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As the ‘Suddha’ takes the stage:
Hybridisms, denials and the undeniable unfold
March 2 marked two significant events in my
calendar. One is personal and limited to those who share a bond with
my alma mater Wesley College Colombo as we celebrate the Founder’s
Day. The other is when history was made in the form of the Kandyan
convention of 1815 was conceived to realise a conditional ceding of
the country’s administration to the representatives of the British
Crown.
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Encounters
The Dhammapada and the study of classical texts
Part 2
The concept of salvation, of ultimate freedom of
Nirvana that is advocated by Buddhism, too, needs to be clarified in
the light of our discussion. The conventional wisdom is that Nirvana
is a transcendental reality divorced from worldly concerns and that
it is a form of blissful nothingness signaling the end of the cycle
of births and deaths. However, certain Buddhist scholars, on the
basis of imaginative interpretations of early Buddhist texts,
advance the notion that Nirvana signifies a radical moral and
spiritual transformation of the human being consequent upon adoption
of the right vision in matters of human existence, and that those
who have attained this status of (non) being can still exercise an
influence on social life.
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Cultural Scene
Signature of Sri Lankan female voice:
Inimitable musical personality
Deviating a little from the continuing series of
columns on Sinhala literature, in this week’s column I examine the
unique musical personality in Neela Wickremasinghe who marks her
45th year in the field of music and her singular contribution to the
field of music in the post-independent Sri Lanka in general and
representing unique Sri Lankan female voice in particular.
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