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The Dhamma in a new spirit of Independence
By Prof. Dhammavihari Thera
More than fifty years of existence, we believe, is long enough time for anyone to reach a stage of acceptable maturity. The 4th day of February (in the year 1948) happens to be the day on which Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was then conveniently called), the much cherished tea-brewing island colony in the Indian ocean changed hands from the British Empire builders to be ruled by the local sahibs. We had the fortune at that time, good or bad, to be seated in that gorgeously decorated temporary pavilion, in the ancient race course of Colombo.

As a nation, the Sri Lankans are now paying the price for the sins of others. It is too expensive to turn one's back on history. Very few leaders of the country at the time felt any need to be sensitive to these, as long as the fare on their tables was rich enough and they were crowned with laurels. Very few realised that those crowns would, in their life time, turn into crowns of thorns.

What is not written about the history of religion, culture and politics of Sri Lanka is much more valuable than what has been written and published in English, Sinhala and even Pali. But the source material for these, with genuineness of their own, is there, clearly embedded in some of the written records. The centuries that followed the arrival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka have witnessed the intermingling of many diverse, and at times even contradictory utterances, woven together to look like a homogenous whole. Even leading researchers are seen stumbling over these.

The truth is far from what is in hand with us. Very vital episodes of national history, like wars of liberation and independence fought in this country, for very worthy causes, have been utterly distorted, both by those who merely record them the way they feel as well as by much cleverer descendants of theirs who subsequently research on them, often inadequately guided. Polarized visions of heterogeneous groups, disagreeing to a greater or lesser degree on account of sectarian traditions, are seen to be challenging one another. Lamentably, this is the state of research in our country.

They have come to us, or we may say even invaded us from our neighbouring countries like India, Myanmar and Thailand. Traditions within the same fold, like textual and commenatorial, separated from each other by centuries, are forced to appear as homogenous and consistent. In more recent times, more fanciful versions of interpretations, imported from distant lands like America, England and even Germany have found their way here, quite often smuggled by local agents domiciled abroad.

It is with this background in mind that we formulate this article. The Dhamma is the wholesome message which the Buddha made known to mankind for the purpose of their salvation. Do the Buddhists in Sri Lanka, with the newly emerging metropolitan elite, as well as the lesser elite who like to mingle with them, know to any extent what this Sakyamuni Gotama's concept of salvation is or the unfailing way for its achievement in Nirvana? Yet other newer groups of propagandists of the metropolitan import type endeavour to present the Lotus Sutra as an early authentic text preached by Gotama the Buddha. Let us first know who is taking whom for a ride in this country.

This is why we, the less updated old traditionalists, keep on harping about learning and living the Dhamma. There are many degrees of difference in listening to your favourite Dhamma sermons over the television, radio or even CDs. The real Dhamma of the Buddha insists that having heard the Dhamma, you must yourself reflect on it. This is how the correct vision or samma ditthi of the Noble Eight-fold Path grows.

Once you get to this stage, the Dhamma insists that you live the Dhamma and live it well. This means that one shall conduct one's day to day living in accordance with the Dhamma. You shall not live it in a half-hearted way, merely to flatter the monk who preaches it. Living the Dhamma well in one's daily life, and not a mere metropolitan monk-adoring-cult, brings about all the happiness one wishes for. Dhamma is said to protect and take good care of the person who lives in accordance with it (dhammo have rakkhati dhammacarim).

Finally a word about the thinking on the Dhamma in a new spirit of independence. It is nothing new to Buddhism nor to the Buddhists. It was anticipated by the Buddha that, in the course of time, there would be interpreters of his teachings in diverse ways, different to what he meant when he delivered them. In the Mahaparinibbana Sutta the Buddha is seen indicating that many monks would, after his passing away, point out many sources of authority (mahapadesa) for what they present as the word of the Buddha. He warns about such situations and cautions that Buddhists should fall back on textual authority and none other (sutte otaretabbani vinaye sandassetabbani).

Under a very misleading phraseology called development of Buddhist thought, even academics of today uphold such a process. To them, this as a process of development is undeniably post-parinibbana. Our generosity would not extend further than to permit the use of words like deflection and deviation to designate what happens to the Buddha's teachings in this process. As for the modernity that the neo-propagandist would like to bestow on Buddhism, let it be remembered that more than thirty years ago Buddhist scholars of Japan opted, with a sense of pride, to call our historical Buddha Sakyamuni the Eternal Buddha, in spite of the much larger and more glamorous Buddha Amida who has been looming prominently in their horizon.

Over the centuries, the Buddhists of Sri Lanka have inherited a tradition of bundling up together diverse religious traditions which clearly belong to different periods of time and traditions and therefore stand incompatibly divergent one from the other. Even the commentaries of Sri Lanka tell us that there have been Sri Lankan monks of the day, well outside the universities and with apparently no desire for professorial status, who were able to identify what they detect to be errors of judgment and pronounce these boldly in public. Study diligently the story of our brilliant Buddhist scholar monk Tipitaka Culabhaya There and his magnanimous teacher Dipavasi Sumana Thera and their highly commendable intellectual honesty and mutual respectability.

It is regrettable to record here that in Sri Lanka today doctrinal distortions resulting from such Commentarial misdirections stubbornly persist at all levels of Buddhist learning in the country, both monastic and secular. The Dhammapadatthakatha, the somewhat self-willed Commentary to our delightful handbook of Buddhism, the Dhammapada, has too many such deviations from the original. Translators of the Dhammapada into English and Sinhala, both Sri Lankan and non-Sri Lankan who are caught up in this storm, rarely escape without getting mangled. Newer and newer editions of the Dhammapada, which ingenious publishers speedily put into the market show only more and more colourful dust covers, with hardly any change in the translations.

We wind up today, showing one single sample for your diligent testing. Test your courage and your wisdom. Read the Dhammapada, Chapter XII i.e Atta Vagga, Verse No 157. The text has tinnam annataram yamam patijaggeyya pandito. Almost all Sinhala translations would render it as: Either in one's childhood, or in one youth or in one's old age, one should collect merit for oneself. The plain Pali of the text would mean: At least during one of the three watches of the night, a wise man should keep vigil over himself. The way you have been brought up in Buddhist Sri Lanka would make all the difference. In Sri Lanka today, we are compelled to leave the choice to you.

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