{"id":118519,"date":"2021-09-23T16:23:23","date_gmt":"2021-09-23T23:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=118519"},"modified":"2021-09-23T16:23:23","modified_gmt":"2021-09-23T23:23:23","slug":"a-response-to-dr-tilak-fernandos-englishman-ordained-as-an-upasaka-september-23-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/09\/23\/a-response-to-dr-tilak-fernandos-englishman-ordained-as-an-upasaka-september-23-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"A response to Dr Tilak Fernando\u2019s \u2018Englishman Ordained as an Upasaka\u2019\/September 23, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

\u2018Englishman\nOrdained as an Upasaka\u2019 by Dr Tilak Fernando (Lankaweb\/September 23, 2021)\nprompted me to write this response. The Englishmen that the writer mentions as\nhaving been impressed by Buddhism are no doubt highly knowledgeable about\nBuddha Dhamma, because, as he claims, they have read books about the subject.\nWestern scholars who have correctly understood the human intelligence based\ndoctrine will not be misled by this sort of rigmarole, but it is different with\nthose who are newly hearing about Buddhism. Hence, the urgency to reply to Dr\nFernando\u2019s obviously well meant, but unfortunately misleading, contribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The\npicture shows an Englishman becoming an upasaka (lay follower of the Buddha) by\ntaking pansil <\/em>(the five precepts of abstaining from killing, stealing,\nsexual misconduct, lying, and taking substances that intoxicate one and lead\none to heedlessness). The monk shown is Ven. Balangoda Ananda Maitreya. An\nupasaka is not ordained, just as a Christian convert is not ordained. Besides,\nconversion is meaningless in a Buddhist context. So, \u2018ordained\u2019 is a wrong term\nto use in that context. The word ordain is normally used in the technical sense\nof \u2018make\n(someone) a priest or minister; confer holy orders on\u2019 as the Google Dictionary\ndefines it .\nA bhikkhu is ordained; there is a certain set procedure for formally admitting\na lay person to the Sangha (Community of bhikkhus), initially as a samanera or\nnovice bhikkhu, then after the specific period of novitiate is over, as a\nproper bhikkhu. American theosophist Colonel Steel Olcott, pioneer of school\neducation for Buddhist children, who had the young David Hewavitarana (later\nAnagarika Dharmapala whose 157th birth anniversary fell on September 17, 2021)\nintroduced to Buddhist revival work, became a \u2018Buddhist\u2019 by taking pansil <\/em>at\na temple in Galle. I put the word Buddhist within inverted commas to mark a\ncertain reservation, because in Buddhism labels don\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking\npansil for the first time is a symbolic act that shows one\u2019s acceptance of the\nBuddhist teaching; it need not be ‘solemnized’ with supplication to any\nsupposed divine authority as in the case of a theistic religion. Any person can\nat any time accept Buddhism, and having accepted it give it up without any ado\nif they feel dissatisfied with its teachings. There is no penalty or punishment\nfor that. Buddhism has no blasphemy or apostacy laws that, in some religions,\nprohibit, respectively, rational questioning of their religious dogmas and\nleaving the religions altogether at will; both were once considered offences\npunishable with death or in some cases, alleged blasphemers and apostates, are\npunished even now, sometimes with death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nwriter says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Lord\nBuddha said on his deathbed: Do not believe what others say just because\nothers say so! Do not believe it because you heard it from a wise being, but\nonly believe something when you know it in your Heart.\u201d\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nis a garbled version of what the Buddha actually told a group of young men\ncalled the Kalamas of the small town of Kesaputta, who visited him and asked\nhim what to accept and whom to believe among the many visiting religious\nteachers (recluses and brahmanas) that they often listened to; they were\nutterly confused. So, they requested the Buddha to instruct them. What the\nwriter has offered is a gross misinterpretation of the words of wisdom that the\nBuddha uttered in response to the young Kalamas\u2019 question. These words of the\nBuddha have a great appeal to the rational scientific mind of Western scholars.\nThat is the main attraction of the Buddha\u2019s teaching for them: the freedom of\ninquiry advocated for every individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Ven.\nBhikkhu Bodhi (American Jeffrey Block, b. 1944, before his ordination as a\nBuddhist monk), a philosophy graduate of Brooklyn College (1966) and a PhD in\nphilosophy from Claremont Graduate University (1972), has published many books\non Theravada Buddhism under the sponsorship of the Buddhist Publication\nSociety, Kandy, Sri Lanka. After his studies, he travelled to Vietnam where he\nbecame a samanera under a Mahayana teacher monk; then he travelled to Sri Lanka\nwhere in 1984 he received higher ordination as a bhikkhu in the Theravada\ntradition under the tutelage of Ven. Balangoda Ananda Maitreya (see the picture\nthat illustrates the article under discussion). Having done much work\nexplaining the Buddha dhamma to the world, he went back to the country of his\nbirth, the US, where he is still engaged in his ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anybody\ninterested in learning the meaning of the words the Buddha spoke to the Kalamas\ncan go to Bhikkhu Bodhi\u2019s essay on the Kalama Sutta which is about the Buddha\nadmonishing the Kalamas at this link: http:\/\/www.buddhanet.net\/e-learning\/kalama1_l.htm<\/a>. He describes the Sutta\nas a Charter of Free Inquiry. Bhikkhu Bodhi was invited to deliver the keynote\naddress at the UN celebration of the first UN Vesak holiday in the year 2000.\nOur late Lakshman Kadirgamar mooted the declaration of the UN Vesak holiday and\ndid a lot of  preliminary work within the international body to make it a\nreality. Bhikkhu Bodhi\u2019s address to the UN Assembly on May 18, 2000 the Vesak\nDay, can be accessed at the same website. It is a very stimulating and\ninformative introduction to Buddhism, which we need to remember is not a\nreligion comparable to your average religions, however widespread in the world\nthey may be. The Buddha travelled on foot throughout the Magadhadesa in the\nnorth of what is called India today and preached all life to save humanity from\nreligious delusions. He didn\u2019t propagate a religion. He formulated and taught\nan ethical way of life that leads individuals to put an end to suffering\nthrough individual realization of Nibbana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nthe purpose of this essay, I\u2019ll try to answer the question: What did the Buddha\nsay when the Kalamas approached him? Let me quote from the most authoritative\nauthor I know about this, Ven. Walpola Rahula: Yes, Kalamas, it is proper that\nyou have doubt, that you have perplexity, for a doubt has arisen in a matter\nwhich is doubtful. Now, look you Kalamas, do not be led by reports, or\ntradition, or hearsay. Be not led by the authority of religious texts, nor by\nmere logic or inference, nor by considering appearances, nor by delight in\nspeculative opinions, nor by seeming possibilities, nor by the idea: \u2018this is\nour teacher\u2019. But, O Kalamas, when you know for yourselves that certain things\nare unwholesome (akusala), and wrong, and bad, then give them up\u2026\u2026. . And when\nyou know for yourselves that certain things are wholesome (kusala) and good,\nthen accept them and follow them\u201d. \u2018The Buddha went even further\u2019, says Ven.\nRahula, \u2018He told the bhikkhus that a disciple should examine even the Tathagata\n(Buddha) himself so that he (the disciple) might be fully convinced of the true\nvalue of the teacher whom he followed.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now,\nin Buddhism, doubt (vicikiccha) is one of the five hindrances to understanding\nTruth and to the achievement of spiritual progress or, for that matter, to the\nrealization of any progress. So, Ven. Rahula continues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The\nBuddha was always eager to dispel doubt. Even just a few minutes before his\ndeath, he requested his disciples several times to ask him if they had any doubts\nabout his teaching, and not to feel sorry later that they could not clear those\ndoubts. But the disciples were silent. What he then said was touching: If it\nis through respect for the Teacher that you do not ask anything, let even one\nof you inform his friend\u201d (i.e., let one tell his friend so that the latter may\nask the question on the other\u2019s behalf\u201d). So, those were the last words of the\nBuddha, not the words the writer quotes at the beginning of his piece, which,\nas I said, constitute a garbled version of what the Buddha actually told the\nyoung Kalamas.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extracts\nabove from Ven Walpola Rahula are taken from his book \u2018WHAT THE BUDDHA TAUGHT\u2019\n(First published by The Gordon Fraser Gallery Ltd, London and Bedford, 1959)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\nDr Fernando asserts about Buddhism ( for example, heart being the seat of\nsentiments, some sort of \u2018dualism\u2019, universe depending on balancing this\ndualism, one Andrew Redhead having memorised the following  absolutely\nmeaningless words attributed to the Buddha<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brethren ye have no mother and no father to take care of you.\nIf you will not care of each other, who else. I ask will do so? Brethren, he\nwho would sit with me, let him wait on the sick<\/em>) is incredibly\nmystifying. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am afraid\nwhat Dr Fernando says about Anagarika Dharmapala is also mixed up and false\n(\u2018Anagarika Dharmapala lived 157 years ago\u2019). He describes the Anagarika as \u2018a\nreligious propagandist\u2019. The words propaganda, and propagandist have negative\nconnotations. Dharmapala wanted to propagate (spread) the word of the Buddha in\nthe West, but he was by no means a propagandist (he did not want to \u2018market\u2019\nBuddhism for some personal advantage. He just wanted to disseminate the message\nof the Buddha (about the supremacy of the human mind in achieving mundane and\nsupramundane happiness, social well being, peace, compassion for all living\nbeings, nonviolence, etc.,) among those unacquainted with it for the \u2018happiness\nof the many, for the welfare of the many\u2019 (bahujana hitaya, bahujana sukhaya).\nAnagarika Dhatmapala explicitly said (for example, during his tour of America)\nthat he was not seeking to \u2018convert\u2019 Americans to Buddhism. Conversion was not\nhis purpose. His missionary work was not driven by any religious zealotry. The\nAnagarika believed that people who adhered to various religions could benefit\nfrom learning Buddhism, without leaving their religions. This is already\nhappening in the world today, a state of affairs that causes Buddhism to be\nseen as a threat to the established religious cultures whose political power depends\non their religious identities. This natural perception of Buddhism as a menace\nto the established political order is bound to pose a challenge to its\nsurvival. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala \u2018Englishman Ordained as an Upasaka\u2019 by Dr Tilak Fernando (Lankaweb\/September 23, 2021) prompted me to write this response. The Englishmen that the writer mentions as having been impressed by Buddhism are no doubt highly knowledgeable about Buddha Dhamma, because, as he claims, they have read books about the subject. Western scholars […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rohana-r-wasala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118519","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=118519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118519\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}