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Buddhist Revival in Sri Lanka Religious Tradition

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Buddhist Revival in Sri Lanka Religious Tradition Studies in Comparative Religion Frederick M. Denny, Editor The Holy Book in Comparative Perspective Edited by Frederick M. Denny and Rodney L. Taylor Dr. Strangegod: On the Symbolic Meaning of Nuclear Weapons By Ira Chernus Native American Religious Action: A Performance Approach to Religion By Sam Gill Human Rights and the Conflict of Cultures: Westernand Islamic Perspectives on ReligiousUberty By David Little, John Kelsay, and Abdulaziz A. Sachedina The Munshidin of Egypt: Their World and Their Song By Earle H. Waugh The Buddhist Revival in Sri Lanka: Religious Tradition, Reinterpretation and Response By George 0, Bond Universityof South Carolina Press Copyright © University of South Carolina 1988 Published in Columbia, South Carolina, by the University of South Carolina Press First Edition Manufactured in the United States of America LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bond, George Doherty, 1942- The Buddhist revival in Sri Lanka: religious tradition, reinterpretation, and response I by George D. Bond. -1st ed. p. em. - (Studies in comparative religion) Bibliography: p. Includes index, ISBN 0-87249-557-4 1. Buddhism-Sri Lanka-History-20th century. I. Title. II. Series: Studies in comparative religion (Columbia, S.C.) BQ376.B66 1988 294.3'09549'3-<lc 19 88-14788 CIP CONtENTS Editor's Preface vi Acknowledgments viii Abbreviations ix Introduction 3 Chapter One: The Theravada Tradition and the Background of the Buddhist Revival 11 Chapter Two: The Early Revival and Protestant Buddhism 45 Chapter Three: The Buddha Jayanti and the Post-Jayanti Period 75 Chapter Four: The Insight Meditation (Vipassana Bhavanal Move- ment 130 Chapter Five: Individual Lay Meditators: Unity and Diversity in the Practice of Vipassanii 177 Chapter Six: Lay Buddhist Meditation Societies 208 Chapter Seven: The Reinterpretation of the Ohamma for Social Action: The Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement 241 Conclusion 299 Bibliography 306 Index 316 v Editor's Preface There is a sense in which this series of books provides its readers with opportunities to compare scholarly approaches to different reli­ gious traditions, and this is one aim of the project. There is another sense in which unity and variety within single traditions are discerned and analyzed. Finally, there is the major aim of the series: to provide a global, integrative approach to the study of religions and religious dimensions of human experience through a scholarship that makes sense regardless of the specific tradition being examined, and thus becomes accessible to thoughtful readers from a wide variety of inter­ ests and backgrounds. But such scholarship also requires very specific kinds of mastery of the religious symbol and action sys tern being examined: its texts and contexts, its doctrines, practices, and com­ munity forms. George Bond's The Buddhist Revival in Sri Lanka: Religious Tradition, Interpretation and Response, amply fulfills all the aims listed above--and then some. On one level, this study can be read as an epitome of recent Western scholarship on Theravada Buddhism, especially in Sri Lanka, a country that has both produced and attracted the highest cal­ iber of scholars, whether in humanistic or social scientific studies of Buddhism. On another level, The Buddhist Revival permits the reader to place the Sri Lankan developments in this century within the entire history of Buddhism, partly because that island nation and the ancient tradition are almost coterminous. Indeed, the Pali language texts of Theravada in Sri Lanka can be traced back to the Buddhism of the early centuries in southern Asia. The most important level at which this book will be appreciated is in its arresting comparisons between colonialist modernizing of education and Christian missionizing in religion and their unplanned and unforeseen results in inspiring and empowering a new Sri Lankan Buddhist elite in one of the most far­ reaching reforms in Buddhist history. Ironically, yet perhaps inevita­ bly, the Protestant Reformation in Europe provided, through its Eng­ lish-speaking missionary legatees, several key elements of the Sri Lankan revival: an emphasis on scripture and related literacy; individ- vi vii Editor's Preface ual decision making in spiritual and ethical matters; a lay focus that translated Luther's "priesthood of all believers" into a sophisticated and widely appealing lay meditation movement: the Vipassanii Bhaviinii; and a "this-worldly asceticism" that minimizes hierarchy, preaches universalism, and cultivates social action as meritorious activity that takes literally Buddha's final admonishment to: "Work out your own salvation with diligence," with the tacit understanding that personal salvation is not a matter of classical, elitist arhantship, only, but an altruistic vocation suited to an urban laity that has the freedom and learning to take charge of their lives. Modem Buddhist reform in Sri Lanka is by no means uniform nor unilinear in its development, as the author demonstrates in his wide­ ranging, yet focused survey which contains, among other valuable elements, the most extensive treatment of the Vipassanii meditation movement currently available. It is now almost trite to speak of bring­ ing together both the "text and context" of a tradition for balanced scholarship. Yet it is still all too unusual to read a solid example of fieldwork based scholarship on Theravada Buddism whose author is also a seasoned specialist in the Pali tradition and the history of reli­ gions. The Buddhist Revival in Sri Lankais thus an example of the new, integrative scholarship that this series is designed to publish, both for its intrinsic interest and value and for its anticipated impact on com­ parative studies in religion generally. Frederick Mathewson Denny Series Editor Acknowledg ments A word of thanks is in order to those in Sri Lanka who helped me in my field research. I carried out research in Sri Lanka for this book dur­ ing three periods from 1983 through 1985. Many people gave gener­ ously of their time and knowledge to help me understand the revival of the Buddhist tradition. Among them I should thank particularly the Sangha who granted me interviews and hospitality, and Mr. D. C. P. Ratnakara, who shared his wisdom with me and allowed me to partici­ pate in his Saddhama Friends Society. I should thank also the hundreds of Buddhist meditators who shared their experiences and beliefs with me. I interviewed over one hundred and fifty meditators, and have been able to include only a few of their stories in chapters four through six, but I learned from them much more than I can convey in those chapters: I learned about the effectiveness and peace of vipassanii. I can­ not thank these people personally here as I would like and still preserve their anonymity, but I am very grateful nonetheless. lam particularly grateful also to Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne, the founder of Sarvodaya, for all his assistance in studying his movement. The lead­ ers of the lay Buddhist societies-the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress, the World Fellowship of Buddhists, and the Young Men's Buddhist Association-including Dr. Ariyapala, Mr. Albert Edirisinghe, and Mr. L. Piyasena, also generously and patiently tolerated my questions and allowed me to participate in their activities and use their archives. The assistance of a Fulbright-Hays grant, the United States Educa­ tional Foundation in Sri Lanka, and its director, Mr. Bogoda Premaratne, also facilitated the research for this study. I should also like to thank Dr. K. J. Perera and Dr. Kingsley de Silva for their assis­ tance and Professors Richard Gombrich and Gananath Obeyesekere, who shared with me some of their ideas on the reinterpretation of Buddhism, on which topic they too have been doing research for a book. viii Abbreviations References to the Buddhist canonical and commentarial writings have in most instances, been placed in parentheses in the text rather than inthe footnotes. The abbreviations employed in these references are, primarily, the standard abbreviations for Pali works as given in the Pali Text Society's Pali-English Dictionary. The most frequently used abbreviations are listed below: A. Anguttara-Nikaya AA. Anguttara-Nikayanhakatha (Manorathapura¢) D. DIgha-Nikaya DA. Digha-Nikayatthakatha (Suma"galavilasini) DAT. Digha-atthakatha-Tika Dh.A. Dhammapada-anhakatha Dhs. Dh�II1P..l.asa:J;lgani Dhs.A. Dhammasa"gani-Atthakatha (Atthasalini) Dpv. Dipavaqtsa JA. Jatakanhakatha Kh. Khuddakapatha KhA. Khuddakapiitha-a!!hakatha (Paramatthajotika I) Kv. Kankhavitara�I KVll. Kathavatthu . M. Majjhima-Nikaya MA. Majjhima-Nikayatthakatha (Papafieasudani) Mhv. Mahava:rp.sa N. Netti-Pakarar:ta P. Petakopadesa Pu. Puggala-Pafifiatti S. SaIp-yutta-Nikaya SA. Saf!lyutta-Nikaya-atthakatha (Sarattha-ppakasini) Smp. Samantapasadika (Vinaya atthakatha) Sn. Suttanipata Sn.A. Suttanipata-atthakatha (Paramatthajotika II) V. Vinaya Pitaka Vbh. Vibha"ga Vism. Visuddhimagga ix The Buddhist Revival in Sri Lanka Introduction This book represents a study of traditionand interpretation, the dia­ lectical process by which religions live. Typically, studies of the pro­ cess of tradition and interpretation focus on the texts of a religion which reveal how succeeding generations received, reinterpreted, and transmitted the traditional heritage. My own previous work has, for the most part, also focused on this process in the texts. The process of tradition and interpretation is not restricted to texts, however; in living religions it interfaces with the
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