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Colours of peace amidst conflict
Blessing Way of the Painted Dove, an exhibition by the staff and children from the Butterfly Peace Garden of Battiacaloa will be on from April 11-30 at the Barefoot Gallery.

Paul Hogan and his team have managed to create an "oasis" of peace in a conflict area through creative work, fortitude and the right attitude. He has made something beautiful in the most dire circumstances for the few lucky children who have been part of the Butterfly Peace Garden.

Writes Hogan:
"We have never done a show of paintings like this before. Many of us have never been to Colombo. We do not know what to expect. It is a matter of some apprehension for us to come here now, but we have come because we hope this is a good time for meeting, exchange, and reconciliation. These images are our personal offerings of peace for you. "Initially supported by the Canada Fund and then by Netherlands (HIVOS), The Butterfly Peace Garden of Batticaloa officially opened its gates the morning of 11/9/96.

Since then it has been bringing together artists, musicians, peace workers, ritual healers and children from various ethnic and religious groups-Tamil, Muslim, Hindu and Christian, - and become a small sanctuary for the practice of peace in a region long devastated by an ongoing and protracted civil war. "When you enter the show of paintings exhibited here, you enter the heart of the garden, the imagination of the people who created it. The garden was born during a time of war and in a place of war. It was born out of the deepest conflict-whether to embrace or shun the other in ourselves-a conflict, which we are, only now, beginning to live less violently."

Messenger of truth in complex modern world
The role of the Buddhist monk has always been simple - it is to 'go forth' (caratha) for the ''welfare of the many" (bahujana hitaya), because a notion such as 'the welfare of all' (sabba jana hitaya) can only be an ideal - and, as all ideals, unattainable by most.
The phrase 'welfare of the many' also connotes the requirement of two willing parties - the one with a wish to help and the other desirous of being helped, similar to the role of a teacher who needs others around him willing to learn what he is capable of teaching. In that respect, a monk is a teacher too.

The monks of Sri Lanka, spread the word through the length of their island home and safeguarded it during periods of crises, even sacrificing life and limb. They even went further across the seas to far-off Sumatra, Siam, China and the Maldives, founded monastic institutions etc., as contemporary records and archaeological remains testify.

During recent times, the role of the Sinhala Bhikkhu in the dissemination of 'What the Buddha Taught' throughout the world has not been less dynamic starting with the pioneering attempt by Anagarika Dharmapala (later the Ven. Devamitta Dharmapala) over a century ago, and strengthened by a 'Buddhist Mission to the West'. A few decades later, this Order has opened a new chapter in the history of the Buddhist dispensation with far-reaching results.

The present work by the Ven. Walpola Piyananda stands testimony to the dynamic role played by a soft-spoken and learned Sinhala monk who even before 'going forth' first to India and then to the US, moved well in local society as only he could as a 'way-farer'. At Los Angeles, he seems to be in his very element - walking, talking and helping, with the welfare of 'the other' in his heart.

For the past 25 years and more, he has met Asians, Europeans, Latins and Americans, and Buddhists, non-Buddhists and atheists etc. etc., each weighed down with problems and questions. Why does he wear yellow? Why does he shave his head? Why should I not enrobe? Why should I not dis-robe? Is a desire to graduate anti-Buddhist? And the Ven. Piyananda had to answer them all - all apparently simple questions but difficult to convince the questioner with a simple answer.

He had also to explain to one why a person would not go to hell merely because he did not believe in the sacred books of a particular religion, why another could not concentrate, why smoking is against the Buddha's teachings, why the lay should give alms to the monks - questions regarding matters of religion and of ordinary life, but deep-rooted issues in societies that are different to ours.

This work of 187 pages, couched in simple prose, is a treasure trove of practical guidelines, practically useful for a Buddhist 'dharmaduta' - a 'messenger of the truth', dwelling within the complexities of modern societies.

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