Features
Thrice Blessed Vesak and Ven Ajahn Brahmavamso’s visit
Nature heralds this month of May which is of greatest significance to Buddhists with 
This year May has another event of great significance and joy to Buddhists. Ven Ajahn Brahmavamso will be here among us from around mid-May to the very end of the month, when he will give us, the public, the opportunity to see and listen to him at the BMICH on May 30.
Ven Ajahn Brahmavamso arrives in the island two weeks hence. The Ajahn Brahm Society of Sri Lanka (ABS), under the guidance of Ven Mettavihari, has been meeting and working out for months all arrangements for the visit which is full of great good happenings.
The last time Ven Ajahn Brahm was in Sri Lanka was 2017. I well remember the day long sessions in the BMICH, delivering so easily and absorbingly the Word of the Buddha and conducting meditation. 7,000 were present to listen to the venerable monk from Australia, spreading themselves in all the BMICH halls and a few even seating themselves in corridors. The sessions, with Ven Ajahn Brahm moving from hall to hall, with of course TV presentations in them, were deep in significance and of immense benefit to us. However, as is his manner of presentation, the gravity of what was being imparted was tempered by Ven Brahmavamso’s informality and constantly smiling, benign face. One indication of his informality is shortening his religious name to Ajahn Brahm.
This time it is one session on May 30 that the monk will conduct at the BMICH. Passes were available at announced venues from March 15. I am certain they were all snapped up, so eager are we to listen to this great teacher. The ABS mentions that 5,500 passes have been given.
His programme, most efficiently arranged and made widely known by the ABS, includes a resident meditation retreat from May 22 to 30 in Bandarawela for 150 participants inclusive of bhikkhus, bhikkhunis and lay persons.
A singularly unique forum will be held exclusively for professionals and business persons at the Galle Face Hotel on May 29. This session is by invitation, sent out well in time by ABS.
The much looked forward to Dhamma talk and meditation instructions for the public will be at the BMICH from 7.00 to 11.00 am on May 30. Anticipating the large crowds that will flock to the BMICH on that day, the ABS has organized sessions with the Venerable Thera moving from the Main Hall to Sirimavo Halls A and B so all can see and hear him. He will speak in English, followed by summarizations in Sinhala.
I well remember how inspiring his talk at the BMICH in 2017 was, though six years ago. It was happily not the first time I had listened to him and not the last either, thanks to the ABS arranging his May visit. He smiles and even laughs as he preaches. On the surface what he says seems light and directed to the novice in Buddhism. This is completely illusory and fallacious. He speaks informally, says things simply which seem easy to follow, but there is much depth and fundamental meaning in what he says. For instance he once said that the four places the Buddha mentioned as propitious to visit are the four places he had been in. We accepted these four as his birthplace; Gaya where he realized the entire truth of samsaric existence; Sarnath where he preached his first sermon to the five ascetics who he had been meditating with; and his place of dying. This is the wrong interpretation since what the Buddha meant, according to Ajahn Brahm, are the four janas – so essential to achieve Nibbana. On thinking further this interpretation of what the Buddha said was accepted as completely correct. The Buddha eschewed completely his being treated as a deity and worshiped as greater than human. He asserted he was a human being. Hence the interpretation of the four places he was in as the four stages of deep meditation stands completely to reason and not where he was born etc. He did not promote venerating him; only accepting what he preached if it suited the hearer and following his instructions. What he wanted was for people to follow him on the Path, meditate, realize the Truth and reach Nibbana.
Recently his comparison to unease and even turbulence in the mind was to leaves rustled or shaken by winds. Once the wind abated, the leaves were motionless; just as once the mind is at peace and no lobha, dosha, moha disturb it, the mind settles to meditation. He said we need to cultivate mindfulness; but that alone is not enough. We have to nurture kindness. Combining the two words he came up with his wonderful coinage: kindfulness.
Brief Bio
It seems superfluous to give details, even brief facts on Ven Brahmavamso, as he is well known in this country of ours. However, it appears pertinent to mention facets of the life of this very blessed Bhikkhu.
He was born in London in 1951. Having read widely on Buddhism, at the tender age of 16, this promising student and keenly interested teenager considered himself a Buddhist. When in the University of Cambridge following his undergrad course in Theoretical Physics, his strong interest in Buddhism and gravitation to meditation went alongside his studies. After his degree he taught for one year, He then decided to follow his greater interest in Buddhist philosophy and practice and so proceeded to Thailand. He followed meditation under a couple of Thai masters. Convinced of his future as a Buddhist Bhikkhu, he was ordained at the age of 23 by the Chief Incumbent of Wat Saket. He then went for further training to the famous meditation teacher – Ajahn Chah. He spent nine years studying and training in the forest tradition.
In 1983 he was invited to help establish a forest monastery near Perth, Western Australia. Within a short period he was Abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery, Perth. He is also the Spiritual Director of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia and Spiritual Patron to the Buddhist Fellowship in Singapore. These are but two of the spiritual responsibilities he undertakes. He invited Ayah Vayama who was in Sri Lanka and then in Britain to return to Australia and start a nunnery close to Perth. This she did and was the first ten preceptor to be ordained a bhikkhuni by him. His pragmatic approach and his deep conviction in Dhamma have made him a much sought after Buddhist teacher throughout the world.
Lineage of monks
Sri Lanka is so rich and fortunate in its Sangha. And now an added sector is blessing the island with the ordination of women as bhikkhunis. The higher ordained are excellent in their sila and commitment, abiding by vinaya rules. Of course there are exceptions, more so among bhikkhus, but as pronounced by a 95-year old Sri Lankan monk living in the US, all monks and nuns emerge from society and if there are recalcitrant persons in robes, we should not pay respect to them and leave them be.
We remember with deep gratitude monks such as Ven Narada, Piyadassi and Madihe Pannasiha. I mention those I have often listened to. Also the German monks who did so much to promote Buddhism overseas and within the land; along with the example they set, and translating Buddhist texts from their originally written languages.
They started the Island Hermitage in Dodanduwa, some imprisoned during WW II; and then shifted to Udawattakelle, Kandy. Which brings to the grateful mind Bhikkhu Bodhi and Uda Eriyagama Dhammajiva Thera of the Mitirigala Nissarana Vanaya. To me one of the best exponents of the Buddha Word at present is Ven Talalle Chandakitti Thera. We have so much to be grateful for this Vesak season, including the visit of Ven Ajahn Brahamavamso.