{"id":118481,"date":"2021-09-22T16:52:30","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T23:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=118481"},"modified":"2021-09-22T16:52:30","modified_gmt":"2021-09-22T23:52:30","slug":"englishman-ordained-as-an-upasaka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/09\/22\/englishman-ordained-as-an-upasaka\/","title":{"rendered":"Englishman Ordained as an Upasaka"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Lord Buddha said on his\ndeathbed: <\/em>Do not believe what others say just because others say so! Do not\nbelieve it because you heard it from a wise being, but only believe something\nwhen you know it in your Heart.<\/em>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Heart\nis supposed to be the seat of sentiment, which changes in a fraction of a\nmoment concerning emotions. Simultaneously it is designed for spiritual\nexperience and wisdom! When someone is not spiritually inclined or has no wisdom,\none may blindly follow life’s path. Nature consists of both right and wrong to\novercome and maintain equilibrium, which means the universe exists on dualism.\nOne who surpasses dualism can taste the absolute and smell its fragrance or\ndiscover one’s inherently illuminated state of mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Englishman<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nature consists of both right and wrong to overcome\nand maintain equilibrium: which means the universe exists on dualism. One who\nsurpasses dualism can taste the absolute and smell its fragrance or discover\none’s inherently illuminated state of mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Homeless one <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buddhists\nrecite ‘gatha’<\/em> daily, especially on Poya<\/em> (full moon) day while\nobserving ‘Ata Sil’<\/em>. They promise to uphold the five primary precepts\nmentioned by Lord Buddha to lead a practical life. A person who attained such a\nstate of mind was Anagarika Dharmapala. On 17 September 1864, one of the\nwealthiest Buddhist entrepreneurs in Ceylon – Don Carolis Hewavitharana and\nMallika Hewavitharana<\/em> gave birth to Don David Hewavitharana. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Young\nHewavitharana attended Royal College, St. Thomas’ College and St. Benedict’s\nCollege in Colombo. As he grew up from childhood to adult, he observed that\nnumerous Buddhists were drifting towards an alien and unnatural phenomenon,\nwhich resulted in Buddhism being on the verge of collapse in Ceylon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a\nhuman being to observe all those five principles regularly in a lifetime is\nvery difficult, but Don David Hewavitharana had taken an oath of chastity as a\nyoungster. After ordination as Anagarika Dharmapala, <\/em><\/strong>he became\nthe first Sri Lankan Buddhist evangelist to contribute to non-violent Buddhist\nnationalism and patriotism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anagarika\nDharmapala means a ‘homeless one\u2019<\/em> and ‘the protector of the dhamma’<\/em>\nrespectively. He started to travel the world over wearing a robe of a Buddhist\ndevotee and as a religious propagandist, thereby placing himself into midstream\nbetween a Buddhist priest and a layman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buddhists\nsaw Anagarika Dharmapala as the pioneer in the revival of Buddhism in India\nwhen Buddhism was seen virtually extinct for several centuries. He also became\nrenowned as the first Buddhist to preach the Buddhist philosophy in Asia, North\nAmerica, and Europe. When Henry Steel Olcott and Helena Blavatsky created the Theosophical\nSociety<\/em>, Anagarika Dharmapala became a prominent reformer and revivalist of\nBuddhism in Ceylon. He was known as the fundamental dignitary in Western programme,\nthus becoming one of the most revered Buddhists in the 20th century. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Redhead <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anagarika\nDharmapala lived 157 years ago<\/em>. But Andrew Redhead of Warrington,\nCheshire, in the UK, a born Christian and a bachelor at the age of thirty-five,\nmade a beeline to Sri Saddhatissa Buddhist Centre in Northwest London<\/em>\ntwenty-three years ago. He wished to become a Buddhist, ordained by\nAggamahapandittha Balangoda Ananda Maitreya Mahanayake Thera. The eminent monk\nwas the patron of the Buddhist Centre, and the Venerable observed the rainy\nseason (Vassana retreat)<\/em> in London at that time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew\nwanted to ascertain whether he drifted into an emotional state alien to him? He\nthen started reading books on Buddhism at the age of eleven and acquired a fair\nknowledge of the philosophy. He later became a firm believer in one of Lord\nBuddha’s preaching\u2019s, which he memorised: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brethren\nye have no mother and no father to take care of you. If you will not care of\neach other, who else<\/em>.<\/em> I as<\/em>k<\/em> will do so? Brethren, he who would sit with\nme, let him wait on the sick<\/em>“. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It may\nsound quite unnatural for an English lad of eleven years of age to have\ndeveloped an interest in theology at such a tender age and transform into a\ncompletely different faith! But in the case of Andrew, it was an internal and\nautomatic revolution or a spiritual prompting! He then started to concentrate\non what was familiar to him in the Christian Bible ‘Reap according to what\nyou sow’<\/em>: And concluded that it was due to his positive karma <\/em>in the\nprevious birth that followed him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nsuch a spiritual awakening, Andrew started to read more and more books on\nBuddhism, and delved into further experiments in meditation. It was tricky for Andrew\nto concentrate on one- pointed thought at first as his mind was working\novertime! He thought it was akin to an eleven-year-old boy falling off a push\nbicycle umpteen times while trying to establish his balance to stay on two wheels.\nHowever, after numerous proverbial falls, he managed to master meditation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando Lord Buddha said on his deathbed: Do not believe what others say just because others say so! Do not believe it because you heard it from a wise being, but only believe something when you know it in your Heart.\u201d The Heart is supposed to be the seat of sentiment, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-drtilak-s-fernando"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}