Dear Dhamma friends,
The time spent in Sri Lanka has been very pleasant for Bhante thus far. Despite many hardships and challenges due to the ongoing economic crisis, people have displayed much resilience and have even deepen their refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma ad the Sangha.
On his journey from Thanjan Tenna to Colombo to obtain his Indian Visa, Bhante Ānanda met very generous people and families who were very hospitable and kind.
Bhante had to travel hours from the forest monastery to Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka for visa purposes. He spent a few days in a roof top Kuti generously built by Sagar Mahathaya for forest monks to stay for purposes as such.
Sharing a few words of Bhante Ānanda about his brief stay in Colombo:
“A beautiful day to do good deeds.
It was a pleasure to be allowed this opportunity and to meet Hiran and Yureshini’s relatives. I was very warmly welcomed and kindly treated. I saw many family pictures, and beautiful pictures of Hiran and Yure. Even heard some family stories of young Hiran going to military camp with amma, on the Badulla train. 🙂
The Dhamma runs deep in some Sri Lankan families. Like Hiran’s. For westerners who love Buddha Dhamma and Sangha, it is deeply nourishing and uplifting to bare witness to such depth of love and devotion for Buddha Dhamma. For generations on end it has been so. I must say, Sri Lanka is a very special place. Their legacy to this planet is quite hard to even grasp.
Like Sagar mahatiya, who asked for the three refuges and the eight precepts every day before my meal, for all of his employees. All of his 60 employees undertake the eight precepts during vassa. They offer Buddha pūjā, chant and meditate everyday before work. That is part of the company’s schedule. Everywhere in the headquarter building, faint, melodious paritta chants delicately play in the background, all day long.
Him and his wife have observed celibacy, together all this time. They have no children. They are just like a pillar of Indra, buried deep in the ground. All they do is with Dhamma and for Dhamma. Even being business people. They have no trace of hesitation or remorse. They just do. And they do not waver, since they know what they are doing is in Dhamma, goodness, for the benefit of all.
They are beaming the serene and clear happiness of Dhamma.
On the trip, I had been wanting to try my ‘buddhist monk bus coupons’ and only finally got to give some to one bus, out of the 10 buses I took on my trip to Colombo. They would simply not accept to take them from me or they would pay for me and tell me to keep my coupons. Shaking their hands in a ‘no no’ sign and giving a beaming smile back. 🙂 Then I was given another booklet of bus coupons! I finished my journey with double the bus coupons that I started with.
Here, only need to ask, and everyone gathers around to help you. I asked directions to go to a certain mountain kuti, with the intention of walking there, they would not let me go. In five minutes, phones were pulled out, monks being called, directions being asked, then I was put on a bus, they paid for me, I said I still didn’t know where to go down, and somebody happily closed their shop at the bus terminal to come with me! Afterwards , he gave his phone number, and asked me to call him when I come back.
Everyone, they call ‘malli’, brother. Or nangi, sister. Or amma, mother. Though they are clearly unrelated. Sri Lanka is one massive family. And for monks, one big monastery also. 😉
It is only proper for me to take part in the merit-making tradition of Sri Lanka when such opportunities present themselves. Loving to help and delighting in giving. 🙂 I could say a lot more about random acts of kindness I have seen here and the generosity I have witnessed, but it would simply be too long. Haha 😉 So I will spare you the rest and offer this as ‘sufficient’ contemplation.
May Ramani enjoy long health and happiness for the next few months she has to stay at the house, along with all of your friends and relatives. May she heal and live happily, unimpeded.
All mettā 🌅
Alms Story
“Here’s the family, my first house on pindapāta, who has been feeding me (along with many others) for the past eight months. 🙂 Usually, on pindapāta, one family will be more devoted than the others. For me, it has been this one. They sit me down, wash my feet, offer tea, and then offer food. Tāta, to the left, father, I call my sinhalese teacher. They teach me a few words everyday. They also helped for many other things, like SIM card replacement, bus tickets, my meditation path at my kuti, etc…
Of course, in their eyes, it’s not about me, it’s about making merits, about supporting sangha. As it should be. I am just another monk. Who lost its birth name to merge into the ocean of the nameless sangha. As it should be. The unsurpassed field of merit for the world. They do not offer to me, they offer to sangha, as it should be.
And Ānanda, he is the one who came to get me at the back end of the village so I come to his house for pindapāta. (If you remember to Poya story). It worked. 😉
🌸☸️🌺”
“(4) “Just as, when the great rivers — the Ganges, the Yamunā, the Aciravatī, the Sarabhū, and the Mahī— reach the great ocean, they give up their former names and designations and are simply called the great ocean, so too, when members of the four social classes—khattiyas, brahmins, vessas, and suddas—go forth from the household life into homelessness in the Dhamma and discipline proclaimed by the Tathāgata, they give up their former names and clans and are simply called ascetics, sons of the Sakyan.
This is the fourth astounding and amazing quality that the bhikkhus see in this Dhamma and discipline….”
AN 8.19. Pahārāda
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