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February Guide 2002
IBMC
is Updating its Mailing List
If you want to remain on our mailing list, you must inform us
either by a phone call, fax, email, or by returning the envelope
we sent in December, indicating you want to receive our 2002
Monthly Guides. If you do not, you probably will not receive
your March Guide. So, please either call or write us today while
you are thinking about it.
As you know, in December we sent you a donation envelope which
we hope you will use to send us a donation. If you have not
done so yet, we urge you to. IBMC is a non-profit organization
and every donation you make is tax deductible. Also, if possible,
please give an added donation to help the Center gets its status
changed from monastery to church, as demanded by the city.
Tet, Vietnamese New Year’s
Ceremony, honors IBMC’s monks, February 10...
This year Chinese, or Vietnamese, New Year falls on February
12. The New Year is very important to people of Chinese culture,
for that is the time when everyone becomes one year older. It
is also time to honor their superiors: parents, ancestors, teachers,
bosses, etc. and to thank them for everything they have done
for them in the past year.
This is the time of year for parades, firecrackers and a lot
of merriment. It is also the time when houses are scrubbed completely
to invite the Kitchen God to take a good report back to the
Gods and the family ancestors in heaven (Confucian belief).
Firecrackers scare away evil spirits and invite the good spirits
to bless the people.
The people hand out red packets with money in them to their
children, nieces, nephews and grandchildren. The monks also
give small gifts to the children who come to the temple, and
the children perform the intricate lion dances to gain fruits,
drinks, goodies and money. The faithful flock to the temples
to pray and to honor the monks, thanking them for teaching the
Buddha Dharma.
This year we will honor our monks on February 10. We will begin
with a formal dana ceremony where we will offer food to them
at 11 am. This will be followed by Sunday service at 12 noon.
You can join us by bringing food or small gifts to our eight
monastics or by donating money either directly to them or to
the office by February 1. We will take the money and spend it
to buy gifts for our monastics. This ceremony is important since
our monastics devote themselves totally to the Buddha Dharma
and have no other source of income aside from the small stipend
provided by the Center. The monks will repay the laypeople by
giving a special blessing. Following service we will eat in
the Zendo garden. So, bring either a vegetarian dish or drinks
to share.
IBMC’s Thien-An Building
Saved from the Wrecking Ball...
Thien-An House, which is part of the block the Los Angeles Unified
School District had originally sought to acquire under eminent
domain, has been saved with the district’s purchase of
the Ambassador Hotel site. IBMC had been informed last summer
that our block was the first choice by the school district to
build a badly needed elementary school. The day of the hearing,
the school board was informed that the Anbas-sador Hotel was
again eligible to be purchased from the bankruptcy court where
its future was being decided. The district was eventually awartded
the site, for which we are extremely grateful. The district
will build a high school, an intermediate school, and an elementary
school on the site.
Workshop on Meditation
Rev. Kusala is offering the first of IBMC’s three hour
workshops, which will occur the last Saturday morning of each
month for the year 2002. The first workshop is titled “The
Ins and Outs of Meditation and will offer practical advice on
how to make the most of your meditation practice. The topics
covered will be How to begin a meditation practice, how to choose
a focus for meditation Iin and out breathing meditation, using
sitting meditatioin and walking meditation to enhance your health
and to create happiness.
Lecture, discussion and demonstration will be used to help you
get started on a meaningful practice. Fee for the workshop is
a $10 donation. Call Rev. Kusala at 213 384-1290 to get signed
up.
2001 Schedule of Events
This is a tentative schedule; there will be changes made during
the year, so check each Guide for possible changes that month.
January
1/7 108 Bows ceremony, Ven. Dr. Karuna Dharma, 9:30 am
1/15 Classes of the College of B uddhist Studies begin
1/28 Seminar with Rev. Sakya Bodhi
February
2/4 108 Bows Ceremony, Bro. Sunya, 9:30 am
2/4 Tet Ceremony honoring IBMC monks, 11 am
Garden Luncheon,1 pm
2/24 Workshop on Meditation
9:00 - 12:00 Rev. Kusala
March
3/5 108 Bows Ceremony, Bro. Ksanti, 9:30 am
3/30 Classes of College of Buddhist Studies end
April
4/1 108 Bows Ceremony, Bro. Sraddha, 9:30 am
4/8 Hanamatsuri Celebration, 11 am,
Garden Luncheon, noon
4/9 College of Buddhist Studies classes begin
4/21 Meditation Retreat, Rev. Vajra
4/22 Ven. Karuna’s birthday celebration in the garden
4/29 Morning of Chanting & Meditation, Ven. Karuna Dharma
May
5/6 108 Bows Ceremony, Sr. Abhaya Hanasi, 9 am
5/13 Honoring Mothers, Sr. Suvarna Upeksa Sarika
5/15 Marking the Sima, 7 pm; Monks’ training class begins
5/18-20Vaisaka, 3 day Weekend Retreat, 7 pm- 12 noon
5/20 Adoration of the Buddha relics, Ven. Shanti
June
every Sunday morning at 9 am
108 Bows Ceremony, Rev. Kusala Karuna
6/9 Workshop on Developing and Maintaining a Web Page, Rev.
Kusala Ratna Karuna, 9-12
6/17 Honoring Fathers, Bro. Sraddha, 11 am
July
every Sunday morning at 9 am
108 Bows Ceremony, various monks
7/14 Lotus Festival at Echo Park, 10:30 am
7/15 Kwan Yin Observances; Kwan Yin meditation & Chanting,
2 - 5
7/21 Zen Meditation Retreat, Rev.Vajra Karuna
7/29 Morning of Chanting & Meditation, Rev. Thich Tam-Thien,
Rev. Kusala Ratna Karuna
August
every Sunday morning 9 am
108 Bows Ceremony,Various monks
8/24-26 Ullumbana Retreat, 7:30 Friday-Sunday Noon
September
9/1 Ullumbana Service for the Dead; garden luncheon
9/1 108 Bows Ceremony, 9 am,
9/7 Visit to Dr. Thien-An’s Crypt
9/8 Founder Day’s Garden Luncheon
9/14 Retreat & Seminar on Basic Buddhism, Rev. Kusala
9/16 Fall classes begin at College of Buddhist Studies
October
10/7 108 Bows Ceremony, 9:30 am
10/13 Seminar on Buddhist Art, 9-5, Rev. Sunya Karuna
November
11/4 108 Bows Ceremony, 9:30 am
11/10 Retreat/Seminar Ven. Karuna Dharma
11/18 Patriarch’s Memorial Day Garden Luncheon
December
12/7 College of Buddhist Studies classes end
12/2 108 Bows Ceremony, 9:30 am
12/8 Enlightenment Day observance, 11 - 4:30
12/30 Morning of Chanting & Meditation
12/31 New Year’s Eve Sitting, 10 pm-midnight
An
Interview with Bhikkhu Bodhi
Venerable Kantasilo conducted this interview at the Palelai
Meditation Center, Singapore, on Sunday, June 20, 2001.
Thank you Bhante for talking to us. Could you tell us about
your early years, where you were born, your lay name, your parents'
names?
I was born in NYC in 1944, my civilian name was Jeffrey Block,
and my parents were a middle class Jewish family living in Brooklyn.
Could you tell us where you went to school, your primary education?
- I went to a public elementary school quite close to the family
house, also to junior high school, high school in the neighbor-hood,
which is Borough Park, in Brooklyn. And then I went to Brooklyn
College…
And you got your bachelors degree?
- I got a BA degree in Philosophy.
What year would that be?
- I completed my BA degree in 1966.
And then after that?
- And then I went to Claremont Graduate School. This is in Claremont,
California.
Southern California?
Yes. Again I specialized in Philosophy and completed my doctorate
degree
in 1972.
You were telling me earlier that you had met a Vietnamese Buddhist
monk which was probably your first introduction to Buddhism?
- Actually I had become interested in Buddhism in my junior
year in college, mainly just by strolling in bookshops and looking
at book titles and then somehow I became interested in a few
books on Buddhism that I could find there. I think this interest
in Buddhism arose from the kind of surge or
quest for some deeper understanding of human existance that
was offered by the materialistic philosophy of modern American
civilization, and I wasn't satisfied with my ancestral Jewish
religion, and also I didn't find much ong term value in Christianity.
But I was drawn at an early period, say during my junior year
of collage to the religions of the east.
I began reading some of the Upanishads, Bhagavadgita, then I
found in the nookshops some books on Buddhism. These were by
D.T. Suzuki and Alan Watts so they were mainly on Zen Buddhism
and Mahayana Buddhism. Then when I went to Claremont Graduate
School my interest in Buddhism continued and I felt increasingly
a deeper need to lead a spiritual life. At the same time I always
had an underlying doubt or skepticism about any type of spiritual
philosophy.
But finally when I was in graduate school I met a Buddhist monk
from Vietnam who was attending the same school and living in
the same residence hall in which I was living. I became friends
with him, and I approached him as a teacher and from him I received
my first instructions in Buddhism and meditation.
Do you remember his name?
- His name is Thich Giac Duc. I have not heard from him many,
many years, so I'm not sure whether he is still alive. In fact,
when I was still livingin Washington D.C. at the Washington
Buddhist Vihara he was in the Vietnamese temple, which was a
few blocks right up the street, and he was the monk in charge
of that temple.
Is that the temple that's on the same street as the Washington
Buddhist Vihara?
- The one on the same street as the Washington Buddhist Vihara,
not the Jetavana temple.
No, no, but there is a Vietnamese temple just right down the
street from the Washington Buddhist] Vihara and has a very big
Kuan Yin [image located] in the precincts there. Is that the
same temple?
- It must be the same temple. It was called…something like…
the Vietnamese Buddhist Church of America, or something like
that.
Yes, that's probably it.
- Yeah, he was in charge of that at the same time that I was
in the
Washington Buddhist Vihara, just by pure coincidence that we
wound up on the same street after several years of separation.
But he was getting into an increasingly antagonistic relationship
with the Vietnamese community. I think mainly because of the
different political affiliations… because Vietnamese monks
had very strong political affiliations.
And this was at the time the United States was involved in the…
- No, this was years after the Vietnam War - this was 1981,
perhaps early 82. He came to the United States in 1975 just
at the very time that Saigon collapsed and fell to the Viet
Cong. And that he was educated in the United States and he had
somewhat pro-western sympathies compared to those monks who
took a more radical stance against the United States. His life
was in danger because once the Viet Cong took power they would
have singled out or weeded out those monks who were known to
be sympathetic to the west, or to the United States, and [would
have] eliminated him physically and so he had to escape Vietnam
immediately.
Were you practicing any type of Vietnamese meditations [at this
time]?
- He started me off with Anapanasati. What is interesting is
Vietnamese Buddhism is Mahayana but I think because of the proximity
to Cambodia, or perhaps because they've also received a stream
of transmission from Indian Mahayana, not only Chinese Mahayana
coming down from south China to Vietnam,Vietnamese Mahayana
Buddhism tends to have a stronger strain of classical
Indian Buddhism within it. So the meditations he taught me were
basically mindfulness of breathing, the meditation on loving
kindness, and a meditation based on the Four Foundations of
Mindfulness which is… its sort of a line, each foundation
of mindfulness links up with a particular one of the four perversions
or distortions. To contemplate the body as being essentially
impure - asubha, to contemplate all feelings as being suffering,
to contemplate every state of mind as being anicca - impermanent,
and to contemplate all dhammas as being without self.
And you were ordained as a samanera?
- Yeah, after I became friends with him and I began the practice
of
meditation, through the practice my skepticism and doubts about
Buddhism or the spiritual life dissipated. I became convinced
that this is the proper path for me to follow. And so then I
asked my friend, teacher, if he could give me ordination as
a monk. Also, I have to confess that there was an underlying
pragmatic motive as well. I wouldn't say that was the main reason
why I wanted ordination, but this was a period when America
decided it hadto beef up its armed forces and it was expanding
its roll-call of people subject to the draft. And so I also
thought it might be an extra security measure to have a formal
ordination as a monk in order to be able to submit some kind
of document to receive exon-eration from the obligation to serve
in the armed forces.
Conscientious objector?
- It wouldn't have been conscientious objector, it would have
been a ministerial deferment.
And you were ordained for about two months before you went to
South Vietnam?
- No, I was ordained by him only as a samanera in May 1967,
five years before I left for Asia.
Where?
- In the United States.
And then…?
- And I remained as a samanera for five years in the United
States.
I see. And then you traveled straight to Vietnam?
- I was planning to go to Asia all along, from the time that
I received ordination. It was not exactly certain where I would
go for ordination ortraining, though my teacher, my Vietnam-ese
teacher, had some contact with Sri Lankan Buddhists …with
Ven. Narada - famous monk Venerable Narada. And he was always
constantly advising me to go to Sri Lanka to ordain and to receive
training.
But as a Vietnamese monk…or?
- At that time it was unclear but I think he thought I should
take reordination as a Theravada monk but then eventually I
should come back to Vietnam and then ordain again in the Mahayana
Order as a Bhikshu.
So how long were you in South Vietnam?
- Okay, so this is after I completed my graduate studies and
then I had to teach for two years… this was while I was
working on my dissertation, I was teaching in order to earn
money to pay back debts that I had incurred from loans to support
my education.
So you were already a samanera, and you were working, and you
were still working on your dissertation…
- Yeah, yeah, I was completing my dissertation. Then when I
completed it… I completed it in February 1972 and I continu-ed
to work through the end of that academic year, then I was ready
to leave for Asia. And by this time I had also come into contact
several times with Sri Lankan Buddhist monks who
were passing through Los Angels. After my first Vietnamese teacher
left the United States he had a friend, another Vietnam-ese
monk who was living in Los Angeles. He had originally gone to
teach Buddhism at U.C.L.A. and then he established a Buddhist
meditation center in Los Angeles.
Do you recall his name?
- His name is Dr. Thich Thien An. He died from cancer in 1980.
In 1971 Iwent to stay and live at that meditation center with
Dr. Thich Thien An. And while I was staying there I got to know
a Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka who was passing through Los Angeles
and we invited him to come to stay at our meditation center
and to give a series of talks over a period of a week. This
was Venerable Piyadassi of Vajirarama in Columbo.
I became friendly with Venerable Piyadassi and I drove him around
Los Angeles. I introduced him at talks and I brought him to
my classes at the university to teach, to give lectures. And
then when we parted at the Los Angeles airport he suggested
to me that some time I should come to Sri Lanka and he could
arrange for me to stay at a Buddhist mona-stery.
And then some time later I met anwas actually a Sri Lankan monk
but he was stationed in Singapore. Then I became friendly with
him, he stayed with us also for about a week. Then there was
Dikwella Piyananda who was at the time chief monk at the Washington
Buddhist Vihara, he also came to stay with us for a few days
and I became friendly with him. And so it seems I have some
deep underlying karmic connection with Sri Lanka, which was
getting reinforced by these visiting monks.
And so then when I decided to go to Sri Lanka, I wrote to Venerable
Piyadassi and told him about my intention and asked him if he
could recommend a place I could go to ordain and study. Then
he recommended to me a monk, Venerable Balangoda Ananda Maitreya,
Who later became the Sangha Nayaka…?
- Actually, at that time he was the Mahanayaka of the United
Amarapura Nikaya. He had become already the Mahanayaka Thera
of the Amarapura nikaya, this would have been in early 1972.
I think he received that appointment…it must have been
1969 or 1970. Because I remember he was the holder for a
five-year period and then he relinquished… that period
came to an end in 1976. So he might have had the appointment
in 1971.
I was under the impression that after you gained samanera ordination
in the Vietnamese tradition you left California to visit your
monk friend in Vietnam.
- Actually I hadn't reached that point yet in my narrative.
I had written to Venerable Piyadassi and he gave me the name
of Venerable Balangoda Ananda Maitreya. I wrote to Venerable
Ananda Maitreya asking if I could come and stay with him to
ordain and to study and he wrote back saying I was welcome.
So then in August 1972, I left the United States and my plane
came first to Thailand and so I spent one week in Thailand at
Wat Pleng Vipassana. From there I went to Vietnam in order to
visit my friend, the first Buddhist monkthat I had contact with.
This was Venerable Thich Giac Duc.
Then I stayed in Vietnam for two months, mostly in Saigon, a
few weeks I went up to Hue in central Vietnam.
Were there any meditation centers in Hue or were you just sight-seeing?
- It was more sight-seeing. There were monasteries in Hue but
everything was in a rather hectic and chaotic state at that
time because of the Vietnam War. The monks were very uncertain
about the future of Buddhism and thefuture of the country itself.
So from Vietnam you…?
- Then from Vietnam I went to Sri Lanka.
But at this point, I want to make it clear you were a Mahayana
samanera.
- I was a Mahayana samanera still and I arrived in Sri Lanka
wearing my Vietnamese style robe. My teacher wanted me to wear
the yellow robe when I came to Sri Lanka since with the brown
robe I might not have been recognized as a Buddhist monk. So
I wore this flowing yellow robe. Then, after a week or so in
Colombo I went out to Balangoda to stay at the monastery of
my ordination teacher - Ven-erable Balangoda Ananda Maitreya.
Then a few weeks later I took a new ordination into the Theravada
Order as a samanera.
How long did you remain a samanera in the Theravada tradition?
- The samanera ordination took place in November 1972, then
I took the Upasampada ordination in May, 1973. So it was six
months.
Can you give us you preceptor's name?
- My preceptor was Venerable Bibile Sumangala Nayaka Thero.
He was a prominent monk in the upcountry Amarapura Nikaya. But
he was not known outside of the upcountry Amarapura Nikaya.
He did not have an international reputation.
Did you have a relationship with him?
- No, no. No relationship at all. His function as the upajjhaya
at the
upasampada ceremony was purely ceremonial or a formal function.
My real
close relationship was with Venerable Ananda Mettreya.
Can you tell us about that relationship?
- Well, I came to him because he had a great reputation as a
scholar and also as an outstanding monk. When I first came to
him and found out that he was 77 years old I was a little apprehensive
because I was coming here as a young monk and I thought that
I would have to spend five years of study with him and I was
worried that at the age of 77 he might die at any time. But
he wound up going on to live till the age of almost 102 and
he was very strong and vigorous.
And while I was staying with him I found out one of the secrets
of his
excellent health was going for long walks several times a week,
about twicea week. His temple was located about two miles in
one direction from the town of Balangoda itself, in a village,
in one direction and he also had a pirivena, a monastic school,
two miles in the other direction, on the other side of Balangoda.
But by that time he had retired from his function as the principle
of the monastic school and he left it in the charge of his pupils.
But he kept his library there. He was a very avid reader, always
doing
research on different subjects. And so twice a week he would
walk from his temple to the pirivena, the monastic school, with
a bunch of books under his
arm. And quite often he would ask me to go along with him and
so we would
walk about four miles in one direction - four miles going and
then we would
rest and have a cup of tea, then walk back another four miles.
And he was
quite fit and vigorous I was quite surprised.
So he was a very influential person in your life?
- I would say so, definitely so. And it was with him I began
my study of
Pali and Buddhism. Though I have said pretty much I learned
Pali on my own,
he didn't give me formal lessons in the grammer. But I'd work
with some
textbooks and he would check my exercises. Then once I'd learned
enough Pali
to start going through the texts…we went through certain
texts together.
Such as…?
- We started with the first part of the Samyutta Nikaya, the
collection with
verses, then we went through some suttas in the Majjhima Nikaya,
then he
took me through the Abhidhammatthasamgaha.
And you would translate what was already Pali into English or
vise-versa?
- I would just translate it to myself. At that time I was not
yet doing
written translations.
So you were reading the Romanized Pali?
- Actually, he wanted me to learn the Burmese script, which
I did, because
he had the entire Burmese Sixth Council Edition in his library.
He was one
of the monks who participated…in fact, he was like the
leader of the Sri
Lankan delegation during the Sixth Buddhist Council. And so
he urged me to
learn the Burmese script, which I did and then we worked through
texts…
those texts in the Burmese script.
I think I remember reading somewhere that you had a very close
relationship
with Venerable Nyanaponika?
- Venerable Nyanaponika each year would go to Europe for a month
or two, he
started making these trips in the late 1960s up till 1980. I
had met
Venerable Nyanaponika first when I made a visit to Island Hermitage.
This
was shortly after my ordination. Just by coincidence he happened
to come
down there. He was staying in Kandy, at Forest Hermitage, but
each year at
the time when the Island Hermitage held its Kathina ceremony,
he would go
down to Island Hermitage. And so just at the time I made my
visit to Island
Hermitage he was visiting there and so I had some talks with
him.
Then occasionally when I had questions about points on Dhamma,
I would write
to him to get his views. Then in 1974 when he was going to Europe,
he asked
if I would come and look after the Forest Hermitage in his absence.
And I
agreed to do that, and in this way I became friendly with him.
And then in
1975 I left Sri Lank and I went to India, to Bangalore, and
stayed in
Bangalore for ten months at the Maha Bodhi Society there, which
was under
Acariya Buddharakkhita.
It happened that while I was staying with Venerable Ananda Mettreyya
in
Balangoda, an Indian monk came to stay at the same monastery.
His name was
Saddharakkhita and I became friendly with him and he told me
that his home
monastery was the Mahabodhi Society in Bangalore. And so when
he had
completed his studies in Sri Lanka, and decided to go back to
Bangalore, he
suggested that I go along with him. And also I wanted to go
to India because
I wanted to make a pilgrimage to the Buddhist Holy sites.
And so I came along with him to Bangalore and I stayed altogether
for ten
months at the Mahabodhi Society there which I found quite inspiring
because
his teacher, Venerable Acariya Buddharakkhita spoke English
very fluently,
had very good understanding and knowledge of Dhamma, and each
week he would
give very very good Dhamma talks. At that time there were three
western
monks staying with him... er... I'm sorry, actually there were
five or six
monks there. One of them received ordination only toward the
end of my stay
there under the name Sangharatana. But later he came to Thailand
and became
reordained as Silaratana, staying with Ajaan Maha Bua. I think
you know him.
They call him Phra Dick now - Richard Byrd.
Yes, I know him very well.
- So he was there, and then there were two young Indian monks,
and a
Sweedish monk who was even senior to myself named Lakkhana.
And Venerable
Buddharakkhita… Actually, at that time Venerable Lakkhana
was very into
Abhidhamma, and I was into the study of suttas. And so he had
Venerable
Lakkhana teach the Abhidhamma to all the monks and he had me
teach the
suttas to all the monks, even though I didn't have much knowledge
at the
time, but it really forced me to prepare talks on the suttas
and to study
the suttas carefully and learn how to explain them. And then
occasionally
Acariya Buddharakkhita would ask us to give the Sunday public
Dhamma talk in
place of himself, and that forced us to learn how to give public
discourses.
While I was staying in Bangalore, it became clear that our visas
would not
be renewed another year so I had to find another place to go.
And meanwhile
the Venerable Nyanaponika wrote to me and told me that if I
decided to come
back to Sri Lanka I would be welcome to stay with him, and so
I decided to
do so. So then I came back at the very end of 1975, I came back
to Sri Lanka
and went to stay with venerable Nyanaponika. Actually in the
place right
next to… there are two places about 100 meters apart within
the same
precincts. One is the Forest Hermitage where venerable Nyanaponika
stays,
the other is called Senanayakarama, where Venerable Piyadasi
would stay when
he came to Kandy.
And so I was staying in Senanayakarama since Venerable Nyanaponika
had only
one guest room, and he was expecting to come within a few months
none other
than, Venerable Phra Khantipalo. And so then I stayed…
Anyway, I stayed all
together close to two years with Venerable Nyanaponika in that
place. And
Venerable Khantipalo stayed with us for about a year.
When I took ordination, my parents were extremely upset with
this. And they
would write to me frequently, sometimes angry letters, sometimes
letters of
grief and sorrow, sometimes letters critical of Buddhism and
of myself,
sometimes letters pleading with me to go back. And so I actually
decided
that I wouldn't be able to continue as a monk and that I would
disrobe and
go back to the United States. And I told this decision to Venerable
Nyanaponika and he regretted it very much. But he thought that
I had to make
my own decisions so he didn't try to compel me, though he felt
that I would
have been justified in continuing as a monk rather than conceding
to my
parent's wishes. But I felt that maybe this was necessary to
do. I actually
fixed the date that I would disrobe. I was already making arrangements
with
my parents to get the ticket for the trip back to the United
States.
It was about two or three weeks away from the time I was scheduled
to
disrobe and one day I was sitting up in my room… at this
point I was living
in the Forest Hermitage with Venerable Nyanaponika - this was
after
Venerable Khantipalo left Sri Lanka. Then I was just thinking
that the whole
purpose of my life was to live as a Buddhist monk and if I were
to disrobe
just to satisfy my parent's wishes it would be like nullifying
all that was
of value and of meaning, of significance in my own life, just
to fulfill
their expectations. So I told this to Venerable Nyanaponika
and he said 'in
that case go back but go back as a monk', and I thought 'why
not'.
So then I went back, this was in August 1977, then I went back
to the United
States as a monk. And when my parents, who were expecting me
to come down in
lay clothes, saw me coming in my saffron robes with an alms
bowl on my back
and the monk's umbrella in my hand… this is what my father
told me later,
they had seen me before I saw them. My mother said to my father,
'that's not
our son, let's go' and she actually started to walk away from
the airport
but my father held her back and they took me...
So they took you home?
- Yeah, yeah. But of course they were very unhappy with this.
And this was in NY or this was in…?
- At this time they were living in Long Island, outside NYC.
But you went to stay for some time at the Sri Lankan Buddhist
Vihara, so was
this at the very beginning of that stay?
- No. You see the first place I stayed when I went back to the
United States
was called the Lamaist Buddhist Monastery of America. It's in
New Jersey. In a place called Washington, New Jersey. It was
established by a Kalmuk lama named Geshe Wangyal who was one
of the first… You see there was a Kalmuk community which
had come to the United States, I
think during the period when Stalin was persecuting the Kalmuk
Mongolians,
or it could even have been immediately after the Bolshevik revolution
- I'm
not sure when. But they had come to the United States and settled
in
southern New Jersey.
..and set up a center?
- The Buddhist centers would have come some time later. And
Geshe Wangyal he
was a Kalmuk Mongolian. He had studied in Tibet and China then
they had set
up a monastery for him and he attracted to himself some of the
first
Americans who studied Tibetan Buddhism. Later they became quite
prominent
scholars of Tibetan Buddhism, like Robert Thurman, Jeffrey Hopkins
- they
were originally students of Geshe Wangyal.
So how long did you visit your parents?
- Well, I stayed with my parents a couple of weeks then I went
to stay at
this Lamaist Buddhist monastery. And I wanted also to study
some aspects of
Indian Mahayana Buddhism through the Tibetan. So actually I
studied Sanskrit
and Tibetan there - to some extent. But then I visited Washington
D.C., this
would have been Vesak 1978, and I visited the Washington Buddhist
Vihara and
met monks there.
Some of the lay followers, the American lay followers of the
Washington
Buddhist Vihara, then requested me to come and take up residence
at the
Washington Buddhist Vihara. And so then I left New Jersey and
I came to
settle in Washington D.C. This would be in May 1979. Then I
stayed at the
Washington Buddhist Vihara for three years till 1982.
Then I felt that I wanted to go back to Asia in order to do
more intensive
training and meditation. My original plan was to go to Burma
and to practice
meditation with Mahasi Sayadaw. And I started to make plans
to go to Burma.
Several years earlier, Burma started to loosen up its visa policy
and they
were giving long term residence visas to foreigners who would
come and stay
at Buddhist monasteries and meditation centers just for the
purpose of
practicing meditation, or studying Buddhism. And so I was hoping
to ride in
on that wave. But just when I started to make the application,
then Burma
went through one of these paranoid phases and threw all the
foreigners out
of the country and was refusing to give any long term visas.
Yes, I remember that. They ordered all foreigners to leave the
country
within 48 hours. Yes, I remember that very clearly.
- I think that there were some Americans who said that they
had planned to
come to Burma for the purpose of meditation and then after they
would do a
period of meditation then without permits, without the approval
of the
authorities they would just on their own started to travel about.
And then
the Burmese government became afraid that these were spies going
about
disguised as monks. And they started to… the safest policy
was to just get
them all out of the country. Okay, so then I had to reroute
my trip and so I
decided to come back to Sri Lanka. It was in May 1982, that
I arrived back
in Sri Lanka.
When were you made head of the B.P.S.?
- Well, I became the editor of the B.P.S. in 1984. When I first
came back to
Sri Lanka, I spent my first Vassa together with Venerable Nyanaponika.
But
after the Vassa I went to a different monastery. This was a
meditation
monastery called Nissarana Vanaya, Mitirigula Nissarana Vannaya
… and I
stayed. A place called Mitirigula. But now there are two monasteries
in Mitirigula.
So Mitirigula is the name of an area?
- Mitirigula is a village, and the monastery itself is called
Nissarana
Vanaya - Nissarana Vana, the Grove, or Forest, of Deliverance.
But then on
the hill just beyond Nissarana Vanaya, another monastery was
started.
Originally, that was to be a study monastery but the study program
never
worked out there… never worked out successfully. Then the
Burmese monk, the
pupil of Pa Auk Sayadaw named U Agganya was invited to go there
and give
meditation training to Sri Lankan monks. And he was very popular,
quite
successful. Because now this other monastery that was originally
set up as
the study center turned into an intensive meditation center
teaching the Pa
Auk system of meditation.
The other monastery still functions more or less as a meditation
monastery
but after the death of Venerable Nyanarama the quality of meditation
training there has declined. It is virtually turning into an
old-age home
for monks, rather than a place for younger monks who are really
keen on
intensive practice.
During Venerable Nyanaponika's last years you were…he was
living with you...
or?
- Well, I'd say that I was living with him. While I was at Nissarana
Vanaya
I stayed with him on and off for about two years… close
to two years. Then
in 1984 Venerable Nyanaponika was already was in his 80s, getting
quite
weak, and I felt that I should go to stay with him to look after
him.
And then about a month after I came to stay with him he told
me that he
would like to pass on the editorship of the BPS to me. I wasn't
quite
prepared to take it but I agreed to do so. And so he retired
as editor but
he remained president for another four years till 1988 then
he decided to
retire from the presidency and he asked me to succeed him as
president,
which I did. But he continued to live on till 1994, he was 93
at the time of
his death.
So you've brought us up to 1984… can you bring us up to
the present? Any
other interesting anecdotes or events in your life?
- Okay, well in 1984 then I took over as editor for the Buddhist
Publications Society. In 1988 I became president then I lived
on constantly
there with Venerable Nyanaponika, very rarely leaving the Forest
Hermitage,
in looking after him quite diligently. He remained in quite
good health up
till the last few weeks of his life, because he was getting
weaker and his
eyesight had deteriorated. His eyesight really started to go
in 1988 and by
about late 1989 he was not able to read anymore. So each evening
we would
have our evening tea and I would read to him for about one hour
from various
books and I would also record what I read so that later he could
listen
again. And I tried to obtain tapes from various teachers for
him to listen
to. My own life I think is rather flat.
I don't think so! I think its event packed.
- No, if I were to write a biography from that period on it
might be
difficult to fill two or three pages.
So you've completed several very important translations from
the Pali
Canon…being the Majjhimanikaya and the two volume set of
the Samyuttanikaya.
- Yeah, yeah.
So that's quite…and some other editions that I haven't
mentioned, some
smaller booklets, and you do the very important…uh..is
it the B.P.S.
newsletter?
- Yeah.
Is that four times a year?
- Well, now it comes out three times a year.
That I wouldn't call flat…
- How the edition of the Majjhimanikaya came about… Well
actually the
proposal for the Samyuttanikaya came out even earlier than the
Majjhimanikaya. And it was none other than Phra Khantipalo,
who initiated
that. He felt that there was an urgent need for a new translation
of the
Samyuttanikaya, and I had already started this practice of translating
Canonical suttas from the Canon and attaching to them translations
of large
portions of the commentary and sub-commentary.
The first work in this genre that I did was the Brahmajala Sutta
together
with its commentary and sub-commentary. I did this on the urging
of
Venerable Nyanaponika, he was very keen to have this done. And
many years
earlier he had translated large portions of the commentary and
sub-commentary to the Brahmajala Sutta, which he had kept in
a notebook. So
I really learned very much, to read and understand the commentaries
and
sub-commentaries from these notebooks of Venerable Nyanaponika.
The style of the commentaries and sub-commentaries, particularly
the Tikas
can be quite difficult… because the sub-commentator writes
in the style of
the classical Sanskrit commentator. You know, like Shankhara,
well he
preceded Shankharacariya, but its in a similar style, very terse,
using very
complex sentences with a lot of abstract nouns linked together
by various
indirect cases. So it's quite a project to translate the sub-commentary
sentence by sentence… I really learned to understand the
sub-commentarial
style from these notebooks of Venerable Nyanaponika. And then
I put together
this Brahmajala Sutta with the commentary and sub-commentary.
And that was printed by itself once.
- It is, it still is printed by itself. It's called the Discourse
on the All
Embracing Net of Views. Then after that I did the first Discourse
of the
Majjhimanikaya, this is the Mulapariyaya Sutta and its commentary
and
sub-commentary, then the Mahanidana Sutta, that's the Great
Discourse on
Causation, and the Samannaphala Sutta, the second discourse
in the
Dighanikaya -- The Discourse on the Fruits of Recluseship.
So Venerable Khantipalo liked my translations and he proposed
to me that I
do a new translation of the Samyuttanikaya for the Pali Text
Society. But I
was somewhat doubtful that the Pali Text Society was interested
in taking on
new translations. Bhikkhu Khantipalo wrote to Richard Gombrich
who was then
the secretary of the P.T.S. asking him to write to me to assure
me that they
would be interested in new translations. And Gombrich did so.
This was in
1985. But just about that same time Wisdom Publications had
written to
Venerable Nyanaponika… you see, Venerable Khantipalo had
put together 90
suttas from the Majjhimanikaya that were translated by Bhikkhu
Nyanamoli and
these were published in Bangkok in three volumes by Mahamakut
Press called A
Treasury of the Buddha's Words.
Nick Ribush of Wisdom Publications found out about those three
books, these
three volumes, and he had the idea to have an entire translation
of the
Majjhimanikaya published. He asked Venerable Nyanaponika if
he would be able
to edit the remaining 32 discourses of the Majjhimanikaya that
Venerable
Nyanamoli had translated. But Venerable Nyanaponika, at this
point, was in
his mid-eighties already and he thought it was just too much
for himself to
take on. And he asked me if I would be willing to do it and
I said okay.
And so I started doing this in 1985 and as I went through then
I felt that
some of Venerable Nyanamoli's terminology had to be altered.
He was using a
rather experimental terminology, which would not have been so
readily
comprehensible to an ordinary reader in English. I made these
alterations
with the approval of Venerable Nyanaponika who totally endorsed
them. So I
worked on that from 1985 till about early 1989 because I wasn't
able to do
this full time. I also had to do the editing for the Buddhist
Publications
Society. It was April 1989 that I sent the completed manuscript
off to
Wisdom Publications and it remained in limbo with them for about
three years
since they couldn't find anybody to oversee the project. This
was the age
before computers had come into general usage, at least in Sri
Lanka. And so
what I submitted to Wisdom was a typed script, typed on a manual
typewriter.
And so, they had various people enter the text into computer
format using
different computers and different editorial styles. And then
they needed
someone to oversee the whole project but they couldn't find
anybody for
several years and it remained in limbo till one person named
John Bullitt
came along and he took the responsibility for overseeing the
text
preparation, copy editing of the whole work. So finally it came
out in 1995.
After I finished the Majjhima, several months later I started
translating
the Samyuttanikaya… this would have been about June 1989.
I started doing
the Samyuttanikaya not with the first volume, which is the collection
of
verses, since the verses can be very difficult and I thought
that if I
started doing the verses first I would quickly get discouraged
and give up
on the project. And so I started with volume two, the first
of the prose
volumes and so I did volume two and three pretty quickly but
then I got
involved in other projects, books at the B.P.S. had to be edited,
also
various things came, even for several years I couldn't return
to the
Samyuttanikaya for so many years. Then I would return to it
for periods then
back to other things. Not that I was wasting my time or throwing
my time
away on trifling enjoyments, but various other projects called
for my
attention and deflected it away from the Samyutta. So I couldn't
return to
that, sometimes for several years, then I would work on it.
I must have finished the first draft in 1993. Then I had to
prepare the
notes and the verse collection was very, very difficult I went
through it
several times making drastic alterations, as I compiled the
notes then I saw
places where I interpreted certain verses wrongly and I had
to retranslate
the verses. And the preparation of the notes was very time consuming,
a year
was spent on the notes alone. And so it was completed…
I was… diddling on
again accepting invitations to various projects, to various
engagements, and
so on.
So finally, Wisdom Publications gave me a deadline, which was
in a way a
lifesaver, in that it forced me to put my attention wholeheartedly
on the
Samyutta and complete it. I think the deadline was something
like September
21st, 1999, and I completed all of the work… you know,
everthing that had to
be done… and put everything on disks and sent the disks
off to them by
courrier on September 17 so that the disks arrived at their
office on
September 21.
That's what we call a close call.
- Yeah, but nothing would have happened if I missed the deadline.
They
wanted to enter it into their catalogue for a particular release
date. So if
I missed the deadline then it wouldn't have gotten into the
catalogue and so
their release would have been postponed for another season.
Their releases
are done three times a year, so that it would have had to have
been
postponed from I think a spring or summer release to a fall
or winter
release. It wouldn't have meant that I would have been killed
[laugh]… for
missing the deadline.
So you've brought us up to the present…
February
Events...
Sunday Talks
2/3 What Is Enlightenment?
11am Rev. Vajra Karuna
2/10 Buddhist Holidays
11am Rev. Kusala Ratna Karuna
2/17
11am Ven. Dr. Karuna Dharma
2/24 Equanimity
11am Bro. Ksanti Karuna
Classes at IBMC
Mon Certificate Course in Buddhist Studies (part 2)
6:30 Dr. Warnisuriya
7:00 History of Zen Buddhism
Rev. Vajra Karuna
Wed Engaged Buddhism
7:00 Rev. Kusala Ratna Karuna
TBA Pali Chantin
Ven. Havanpola Shanti
TBA Intermediate Pali Language
Dr. Warnisuriya
TBA Elementary Sanskrit
Dr.Warnisuriya
Special Events
2/3 108 Bows Ceemony
10 am led by Bro. Sunya Karuna
2/9 Workshop on Meditation
9-12 Rev. Kusala Laruna
2/10 Tet Ceremony, beginning at 10:30 am
1 pm Garden Lincheon
2/24 Dharma School class in Ananda Hall, 2 pm
2/24 Zen Meditation class in Ananda Hall, 5 - 7 pm
Meditation times
weekday mornings 6:30-7:00 am
Wed evening: 7-9 pm, led by Rev. Kusala
Friday, 7:30-9 pm, led by Rev. Kusala
Sunday, 2/24, 5-7pm, led by Ven. Sakya Bodhi
IBMC web page is found at: InternationalBuddhistMeditationCtr.org
IBMC’s email: IBMC@InternationalBuddhistMeditationCtr.org
Rev. Karuna’s email: Karunadh@earthlink.net
Karuna’s web page: www.karunadharma.org
Rev. Kusala’s email: Kusala@kusala.org
Rev. Kusala’s web page: www.kusala.org
Rev. Shanti’s email: Hshanti@earthlink.net
Rev. Vajra’s email: Madmonk88@aol.com
Rev. Jñana’s email: Lsipe@usc.edu
Bro. Sunya’s email: Heartlandzen@Yahoo.com
Br. Ksanti and Br.Sraddha’s email: VictorTom@aol.com
Sr. Hanasi’s: Hasanakaruna@aol.com
Br. David: Djhollen@ix..netcom.com
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