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Innovative
ways of teaching Buddhism and education “When I wanted to start the server I realised that it would cost me a large sum of money and I didn’t have money to get the software needed to run a server, as a monk I did not want to take ‘hora software’. That’s when I turned to free and open source software (FOSS) and Linux which is a free and open source software helped me to set up the server without any cost,” noted Ven. Metta Vihari Thera. “It was about breaking the five precepts and I don’t want to encourage ‘hora software’,” he said referring to one of the most common ways of evading high licence costs that come with using most computer software. Metta Vihari Thero, a Danish national by origin, has been in the IT industry before entering priest hood. Having been ordained at Maharagama Sirivajiranana Darmayathanaya he now resides at the Narada Centre Colombo. He has been living in Sri Lanka for more than three decades and says he is very much a Sinhalese now. From the day he started the server for the Metta website he has been an ardent enthusiast of Linux. “The country spends so much on licenced software, but we can’t afford it. Instead of buying software licences we could buy another computer with that money. Hence I thought it would be good to promote it because I wanted to save the country some money.” The monk joined with other Linux enthusiasts who are promoting FOSS along including members of the FOSS community in Sri Lanka. Speaking about Linux group’s projects, Ven. Metta Vihari says that they have started several projects to popularise the software. The SEMP (Secondary Educational Modernization Project) is one such project the group has started joining up with five leading schools in Colombo where they are training teachers and students to use Linux. “The response has been extremely positive. They want us to come and help them.” said the monk adding that it is important to take technology out to the students as there is a huge job market for IT professionals. The Linux centre in Nugegoda has classes to teach others the technology as well. Further Ven. Metta Vihari says that he has asked the FOSS group to conduct classes for a group of Buddhist monks so that they don’t have to use pirated software. However this is not the first time he has been involved with modern technology and certainly not the last. “When I returned from a 3 year-long meditation period after being ordained to the priesthood, I joined with Vimalananda Thero and took up the task of computerising the Tipitaka (Thripitaka), it took us three years,” he recalled. The Tipitaka is now available in all three languages on the Internet and it is currently being translated also to the Polish language. Today he has got not one but many other projects running. “We have already put up the website www.Dharmavahini.tv. Running sermons on the net will be starting next month. We have about 200 hours of material recorded,” says Ven. Metta Vihari. The Narada centre from where the monk operates has its own record room complete with all the equipment to carry out a successful recording thanks to a generous individual who donated all the equipment needed. “My long term plan is to launch a cable television channel and then to move to satellite television,” he says. His plan is to include a variety of programmes in the channel such as educational, cultural and news programmes. He has partnered with the University of Colombo to put together the required material to produce the educational programmes. One reputed teacher has already promised to help him and had promised to give him tutorials for the programmes. “In Denmark where I grew up, we had a lot of educational programmes in the television. I would come home from school and watch these programmes and learn a lot about subjects like electronics. That’s what I want to do in Sri Lanka as well. If I could launch this channel and get at least one television per school for the schools in rural areas then we can reach the students through the channel. They can learn English and science by watching TV. Even though interaction is going to be limited it will still help the students immensely,” says Ven. Metta Vihari. He is confident the government would take up the programmes if the material is good enough and give it free air time. He also plans to include cultural programmes not only on the dominant Sinhala culture but also of other cultures that are found in Sri Lanka. He is hoping to team up with the Diyawadana Nilame and Dambulle Hamuduruwo who are both involved in researching historical and cultural matters, to produce programmes for this side of the channel. Speaking of the news programmes, he says that contrary to what is reported in the media today, which he calls as “mostly destructive” to the society, he wants to report positive news. “News has a duty not to ruin the people but to develop and make them grow in their psychological stage and educational levels,” believes the monk. The resources he has are limited but he is not discouraged. Funds will come naturally and that the difficult part is producing the material, he said adding that it will certainly take time to put up the channel and that one shouldn’t be too ambitious but eventually it will be achieved. When asked about the rather unconventional role he is leading for a Buddhist monk he says that he doesn’t believe that priests should be in forests all the time. He says there is a lot monks could do to develop the country and that they should not distance themselves from the people. According to Ven. Metta Vihari there are many ways to reach out, referring to the popular Disney movie “Shrek”.He says that if Alavaka Sutta in Buddhism could be animated it would be “another Shrek”. As for his work: “A handful, but it has to be done,” the monk said in the same calm way used when dealing with his other vocations. In
the know Linux The
system’s kernel (the central part of the operating system)
was developed by Linus Torvalds at the University of Helsinki in
Finland in 1991. Since then, Linux has gained the support of major corporations such as IBM, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, and Novell, among others. Open
Source Open source software is usually developed as a public collaboration and made freely available. |
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