I was in a
Buddhist Meditation Centre – Pallekelle Devenapetis Samatha Vipassana
Meditation Centre, in Kundasale, not far away from Kandy. Peradeniya University and the Polgolla Open University are not far
away from it. Some times students from
these Universities meditate at the Centre.
This
Meditation Centre is a unique place founded by
late Venerable Amatha
Gavesi. He was a retired Director of the
Police Training School. He was well versed in the teachings of
the Buddha, and well known for his knowledge of the Sutta
Pitaka- the Canonical writings on the discourses of the Buddha.
After his
retirfement, he became an instructor of meditation at the Kanduboda Meditation
Centre , but left it as he did not agree with the object of meditation used by
the Centre. There after he was ordained
and donned the yellow robes of a Buddhist Monk, and set up his own Meditation Centre in Krunegala. Subsequently
when he was offered a building by President R.Premadasa at the Gamudawa in
Pallekelle, he founded the present Devenapetis Samata Vipassana Meditation
Centre.
He raised
the social status of the women who donned yellow robes to keep the ten precepts
as Dasa Sil Mathavo, popularly called
Manio. He trained a group of them to become instructors in
Meditation, now there are nearly 35 of them in Pallekelle and in its Branch
Centre in Kurunegala. Today the Centre after the death of the Venerable Amathya
Gavesi is Administered by the Manio and
they continue the work of their teacher the
late Amata Gavesi by
conducting 14 day meditation retreats
giving instructions to meditators.
The Centre
provides free accommodation to those who follow the meditation retreats. The
daily morning breakfast and the lunch are also provided free for the meditators
. These two meals –the breakfast and
lunch and the morning rice broth are offered mostly by the
Villagers
from distant and some timese quite remote
villages in Sri Lanka.
They come
to offer these meals the_Dana to around 50 to 60 Manios, and lay meditators every day. When one group has offered the Dana they go
away in the evening after offering the evening cup of plain tea. And soon after arrives another busload or
lorry load of villagers from else where for the next days Dana. That continues without a break. If a
group of people fails to come for some reason the Centre provides the meals from contributions made in
advance by well wishes for such an eventuality.
During my
stay the meals were provided by villagers coming from Walapone, Mahakanda, Alawatugoda, Dehiovita,
Inginiyagala, Anuradhapura, Wetakeiya; Medamahanuwara, Wilenegama, Maiyangana ,
Hasalaka and so on.. Some of these are distant
villages.
I spoke to
many of them and broached the question of “high cost of living” which the anti
government forces keep on harping and for which the already very highly paid
University professors have gone out on strike.
But they who do not earn as much are satisfied and with what they earn and
spend generously for alms giving, and thus to help the dissemination of the teachings
of the Buddha.
They told
me thanks to the Government of the
President Rajapakse and the peace that he has brought to the country they have
enough to eat and live well enough and educate their children. They say above all what they are mostly grateful
to the President Rajapakse is that
he ended the terrorism and allowed them to live without fear of death.
Some of
them who are living in boarder villagers to the land held by the terrorist have
many of their kith and kin massacred and knows what it was under
terrorism. Listening to them it was
obvious they will not let the President Rajapakse off the high pedestal of
respect and affection on which they have placed him for quite some time.
It is only
in the towns and among the highly paid university dons and JVP sponsored trade
unions one finds the critics of the
Government and the President, making him
responsible for the high cost of living, which had been a source of complaints
from the very beginning of our independence.
I asked the
villagers what they think of the UNP whether they would vote for UNP to come
back to power. They said UNP did lot of
damage and when they could have defeated the tigers they did not do so . Under UNP they were not better off and there
is no reason why they should vote for UNP to come back. They are happy with the present Government
of the President Mahinda Rajapakse.
About
Sarath Fonseka , an old man said that he spoilt every thing because of his bad
mouth He is a military man and will
never be a good President even if he is elected he said and the others laughed in agreement.
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