered alive by their ankles to this column, and arranged fan-wise in a circular fashion on the ground, and more were stacked layer upon layer above the others, tied in a similar fashion, to reach the summit. Then it was plastered with clay and mortar to form an edifice of human flesh!

Today, anyone familiar with the pattern of geo-politics would see the importance this beautiful country - Afghanistan- has for the western world, as a gateway to the East, particularly to China. No one can gainsay the fact that some countries in the far West are paranoid about China, as a superpower, and the spread of Islam in our part of world. It is their fervent wish to prevent solidarity and consensus among the Asian nations to stand up to western policy-making and strangling economic dictates. This they do by sowing seeds of disunity. To this end, use would be made of whatever issue possible, religious or otherwise. Unfortunately, Taleban, is one such government in Afghanistan today which is not favoured in the West, and also among some pro-Western lands in this part of the hemisphere. It is therefore prudent and healthy to consider this aspect of the statue-controversy, vis a vis the geo-political perspective, and to do everything sensibly possible, without placing our midget-nation in an uncomfortably compromising confrontation with the Taleban administration.

Who knows with these self-interested western nations, where Afghanistan, or for that matter, Sri Lanka, would be in the future global picture?

Weaving Buddhism into people's lives

By Nilika de Silva

The very first woman in Sri Lankato don the robes of a Bhikkuni after a lapse of nearly 1,000 years, Dr. Bhikkuni Kusuma has turned her hand to translating Buddhist books into Sinhala, to help people weave religion into their daily lives.

This 71-year-old nun who followed in the Buddha's footsteps after losing her young daughter, explains that she has gained control over her mind now. Today her love for all beings is the same. This is why she is attempting to make Buddhism a living thing for people through the translation of 'Humanitarian Buddhism the way I observe it' and 'Where is your Buddhisthood?' by Ven. Dr. Sin Yun. The books originally written in Chinese and later translated to English, are now available in Sinhala.

'Manushika Bududahama Ma Pilipadina Andama' ('Humanitarian Buddhism the way I observe it') is made up of 77 very short stories on how Ven. Dr. Sin Yun reacts in day-to-day situations. It would help the reader weave religion into his daily life.

'Obage Budu gathiya kohida' ('Where is your Buddhisthood?') is a collection of stories which link philosophy and Buddhism, exploring subjects of depth with the simplicity and logical reasoning which accompanies Buddhist thought.

Dr. Bhikkuni Kusuma who lives in an Ashram in Olaboduwa, off Gonapala, Horana has been engaged in meditation for over 25 years, with residential meditation at Kanduboda, practising both Vipassana and Samatha. "It is like when you are driving a car and have brakes," she explains describing the control meditation gives to the mind. Bhikkuni Kusuma wrote her MA thesis on Sati-in Buddhist Meditation, A Mental Therapy. "I can't remember a day I got angry," says this Bhikkuni who avoids anger by reminding herself that the person who scolds her "doesn't know me as much as I know myself".

Recalling the struggle to gain recognition for the Bhikkuni Movement, she says, "The Bhikkuni order, ordination, higher ordination were taboo." Because they had no income, no education, no sanghika dhana, no sanghika property, they led a hard life. She met President J.R. Jayewardene and apprised him of the gravity of the situation. The President put her on to his wife, Elena, who requested her to write all she felt in this regard. "After three months I got a letter from President Jayewardene asking me to communicate with Minister Hurulle, who put me on to the Commissioner of Buddhist Affairs, Eardley Ratwatte. And then within the Buddha Sasana Ministry, a separate section for nuns was created.

Today there are about 300 Bhikkunis and 4,000 ten-precept nuns (dasa sil mathas). There are more than 40 nuns with degrees while several have done their MAs. They engage in counselling with special attention to battered women suffering due to alcoholics. The women find it easier to approach Bhikkunis and dasa sil mathas, she explained.

Doing her Ph.D studies in 1982 on the nuns of Sri Lanka, she collected data while engaging in joint research with an American Professor of Sociology. Later she read for her second Ph.D. on the 311 rules of Vinaya for Bhikkunis.

However, Bhikkuni Kusuma did not arrive at this destination travelling a straight road. "I started life as a science teacher." Because her students fared exceptionally well she got a scholarship to study in America to read for an MA in Molecular Biology in 1969. Here too she strove "to find a beginning", but realising this was not to be her future and as she was very homesick for her children, she returned to Sri Lanka. From then on it was studying Pali and Buddhist Philosophy reading the 'Tripitaka' and venturing forth in search of truth.

The two books translated by Dr. Bhikkuni Kusuma are available at the Vijitha Yapa and Sarasavi bookshops.

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