There seems to be a considerable amount of controversy over the Ethics of religious conversions in Sri Lanka. Some Buddhist monks and laymen fear soon Buddhism will become a minority, religion and unethical conversion by other faiths will ruin Buddhist culture and the Sinhala cultural identity.
This leads us to the question, is there a threat to Buddhism in Sri Lanka today? If so by whom? How? and Why? Every practising Buddhist must find the correct answers to these questions and remedy the situations without delay. Sri Lanka is a secular democracy, and the constitution provides the right for an individual to change his or her religious faith or to practice or not practice a religion.
Lord Buddha upon enlightenment, first shared his new found wisdom with the five ascetics, with whom he once practiced asceticism, and gave up that practice as it did not help him to obtain deliverance realising that only the middle path will help attain Nirvana. Conversion through conviction of the five ascetics helped him to start the Buddhist Order. Thereafter conversion of Yasa, a son of a rich treasurer (setthi) of Benares, present day Varanasi in north India, and fifty four of his friends, thus making up sixty one Arhaths in the world, including the Buddha himself.
Thereafter the Buddha sent forth sixty of them with the words: "Go ye now, O monks, and wander, for the gain of the many, for the welfare of the many, out of compassion for the world, for the good, for the gain, and for the welfare of gods and men. Let not two of you go the same way. Preach O monks, the doctrine which is glorious in the beginning, glorious in the middle, glorious in the end, in the spirit and in the letter; proclaim a consummate, perfect and pure life of holiness".
Thus began the first missionary religion in the world.
Detachment and Compassion is a very fundamental principle reflected in the discourses the Buddha preached in the years that followed up to his Mahaparinirvana.
How did the Buddha convert others to Buddhism? It was a habit of the Buddha, due to his compassion for his fellow beings to use his psychic powers to survey the world, and look for those who had the capacity to benefit from the Dhamma. Thereafter he engaged them in discussion about the human predicament and convinced them about the wisdom of the Dhamma. Thus through dialogue and example in his conduct he made them to be the followers of the Ethical Middle Path.
In ancient India, knowledge and wisdom was found in the Vedas or Sacred Texts, such as Rg, yajur, sama veda etc. Access to them was confined to the Brahmin (priestly caste) and Kshatriyas, the warrior caste, to which the Buddha belonged. Hence in early Buddhism it was a majority of Brahmins and a few Kshatriyas who came to the Buddha seeking answers to their Epistemological and Ontological problems prevailing those days. The Buddha explained the Dhamma and invariably convinced them, and made them his disciples. Those who did not have the capacity to understand the Buddha were not satisfied and went back to follow their old faiths. The Buddha left it entirely to the discretion of the individual to understand or misunderstand him. The reason being what the Buddha preached was not Theology as in the Vedas, or Anthropology as in the Upanisads, but pure and simple Psychology. Dhamma was meant for the wise and not for the fool.
Once when the Buddha and his fellow monks were in transit between Nalanda (where the world famous University came up in later times) and Rajagaha, the capital of Maghada (modern day Rajgir in the state of Bihar), at a point one night he preached to the monks the masterpiece of a discourse the "Brahmajala Sutta "(The All-Embracing net of views). In this discourse the Buddha, in the light of his great wisdom analysed and showed the utter unsatisfactory nature of the sixty two views of schools of thought prevalent in India in 6th Century BC. This single act of the Buddha is a classic example of the intellectual tolerance, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, prevalent among the monarchies and the republics in India during the time of the Buddha.
The Buddha’s quest was to seek an answer to the Human predicament, or the very unsatisfactory nature of human life. What the Buddha discovered was the Ethical Middle Path to supreme happiness, Nirvana. Therefore what the Buddha preached was a set of ethics based on human psychology to transform a human being to an ethical being.
Impressed by the ethical conduct of a seven year old novice Buddhist monk Nigroda, and the answers given to questions asked, Emperor Asoka of India embraced the Buddha Dhamma. At this time there were 18 schools of Buddhist thought in India. with more heretics and false monks greater than true believers. The heretics who entered the Order for gain, continued to adhere to their old faiths and practices and preached their doctrines as the doctrines of the Buddha. Emperor Asoka first got rid of the heretics and then was instrumental in holding the third Buddhist Council, at Pataliputra (modern day Patna). Moggaliputta Tissa Thero and Arhath were in overall supervision of the proceedings of the council, and thus helped to purify the Sangha and the Buddhist Cannon.
One of the greatest achievements of this council was the dispatch of Buddhist missionaries to different countries to propagate the Buddha Dhamma. From the Edicts of Asoka we know about the various Buddhist missions sent to far off countries in Asia, Africa and Europe. It is to a large extent due to these missionary activities that Buddhism became the ruling religion of a large part of mankind. Arhath Mahinda the son of Asoka and Theri Sanghamitta, his daughter were entrusted with missionary work in Ceylon.
How did Arhath Mahinda convert people of Ceylon to Buddhism? According to Dr. E. W. Adikaram’s PhD, Thesis "Early History of Buddhism in Ceylon" a masterpiece by any standard, he quotes the Mahavamsa and states: "Mahinda had a conversation with Tissa, during which he gauged the intellectual capacity of the latter. Finding that the King was quick-witted and able to understand the Dhamma, he expounded the Culahatthipadopama Sutta. At the end of the discourse the king and his retinue of 40,000 people embraced the new faith."
In the days that followed he preached eight more discourses to the Royal assembly and others present. Thus helping to converting the people of Anuradhapura to Buddha Dhamma. Sometime thereafter, he ordained Maha Arittha, the nephew of king Devanampiyatissa as the first member of the Sangha. With the holding of the Thuparama Council under his direct supervision, and reciting the Vinaya, or the code of conduct for the monks by Maha Arittha, Arhath Mahinda thus formally introduced Buddhism to Ceylon.
The construction of Mahavihara, in Anuradhapura by king Devanampiyatissa and offering it to Arhath Mahinda, helped to institutionalise Buddhism in Ceylon. In course of time Mahavihara grew into a vast monastic complex, which is supposed to have accommodated hundreds of monks engaged in the study of the Dhamma. This was followed by King Vattagamini Abhaya with the construction of Abhayagiri Monastery in Anuradhapura. This trend continued through Polonnaruwa period to the present times. Notable among them was Mayurapada Pirivena of Dambadeniya period, Vijayaba Pirivena of Thotagamuwa, where among the many languages taught was classical Tamil. Sunethradevi Pirivena, Pepiliyana, Pathmavathi Pirivena at Keragala during the Kotte period, Paramadhammachetiya Pirivena at Ratmalana, Vidyodaya and Vidyalankara Pirivenas (started by two monks from Paramadhammachetiya Pirivena) during the British period.
It is mainly due to the teaching of the Dhamma in these institutions that the monks from the village temple could study and go back after their Pirivena education to educate the people about the Dhamma, and was thus help to preserve and promote Buddhism and keep the Sinhala Buddhist culture alive and fertile. However with the elevation of Vidyodaya and Vidyalankara to University status, monks began pursuing studies related to secular subjects getting a wider view of the secular aspect of social life, some monks become scholars and encouraging laymen to become Buddhist scholars intellectuals resulting in books, journals, periodicals, and research material in Buddhism found in bookshops and libraries and in the Universities. The tendency of some monks to disrobe after university education is a spiritually unhealthy side effect of this that has become a reality to day.
During my nearly 10 years of service in the Sri Lanka Army, treating the battle casualties has shown me that no war could be won if the soldier with the weapon decamps and deserts the theatre of war. This is equally true for the enemy. Possessing sophisticated weapons cannot make one win a war, if the soldier is not trained to and has not the will to use them. This is why motivation and moral is a key factor in warfare.
Some months ago the Buddhist Cultural Centre, Nedimale, Dehiwala advertised for candidates between 18 and 35 years to be Ordained as Buddhist monks to receive training in the Dhamma, after which they to take up residence in those deserted temples and to recommence Dhamma activities to review the fading Buddhist Culture once again.
Upon inquiry from the Chief Incumbent of Buddhist Cultural Centre, Rev. Kirama Wimalajothi Nayaka Thero, I was horrified to learn from him that among the 12000 to 13000 Buddhist temples in the country, over 1500 of them are deserted! Of this amount over 1000 are from the Eastern and North Central Province. Experience tells me, in this tiny island of 1500 troops were to desert, can we ever hope to win a war?
The problem of the village monk and his reasons for deserting has to be found out. This is the first priority, since it is the beginning of a chain reaction. It is well to remember that it is the monk in the temple who in the past, ensured and will in the future ensure the survival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. If the monk is to look after the welfare of society, society must first look after the monk.
Prof. S. Radhakrishnan says: "Buddhism is a way of life, and not a way of talking". With reference to this saying I see the scholar and the intellectual helping to keep Buddhism as a way of talking! While it is the monk in the temple is there to show us that it is a way of life. The priority today is not to worry about the ethics of others’ actions, for they shall reap what they sow, but to make every effort to preserve, protect and promote Buddhism in society.
The Buddha has shown us the ethical pathway to ultimate happiness. It is up to us to try and follow it, and not try to modify it. Efforts of Emperor Asoka and Arhath Mahinda should inspire us towards achieving this objective. Hence we must try and infuse spiritual life to the over 1500 deserted temples in the island, for failure to do so will ensure the jungle tide swallowing them up like the rest of the ruins of a lost Buddhist Civilization.
