Venerable Bhante Homagama Kondanna Maha Thero, an international monk and a remarkable disciple of the Buddha

by Anoja Wijeyesekera

Bhante Kondanna who passed away in London on February 3, 2022 was a remarkable disciple of the Buddha, who communicated the message of the Enlightened One, to all who sought the truth, regardless of where they were located in the world. He travelled to every continent and communicated the message of the Buddha and taught people in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, UK, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, USA, Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina and Brazil, to practice meditation based on the Buddha’s Four Foundations of Mindfulness, the direct path to Enlightenment.

So profound was the impact of his teachings and the meditation retreats he conducted in all these countries, that his followers from every time zone of the world, participated via Zoom, in the Pansakula ceremony held at the Kavijada Meditation Centre in Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, on February 6. They joined this event to honour their respected teacher, even though for some of them it was in the middle of the night.

His followers from Argentina and Canada spoke of their profound sadness at the demise of Bhante Kondanna whom they considered to be their “father, brother and friend.” He predicted his own death and travelled to the UK, his second home, where he died suddenly and peacefully at the Atuladassana International Buddhist Vihara, Heathrow. With no apparent illness and no cause for hospitalisation, he died exactly as he would have liked, with Ven Kassapa in attendance. A simple cremation would be held in London, in keeping with his wishes.

Bhante Kondanna devoted his entire life as a monk to the service of others and had a unique ability to transcend boundaries and empathise with anyone at a human level of compassion and understanding. He reached out to those who sought his advice and gave them the strength to transcend the vicissitudes of life, the inevitable condition of human existence. The Eight Vicissitudes of Life are praise-blame, fame-ill-fame, gain-loss, happiness-sorrow, which the Buddha identified as imposters to be confronted with equanimity.

Born in 1939, to a large family from Homagama, Sri Lanka, he had his education at Royal College, Colombo, and completed his higher education in the UK. After graduating as a Mechanical Engineer, he specialised in automotive engineering, which enabled him to pursue a lucrative career with Rolls-Royce, the prestigious car and aero engine manufacturer in the UK. With the experience thus gained, he ventured into his own car business in West Hampstead, London.

As a successful businessman in London, and known to his friends by his first name, Don, he dined at the top restaurants, wore the best Saville Row suits and drove around in a Bentley, living what most people would consider the perfect life. However, he began to see the hollowness beneath the glittering veneer of wealth and material comforts. His eyes opened to the reality of the human condition, namely, “jathi, jara, vyada and marana” (birth, old age, sickness and death) which made him completely disenchanted with his worldly life.

He was on the brink of signing a lucrative business deal which had the potential to make him enormously wealthy, when he withdrew from it all. He decided to renounce the lay life completely in 1978, and ordained as a Buddhist monk, under Ven. Dr. Hammalwa Saddhatissa Thera, the Head of the London Buddhist vihara.

At his ordination ceremony, he was given the name “Kondanna” by Ven. Sadhatissa Thero, who may have been influenced by the significance of this name in Buddhist history. Kondanna was one of the Five Ascetics to whom the Buddha preached his first sermon, the Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta, 2,600 years ago. After hearing the Buddha’s words, Kondanna attained the first stage of sainthood, sotapanna.

Bhante Homagama Kondanna obtained his higher ordination after two and a half years of study and practice, under the guidance of both Ven. Sadhatissa and Ajahn Sumedo, the Chief Abbot of Amaravati. He then proceeded to develop his meditation practice in Thailand and became a disciple of Ajahn Chah, the renowned Meditation Master. Bhante Kondanna spent more than two years in full time meditation at Ajahn Chah’s monastery namely, Wat Nong Pah Pong, in Ubon province located in the jungles of North-eastern Thailand. It was a centre that attracted many western students some of whom graduated to become Chief Abbots of Buddhist monasteries in Western countries.

At Ajahn Chah’s monastery, which followed the Forest Tradition, living conditions were extremely spartan. The one meal they consumed each day was obtained through pindapatha, (alms round of mendicants). It meant trekking through jungles to reach the little hamlets of poor peasants, who eked out a living through their land. Pindapatha being a well-established tradition in Thailand, people regarded it as a great blessing to make offerings to the monks who came on their alms round.

For the disciples of Ajahn Chah this was a daily exercise in the practice of humility and gratitude. They learned to appreciate the most basic of food, to eat only for survival, to give up indulging in taste and to transcend the pangs of hunger, till the next meal, 24 hours later. Bhante Kondanna continued this practice of having only one meal a day throughout his life.

Ajahn Chah’s guidance and unique teachings enabled his students to progress on the path. Many were the methods the master used to tear down the ego and self-view that is the most difficult defilement to overcome. The methodology adopted was one of self-realisation through direct experience and meditative insight, rather than book learning.

While Bhante Kondanna was into his second year at Ubon, Ven Saddhatissa of London, was given the task of finding an abbot for the Kavidaja Meditation centre in Moratuwa,

Sri Lanka. He thought that Bhante Kondanna would be the ideal candidate. So, in consultation with Ajahn Chah, Bhante Kondanna was requested to return by Ven Sadhatissa Thero. Unable to refuse the request of his teacher and mentor, Bhante Kondanna returned to Sri Lanka and was appointed as the Chief Abbot of the Kavidaja Meditation Centre.

From then on, Bhante Kondanna devoted his entire life for the welfare and happiness of the many, as the Buddha asked his disciples to do. He dedicated his life to the teaching of meditation both Samatha (Tranquility) and Vipassana (Insight). In Sri Lanka he conducted regular meditation retreats both in his own temple as well as at the Knuckles Mediation Centre, which he founded and at several other locations. One of his pupils, Prof. Rajah de Alwis, Professor of Civil Engineering at the Moratuwa University who followed his meditation classes at the YMBA Dehiwala, himself became a meditation teacher and introduced meditation to his engineering students, giving them a head-start in life.

Bhante Kondanna started an English Dhamma school at his temple in Moratuwa for children attending international schools. This has proved to be a great success as the 200 or more children who attend the school are also given a good grounding in meditation practice. Many of the teachers who provide voluntary services are professionals from many walks of life who are excellent in their English, dhamma knowledge as well as meditation.

Bhante Kondanna has also been the spiritual advisor of Seva Lanka Foundation, a charity that assisted poor rural communities of Sri Lanka. He was closely associated with the German Dharmaduta Society and was their anusasaka (spiritual guide) Bhante was also a regular speaker at the Maitriya Hall, Bambalapitiya, the Headquarters of the Servants of the Buddha, where he conducted meditation classes. He participated in their Centenary Celebrations in April 2021.

From the very outset, Bhante Kondanna received invitations from various parts of the world to conduct meditation retreats. This entailed travel to all parts of the world and long periods of stay outside Sri Lanka. At his pansakula ceremony it was mentioned that he spent approximately 50 years of his life outside Sri Lanka.

His easy-going manner, command of the English language, his sense of humour and simplicity enabled him to reach out to people from all walks of life, all nationalities, all ethnic groups and scores of free-thinking people from the far corners of the world, who were looking for answers to the enigma of life. His popularity as a meditation teacher grew to the extent that he ended up conducting meditation programmes in the long list of countries listed at the beginning of this article.

In South America which was totally alien to Buddhism, he attracted a large following, so much so that he received invitations from most of the south American countries, year after year. His influence was so profound that two persons from Argentina even followed him to Sri Lanka to gain ordination as Buddhist monks, at the Kavidaja Meditation centre in Moratuwa. Later, one of them went to Thailand to continue his meditation practice and the other returned to Argentina.

Bhante Kondanna was a monk who practiced what he preached and preached what he practiced. His day began with meditation long before dawn, while the rest of the day was devoted to the service of others. He lived a life of extreme simplicity, that bordered on austerity. He ate only one meal a day. Very often he obtained this meal through pindapatha (alms round), which in addition to being an act of humility is a re-affirmation of a monk’s vows of being totally dependent on the generosity of others, and of giving up personal possessions and resources. He explained that anything that a person puts into the bowl, must be eaten with gratitude and humility. Pindapatha was a practice that was followed by the Buddha.

During the first lock-down and curfew, when Bhante Kondanna was on his alms round, the local police who were arresting curfew violators, stopped him and questioned him. He replied that he was on pindapatha. The police then begged for his forgiveness and helped him on his path.

Bhante Kondanna never stood on ceremony or sought titles or positions and shunned any form of elevation and publicity. He did not promote fanfare and rituals and asked his followers to practice what the Buddha prescribed, namely Dana, Seela and Bhavana, (Generosity, Virtue and Meditation). He expressed disappointment that many people in Sri Lanka, replace Bhavana (meditation) with “puda puja” rituals, which was not what the Buddha recommended.

In his meditation classes, in addition to the instructions on the path to liberation, he advised his students on how to transcend pain through mindfulness. A few years ago, in London, he tripped on a pavement and fractured his ankle. At the hospital, the doctors wanted to give him a local anaesthetic before carrying out the procedure to re-set his ankle. He refused the anaesthetic and told that doctors that he taught his students how to transcend pain through meditation and that he has to practice what he preaches. The doctors had been astounded. Bhante Kondanna also had teeth extractions without anaesthesia much to the surprise and consternation of his dentists!

As a meditation master and guide, Bhante Kondanna leaves a great vacuum in the lives of his followers across the world. However, he made sure that he trained and guided several Sri Lankan monks who were his disciples, to learn English, practice meditation and proceed to other countries to impart the Dhamma. Ven. Dhammakusala of the Berlin Temple in Germany and Ven. Soratha at the Buddhist temple in Canberra, Australia are disciples of Ven. Homagama Kondanna. Here in Sri Lanka, Ven. Thirikunamale Sobitha Thero who was a devout follower of Ven. Kondanna will take over at the Kavidaja Mediation Centre. The torch that was lit by Bhante Kondanna Maha Thero will be carried by them to encourage human beings to strive for Enlightenment through the direct path of meditation, as extolled by the Buddha.

I would like to conclude by quoting from an article written by Bhante Kondanna “Why meditate?” which he wrote for the Centenary Volume of Dhamma Gems, the Journal of the Servants of the Buddha, in 2021. He speaks directly to the reader as follows:

“Through meditation and quiet contemplation, you will realise that, with everything being impermanent and causing so much pain, there is really no control, no power vested in me, you, or us. Even though we think this is my body, and my mind, everything is subject to automatic processes such as ageing, falling ill and dying, and so do the habitual reactions based on perceptions of what one likes and dislikes. Through meditation you will gradually realise that to live means to experience everything that is happening through awareness. That awareness is all that there is. No person, no being, just an ever-changing body and an ever-changing thought process, both of which have come together temporarily in this birth, giving the illusion of a permanent self. Meditation will help one see that the true nature of the world and of oneself is impermanence, suffering and non-self. (anicca, dukkha and anatta)

Once you realise this you have experienced the blissful state of Enlightenment. You are free of passion, desires, aversion. A state of blissful peace that comes with contentment, of not wanting, of having no desires, of just being.

Therefore, my friends, I invite you to tread the path shown by the Buddha, which is to sit in quiet contemplation, and see the truth of the universe within the body and mind.

May you all achieve the blissful state of Nibbana.”

Likewise, may Bhante Kondanna, attain that same blissful state of Nibbana, that he encouraged and guided his followers to strive for, through his life of selfless service as a Buddhist monk.