God In The Buddha: An Open Answer To Sharmini
Prof Kapila Abhayawansa
Dear Sharmini Serasinghe,
I respect your attitude so as to challenge even the teacher because of the fact that I also belong to the tradition which maintains that a good thing even of the enemy and the mistake even of the teacher should be spoken (sastrorapigunāvācyadosāvācyāgurorapi). Therefore, in our tradition to which I respect, anyone has the right to criticize what one thinks as wrong.
I am really thankful to you for writing an open letter to me as I get the opportunity to clarify my opinions expressed in my letter and also to reply to the questions appeared in different comments to my article. I would like to mention here that my article entitled God in the Buddha has been written to publish in a newspaper considering the space available. So, I deliberately made it short and script. Though it was short, there were enough clues for a patient reader to understand my stand points over the present activities occurring in the guise of Buddhist activities. On the other hand, I do not like and also it is injustice in my opinion, to ascribe all the rubbish in the present society either to Mahawamsaor to original popular Buddhist activities.
You raised many questions in your letter on what I said about the popular Buddhist practices introduced by the ancient monks in Sri Lanka in order to implant the Buddhist virtues in the mind of the common people. Almost all your questions finally leads to a main question expressed as follows: “Pray tell me then, why are there so many Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka today, besides those amongst the laity, with no “moral sense implanted in their minds” despite gazing at these ‘Buddhist symbols’, for so long?”
To this question what I have to say is already said by the Buddha himself to a question raised by a Brahamin called GanakaMoggallan. The question was “What is the cause, good Gotama, what the reason that; since nibbana does exist, since the way leading to nibbana exists, since the good Gotama exists as adviser, some of the good Gotama’s disciples on being exhorted thus and instructed thus by the good Gotama, attain the unchanging goal — nibbana, but some do not attain it?” Read More
