Meditation – Are you confused?
Posted on March 7th, 2019
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
Lately we find that there are over seven Buddhist channels in Sri Lanka .In other religious countries you will not find so many religious channels .When you scroll internet you will find thousands of YOUTUBE Buddhist sermons and mediation classes.
Some monks and laymen who practice meditation and deliver sermons claim the meditation is not required to become enlightened to achieve Sothapana”- the first stage of enlightenment .They say that people should listen to analysis given in Tripitaka by Buddha
They criticize each other,One prominent monk has severely criticized another one who globe troll in the world practicing Nirpekshatwaya which he claims is the corrects word for Nirvana .He was blamed for misguiding the laymen in finding the path to attain Nirvana at the end of current life,General opinion among everybody is that you have to go thru many re births and collect Karma to reach Nirvana .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKJ8iQcoNTw
Nirapekshathwaye Maga
“තථාගතයන් වහන්සේගේ එකම ඉගැන්වීම වන අස්සාදය ආදීනවය නිස්සරණය” තතු සේ දැන සෝවාන් මර්ගයේ සිට අරිහත් ඵලය දක්වා වැඩිය යුතු එකම මාර්ගය වන සත්තිස් බෝධිපාක්ෂික ධර්ම පිළිබඳව ත්රිපිටකය ඇසුරෙන් ගැඹුරු දහම් සාකච්ඡා සිදු කරන සහ නිවන අරමුණු කරමින් සතර දැහැන් වඩා සම්මා සමාධිය පූර්ණය කරගැනීමට භාවනා කර්මස්ථාන වඩන ස්ථානයකි.”
This globetrotting monk has said (according the other prominent monk), that even Buddha had Lose motion (purging) when he meditated!
Listen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y3BIHqKsBc
It is essential that Chief Prelates of Buddhist Priests should hold a Buddhist Sangayana and categorize such statements made by some monks as blasphemy ?
March 7th, 2019 at 3:20 pm
This problem is not only confined to Sri Lanka, it is a major problem in UK specifically in London as well.
Unfortunately our 92-year-old Theravada Buddhist temple in London, the London Buddhist Vihara, has fallen into this trap too.
I have listened to some sermons delivered by secular Buddhist Monks of some foreign origin and some Sri Lankan lay preachers who question the process of rebirth and influence of Karma on the process of rebirth in this prestigious Buddhist institution in London .
There was a Buddhist priest of West Indian origin by the name of Bhante Kovinda who stayed in the temple for about two months and kept on preaching secular Buddhist principles and some peculiar Mahayana meditation practices without any objection coming from the Temple Management.
These secular Buddhists see the aim of Buddhist practice to be not the attainment of a final nirvana but rather the moment-to-moment flourishing of human life within the ethical framework of the Eightfold Path here on earth.
They cannot understand how after physical death their continuity of any personal consciousness or self can be, propelled by the unrelenting force of acts (karma) committed in this or previous lives.
But the most saddening thing is that the London Buddhist Vihara head priest has terminated a service rendered by a young Theravada Buddhist monk trained in Burma on Buddhist meditation and teaching of Abhidhamma very fluently in English, in exchange of these secular Buddhist priests who are not in the Theravada tradition.
March 7th, 2019 at 3:36 pm
Dr Sarath,
I totally agree with your proposal. But the Chief Prelates are not in a position to challenge these “BORN AGAIN” ideas because they are not real “Arya Sanghas” who strictly follow the words of Lord Buddha.
If they are strong and totally dedicated to Buddha Sasana, the Yahapalana grandies will not do the damage they currently do to the Buddha Sasana and Maha Sanga by calling them “Cheewara Dharee” and also prosecuting them based on false accusations. The cunning politicians are visiting them for every “good, bad and ugly” acts of theirs and the Prelates smile and bless them. The politicians will come out of the temple and give a press briefing confirming their ideas were accepted or praised by the Prelates.
Even if the separatist funded JVP and UNP tells them that we should divided the country to save the South for Buddha Sasana, they will smile and bless them. Only when one of the Patriotic monk visit them and tell them the dangers of it, they awaken and release a message to the press and go back to their deep sleep.
No one takes them seriously similar to our president My3. On a serious matter such as co-sponsoring the US’s resolution against our armed forces at the UN, My3 told something against it or given orders not to extend it (don’t know when and where). But the foreign ministry went ahead and offered the co-sponsorship to the new proposal brought forward by some other countries that our armed forces did war crimes.
My3 did not take action against the FM although is the Executive President. What he did is sending 3 of his stooges to UN to convey his message to UN. Who will take these unofficial jokers seriously? The Fat Samarasinghe was the one who screwed our position during MR’s time. It is suspicious that My3 is doing all these heroics only to please the ordinary folks while actually doing his promised duty towards the West and India under the original Yahapalana Plan.
In this regard, the Three Prelates should summon the PM and the Foreign Minister and tell them in stronger terms that, what they do is wrong by Co-sponsoring the proposal against our armed forces and in the long run, it will cause damage to the Buddha Sasana as the division of this country and occupation of other foreign powers in the North and East will eventually destroy this great Dhamma from this land.
But they are keeping quiet. It is like parents keeping quiet while their daughter is getting raped by politicians and NGO’s.
How can one expect them to wake up and come forward to do a “SANGAYANA” and challenge these powerful “BORN AGAIN” entities including few “ASAPUWAS” destroying the Dhamma, suspected to be funded by foreign powers and the Church and most probably in a covert way, by LieTTE funds?
March 7th, 2019 at 3:51 pm
NMY,
Similar thing is happening in Brisbane. People ( mostly ladies) gone mad suddenly with those purging teachers and also by the new Buddha ( given some recognition by Mahinda and Gotabhya recently). They stopped coming to temples and do their own meditation gatherings.
Luckily for us, chief monk ( who is mostly in SL) realised this and sending other popular monks to counter attack.
Very sad situation.
I think that the New Buddha ( who too visited here and traveled in a Hummer Limousine) is a Catholic planted to create trouble within Sangha. What do you think ?
March 7th, 2019 at 3:55 pm
” meditation is not required to become enlightened to achieve Sothapana”
Well, it was required to 4 of the Pasvaga Mahanun except Anna Kondanna who became a Sothapanna instantly. Otheres too some time and meditation. This is a well know fact, these monks trying to mislead people.
Buddha is not around now to make people instant Sathapannas and we should treat Dhamma as teacher , not any other monk or even Arahant. This is the Buddha’s instructions.