Guide me in times of need

Adoration to the nobly born,
Homage to him, unsurpassed;
Peerless One who’s ever known
In all the world of Gods and men.
The Great Being, fully Enlightened One,
Cleansed He, from bonds is freed;
My refuge in Thee, for none
Shall guide me in times of need.
Born beneath a muddy pool,
The lotus shoots to water’s surface;
Unstained by mud, on waters cool
It blossoms, so pleasant a fragrance.
Just so the Buddha supreme
Born to dwell in a world mundane,
Like the lotus pure unstained
Rises above the defiled plane.
Just as the darkness fades away
At the sight of a sun’s ray,
So too is the Buddha word-
Unchanging, fixed, never to stray.
He that is guided and lives by-
The Dhamma, dispels ills, gains insight;
A pool unstirred by wind is he,
Crystal clear, cool, shining bright.
Of all medicines world hath known
Dhamma is best for human mind;
Oh monks, let it quench thy thirst
The “DEATHLESS STATE” is yours to find.
The Dhamma’s path is named “straight”,
“Fearless will” its journey’s end,
“Silence” is the worthy carriage,
“Right Effort” its wheels, dear friend.
“Conscience: is the chariot’s brakes
“Mindfulness” its upholstery we need
“Dhamma” is the charioteer true
“Right View” its required speed.
Be it man or woman on earth
Whoever truly walks the path, they all
Shall never be led astray to wrong,
But steadfastly reach the ultimate goal.
The wise men who then steer clear,
Are never led by any wrongdoer;
The even path so perfect so pure,
Happily they tread sans doubt sans fear.

(Selected and translated from Pali Texts)

D.P.B. Ellepola.

Sila alone brings true happiness

By J.P. Pathirana

If you were to examine the values in which you have been nurtured from your childhood, you see that most of them ‘have been forced upon you’ by society, by the socio-economic and educational environment in which you have had your early upbringing. On closer examination you will see that most of these values increase your life’s tensions, anxieties and sufferings rather than help you resolve them. Why is that? Because most of these values ignore the basic truths and laws of life and the cosmos which was just mentioned.

Our social values today are sensate, false and changing. They do not touch reality. The true Buddhist may revolt against these perishable, materialistic values that carry him further from happiness and truth. The Buddhist is expected to cultivate these imperishable and eternal values of the heart and mind which bring both social harmony and individual peace.

Better cars, more equipped bathrooms and luxurious conditions for cosy living, radios, televisions and what not are expected to enhance human happiness. But the tragedy is, they have created new conditions of suffering. Better scientific discoveries mean better and more efficient methods of killing each other, more methodical and destructive wars, more deceptive methods of exploitation and so on. The situation dominating the technologically advanced West rather than the East, has already opened the eyes of many Westerners to the profound Truths of life and the cosmos proclaimed by the Buddha. Many Westerners turn to the Buddha Dhamma wherein they find the only means of resolving their lives inner and outer territories caused by an overdeveloped technology.

The Buddhist has a twofold duty: one towards himself and the other towards society. Where his individual moral life sanctioned Buddhist truths conflicts with the accepted values of society, he should be able to make a compromise instead of sacrificing his nobler aspirations for social expediency or shallow convention. He could create his own values and stick to them within the social environment, he lives in. Society may place an absolute value on perishable things: money, power, wealth and property, name and fame etc. But the true Buddhist who understands the impermanent and therefore painful character of these changing and sensate material values, should break-away from every pattern of social life.

We can now sum up the Buddhist answer to the problem: morality or ‘sila’ is the very essence of human existence. Morality alone brings true happiness. And its value is enhanced when moral life is linked with objectives higher than social or economic progress.

If modern man is to save his hard won civilisation from being reduced to ashes in the near future it is necessary that our scientists today are guided by considerations of moral value than those of expediency. Technology in itself is not an evil. But it is not the solution for our human problems which are basically ethical and psychological. It is because of the wrong emphasis laid on technology that external temporal values have taken precedence over ethical or moral values. Modern man searches for happiness in things temporal and perishable, and that is why he is burdened with untold frustrations, anxieties and tensions.

Thus the ecological crisis in modern technology poses the all important problem: should not technological decisions be determined by considerations of moral values if these decisions are to produce truly beneficial results to humanity? To put it alternatively: should not major technological and scientific decisions relating to energy production and nuclear power, have as their goal morality, instead of expediency?

To the rulers of his day the Buddha enunciated an excellent politico-economic and social moral value structure. The Five Precepts (Panchasila) are the most elementary expression of that value structure. The highest form of achievement according to the Buddha is self-mastery. Possessions are not bad if they are wisely used. Actions are not bad if they are controlled and directed. What is wanted is not inaction but renunciation of wrong action. The ordinary man is acted upon by others by forces extraneous to himself, but when he has achieved self-mastery then his action is self-engendered and self-directed. Therefore, discipline and the value of reality is necessary to bring about self-mastery. The practice of these disciplines in time, brings us to a state of mind which is described by the Buddha as ‘samadhi’ or equanimity, that is equilibrium of the mind. We are then able to look upon the world with a steady eye. When we have achieved this equanimity we are in a position to direct our attention to truth, and then arises in our mind what the Buddha called ‘vipassana’, clear insight and that leads to ‘panna’ the knowledge of things as they are. This insight cannot arise in a mind which is tossed and tumbled from one side to another by emotions and desire. It is only when the mind becomes steady that it can direct itself to the truth.

It is at first as though we sought to see by fixing a searchlight to a boat on the ocean. But the boat is tossed about and we cannot direct the searchlight where we will. When, on the other hand, the searchlight is fastened to a rock, then we can direct its beams we choose and depending upon the power of the light we can see the light and touch reality.

The tendency to defy Truth and Justice has its roots in ignorance of the Dhamma. Many nations today are unaware of the obvious truth that mere socio-economic developments do not solve the country’s major and minor problems.

It is the linking of technology to moral objectives that can ensure a healthy society of psychologically integrated men and women.

If you examine history you will see that the most flourishing periods of human peace and happiness were those when their rulers were inspired by ethical codes and moral convictions. Think of at long line of Sinhala Kings from Devanampiyatissa to Mahasena who embraced Buddhism and disseminated Buddhist ideals in ancient Sinhala society. Conversely, the dark periods in human history were those when rulers sacrificed the nobler emotions of the heart and mind to assert their brutal instincts of hatred and jealousy, revenge and self-aggression.

Vesak is for all

By Roshan Peiris

“Tomorrow is Vesak, the thrice blessed day when the Enlightened One was born, attained enlightenment and then departed from this world. What Lord Buddha preached especially maithri encompasses not only us Buddhists in Sri Lanka, but its precepts have worldwide significance, said Thelwatte Nagita Thero of the ninety eight year old Gothami Vihare.

‘How do you look at the ethnic issue on the eve of Vesak?” “Vesak is for all. The message of Vesak has no boundaries of race. May I tell you that there are many Tamils who believe in Lord Buddha. His message is universal and tomorrow I fervently hope that the people in Sri Lanka will spend the day thinking of Lord Buddha’s spiritual message.

“As a Buddhist I am saddened by the continuation of the war,” he continued. “Lord Buddha preached ahimsa and love towards all men and animals. I am sorry that there is a call for all boys of eighteen to join the army. I wonder what will happen to the Sri Lankan race.

“The Tamil people are lucky, they have sixty million Tamils living across the Palk Straits. We Sinhala people have only this little country, and we cannot afford to politically fracture it.”

On the eve of Vesak the Ven. Nagita said he was proud that Buddhism is practised in a devout and disciplinary way over here. “True Lord Buddha lived and died in India but all those sacred places thanks to Anagarika Dharmapala, are administered by Sri Lanka through the Maha Bodi Society.

The Thero said, “I am sad that unlike in the old days Vesak is desecrated, forgetting the day’s intense holiness. The Thero said, that the advent of Buddhism is a rare blessing and enfolds in its teaching love, goodness, maithri to all. He said that he still has positive hope that the ethnic crisis will be settled, freeing many a young youth be he Sinhala or Tamil from this terrorist war.

“We must see that our fervour and happiness does not hamper the fervour of those who follow other religions. Tolerance is something we should think about and practise.” The Thero also stressed that Vesak must not be forgotten after Vesak day.

A tale of two cities

In 1898, the ruins of walls and rooms of the ancient palace of King Suddhodhana, Lord Buddha’s father, were un-earthed in Nepal at Tilaurakot, some 26 kilometres west of Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha.

Then in 1972 Srivastava, an Indian archaeologist, found two caskets containing 12 relics of the Lord Buddha in the basement of an old stupa in the Indian town of Piprahwa, half a kilometre from the Nepalese border and seven kilometres from Tilaurokot.

Along with the relics, the archaeologists also found some 40 terracotta coins bearing the inscription: “Here is the vihara of the monk of Kapilavastu.”

Can it be that there were two Kapilavastus?

That is the question Assoc Prof Dr Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, a Buddhist scholar from Thammasat University’s India Studies Centre, asks in her soon-to-be-published book Kapilavastu: Old - New?

“Thai Buddhists are taught about Buddhism and the history of the Lord Buddha. We’ve learned about Kapilavastu but we don’t know the exact location of the city,” she said.

Dr Chatsumarn made a 12-day pilgrimage trip to Nepal and India last October. Before she set out, the academic scoured historical documents at the Indian Embassy, contacted Nepali archaeologists for rare books on surveys of Kapilavastu, and unearthed old studies from Nepali archives as well as detailed maps of the two countries.

Her first stop was Tilaurakot where the palace of King Suddhodhana has been excavated.

“The archaeologists found remnants of King Suddhodhana’s palace such as the brick foundations of many rooms, the palace walls and a square small pond. The Lord Buddha lived in this palace before entering the monkhood,” explained Dr Chatsumarn.

Piprahwa in India was her next destination, but before visiting the site, Dr Chatsumarn contacted the National Museums in Delhi and Calcutta where 12 relics of the Lord Buddha were displayed.

The relics of the Buddha were unearthed at the foundation of an ancient stupa in the 1890s by the owner of the land where the stupa was situated. On the lid of the soapstone casket was an inscription stating: “Here are the relics of the Buddha of Sakyas given to the sisters of Sukiti.”

The exact translation of the inscription and the identity of the sisters of Sukiti remain a mystery, but scholars agree that it refers to the Buddha’s relics.

However, the main problem for Indian archaeologists, explained Dr Chatsumarn, is that the bricks and the soil level date back to the 3rd century BC, during the reign of King Asoka, but not as far back as the 6th century BC when the Buddha was alive.

According to Dr Chatsumarn, an Indian archaeologist named Srivastava, now aged 84., played a crucial role in excavating the archaeological site at Piprahwa and bringing to light new evidence, details of which can be found in his book The Discovery of Kapilavastu.

In 1972 Mr Srivastava studied the stupa at Piprahwa again after noticing the ancient practice of building a stupa on top of a ruined one. He conducted the excavation at the same stupa where the first casket of Buddha’s relics were unearthed a century ago.

Six metres below the foundation of the previous level of excavation, the archaeologist found two rooms with a burnt brick structure containing two caskets. In the larger soapstone casket, there were 12 large relics and in the smaller casket were 10 smaller relics.

According to Srivastava’s study, the age of the bricks and the soil level confirm the date of the relics as during the 6th century BC. This is proof, she said, that after the Great Passing Away of the Lord Buddha, Tona Brahmin divided the relics into eight portions. The relics found in this stupa are from the portion given to the Sakyas and buried here soon after the Lord Buddha’s cremation.

Most of the relics are now displayed at the National Museum in Delhi while two of them are exhibited at Calcutta National Museum.

Apart from Lord Buddha’s relics, the archaeologist also found the 40 coins with the inscription: “Here is the vihara of the monks of the Kapilavastu.” This suggests that Piprahwa was at one time known as Kapilavastu. And this is the crux of the problem: which one is the “real” hometown of Buddha — Piprahwa in India or Tilaurakot in Nepal?’

The search for Kapilavastu started in earnest at the end of last century. Two important scholars who conducted research into the location of the city were V.A. Smith, an English historian and archaeologist, and T.W. Rhys-David, an English historian of Buddhism. The two scholars theorised that Tilaurakot in Nepal is the old Kapilavastu while Piprahwa in India is the new Kapilavastu.

“Those who want to study Kapilavastu often rely on V.A. Smith’s works. He visited the sites several times and said that Piprahwa provides the strongest evidence, referring to the Lord Buddha’s relics,” said Dr Chatsumarn.

One of the most important works by Smith is the study of the journeys of two Chinese monks, Fa Hien and Phra Tang Sum Jang, who set off separately and at different times on pilgrimages to bring the Holy Scriptures from India to China. Fa Hien started his journey in 357 while Phra Tang Sum Jang set off in 787. According to Smith, both monks recorded that they would go to Kapilavastu.

Smith pointed out that the two Chinese monks went to different cities: Fa Hien visited the old Kapilavastu while Phra Tang Sum Jang went to the new Kapilavastu.

Dr. Chatsumarn also notes that the concept of the old and the new Kapilavastu is also related to part of the history of the Lord Buddha, namely the extermination of the Sakyas family which appears in the Tripitaka, or Buddhist holy scripture.

The Tripitaka narrates how the Sakyas family sent a princess who was the daughter of a Sakyas Prince and a maid to marry the powerful King Pasenadi Kosala, despite the fact that the king had asked for a bride of pure royal blood. The princess gave birth to Prince Vidudabha who later found out the truth. The young prince was angered by this news and vowed that he would take revenge by massacring all Sakyas.

The Lord Buddha intervened three times to stop Vidudabha from attacking his home country. On the fourth attack, however, Buddha abstained seeing that the Sakyas had committed a sin in their previous lives which must be repaid. As a result Vidudabha killed 77,000 Sakyas while the rest managed to escape, Dr Chatsumarn explained that the survivors might have settled at Piprahwa and established the new Kapilavastu.

India and Nepal still enjoy playing tug-of-war over “the real Kapilavastu”, trying to pull it into their own territory. Nevertheless, Dr Chatsumarn’s voyage of discovery has further confirmed the theory of the existence of two ancient cities, both named Kapilavastu and both important sites to Buddhists of all nationalities.

More Plus * From temple walls to homes of devotees * Vesak is the time for giving * Let the aged live in dignity * A sober thought for this Vesak month

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